Jul 20 2008
One step forward, one step backward…
Ok, the bedrooms now have coax outlets run from inside the house instead of lengths of coax running up the outside walls. It wasn’t really an asthetic choice as no one really sees that side of the house), but lets assume that dozens of zombies are grabbing at the house trying to get inside and they grab hold of a convenient length of coax and WHAM! I have to sit out the rest of the zombocalypse without cable.
Not cool! (truthfully I’m just trying to get all the wire and conduit off the exterior walls to clean things up a bit, but the zombie thing is a valid point too).
Of course now that I have proper RG6 runs to each bedroom and a seperate RG59 composite feed for the bedside monitor I discover that the Modulator I had (to introduce the multiplexed signal into the CATV feed) appears to have ceased functioning in any useful manner. I’d had concerns from the outset, and this settled it for me.
In fact if you have a second. Both the video distribution and modulator modules I had originally acquired were Steren and they looked to be junk from the moment they arrived. The documentation was horrible (the voltage was not marked clearly on either device, and of the transformer blocks included only one had the output voltage listed - multimeter to the rescue, but honestly?).
The upshot? No confidence, and I’ve chased my tail enough on this. I’ve ordered a surplused commercial unit which should be a little more robust than the Steren garbage, and I’ve got the wiring ready and waiting for it’s arrival (Canadian supplier too, should be faster shipping than something coming across the line).
I’ve also ordered a new amplifier for the CATV signal (although truthfully with only three runs I’m not sure it’s needed, but better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.).
So, one more weekends worth of wiring and some new techno-toys and the DVR system can move to it’s new enclosure (at that point I can then show you all the pictures of the old arrangements, the old wiring and I can point out all the weaknesses and blind spots - once they’ve all been corrected).