How many different types of Fire Alarm Cable are available?

There are five basic types of Fire Alarm Cable that are identifiable by the areas where they are approved for use by the National Electric Code.

  • FPL— Power Limited for general purposes. This designation indicates that this fire alarm cable is non-plenum rated, and may not be installed in risers, ducts, plenums, or other spaces used for environmental air unless first installed in conduit. Although FPL cables resist the spread of fire, they are not typically as fire-resistant as plenum and riser-rated cables.
  • FPLR— Power Limited Suitable for the floor to floor, or “riser-rated.” Risers are the spaces that run vertically from floor to floor in a building. The National Electric Code requires FPLR cable to be fire-resistant to prevent fires from spreading through multiple floors of a building.
  • FPLP— Power Limited Suitable for use in ducts, plenums, and other spaces dedicated to air circulation because of the extra safety features incorporated into its design. This Cable is plenum-rated, fire-resistant, and produces little smoke in the case of a fire.
  • NPLF— Non-Power Limited for general purpose.
  • NPLFP— Non-Power Limited Suitable for use in ducts, plenums, and other spaces.

Network Cable Standards

Category 5 cable

Category 5 (CAT5) cable is a multi-pair (usually 4 pair) high performance cable that consists of twisted pair conductors, used mainly for data transmission. Basic CAT5 cable was designed for characteristics of up to 100 MHz. CAT5 cable is typically used for LAN Ethernet networks running at 10 or 100 Mbps. Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) construction makes the cable highly cost-effective for data networks.

Category 5e Cable

Category 5e (CAT5e) cable, also known as Enhanced Category 5, is designed to support full-duplex Fast Ethernet operation and Gigabit Ethernet. The main differences between CAT5 and CAT5e can be found in the specifications. The performance requirements have been raised slightly in the new standard.

CAT5e cable has stricter specifications for Power Sum Equal-Level Far-End Crosstalk (PS-ELFEXT), Near-End Crosstalk (NEXT), Attenuation, and Return Loss (RL) than those for CAT5. Like CAT5, CAT5e cable is a 100-MHz standard, but it has the capacity to handle bandwidth superior to that of CAT5. VPI’s selection of CAT5e cables feature Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) construction for cost-effective connections.

Category 6 Cable

Category 6 (CAT6) cable provides higher performance than CAT5e cable and features more stringent specifications for crosstalk and system noise.

The quality of the data transmission depends upon the performance of the components of the channel. To transmit according to CAT6 specifications, jacks, patch cables, patch panels, cross-connects, and cabling must all meet CAT6 standards. The CAT6 components are tested individually, and they are also tested together for performance. In addition, the standard calls for generic system performance so that CAT6 components from any vendor can be used in the channel.

All CAT6 components must be backward compatible with CAT5e, CAT5, and CAT3. If different category components are used with CAT6 components, then the channel will achieve the transmission performance of the lower category. For instance, if CAT6 cable is used with CAT5e jacks, the throughput will perform at a CAT5e level. VPI offers both Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) and Screened Shielded Twisted Pair (SSTP) CAT6 cables.

Category 6a Cable

Category 6a (CAT6a), also known as Augmented Category 6, requires a cable to operate at a minimum of 500Mhz and provide up to 10 Gigabits of bandwidth. The CAT6a standard also includes a new measurement called Power-Sum Alien Crosstalk to 500 MHz. CAT6a cables will reduce the interference on a 10GBASE-T network caused by Alien Crosstalk thereby improving network performance. VPI’s selection of CAT6a cables feature Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) construction for cost-effective connections.

Category 7 Cable

Category 7 (CAT7) cable, also known as Class F, requires a cable to operate at a minimum of 600Mhz and provide up to 10 Gigabits of bandwidth. To further reduce interference, CAT7 cable requires individually fully shielded twisted pairs. Screened Shielded Twisted Pair (SSTP), also referred to as Screened Foiled Twisted Pair (SFTP) all but eliminates alien crosstalk and greatly improves noise resistance making it the ideal networking cable in high EMI environments such as power stations, data centers, factories, and hospitals.

Category 8 Cable

Category 8 (CAT8) cable provides higher performance than previous CATx cables. CAT8 cable is designed for operations of up to 2000 MHz. CAT8 cables work with 25/40GBASE-T Gigabit Ethernet, which reduce power consumption and are designed for use in bandwidth intensive data center applications. They are only available in lengths up to 30 meters, and are ideal for use where the distances between units are short.

CAT8 cables are backwards compatible with previous Category standards. The cables are shielded (F/UTP, S/FTP or U/FTP). VPI’s selection of CAT8 cables features S/FTP construction for cost-effective connections.

VPI offers a full range of Network Cables and Accessories including patch cords, cable assemblies, bulk cable, RJ45 plugs, keystone jacks, crimping tools, and cable testers.

