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Previously on "PTP Internet bridge between buildings, checking I got it right"

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  • d000hg
    replied
    Indeed, we have earth rods at each location. Potential difference is one reason I shied away from a cabled approach though I didn't really know what the actual problem was

    Leave a comment:


  • DoctorStrangelove
    replied
    Just wondered really.

    Chap up the road a bit has a transformer on a pole fed from the 3 phase 3kV3 lines that go all the way to the top of the hill for the farms.

    The feed over the road to his house is a single cable, "live" and "neutral" with I suppose "neutral" being defined as the wire that's grounded at the pole mounted transformer (I dunno really, but I assume that's how it works).

    I was wondering how the alternative of two widely spaced lines would transmit the rf from a powerline interface thingie since the impedance of such a line is wildly different from the twin & earth found buried in the walls of a house.

    The fat enclosed twin cable is probably fairly similar to twin and earth from the impedance perspective.

    Your installation is TT so presumably there's an earth electrode at your house & an earth electrode at the cabin.

    Which might lead to a difference in the earth potential between the two.

    I'd be a bit twitchy about connecting between the two with CAT6 in case of circulating currents in the screen.

    Like a giant hum loop.

    Not to mention what happens with a near by lightning strike.

    Leave a comment:


  • d000hg
    replied
    Originally posted by DoctorStrangelove View Post
    For reference.

    This 'ere mains supply, how many overhead wires are there?

    One or two?

    (Obviously there's two, but are they in the same overall insulation or two separate wires?)

    Do these wires or wire come from Your Very Own stepdown transformer on a pole?

    In other words, exactly how rural is this?
    Is this relevant or are you scoping out my joint

    We've got a string of old-fashioned wooden poles up our lane from the road which service our property alone. It's a single cable - insulated and pretty chunky though as you say I'm sure it's two fat single-core cables intertwined. There's no box where it reaches the house so I think it must be 240V with a transformer a few hundred metres away.

    Leave a comment:


  • DoctorStrangelove
    replied
    Originally posted by d000hg View Post
    We have a private overhead power cable to our house.
    We're having a second supply/meter installed maybe 40-50m back down the same overhead cable for the log cabin we're building in our grounds.

    It's a bit far for WiFi repeaters so I wondered if there's any chance homeplug might travel outside our domestic wiring?

    Otherwise we'll either get mobile internet or see if we can wing a cat 6 cable down there. We'd likely want internet for security cameras so I'm a bit dubious about 4g... Not for the quality but the data/cost.

    Sent from my ONEPLUS A6003 using Tapatalk
    For reference.

    This 'ere mains supply, how many overhead wires are there?

    One or two?

    (Obviously there's two, but are they in the same overall insulation or two separate wires?)

    Do these wires or wire come from Your Very Own stepdown transformer on a pole?

    In other words, exactly how rural is this?

    Leave a comment:


  • unixman
    replied
    Originally posted by d000hg View Post
    Assuming I go wireless, repurposing an old router should work in just the same way though, right? The PtP box in the out-building will post a short ethernet cable through the wall which acts as if it IS a (slow) cable to the house as far as the cabin is concerned?
    Like most of us I have a box full of old routers and wireless modems and access points which I would love to see in use.
    I don't know about PtP. Regarding old routers, yes they can be re-purposed as wireless access points, but they cannot be made into wireless bridges (ie. a wireless link connecting two wired networks).

    Just to add that the above weatherproof cable was run underground.

    Leave a comment:


  • d000hg
    replied
    Originally posted by BR14 View Post
    want to buy a magic wand??
    it'll fix everything, honest.
    I was thinking a PtP kit. I never realised getting WiFi 20m LOS needed magic

    Sent from my ONEPLUS A6003 using Tapatalk

    Leave a comment:


  • BR14
    replied
    want to buy a magic wand??
    it'll fix everything, honest.

    Leave a comment:


  • d000hg
    replied
    Originally posted by eek View Post
    Preparation now saves time later. You should have had a trench built to provide power to the summer house and ensured suitable other cables were ran at the same time.
    Originally posted by d000hg View Post
    the cabin has a separate power supply and there is no link between the two buildings. And when I asked (here) about laying CAT6 people advised me not to, IIRC due to change in altitude or something.
    The above was a reply to the last time you made this comment. Perhaps you'll read it this time.

    The question is about what to do now not what might've been done differently in the past. Digging a 20m trench seems unlikely to be a better solution at this point in time.

