stenkb Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 Hi I am about to pre wire my home for C4 - which is great - however am a little fuzzy on what wires are needed where.Can anyone please specifically say which wire or wires is needed to be located.Wireless Thermostat - 6 Button switch -Lighting Switches - I don't think I need to do anything here - just use spots where electrician was going to put regular switches and the power they have going there already.POE Mini Touch Screen - GE Concord Security System -TV's -InfaRed - cat5???Thanks so much - i have to wire this baby up next week Kevin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILoveC4 Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 All you need to run to your 6 button switch is romex for power, it communicates with the C4 system wirelessly. You are correct on the light switches as well. For the mini touch screen you just need to run one Cat5. As far as the TV's go, it depends are what you are going to do. I have all my audio and video switched in the basement so I just made on component run to each TV, in addition to a coax to pickup normal over the air TV broadcast utilizing my antenna. All my DVD's, cable boxes, etc... run through a matrix switch. If you wire yours that way you will only need one component run to each tv.Do yourself and favor and run conduit all over the place. Run conduit to each studbay you may want a TV or something in, as well as making a run up to the attic. That way it is easy to retro something in later, because believe me...you will be adding things later. Obviously you want all these conduit runs to terminate wherever you plan on keeping all your equipment.The other thing I would do is run speaker wire to every room, two runs per room. This way if you want to add whole house distributed audio the speaker wire is already there and you just need to buy the speakers.I wish I could give you any advice on the GE concord system...i'm sure someone will chime in. I am planning to add one, but haven't done so yet.Oh, and for the IR you can really use any wire, but I ran Cat5. You only use two strands of wire for each IR bud, so techinically cheap-o bell wire should work fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILoveC4 Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 I just looked at your diagram. Your lighting will not need to connect to your router as they are all wireless over zigbee. Also, you might want to consider putting all your A/V equipment in one place as opposed to putting receiver and cable boxes all over the house. It sure cleans things up a lot and has many advantages. I can't tell you how often I am watching a movie with my family in the loft when the kids fall asleep and my wife and I decide to go down to the bedroom. Simply pause the movie, turn on the master bedroom TV with the remote, then turn off the loft TV. When you get downstairs the movie is still paused and waiting for you in the master bedroom.It is incredibly handy.I should also add that I am by no means a professional installer or designer, anything like that. I am just a very hands on DIY type guy. I did all my wiring myself, and am constantly tweaking and adding things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stenkb Posted March 11, 2009 Author Share Posted March 11, 2009 what type of matrix switch did you use - i was going to go that way but thought they are like $2000 - which is too much for me right now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecodeman Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 NeoPro Borrego come highly recommended.http://www.c4forums.com/viewtopic.php?id=3008http://www.c4forums.com/viewtopic.php?id=3004http://www.c4forums.com/viewtopic.php?id=2905http://www.c4forums.com/viewtopic.php?id=2868Some threads to get you started. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILoveC4 Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 I used the shinybow 5564, which I got brand new on ebay for like $425 a couple of years ago. Another member on the forum emailed me and said he found one on ebay and made an offer to the seller of $425. The seller rejected his offer and countered back at $825. In my opinion that would be the best $825 spent on the entire system. I absolutely love it. It supports up to 1080P and works flawlessly with the system.Believe me, this is one thing you don't want to skimp on. It is my favorite part of the entire setup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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