Distance for sensor and board

[Patrik Söderström]

Hey,
how long cables can I use for the sensor that is connected to a arduino board?
I have seen this 20cm cables one can use. But I was thinking of having the sensors in locations like a couple of meters away from the arduino board. Like place the board in one area and pull cables to nearby rooms for temp readings etc.

As its low power I would assume I could do this. Any recommendations?
Could a regular network cable be used or is the twisted cables not good to use for this purpose?

Thanks
Br.
Patrik

[sundberg84]

@Patrik-Söderström - a regular ethernet cable are rated for 50v so that works. I use 18v myself without any issues for IP cameras. What can happen is that you drop volts over distance due to resistance (and quality of the wire), so long cables might not provide enough if its to far but generally its not an issue.

Did you see @petewill power supply - this is kind of what he does in the whole house. https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/4691/low-voltage-whole-house-power-supply

[Patrik Söderström]

Thanks
Then I will test it out :) If it does not work I have to find other cables.
Yes I have seen that, really awesome :)

[sundberg84]

@Patrik-Söderström - if you want to be on the safe side, you can go with thicker wires... (as pete does). You should have less resistance then.

[stevebus]

I'm working on a controller for keeping one of my fountains automatically full of water. The water level sensor will be about 30 feet (around 9 meters) from my Arduino board. I'm using one of the pairs from a cat-6e cable, buried under mulch, to connect the sensor. Now, in this case, it's a little easier since the sensor is just resistive, rather than having to read voltage, so I can just add in the resistance of the wire. But it seems to work fine. It's just a simple voltage divider circuit.

[Patrik Söderström]

@sundberg84 Yesterday I found you forum post at bygghus.se I was stuck at the phone for a long time reading it all! :) I´m very impressed and I will for sure order some of your board for the aurdino.

@stevebus Great! :)

I´m trying to find a Arduino Uno board, looks like the one in the mysensors hardware is out of stock. I searched on ebay and found this one, is it legit and the real thing?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Arduino-Genuino-UNO-R3-Compatible-ATmega328P-ATmeg-a16U2-with-USB-cable-/252365926607?hash=item3ac22e70cf:g:DR8AAOSw1DtXHD1s