Cat5 help

[DaleyBrew]

I'm trying to use cat5 as a quick disconnect for my motorized ball valves (three wire) and I'm running into some problems.

The valve wire is too thick to fit in the male housing of the jack even though it's 24 like the cat 5 cable. So, I twisted the individual valve wires on to cat5 wires and added a male jack in A configuration. On another piece of wire I took a keystone jack and wired it in A configuration also and then wired the other end into my relay board. I thought I had all of the colors/wires matched up so that when when I connected the male end into the keystone I'd have continuity. Nothing worked though.

I'm not too familiar with cat5. Is there a proper way to wire these things? If anyone has close up shots of their connections that would be helpful.

 

[Facinerous]

I think rather than being worried about the A configuration what you should be concerned with is what color wire are you using for what part of the three wire circuit.

Cat5 wiring is useful for signal wiring, but less so for powering a valve motor. I would need more information in order to consider what your actual problem is, but here is a thought. Voltage drop (assuming 24v system) could be your problem if the length of the cable is long. Long as in greater than 25 feet.

Also I am assuming you are using a single wire in the cat5 for each wire connection to each ball valve. Getting the little motor to start moving takes more power than you may think, so when it starts to try the voltage may drop even more due to a high flow of current.

I don't know what your specs are, but if it is in any way similar to a sprinkler valve then you are looking at roughly 3 amps initially to operate the valve. Thats quite a lot for a little wire. Although the leads coming from the valves may be 24 they may recommend a larger wire size to run to the valve, you should look into the manufacturer specs for that.

I had a similar problem like this earlier in my electrical career. Due to poor planning for a project I had to use cat5 to power some remote camera controls, the length of the was was considerable (maybe 200ft) and the system was likewise 24 volts. I wired everything up accordingly turned it on but had no camera control. Running through the gamut of possibilities I ended up doubling up two wires for each single wire to the camera. Doubling the surface area of the wire reduced the voltage drop and allowed the desired operation.

I don't want to lead you astray, but from what you wrote above I think you at least have the correct wire going to the correct wire. I would double check that first. Then look into checking voltage at the valve when you tell the motor to operate. You may be surprised.

 

[DaleyBrew]

Thanks for the help. As usual I discovered that I made a boneheaded mistake. I put the wires in the male jack in the right order but I put them in backwards because I had the jack facing the wrong direction! I put a new jack on with the correct order and everything is working fine.

 

[WaltStarr]

Cat5 wiring is useful for signal wiring, but less so for powering a valve motor. I would need more information in order to consider what your actual problem is, but here is a thought. Voltage drop (assuming 24v system) could be your problem if the length of the cable is long. Long as in greater than 25 feet.

Standard POE voltage is 57 V DC and the typical motorized ball valve that I've seen is 12 or 24 V DC. I've never had problems running any POE device over 100 feet and standard POE maximum length runs are 100M.

So really, there shouldn't be any problem with using Cat5 cable to transport the voltage. If there's any issue it may be with amperage as each conductor in Cat5 cable is rated for only 0.577 amps. I've seen some ratings at 2.2 amps for the actuator on a motorized valve.