Extending CBus Network

Hi - have an installation in the main house and we would like to extend this to cover some outbuildings situated at approx 200meters.
Ideally we would like to be able to control all lights from main house but also be able to control some lights back in the house from the outbuildings.
I have been reading the various manuals - and i undersand that we can extend the cbus network by using two bridges, as follows:
>house-bridge-200MCbusCable-bridge-outbuildings

However, I have also read that it its possible to use ethernet network adaptors to extend the network - along the lines of
>house-CNI-200MEthernet-CNI-outbuildings

Question is:

Is using CNIs really transparent?
can a switch in one cbus network control a relay in another?
What are the pros and cons of each approach?

Thanks

J Amador

 

extended networks

Wizcontrol, you can use either solution to overcome your problem.
Network bridges may be a better solution for you, they are generally easier to set up, and dint require a plug pack power supply to support them.
Network bridges will power directly from the networks.
If running C-Bus underground, always use an underground rated, gel fill CAT 5 cable.
You will require C-Bus power supplies on all networks i.e outsheds, underground cable run, and the existing network.

 

you dont even need the bridge if you are happy to have them on the same network.

If you are running 200m then your ethernet option is not possible as the the max length is 100m.

The bridge can be used to help protect our c-bus network inside the building from any damage from say lightning strikes (I believe this is the prefered method).

I have an underground run without a bridge and have had no problems. As stateduse a cable rated for underground use. You can get gel filled cat 6 cable tat should work. Just rememebr that it is probably not rated for 230V and should not be mixed anywhere with 230V, so there will need to be a de-lineation point where you change back to the pink cat5 (this could be the bridge if it is isntalled in its own little box somewhere.

Mick

 

Extending CBus

Hi Thanks all for your replies. Sounds like i need to do a bit more reading - but the bridge solution looks best / more transparent.

Also, I thought max lenght of cat5e/ethernet was 500m (single run) - obviously by having a home run configuration with an active switch you can have as much cat5 as you want.

J Amador

 

There is a difference between an ethernet network and a C-Bus network.

The limit for Ethernet is 90mtrs not 500.

And C-Bus can run up to 1K as previously stated.

 

Also if you are running cable underground between buildings you would certainly want to consider the use of bridges to help protect the main building network from lightning. C-bus bridges provides optical isolation.

There is a fair bit of discussion on older forum posts on this so a little searching should pull up the good info.

 

Bridges and lightning - hmmm. I will put my money on the lightning every time.

Extending a C-Bus network outside the perimeter of a building via a bridge is very important. Outside a building perimeter, the cable is exposed to damage, moisture etc and the remote equipment can end up causing a fault resulting in the main building/install/network being pulled down if the remote install is not separated via a bridge..

 

Is a bridge with Lightning conductor in the pipeline another like job for the R&D guys

 

Come on guys, lets be *ACCURATE* here.

The 100 metre limit applies specifically to ONE ethernet implementation. So-called "10-base-T" (and "100-base-T"). Others have quite different limits.

"10-base-2" for example is either 185m or 300m depending on which standard you want, "10-base-5" I think from memory was about 3 metres maximum, ye-olde-thick-ethernet (remember those Vampire clips?) was good to about 1000m, and hasn't anyone here heard of fibre? Ethernet over Single-mode fibre is good for *many* thousands of metres.

I run parts of my own C-bus network over 5,000 metres using ETHERNET thank you, so it certainly *CAN* be done. Granted, it's not just a lump of cat5 cable between the two ends

 

Also if you use 10 meg full duplex so timeing isnt an issue anymore then you can push well beyond the 100 meter limit. we had 2 full 305 meter boxes of cat5e connected together still working sweet as. Was spotty at 100 meg as one would expect

 

Man, how big is your house

Cheers

Rohan