Using Dynalite cable

A customer who wants to install a C-Bus system has asked whether we can utilise existing Dynalite cabling (Belden 9503 I believe). Replacing the existing cable with pink Cat 5 would be difficult and expensive due to building structure. The maximum run of cable for the C-Bus network would be around 300M. I appreciate the differences in spec ie. 4 twisted pair single strand UTP (Cat 5) as opposed to 3 twisted pair multistrand shielded (Belden 9503) but at 9600bps and 300m is this doable? And has anyone done this successfully before?
Harro

 

I don't know what the specifications are for Dynalite cable, but the following information might help as a guide:

for the C-Bus + and - (communication and power) conductors:

1) cable lengths must be kept under 1000 metres between most distant nodes irrespective of the cable type

2) cables should have 100 Ohms or less total resistance over the path between most distant nodes to ensure good communication signal quality (CAT5 cables are about 90 Ohms for 1000 metres with 2 pairs paralleled). There is no limit on the milimum resistance.

3) cables must be balanced. The two conductors used for C-Bus communication must have similar impedances to earth to avoid problems with common-mode interference. This means that single core coaxial cable can NOT be used, but it is possible to use shielded twisted pair cable if the total cable capacitance is less than 100nF

4) Total cable capacitance for ALL cable in the network between the two C-Bus conductors can not exceed 100nF. Over this capacitance, the C-Bus communication waveform is likely to become too distorted for reliable communication. In general, it is not likely that shielded twisted pair cable will allow the full 1000 metres before this limit is reached, but unshielded (cat 5) cable is fine. There is no limit on the minimum capacitance.

for the remote ON and remote OFF conductors:

These conductors are optional. It should be possible to use untwisted conductors or conductors from other unused pairs for this purpose over a distance of 300m, as the signals on these lines is very low frequency (dc, actually).

Hope this helps

 

Dynalite cable

No preblem,

The dynalite cable will support your C-Bus installation no problem