I have a camera installation where flat cable would very much ease the install. The camera is a Dahua turret and to be powered by POE. The flat cable is advertised as Cat 8 with a height of 2.8mm. This low profile will very much ease its routing behind a fascia board and through the exterior wall into the property. Cable run is approx 15metres. Are there any potential issues to be aware of in terms of using a flat vs regular round cable?
Flat Ethernet cable
- Thread starter ruasonid
- Start date
Although the speed and reliability may not be affected by the lack of twisting of the differential pairs (T-568 = 1/2, 3/6, 4/5, 7/8) if it's a short run and not near possible interference, I would think a bigger issue may be the POE, especially if the cable is not solid, pure copper but instead is CCA (Copper Clad Aluminum).
If you be sure it's not CCA then perhaps a short run is worth trying and won't hurt to try. Also, the jacket may not be rated for moisture and UV exposure, so it may be short-lived.
That is helpful, thank you. WRT the spec "The SSTP (Shielded Foil Twisted Pairs) are made from full copper strands". It's going to be a pain to install, although it will be behind a fascia board and sandwiched between that and the original wooden fascia board (probably 3mm gap).
Mark_M
Known around here
Haha! That is absolutely ludicrous a Cat8 cable can be flat.
Category 8 ethernet cable is twisted pairs, has a lot of shielding and a shielded RJ45 plug.
Cat5e or Cat6 is enough for CCTV.
Cat6 is preferred because it's slightly thicker copper wire.
Make sure it's copper wire, NOT CCA (Copper Clad Aluminum).
Flat vs round:
Flat is the wires side-by-side in the cable. Round is 'twisted pairs'.
Twisting two wires together helps cut out interference.
Interference comes in many frequences, e.g. mains 50hz/60hz, Wifi 2.4/5Ghz, Cellular, etc. All that interface degrades the signal in some way.
Most likely it will work in short lengths but I would not go over 33ft.
the max length I've seen for sale is 20 metres. that is around 60'
Amazon (UK) has a flat Cat 7:
"The RJ45 patch cable is made of 4 shielded twisted pairs (STP) of copper wires..."
Amazon (UK) has a flat Cat 7:
"The RJ45 patch cable is made of 4 shielded twisted pairs (STP) of copper wires..."
the max length I've seen for sale is 20 metres. that is around 60'
Amazon (UK) has a flat Cat 7:
"The RJ45 patch cable is made of 4 shielded twisted pairs (STP) of copper wires..."
Amazon (UK) has a flat Cat 7:
"The RJ45 patch cable is made of 4 shielded twisted pairs (STP) of copper wires..."
Mark_M
Known around here
Ain't no way that cable is able to get 10GBs without twisted pairs.
Absolute lies.
How many Ls and Cs are there in a flat wire? Answer more L than C hence
all Inductance with not Capacity to cancel. What a self-made internal antenna.
(All ham radio talk as to why flat is just simply Flat as a high speed data link).
The flat will work as I have used it. The problem is it is usually C.C.A. (not
to be confused with the Confederate Christians of America) Copper Clad
Aluminum, It is extremely great at picking up "near miss" lightning!
all Inductance with not Capacity to cancel. What a self-made internal antenna.
(All ham radio talk as to why flat is just simply Flat as a high speed data link).
The flat will work as I have used it. The problem is it is usually C.C.A. (not
to be confused with the Confederate Christians of America) Copper Clad
Aluminum, It is extremely great at picking up "near miss" lightning!
Yep, as I mentioned in post #2 above, CCA is especially bad with POE; no CCA that I'm aware of even has a UL listing.
IIRC, Belden, one of the premier cable manufacturers, won't even produce CCA Ethernet cable.
At 2.8mm thick the cable could have side-by-side twisted pairs. Depends on your definition of what is flat is. (Embedded attempt of subtle humor for old-timers).
mat200
IPCT Contributor
- Jan 17, 2017
- 16,077
- 27,012
Hi Ruasonid,
Cables sold on Amazon which claim to be Cat7/8 and using very thin conductors / wires are basically fraudulent ..
Amazon has tons of frauds there ..
iirc they ( those fraudsters selling "cat9/8/7 flat cables" ) use awg 32 wires .. instead of the usual awg 23 or 24 for proper cat5e/6
super thin conductors = poor PoE .. resistance is high .. thus wires get hotter and you lose more power.
update:
Note, these flat cables most certainly also are not rated for in-wall / riser installations
Last edited:
A Bill Clinton statement, if I've ever heard one. 
Someone always "gets it" here...
Someone always "gets it" here...
Out of curiosity I looked up a bunch of these flat supposedly cat8 cables. About 2/3 of them claim 26AWG copper conductors. Of the other 1/3, about half say 30AWG and the other half don't say. If I thought I needed one I'd surely go after 26AWG.
