Bachelor Pad Diaries #6: Wiring Woes (actually it's not that bad)
So one of the things that I've been putting off for the longest while is the whole wiring situation with my house. I've avoided part of it by just buying a super powerful router (which, I'm sure, is microwaving my insides right now) and by lazily sticking the TV antenna on the wall right next to my TV. Both are pretty unsightly solutions but since I'm going to have a bunch of (other people's) kids running around the place soon, it's probably best to hide some of those exposed wires.
When doing the upgrades, I paid about $500 extra to have all the rough-in wiring done (network jacks in each room, tv cables, smart outlets, etc.), but they wanted almost the same amount to finish them (ie: install all the plugs, connectors and face plates). Screw that because how hard could it be, right?
Prepare for incorrect terminology overload...
While totally overconfident in my non-existent wiring skills, I took a trip to the local electronics store and bought all the tools and parts that I needed (or that I thought that I needed) to do the job. It came up to about $70 and that pile of loot above included all the face plates, tools and connectors necessary. Everything was relatively cheap - both in price and quality - so we'll see how it holds up after a bit of use.
So in my unfinished maintenance room, all the wires converge into bundles like what you see below - they're mixtures of networking, cable, telephone and security wires. I had 3 other piles of cables like that to deal with, so I definitely need to pick up some of those cable management clips so I don't have jungle vines hanging around in all the different corners of the room so I can pin them to the walls in a more organized fashion.
First up: RJ45 Ethernet cables.
This was actually easier than I thought and all I did was follow a picture for the T-568B RJ45 wiring standard. There's also a T-568A standard, but, according to the internet, that's old news and you should just go with B (it's just the same wires in a slightly different order). The main thing is to use the same standard on both ends or else your wires will explode and set your house on fire when you download porn. I believe that all my network wires are of type CAT 5e.
The connectors were 10 for $1, the crimping tool was $15, the wall jacks were $1.50 each. The crimping tool had a cutter to strip the blue jacket off the wire, but I found that it would actually cut the wires underneath, so I just used a box cutter to strip it instead. The blue outer layer of the wire was pretty brittle, so I just scored the blue part and then bent it a couple times to break off - I'm not sure if that's a sign of cheap wires...
Once the blue part is off, you unwind the pairs of wires inside, put the wires in the correct order, stick them into a plug, and crimp it with the tool. From my experience (I don't know if it's because I bought a cheap tool), you really have to go HAM when crimping or else the contacts don't line up evenly or make good contact with the wires. I made that mistake a couple of times and, upon further investigation, I could see that all the contacts weren't pushed down all the way, they had a hard time plugging into the wall jacks and I actually destroyed like 5 plugs and 3 wall jacks with the shitty crimping job. In my defense, the jacks were also pretty shitty ($1.50 each), so I ended up buying a different style wall jack afterwards, which was like $4.50 each. More on that later...
Next up: coaxial TV cables.
This was even easier than the Ethernet wires because there's only actually one wire inside to deal with. You strip it, slide on an F-connector, and then crimp it.
The crimping tool was $15, the stripper was only $3 (I wish), and I bought some budget waterproof connectors (which wouldn't be used outside anyway) that were 10 for $2.50. The more expensive ones didn't really look any different, so I don't know whether this was a noob move or not in terms of shielding or disrupting the signal.
From what I can tell, all the TV cables that they used are RG-6 and I think you need to get that right so that the F-connector slides over the shielding/inner layer properly. If the F-connector is too small it would probably damage the shielding or you'll have a hard time getting it in (that's what she said).
Basically, you throw the wire stripper on it, spin it around a few times and it will produce two cuts. You pull off the first (deeper) cut to reveal the actual wire, then you pull off the second (shallow) cut to reveal the shielding around the wire.
On RG-6 cables there's a weave of silver metallic fabric around the inner core, and you're supposed to peel it back like a banana before sliding on the the F-connector over it.
My first attempt (bottom wire in image below) ended up being shit because I didn't push the F-connector back far enough and I used the wrong sized crimping slot. My subsequent attempt looked a little better but was still pretty shitty.
I must admit that I did try to mount my antenna upstairs in one of the bedrooms, then link that wire to the wire that runs to the living room with a female to female adapter, but the results were less than impressive. The antenna signal lost about half it's strength and I couldn't tell if it's because of the cheap F-connectors, a bad cut on the end of the actual wire, or the signal was just too weak to begin with. Maybe it lost too much of it's strength because of the distance of wire from the top floor to the basement, then back to the living room, but the likelihood of it sucking due to my shotty craftsmanship is fairly low, hah.
I'll have to do some additional testing to figure out why it's so weak because, in theory, the higher up the antenna is the better the reception should be. So, for the time being, the antenna is still just taped to the wall next to my TV. Oh well, I can still get The CW.
Anyway, below is what the other end of that mess looks like.
Those "modules" snap into face plates that can have up to 6 slots. For whatever reason, smart outlets have two coaxial cables, but I can't even think of a reason why I would use the second one.
For the type of wall jacks that I bought (they are actually just couplers that snap into the wall's face plate), you basically finish the other end of the cable with the same connector, then it actually plugs/screws into the back of the coupler, which has an identical input on the other end. Did that make sense?
I actually went to RONA and bought some other wall jacks where it's directly connected to the wire (no coupler), but I'll write another article about this stuff because it ended up being a bit of a headache. I ended up buying a new crimper and better plastic connectors too...
I didn't even bother with the other wires in the bundle because the technician will have to do that when he comes in to wire the alarm system (laziness FTW). I'm also gonna leave the face plates off until I work out the kinks because some of them are somehow a pain to put on and take off. This will just have to do for now.
All in all, I seemed to have gotten out of this situation for less than $100 but it required a bit of elbow grease (running back and forth between rooms and floors to test the connection is a huge pain), but the quality of my work is pretty questionable and I'm not sure I should have bought such cheap materials - I'm gonna blame that on doing it for the first time. I don't mind re-doing it, but every time you chop of a bit of wire to put a new end on, it's not like it grows back, so I should be at least a little cautious with the number of attempts I make.
It's a good start though...
