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Tainted

Need help indentifying wires

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First time poster and cctv noob.  I’m hoping to get some help identifying what I have in my house. I know next to nothing about cctv, but I got a degree in electrical engineering 20 years ago that I never used, so talk fast and I’ll catch up.

 

The house was built in 2006 but remained empty in foreclosure for the better part of ten years.  I bought it in January and have been repairing/updating it. I’m just about done and it’s time to figure out what all of these wires are.

 

The photos below show what I have. In the living room, there are two sets of wires coming out of the wall, several feet apart. One has 6 coax cables. The other has 6 coax, 2 more coax connected to each other, 2 yellow Ethernet cables, 4 white 2-wire cables, 2 white 4-wire cables.  3 of the white 2-wire cables are marked with pen as FL, FR, RR or RL (going off memory here, 3 of those are correct and one incorrect).

 

The photo with three white and one yellow cable is just inside the front door. The only place I have seen the yellow ethernet is here and the living room. I have an alarm/communications panel in the upstairs laundry room, but no yellow there.

 

There is an enclosure on the outside of the house with coax inside. 6 coax are stubbed out from the wall here.

 

Are these wires for a cctv system that was never installed? Can you help understand the purpose of each wire? Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

 

 

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The white wires with red and black wires in it look like 16/2 speaker wire.  The wire with the little center pin protruding looks to be RG6/coaxial cable.  The yellow wire looks like CAT5.  There are two types of cameras analog and ip.  Analog cameras use a coax for the video feed and a pair of wires for the power so in theory if both types of white wires were run to the same location you could use it for a camera (it is more traditional to use a "siamese" wire that has rg59 and 2 conductor for power attached to each other).   CAT5 can be used for Digital IP PoE cameras.  Coax is also used for cable tv / satellite while the speaker wire may be used for speakers depending where the other end terminates.  A Cat5 wire could be run for data or phone in addition to cameras depending on where it terminates

-Louis

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Hello Tainted,

I think you should use a toner device to find cable and identify each ends. You will need a helper to help you on the ends to do it fast. fluke devices are good but you can find cheaper on amazon.

https://www.flukenetworks.com/datacom-cabling/copper-testing/IntelliTone-Pro-Toner-and-Probe

Then after you can use the cable depend on the functionality you wants to use those for.

Audio : Low voltage stranded

cameras analog  and television : coaxial

internet and ip cameras : ethernet, cat5/cat6

 

Jay P.

Dicsan Technology

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