Re: Krone IDC

[Nigel Orr <nigel@xxxxxxx>]

At 23:34 24/10/00 +0100, you wrote:
>A while back someone posted some useful information (or a link to said
>information) about Krone IDC and how to work out what you need for a
>specific number of cables. I think it also had details of how to wire
>it.

I can't remember seeing it, so it might have been me- there's probably
something linked from my wiring page at http://ha.orrs.net but basically
you need a tool (type 2A), connection strips (probably type 237A, depending
on what you want to connect), and boxes to put it in (I use type 301 boxes,
I've got 2, each holds 10 x 237A strips (so 200 separate pairs of cable in
total).  That might not sound like much (only 50 cables in total), but some
cables have unused pairs (at least to start with!), and some pairs (not
many!) go to shared terminals.

The type 301 boxes have removable side panels (which I didn't discover
until I was about to drill some holes in them after a few months- doh!), so
mount them close together and you can effectively have one big box.  If you
need a different box now, there are others available, from 1 row up to
'concrete it in to the street outside your house' sizes...

You can also get cable clamps, labels etc, as needed.  And you can get
earthing strips, screeened cable strips (I've still got 4 surplus if you
need those- type ABS), surge suppressors etc etc.

As for wiring it, strip back the cable jacket (I leave about 4" of it
visible inside the box, that's the bit with the coloured tape on it so I
can see where it is connected to!), put the wire on the terminal block,
press firmly on the tool, and it will terminate it and snip off the
excess.  Have a look after you've made the connection just to be sure it
hasn't got stuck somewhere and not terminated.

If it terminates the excess, and snips off the wanted cable, you've got the
tool upside down- you'll probably make that mistake a few times,
particularly if you're tired!  If it chops off part of your nail or finger,
once you've finished swearing, put it down to experience... you'll probably
do that at least once, and it hurts.

You can punch down 2 identical wires in each terminal (ie 2 solid or 2
stranded, but not one of each).  The 237A block connects the top row to the
bottom row, so you can basically connect 4 wires together at each
point.  You can have 2 solid wires in the top terminal, 2 stranded ones in
the bottom, if the need arises- at the moment all mine is solid cat5
wiring.

There are various little clips to help you neaten up the cable.  Keith D
informed me that generally the top row is for fixed wiring, the bottom row
is for patching, though mine doesn't strictly follow that (there aren't
many 'patch' cables)

And remember you can't use it for ethernet patching as the pairs are too
far apart.

As a suggestion, I've set my boxes out in 4 sections, with about half a box
dedicated to each use- in one box, basically analoguey stuff, there's one
bit for phones, one for audio/video- there's 2 rows for phones (1 for ring
pair, 1 for comms pair) all commoned together at present, 1 row for
composite video, 2 for stereo audio.  That leaves 5 spare for component
video, digital audio etc as required in future.

The other box, basically digitally stuff, has half for sensors and half for
outputs.  There's 2 rows for actual sensor inputs, 2 for 12V supplies, 1
for assorted Comfort connections (siren, keypads etc), 2 for outputs, and
space for ibutton networks, IR etc.

As usual, leave room for expansion- I'd suggest you plan what you forsee
installing over the next 5 years, and add 50% or so for 'spare'.  You don't
need to buy the corresponding 237A blocks until you need them, so it
doesn't cost much extra at all, and will save hassle!  If you can, put the
boxes in where there is space to add more adjacent boxes in future, then
you've covered all your bases!

My house divides fairly easily into 10 rooms (including 'outside'!), so
generally each function in each room is in the same 'column'- eg the lounge
could be on pair 3 of each 237A block.  If you've got more than 10 rooms,
I'm not going to suggest solutions, cos I'm jealous :-)

HTH, feel free to ask more.  If there's interest, I'll get round to
updating the retro-wiring page or add a separate page with a bit more info
on Krone, now I've had some time to see just how good it is!  _Much_ kudos
to Keith D for suggesting it- it's saved me a _lot_ of soldering and a lot
of time, and left a very neat configurable wiring system.  I wouldn't have
considered it for anything but phones, but it's just the job!

Nigel


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