Conduit advice

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hio77

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#201268 11-Aug-2016 01:00

I have a few projects coming up, which will involve runs of Cat5 cable outside, the cable itself is outdoor grade and gel filled so it's not like it cant simply be directly buried.

however, to give it a little extra layer protection from spades, large tree Falls/Drags and postman vans going off the drive (Actually did recently happen.....) I'm after suggestions on conduit.

The Distance itself at the longest point is about 300M (This isn't a discussion on the reach of the Ethernet standard, obviously where required i'll handle terminating and repeating the connection)

Due to the terrain ill be covering, I'm looking for a flexible option rather than the standard green PVC conduit. - A direct straight line is unrealistically achievable Due to being on a curved hillside without realistically putting more harm than is worthwhile on the conduit itself and zigzagging would probably triple the distance, once again due to the terrain.

Searching around for options, I've seen a few possibilities, but suspect this would be a reasonable generic issue faced on occasion..

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RunningMan

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#1609904 11-Aug-2016 07:11

Reinforced garden hose?

froob

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#1609920 11-Aug-2016 08:57

The flexible green Chorus ducting used for copper and fibre is polyethylene pipe (I think MDPE). You might have difficulty sourcing that, but you can very easily get long runs of polyethylene water pipe. As far as I can tell, it's more or less the same thing, just a different colour and with different sizings. I have used a Marley product called Enduroflex as conduit in my house, but I would have thought it would be good externally as well.

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Sidestep

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#1609936 11-Aug-2016 09:34

froob: The flexible green Chorus ducting used for copper and fibre is polyethylene pipe (I think MDPE). You might have difficulty sourcing that, but you can very easily get long runs of polyethylene water pipe. As far as I can tell, it's more or less the same thing, just a different colour and with different sizings. I have used a Marley product called Enduroflex as conduit in my house, but I would have thought it would be good externally as well.

Yep we've recently buried around 1000m total in 20mm alkathene pipe - because we just happened to have it lying around.
We blew a pull line through each length with compressed air (initially by attaching an earplug to fishing line). Buried it at 300 -400mm or so. Ran a tape above.

Disrespective

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#1610041 11-Aug-2016 11:47

Rexel/Ideal Electrical (or other electrical wholesaler) have a few flexible ducting options on their shelves. I can't recall the lengths but they come on reels so they'd be able to get something that would go that distance.

Now, how are you planning to pull all that cable through the conduit...?

ObidiahSlope

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#1610092 11-Aug-2016 13:37

You have made the right choice using gel filled cat cable for exterior or underground cabling.

For underground conduit use the alkathene piping farmers use to pipe water to troughs. Cheap and readily available.

Pulling cable; Get a ball of string, tie a piece of rag onto the end big enough to restrict the flow of air but not jam against the sides, appoint an assistant to feed string into conduit without resistance or snagging. Go to other end of conduit place vacuum cleaner nozzle against end of conduit turn on and wait for air flow to drag the rag and string through. I have used this technique for lengths of up to 50 meters give or take.

Edit: Clarification, I have only used this method for up to 50 meters. I haven't tried it for longer lengths, so I am not aware of the limits of the method.

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hio77

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#1610113 11-Aug-2016 14:20

Thanks for the advice everyone,

Obviously garden hose was going to be my end all goto but wanted to check out for other options.

Will look at picking up a real of alkathene piping by the looks of it, For blowing goto would be the compressor method as i suspect that would be far more effective.

As for tape, i didnt actually think about this one, will grab a real of that aswell considering its likely going to be be a black pipe!

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ObidiahSlope

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#1610140 11-Aug-2016 14:34

Do not use garden hose. It will degrade and fail over time.

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hio77

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#1610151 11-Aug-2016 14:55

ObidiahSlope:

Do not use garden hose. It will degrade and fail over time.

That's why it was only a backup plan! quite honestly, one i didn't want to even look at.

i could just have this all wired up and done almost instantly but i would much rather take my time, do it to a quality standard knowing that when i'm not about, the chances of it breaking is next to none.

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mdooher

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#1610215 11-Aug-2016 16:52

Yep, cheapest option would be 25mm alcathene with 25mm you will be able to push the cat 5 through about 30m at a time, just buy the removable plastic plumbing jointers that are designed for this pipe. ( you will never pull 300m at one go)

You can pull about 50 or 60m in one go fairly easily

Matthew

hio77

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#1610217 11-Aug-2016 17:00

mdooher: Yep, cheapest option would be 25mm alcathene with 25mm you will be able to push the cat 5 through about 30m at a time, just buy the removable plastic plumbing jointers that are designed for this pipe. ( you will never pull 300m at one go)

You can pull about 50 or 60m in one go fairly easily

never expected to pull off 300M in one go, Ethernet as a standard would not pull that off anyway without Active breaks in the middle.

good call on the plumbing joints, they would be likely best choice to keep things nice and tight!

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webwat

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#1611166 13-Aug-2016 18:42

There are other options for getting a long distance copper signal without repeaters but probably not gigabit, and of course multimode fibre would be ideal for high speed data if you could get someone to splice pigtails at each end (or a length of pre-plugged patch cable).

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hio77

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#1611169 13-Aug-2016 18:57

webwat:
There are other options for getting a long distance copper signal without repeaters but probably not gigabit, and of course multimode fibre would be ideal for high speed data if you could get someone to splice pigtails at each end (or a length of pre-plugged patch cable).

In my case, I require power as well. I do have alternative modes of transport other than Ethernet on the cards, but most likely it will be most cost-effective to have a Two step connection to where it needs to go.

This would allow expansion in a star down to another end (obviously over another vlan) for HAB and connectivity expansion.

I'm only expecting 100mbit although all hardware is Gbit capable. Main backbone connection is tough cable, the carrier grade stuff. A pain for crimping but I wanna reduce any crosstalk errors considering there will likely be a second pair alongside it with an analog signal.

I did at one point consider Ethernet over coax (with poe) but went off that idea. As for fibre, I don't have enough experience with fibre to consider a "worthwhile" option to consider in terms of me doing it myself.

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