Detached Garage

[BigAl]

I have a detached garage, but the main switch and router is in the bed room. Is it best to use conduit from the garage to the house or something else? There is a breeze way from the garage to the house, but wires under the breeze way looks very tacky.

Any input will be appreciated.

 

[nayr]

for horizontal runs outside use EMT (metal) conduit, it can easily be painted to match your breeze way.. probably use 3/4in conduit so you can fish more cabling through if needed.. I prefer to use compression fittings and use a bender to make nice transitions.

having a fish tape really helps w/pulling cables through conduit.

PVC Conduit will sag over time and wont maintain rigidness; its best for direct burial.

 

[BigAl]

for horizontal runs outside use EMT (metal) conduit, it can easily be painted to match your breeze way.. probably use 3/4in conduit so you can fish more cabling through if needed.. I prefer to use compression fittings and use a bender to make nice transitions.

Where will I put the EMT because the breeze way is closed with a soffit underneath. In other words, there is no open rafters to be seen. The soffit is a cheap thin 1/4" plywood.

 

[nayr]

to the soffit then..

 

[looney2ns]

Do you have the option to bury conduit?

 

[tangent]

Inside the soffit of the breezeway. Post some pictures if you need more specific advice

 

[BigAl]

Do you have the option to bury conduit?

 

[nayr]

paint the EMT conduit white and run it along the back side.. it'll hardly be noticeable.

or run it inside the breezway if you can get access to it..

 

[00Buck]

Some wiremold wouldn't look to bad along one side.

 

[BLKMGK]

I solved this with a network over powerline device. Been working for two weeks straight and I've had no issues. If you've got a power circuit out there in common with the house breaker box it's worth a shot!

 

[BigAl]

I solved this with a network over powerline device. Been working for two weeks straight and I've had no issues. If you've got a power circuit out there in common with the house breaker box it's worth a shot!

I'm checking it out now.

 

[BLKMGK]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01H74VKZU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

That's the one I'm using. I had started out using a different one from Zyxel that I got as a bonus gift years ago on a NewEgg order but had never used. However my POE injector locked up after a few days (seriously) so I had to futz with it. In troubleshooting it I managed to knock the crypto keys out of synch and couldn't get the two powerline devices to synch back up despite multiple attempts. I did some research and bought the unit above, plugged it into my office and it immediately synched with the one on the garage - I got video! I was pretty sure that previous model wasn't based on the new standards so I swapped it out, I noted that there was a light flashing on the old one indicating the signal wasn't optimal. Once the new one was installed on both ends it synched up no problem and I've not touched it since. It won't be as fast as CAT5/6 for sure but for one camera it's been fine and I might add a second out there inside the garage eventually. For a bit over $100 and no hassle of digging and crawling in my crawlspace or running it with the electric overhead I felt it was worth it - and I got to play with tech I hadn't ever used before

Be advised the casing does mostly block the outlet above this device when plugged into a standard outlet - this is annoying. It should NOT be inserted into a UPS nor powerstrip.

 

[Zorac]

i would go inside the breezeway as previously mentioned, shouldn't be that hard to get into even if its not accessible. wouldn't be much holding the sofit on. pull an extra cable or two as well, just in case, or use big conduit that's accessible for pull in the future.

 

[Colcut]

Powerline can be very dodgy sometimes - you can get packet loss and high ping (and you have to be on the same power ring as the garage to be able to see the powerline data inside the property).

It does work well enough for some solutions but a proper cable would be better rather than powerline.

I used to use these, TP-LINK TL-PA8030P KIT AV1200 before getting my cat5 cable installed, it worked fine - but sometimes Ive had to restart the plugs to bring it back online.

Also make sure you dont use it through an extension lead as this will further degrade performance

 

[BigAl]

i would go inside the breezeway as previously mentioned

Going into the breezeway requires to remove all of the soffit. Then the wires have to go up the inside exterior wall toward the attic.
Using the power line adaptor, installing some kind of conduit on the fascia or digging are the only options. Wireless will not be used.

 

[Colcut]

Depending on your use case/Budget? What about these; Ubiquiti Networks - PowerBeam™ ac ?

 

[bp2008]

Haha I am trying to imagine a couple of powerbeam dishes mounted 5 meters apart. Get NanoStation Loco M5 instead for wireless of that short range, and set them to minimum output power too. Even then the signal strength would be through the roof.

 

[Krotiz]

I havent set these up but another member of staff had a few issues getting them connected - he had a lot of packet loss and high pings when using the outdoor setting - he swapped to indoor and the issue went away.

Unfortunately I wasnt involved in the set up so cant say what was happening but we believed it was due to some interference in the area.

I'm not sure if another type of unit would have the same issue or not..

 

[nayr]

I installed a powerline network at my sisters house over thanksgiving, she would not let me yank cables through her new construction house so it was the only way to wire up her media cabinet directly to the internet.. Her WiFi situation sucked badly, We'd try to stream a movie and all would seem fine til someone had smartphone fever and did just enough to knock the video back into buffering mode.. No online video would play at all on TV if I had my laptop open and looking at home video feeds.

used a pair of these: https://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-Pass-through-1200Mbps-TL-PA8030P-KIT/

then mounted an UniFi-AC-Lite to the wall above her TV, then ethernet connected her PlayStation4 and SmartTV.. setup was simple and easy, performance tests showed about ~200Mbps performance across her house which is many times faster than her 40Mbit internet.. Online streaming is rock solid now and from her living room the WiFi now gave full internet speeds instead of 4-5Mbps her old access point installed in a home office across the house provided.

VMMV, but PowerLine can be a lifesaver in a pinch.. luckily she has a battery powered robot floor cleaner and built in house vac on the appliance phase so I dont suspect she'll ever have any stability problems in the long term.. Her house was done with all the lighting and outlets on one phase, and the appliances on the other phase, with modern service all starting at 200A its no surprise, but older houses are usally sharing a 100A service more conservatively.. perhaps a hairdryer will fuck with it.

 

[BLKMGK]

Friend of mine also setup a pair of TPLink units with 3ports on them. His PS4 kept dropping out and he's a huge gamer so it drove him crazy. He was NOT happy about the idea of stringing cables through his townhouse and neither was his new wife. I told him to try powerline adapters and he got a BlackFriday special at Microcenter for a pretty obscene price. He's now damn happy with no packet drop! They don't work everywhere but they can sure help in a pinch and I think it's worth a shot.