    Leave a comment:


  • eek
    replied
    Originally posted by d000hg View Post
    Time is money...
    Preparation now saves time later. You should have had a trench built to provide power to the summer house and ensured suitable other cables were ran at the same time.

    Leave a comment:


  • d000hg
    replied
    Time is money...

    Leave a comment:


  • amanwhoisquiet
    replied
    Originally posted by d000hg View Post
    If PoE injectors can be tricky due to compatibility, how does buying a PoE Switch help? Surely this is just pushing the compatibility issue into the Switch rather than a dedicated component?
    You'll still need an extra power source each side of the link for an injector, and if you want a wired connection option on the other side, a switch with inbuilt PoE makes sense. Netgear are common as muck so the PoE compatibility there is quite good, but you do just need to quickly scan over the tech specs of whatever you buy in case you get tricked by some standard the mfctr has decided to use.

    That being said, if you have a box of old routers and other stuff lying around, it's probably worth seeing if you can reuse some of it. You said you don't really care about speed so you might be able to drop some open firmware on two old APs, set them to bridge mode, and see how the 20m works. It won't be as good as PtP kit, but might work well enough for your needs.

    You could also just make a 6" deep slice the entire 20m run and poke some fibre into the slice and go wired. Chances of this being snagged are pretty slim, and so what if it does, just do it again. If you do that though, you'd need to swap out the PtP kit for something with fibre terminations on them - probably fairly cheap as well.

    Leave a comment:


  • d000hg
    replied
    Originally posted by unixman View Post
    I know you don't want to lay a cable but just to say, I set up a system like this for someone's outside office. A weatherproof cat6 cable was laid and simply connected to a switch in the cabin/office. Also re-purposed an old BT Home Hub 3 to give the shed its own wap point (per this procedure: Reuse a spare BT Home Hub as a Wireless Access Point | Unix etc.).
    Assuming I go wireless, repurposing an old router should work in just the same way though, right? The PtP box in the out-building will post a short ethernet cable through the wall which acts as if it IS a (slow) cable to the house as far as the cabin is concerned?
    Like most of us I have a box full of old routers and wireless modems and access points which I would love to see in use.

    Leave a comment:


  • unixman
    replied
    I know you don't want to lay a cable but just to say, I set up a system like this for someone's outside office. A weatherproof cat6 cable was laid and simply connected to a switch in the cabin/office. Also re-purposed an old BT Home Hub 3 to give the shed its own wap point (per this procedure: Reuse a spare BT Home Hub as a Wireless Access Point | Unix etc.).

    Leave a comment:


  • d000hg
    replied
    Originally posted by eek View Post
    Why wasn't CAT6 cable run at the same time the cabin was built alongside the power cable.
    Originally posted by SimonMac View Post
    Why not just run CAT6 to the cabin?
    Without a time machine, not a helpful answer

    FWIW the cabin has a separate power supply and there is no link between the two buildings. And when I asked (here) about laying CAT6 people advised me not to, IIRC due to change in altitude or something. Either way I don't want to dig a trench just for that now - it would mean quite a bit of work and probably wouldn't be up to regs.

    Originally posted by amanwhoisquiet View Post
    PoE can be a bit of a faff, and you need to check that all your components use the same or compatible PoE standards.

    Rather than injectors you could just use kit with PoE built in. On both sides you could use something like this: NETGEAR 5-Port Gigabit Ethernet PoE Network Switch (GS305P) - Hub with 4 x PoE @ 55W, Desktop, Sturdy Metal Fanless Housing: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

    You might also be lucky and find kit where one side of the ptp link also has a second radio for normal wifi on the 'client' side of the cabin. I'm not sure these even exist... it'd be nice if they did.
    If PoE injectors can be tricky due to compatibility, how does buying a PoE Switch help? Surely this is just pushing the compatibility issue into the Switch rather than a dedicated component?

    It does suggest not mixing PtP and PoE brands is smart though - a bit more digging suggests these are not much money at all. I did see a kit with these included but it was £hundreds, it must've been a higher spec.
    Last edited by d000hg; 22 January 2020, 16:50.

    Leave a comment:


  • eek
    replied
    Originally posted by SimonMac View Post
    Why not just run CAT6 to the cabin?
    Why wasn't CAT6 cable run at the same time the cabin was built alongside the power cable.

    Leave a comment:

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