Max. Length

[deplanche]

What is the maximum recommended distance of cat5 wire (the stranded stuff from monoprice) that can be used from the hub (active or passive) to the controller (SSC or DSC)?

What is the maximum recommended distance of other wire (3 or 4 conductor) that can be used from the SSC or DSC to the lights?

[rrowan]

I know that RJ had a 100' cat5 going from the active hub to a SSC the first year for testing purpose

Rick R.

[rm357]

It depends on how many lights you want to run on the end.
Data is probably ok to 500 ft or maybe even 1000 ft, but the voltage drop will not pass enough power to run a lot of LEDs with that much wire in the middle...

As the wire gets longer, the LEDs will get dimmer. At some point, all LEDs on ( white at 100%) will draw enough current to cause the 5v regulator to drop out and the pic will reboot causing a really slow blink.... Current x resistance in the wire = voltage drop. Voltage at the ssc = 12 - voltage drop. When that drops to around 7 or maybe 6 volts, the 7805 will shut off until the voltage comes back up.

If you want to go that far, you really need an active hub that regenerates the signal and inserts new power at the far end.

[peteandvanessa]

I was running a number of Led Flexstrips that connected the SSC's to the 16 Port Active Hubs with 100 feet of CAT5. They ran every night from Oct 1st to Oct 31st with no issues at all.

[rm357]

First post of mine was for the cat 5.

For ssc to first node, less than 2 ft is recommended. There are a lot of factors involved and your mileage may vary. Spacing between nodes is recommended to be less than 6 ft, but you can often get away with more.... I've done 10 ft spacing for 7 square nodes with no issues.

For DSC, there is no data going to the nodes, so the only concern for the nodes is the voltage drop due to wire length.

[tbone321]

That less than 2 ft thing was also due to the problems with the controller itself that seems to have been resolved with the Ver 3 mods.  I would say that with the Ver 3 mod, the space between the controller and the first node can go at least as far as the between node spacing. 

[deplanche]

So it seems like the cat 5 can be relatively long, but the wire after the SSC/DSC must be relatively short.

[tbone321]

As others have said, besides possible issues with the signal, extended power runs can also dim the LED's.  As for the length between the controller and the first node, there can be other issues besides voltage drops on the data line.  Long lengths increase the possibility of interference.  The longer you get, the better the chance that someting could go wrong.  The great thing about DIY is that you get to experiment a little.