CAT6 maximum length

[GCumbeeParticipant]

Also. Was hoping to hear from anyone whose has done lengths like this. Most I have ever done is about 250′. That worked fine.

I know there have been other discussions and I think Nicola even mentioned possibly up to 120m which is about 390′. That would be great if it works.

[[XAP]BobParticipant]

Oh – this is a fixed install?

I’d run a fibre down the conduit then – a couple of small switches either end to allow for QuYou control as well as dSnake.

Actually I’d run two fibres – DON’T TRUNK, but either have them in ‘hot spare’ mode or just as a cold spare.

[MarkPAmanParticipant]

Well Allen & Heath sell a 100m cable, so that’s 330 feet (almost)

WHat Nicola said was:

“120m is the max allowed length of each dSNAKE connection, not the total run of the chain. However this is dependent on cable quality and external interference. Not all cables are guaranteed to work at 120m. Rule of thumb is stay within 100m to avoid pushing the limits (which might result in occasional QoS errors). So for example you can go 100m into the AR2412, then another 100m into the AB168 / AR84.”

In this thread: https://community.allen-heath.com/forums/topic/dsnake-capabilities/page/1

[MarkPAmanParticipant]

If I get a chance I’ll join my twin 50m CAT5 drum up to itself with a another long bit I’ve got and do a test for you. Probably not until next week though.

[GCumbeeParticipant]

Mark. That would be great. It will be a couple weeks before I can unless I take my QU16/AR2412 up there and test it. Still more than a week before I can do that.

[GCumbeeParticipant]

Bob. This was a State bid job so I have to stick to the original plan. I studied the blueprints ahead of the bidding but they did not detail the exact cable path. It turned out much further than I figured. Anything I add now like a switch it more cable is on me. Fiber would just be too prohibitive.

[MrvoltzParticipant]

Hey @gcumbee I have a triple run of Cat5e in our install each 135 feet long, I should be able to patch them back and forth to test length. I will probably be there Saturday to relocate a projection screen, I should have time to run a few tests.

Before you ask, the triple run was for flexibility, before we found out about the AB168 we thought we might need to run the desks extender port to the stage for the additional AR84 and of course I wanted a spare for all kinds of reasons, guests with their own digital rig, running our Dante network to stage for all kinds of reasons, etc. This is for our GLD system but I have a QU16 I can hook to our AB168 for the test.

[GCumbeeParticipant]

Mrvoltz: not sure what you mean. 135 I have done before. In fact over 200. Are you saying you can series all those together. That would be 405′.

[[XAP]BobParticipant]

Ah, in that case a standard GigE cheap switch at a convenient location would do the job. Given that they can come in under £20/$20 it shouldn’t bite too hard.

For a little more you could consider a PoE injector and a PoE powered Ethernet repeater. They are generally much slimmer (to fit in a conduit), but significantly more costly (triple figures, rather than double)

[MrvoltzParticipant]

Yes I mean I can send it back and forth series through all and I have a small gig switch I use for my Dante network to try if it needs a boost. They are three parallel lines so jumper them and presto 405′ plus jumpers, and for other lengths I have other cables too.

[GCumbeeParticipant]

That’s great. Let me know what you find out. Thanks.

Bob. Looking into what’s available as for POE injector and buffer.

[MrvoltzParticipant]

I am currently running the 405′ with my GLD with no issues and all my sends go through the AR2412 and the source I’m listening to is connected to the AB168 50 feet from the 2412 but I’m assuming the 2412 is acting like a hub for that. Will set up my QU16 and try something next. This is without an additional switch.
The Cat5e it STP.

[GCumbeeParticipant]

Wow. That’s great.

[MrvoltzParticipant]

I am currently running the 405′ with my GLD with no issues and all my sends go through the AR2412 and the source I’m listening to is connected to the AB168 50 feet from the 2412 but I’m assuming the 2412 is acting like a hub for that. This is without an additional switch. The Cat5e it STP.
Works with QU16 too.

[AndreasModerator]

Nice info, and that length is with additional jumpers which do degrade signal quality. Do you have more reels to insert? Would be interesting to see at which limit problems begin to evolve.
I’d still vote to go for shielded Cat6/7 for that length in a production environment.

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