Three cats...Or a Switch OR a Power cable?

[MrSurly]

I'm betting you guys have a solution to this. First, yes, new guy, yes I've done the intro, read the cliff/ wiki etc. I have ordered system components, nothing in hand, yet. One particular area that I am trying to plan properly for is at my mailbox where I am going to run direct-burial Cat6 to operate THREE PoE bullet cams, probably all vari-focal. I haven't picked the cams yet so I don't know their power consumption. My switch is a V7 MPEGS24-1N , 30W pp apparently.
My dilemma: how to reliably power the three VF cams 100" from the switch? How much cable will i need to bury? Three Cat6? One cat 6, add a mini PoE switch in the box? Use a switch, but run a second cat6 just to serve as a power cable to boost the switch? Run one Cat 6 along with a second power cable of another type ? I'm not planning to run conduit but I can if needed. Along the same vein, if I HAVE TO i can run conduit and run a 120V branch out there.
Thoughts on this would be appreciated.

 

[sebastiantombs]

A CAT5E will handle that duty with no problem, assuming one camera per cable and the same with CAT6. In reality, you could probably run all three from one but you'd need another PoE powered switch at the far end and that might push you over the top in terms of power capability.

Personally, I'd run conduit and 120VAC out there and use a Nono Station Loco, with a small switch, to link them back to the house. That gives you electrical isolation for the cameras. Alternately, use a fiber cable to provide that same isolation but it would still need a switch at the far end and hence power.

I would suggest conduit because Murphy can be a PITA and if anything goes wrong with the cable you'll be working the idiot stick, shovel, to replace a cable. With conduit, just pull a new one.

 

[DsineR]

Run 3x CAT6, POE & signal good up to 300' using a standard POE switch.
As mentioned above, PVC conduit best solution for cable run. Direct burial 2nd choice.
A local POE switch at the mailbox is another option. Power the switch from the house & extend the low voltage run along with the CAT cable in the conduit.

 

[MrSurly]

"Personally, I'd run conduit and 120VAC out there and use a Nono Station Loco >
I'm.... not sure that I follow the reasoning. if i'm trenching... tell me again why I wouldn't pull three Cat5 as the baseline idea? Running them in conduit is better, yes... But running power to there, to run the nano bridge then a switch to effectively make my PoE cams now WiFi(?) I missed something there. I COULD possibly justify running 120 out there for some future-proofing purpose, but that would have to be in a second conduit (separate from Cat). :headscratch:

 

[mat200]

I'm betting you guys have a solution to this. First, yes, new guy, yes I've done the intro, read the cliff/ wiki etc. I have ordered system components, nothing in hand, yet. One particular area that I am trying to plan properly for is at my mailbox where I am going to run direct-burial Cat6 to operate THREE PoE bullet cams, probably all vari-focal. I haven't picked the cams yet so I don't know their power consumption. My switch is a V7 MPEGS24-1N , 30W pp apparently.
My dilemma: how to reliably power the three VF cams 100" from the switch? How much cable will i need to bury? Three Cat6? One cat 6, add a mini PoE switch in the box? Use a switch, but run a second cat6 just to serve as a power cable to boost the switch? Run one Cat 6 along with a second power cable of another type ? I'm not planning to run conduit but I can if needed. Along the same vein, if I HAVE TO i can run conduit and run a 120V branch out there.
Thoughts on this would be appreciated.

I would run
2 conduits, one for data cables / fiber and/or cat5e/6, one for power

If running cat5e/6 I would run N+1 to the location, as the biggest part of the job is the labor not the cable cost.

 

[MrSurly]

<<
I would run
2 conduits, one for data cables / fiber and/or cat5e/6, one for power >>

If I follow your thinking, the second conduit (power) is being run as coincidental to the trenching, NOT because you are saying there is a NEED for it in my install?
Did I read that correctly?

 

[TonyR]

You're getting plenty of direction regarding cable, conduits,etc. so I only want to add this:

Regardless of what you decide on, any cable that is placed into underground conduit should be rated as direct-burial because much of it will eventually be, most likely, in water 24/7/365.

 

[sebastiantombs]

Running power is necessary to power the Nano Station Loco and the switch that will be needed. A Nano Station is not WiFi but is a dedicated, encrypted, RF link. It only connects to its "partner" Nano Station Loco located in your house and will not accept wireless connections from anything else. Three cameras will be no problem in terms of bandwidth, and using that eliminates the need to run data cables out there which provides electrical isolation of your network equipment. All that is needed is a 15 or 20 amp, 120 volt, circuit with ground fault protection.

 

[samplenhold]

provides electrical isolation of your network equipment

@MrSurly the electrical isolation is to remove the possibility of lightning frying your network since you have 100'+ of cable in the ground. Some folks here have had that happen.

 

[MrSurly]

OK, well that makes a little more sense. I currently have (on the other side of the house) a shop and I have about 75’ of Cat5 u/g in conduit out to the shop running a PoE tpLink AP to provide WiFi to a U-Tec deadbolt and three door openers, so I guess the lightning threat is extant, especially with the huge metal building plus a jack up antenna mast, I’m fairly exposed.
Whenever I start putting cams on the shop I will also need to add a PoE switch out there to connect them. I guess I’ll take my chances with the lightning and go ahead with running three Cats out to the mailbox. If I ran just one cable and a PoE switch I think it’s clear that I would have power issues running three bullets.