Extending distance of AIU

Having a hard time finding the 6 conductor flat wire and the RJ12 connecters.

Clem 

RJ12 Male Connector

6 Conductor Flat Phone Cable

Thank you gunrunnerjohn 

I ordered what I needed including the tool.

Clem

Good afternoon John

My shipment arrived today. thank you or giving precise information

Clem

The real question is, did it work?   You did pattern the cables after the stock ones as far as connector position, right?  They have to be reversal cables like the originals.

Hey John it worked !!

From TIU to two AIU's 19 feet 

The only bad issue is the crimping tool doesn't want to seat one of the six pins, looks like one tooth is not all there. I will call them and see if they can get me another tool.

Clem

That's a bummer that the tool is bad.  I forget where I got my telephone connector tool, but it's a cheap plastic one.  However, it's worked fine when I've needed it.

Replacement tool on the way

Wasn't there some magic distance beyond which you want to add another power supply feeding the last AIU?  Something about voltage drop over long cables such that there is not enough voltage to reliably switch the relays in the most distant AIU(s).  Seems one of the guys here even had an inexpensive solution to this.

Stan,

Yes, there's a limit and Marty Fitzhenry is the guy who built a dongle to go beyond that limit.

The issue is that, although longer distances than those that MTH has specified may work, at some point the voltage drop over those real skinny wires can cause an AIU to implement a command incorrectly, or not at all.

Marty's device safeguards against that and can extend the overall cable length significantly.

Thanks Barry, I searched and indeed this was the thread I was thinking about:

https://ogrforum.com/t...by-backfeeding-aiu-5

I think it would be interesting if someone came up with a simple measurement on the last AIU to determine if an extra power supply is warranted...but I suppose it doesn't get simpler than having problems with distant AIUs.

I think I'd just measure the voltage at the last AIU output daisy-chain port.  If it was below about 4.75 volts with everything on, I'd probably consider the booster power supply.

Obviously(?) the serial data to/from the AIU must not get corrupted as I would tend to believe inter wire cable capacitance would degrade the data pulse width/shape/level.  But if people are not having problems over distances, then I am overthinking this (as my kids used to like reminding me )

I think some people have run it like 60 feet or more with no issues.