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Speaker cable basics

The speaker cable is the wire or cable used to connect the amplifier to the loudspeaker system.

Like all cables it has three main properties: capacitance, inductance and resistance. As a result of the environment in which speaker csable operates it is the resistance that is the most important. This is brought about by the relatively low frequencies used and the system impedance. Most speaker systems have an impedance of anywhere between around three or four ohms up to around 15 ohms. Today most loudspeaker systems have an impedance between four and eight ohms.

As the resistance rises it starts to affect the system performance. Obviously there can be a reduction in the drive current to the loudspeaker as the voltage across the speaker cable increases. The other issue is that the back EMF created by the loudspeaker needs to have a low impedance source against which to work. As the source impedance rises, so the back EMF is absorbed less. This affects the performance of the loudspeaker, particularly in the bass region where the bass may not be as pronounced and it may sound less natural.

Typically the effects of the speaker cable start to become noticeable when the resistance of the cable reaches about 5% of the speaker impedance. Some may even say it needs to be less.

KX6+2P Cable for CCTV camera

KX6 Siamese CCTV cable allows installers to run both the video and power to security cameras (analog CCTV, 720p and 1080p HD cameras) using a single cable run.

KX6+2P cable comes in 500 and 1000 foot spools and is available in black or white colors.

The KX6+2P cable that CCTV Camera Pros supplies has a solid copper core and 95% copper braided shielding.

This is the best type of KX6+2P cable to use for CCTV and HD CCTV installations.

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How to Choose Right UTP CAT5e Cable for Your Network?

UTP CAT5e Cable (Cat 5 enhanced), also know as Cat5e, is currently the most commonly used Ethernet cable in new installations. It’s designed to greatly reduce crosstalk, which means the UTP CAT5e is better at keeping signals on different circuits or channels from interfering with each other. A step above Cat 5, it can handle 1000 Mbps speeds (gigabit Ethernet) at 100 MHz wit a maximum cable length of 328 feet (100 meters). How to choose right Category 5e Cable for your network? This article may give you the answer.

Straight-Through or Crossover Category 5e Cable?

RJ-45 conductor UTP CAT5e cable contains 4 pairs of wires each consists of a solid colored wire and a strip of the same color. There are two wiring standards for RJ-45 wiring: T-568A and T-568B. The two wiring standards are used to create a cross-over cable (T-568A on one end, and T-568B on the other end), or a straight-through cable (T-568B or T-568A on both ends). To create a straight-through Cat 5e, you’ll have to use either T- 568A or T-568B on both ends of the cable. To create a cross-over UTP CAT5e cable, you’ll wire T-568A on one end and T- 568B on the other end of the cable.

The straight-through UTP CAT5e cables are used when connecting Data Terminating Equipment (DTE) to Data Communications Equipment (DCE), such as computers and routers to modems (gateways) or hubs (Ethernet Switches). The crossover UTP CAT5e cables are used when connecting DTE to DTE, or DCE to DCE equipment, such as computer to computer, computer to router or gateway to hub connections. The DTE equipment terminates the signal, while DCE equipment do not.

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Combo cable has its pros

This combo cable is designed to connect a digital media player with a mini AV output to an AV receiver. A right-angle mini AV plug allows easy access to jacks with minimal clearance.

Features :

  • Nickel-plated plugs for rugged durability and efficient signal transfer.
  • Oxygen-Free Copper (OFC) conductor for enhanced signal clarity.
  • Integrated 75-ohm video and 50-ohm audio combo cables for clean connections.

Basic Connections: Speaker Cables

Speaker cables connect the outputs of the power amplifier or the amplifier section of the receiver to the speaker. These cables carry the high-powered electrical currents required to move the internal components of the speaker (the magnets that move the drivers).

You need one pair of speaker cables for each speaker in your home theater (except the subwoofer, if it’s an active system that uses an analog audio interconnect cable). Some expensive speaker systems can use two pairs of speaker wires per speaker. These systems are either biwired or biamped:

  • Biwired: Two sets of speaker wire connect to the same output on the receiver or power amplifier, and you plug them into two sets of terminals on the speaker itself. In most cases, this setup is not worth the expense of the extra set of speaker cables.
  • Biamped: The speaker uses two separate amplifiers — one for the low-frequency drivers and one for the high-frequency drivers.

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How to Choose The Coaxial Cable

Everyone knows what a coaxial cable is, right? It’s that fat wire that goes into your cable box, satellite receiver, or into your TV from an antenna. It looks different from an audio cable or headphone cable largely because of its heft.

There’s a little more to a coaxial cable than that. A coaxial cable carries its voltage on the inside “core” wire, and is surrounded by layers of shielding that stop any signal leakage. The first layer, the dielectric, provides distance between the core and the outer layers, as well as some insulation. The next layers, collectively called the shield, keep electrical impulses and radio transmissions out and keep any stray impulses in. Finally, a jacket made of flexible plastic or rubber protects the entire cable. Keeping the entire cable the same size, and keeping out stray signals, are important.

