Max Cat 5 cable length for Industrial Ethernet

JCecchine

Member
Join Date
Sep 2003
Location
Philadelphia
Posts
5
Can anyone recommend maximum Cat 5 cable length for ControlLogix ENBT Remote I/O Industrial Ethernet? I read that 100M was the recommended maximum, however we experienced problems when we exceeded 150’. The Cat 5 cable in that case was watertight shielded. Our systems use both watertight and non-watertight shielded (10 and 100 full duplex).

Also, can you recommend a small (Din Rail mounted) Industrial Ethernet media converter? Shock and Vibration are important in this application.

Thanks
 
I think 100m for CAT5 should be OK. Anyway, you can use Hirschmann converter RS2-4TX/1FX-SM to use optical media. Max lenght then is 32,5 km. This is real industrial suff.
 
Hi JCecchine,

Don't forget to check your wires with an appropriate tester (FLUKE and so on). If you can't (but I'd strongly recommend you do so...) test with two PCs at 100Mbps, and pay special attention to your connectors.

Notice that the "100m" limitations refers to the maximum speed rate (100Mbps). If you can setup your interfaces and force them at 10Mbps, you should solve your problem easily. (Often it's not easy because interfaces are set in "auto-negotiation" mode and try to connect at 100Mbps first).

Ask for what is truly needed as a bandwidth in fact, because each time you'll add some converters, you'll add connectors and risks of failure especially if you experience shocks and vibrations.

About the limitations, I've experienced "100Mbps" properly running networks up to 170 meters (Cat5 wire) in industrial environments.

Hope this helps.

Laurent
 
You should also note that if the cable is installed in metallic conduit you will see a reduction in maximum distance due to capacitive coupling with the conduit. I have also seen this in some shielded cables when they have not been properly tested by the manufacturer or if you are trying to use shielded twisted pair cable that is not specifically rated for use with ethernet.
 
do you guys think when a cat5 cable is located in a metal condult or trunking will go farther than an open cable?
my factory have many 3-phase cable, so i think it's not recommended to run my cat5 cable parallel with my 3-phase, am i right?
thanks.
 
Never run any signal wires with power wires....yes never run the CAT5 Ethernet cable with 3 phase power/motor leads.

The EMF generated by power wires can create noise etc on signal/communication wires that will interfere with signal/data.
 
About Twisted Pair Ethernet --

I'd say 90% of my 'strange' communications problems ended up being poor connector terminations. My preference is to always use a punch-down female jack, and a pre-made patch cable, rather than crimping the RJ-45's on the ends of cable runs.

Invest 100 dollars or so on a simple end to end cable tester; they are invaluable, easy to use, and relatively inexpensive diagnostic tools.

On excellent, and reasonably price source for industrual ethernet media converters, switches, and ring managers is:
www.n-tron.com

Good luck.
 
Also note the difference between Cat 5 patch cable (flexible stuff) and Cat 5 main line cable solid core stuff, the flexy stuff is only good for 10-20 ft noninally.
 
Thanks!

Thanks everyone for your help!

I agree that it is usually the connector. However, the path and the cable type may be a problem in this case. The cable is watertight that passes through watertight steel “stuffing” tubes. I wonder if the steel tubes and the cable are a problem.

I just wanted to see if the standard 100m was "optimistic" at 100mb full duplex.

jc
 
Last edited:
For networking ENET & RSView in a plant with maximum 8 nodes, a 10Mb speed is more than enough, am I rite?

For ENET, will it be like, the longer you go the slower speed u'll get like DH+ or RIO?
 

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