Another important characteristic is that in a coaxial cable, unlike a headphone or audio cable, the core is used as part of the connector. So, it makes a direct connection. This helps keep the signal as strong as possible.

Coaxial cable is perfect for broadcast television and satellite signals, which carry a huge amount of information and are very sensitive to outside interference. A satellite signal cable must carry signals from 2MHz to 3,000MHz. Compare that with an audio cable which just needs to carry signals up to 2 MHz. That’s a massive amount of information.

Generally, coax cables will be referred to by a code such as RG6/U. RG is a very old specification that refers to the “Radio Guide,” a military guidebook. Any cable marked “/U” is designed for universal use, as opposed to those cables specifically used for computer data or other specified uses. If your cable is not marked “/U” that’s ok as well.

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Advantages of Fiber Optical Cables

A fiber optical cable is used to transmit data through fibers (threads) or plastic (glass). During this pack of glass which are within sorts of threads transmit modulated message along sunshine wave. There are many advantages by using these cables over other kinds of communication cables like bandwidth of these cables is high, less vulnerable than metal cables to interference, less thin, lighter, and thus info are often transmitted within type of digitally.

Most disadvantages of those cables are installation is dear, more delicate and difficult to repair together. A fiber optical cable is formed by drawing glass or special sort of plastic, which can transmit light from one end of fiber to a special end. glass fiber cables use light signals to transmit data signals instead of traditional electrical signals. Twisted pair cables use current to transfer data signals.

Generally, there are three sorts of fiber optical cables: 2 glass glass fiber —single mode fiber optical cable and multimode optical fiber, also as plastic glass fiber (POF).

The advantages of optical cable include the following

  • Bandwidth is above copper cables
  • Less power loss and allows data transmission for extended distances
  • Optical cable is resistance for electromagnetic interference
  • Fiber cable is sized as 4.5 times which is best than copper wires
  • As cable are lighter, thinner, in order that they use less area as compared to copper wires
  • Installation is extremely easy thanks to less weight.
  • Optical fiber cable is extremely hard to tap because they don’t produce electromagnetic energy. These optical fiber cables are very secure for transmitting data.
  • This cable opposes most acidic elements that hit copper wired also are flexible in nature.
  • Optical fiber cable are often made cheaper than equivalent lengths of copper wire.
  • Light has fastest speed within universe, such a lot faster signals
  • Fiber optical cables allow much more cable than copper twisted pair cables.
  • Fiber optical cables have how more bandwidth than copper twisted pair cables.

5 Types of Fire Alarm Cable

1. What Is FPLR Cable?

Fire power limited riser (FPLR) cable is the cheapest of the bunch because it’s the most basic. When you don’t need a shield or plenum insulation, you go with a riser fire alarm cable that gets installed vertically, hence the name “riser.” These cables come in sizes 22 AWG through 12 AWG with two, four, six or eight possible conductors.

FRLR riser cables, including the shielded variety, must pass UL 1424 and UL 1666 tests for resistance to fire spread.

2. What Is FPLR Shielded Cable?

FPLR shielded fire alarm cables include an aluminum polyester foil shield over the conductors to protect against electromagnetic interference (EMI). A foil shield is the only type of shield offered in standard riser alarm cables. A drain wire is also used within these shielded cables to provide sufficient grounding and avoid interference. This additional EMI protection will cost a little more than its unshielded counterpart. If you need a braid shield or foil/braid shield, you will need to wait about 4 to 6 weeks and purchase about 20,000 feet.

3. What Is FPLP Cable?

Fire power limited plenum (FPLP) fire alarm cables are plenum rated for horizontal overhead installations. Plenum cables can be installed in the plenum, which is where the name came from. You’ll notice that plenum cables are much more expensive than riser cables because of the additional engineering and protection they offer. The plenum jacket is made from low-smoke plastics like PVC and limits fire spread throughout the ducting system. They’re both offered in similar sizes because the amount of copper, or current, doesn’t change when the insulation changes.

FPLP and its shielded variation must pass UL 1244 and 1666 tests.

4. What Is FPLP Shielded Cable?

FPLP shielded fire alarm cables also include an aluminum polyester foil shield over the conductors to block electromagnetic interference. Sometimes there are a few cables running next to each other in the plenum and need shielding to block interference between one another. However, if the cable is installed by itself, it shouldn’t need a shield.

5. What Is FPL Cable?

Fire power limited (FPL) cable is non-plenum rated and boasts less protection against fire. FPL cables are not suitable for installation in environmental air spaces like plenums, risers or ducts unless installed in a conduit.

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