Elac Z3's and Ethernet in the Shop/Greenhouse

Tinkering
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Finally got cool enough to do some work in the shop and try out the Elac Discovery Z3 as my Roon Music source.

The shop is about 60 feet from the house, door to door, and about 90 feet from the router. Wi-Fi works reliably from the metal roofed house out to the shop overhead door but will not reach inside the metal building.

Used a 100’ Cat6 Ethernet cable that reached from the port in the kitchen, out through the garage, across the driveway and 15 feet inside the door. Had to use my android phone Roon Remote to control the music selection from outside the building but I could adjust the volume from inside with the controls on the front of the z3. Started a 2 plus hour long playlist then Roon Radio kicked in and continued nonstop. Worked perfectly, no issues, drops or pauses. Add a splitter and I can use my laptop or IPAD remotes for total control from inside the building with Ethernet.

The shop is roughly 1050 sq feet with 12 foot ceiling, walls and ceiling are insulated. Furnishings include the normal stuff, tractor, zero turn mower, table saws, drill presses, metal cabinets, work benches and wall to wall fully loaded shelving. No room correction possible, or needed.

That small Z3 speaker system, not much bigger than large shoe box, filled the space with hi-res music and sounded really good. The bass could be heard thumping from outside the building. I had been using my 30 year old RCA portable radio/cd player with an attached antenna and scratchy FM sound from inside the building or my android phone as an endpoint with an outdoor party speaker from the overhead doorway.

That was enough to convince me it will be worthwhile to have Ethernet added to the shop. With a drop on each end of the building I can have Stereo Z3’s grouped. Will have to run conduit under the driveway and underground from the house. It cost 1900.00 to have the whole house wired with 8 drops/ports. Have no idea what this will cost but it will be worth it in the long run.

We have a homemade 20 by 20 hoop style greenhouse on the opposite side of the property about 150’ from the house. With plumbing for water and electricity we had been using that during the winter to keep potted plants from around the yard warm and healthy, but we just added climate controlled ventilation and wet location electrical service for year round use. Maybe I’ll go crazy and run Ethernet there as well.

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There exists direct burial outdoor ethernet cable you can get for about 50 USD per 100’. No need to run conduit if you don’t want to.

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Thanks Daniel, that’s a good idea. I’ve looked it up online. Maybe, instead of tunneling under the driveway, I can dig out the separator between the concrete slabs lay the cable in place then fill the gap back in. Worth a try anyway.

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I did something similar to my outdoor building but I used 1/2" PVC pipe as conduit.
Cheap and cheerful and relatively easy to bury under the grass exiting 3 foot before building door as now solid concrete.
Had to use metal conduit and fittings here , not perfect but worked just fine.
Good luck!

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Also, you could do point to point wireless bridging, if the two buildings are in line of sight.

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We have used some of the Unify Air bridge (I think that’s the model) devices over several hundred metres and the have worked amazingly well.

I prefer fiber to go between buildings, but when you go between buildings where you can’t dig then point to point WiFi is great and high speed

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Ordered a cable, 200ft Cat6 Outdoor Waterproof Ethernet Cable Direct Burial (600MHz) Shielded (Pure Copper) from Ultra Spec Cables to run from the house to the shop. Hoping the shielded version is correct. Read something about grounding but not sure how that is accomplished. Is that done with the RJ45 connectors?

While I was checking online I found a 300ft Aerial Cat6 Outdoor Waterproof Ethernet Cable Direct Burial (Pure Copper & Shielded) (Connectors Installed), also from Ultra Spec Cables. Sounds perfect for the greenhouse since I already have overhead power line and poles running from one end of the house out through the wooded area to that location. I can use the existing support structure to run the line overhead. We’re having the greenhouse wired by professionals for wet location service and with the climate controlled ventilation we have plans to spend lots of time there. Will be nice to carry a Z3 out there when needed, connect power and Ethernet, and start the music.

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My lucky day, found the Z3’s on sale this morning on the Elac America’s website for 229.98. That’s what I’ve been waiting for. Ordered 2 for myself for Christmas. Paid 499. for the first one 2 years ago, 299. for the second one last Christmas, and now added 2 more for 459.96.

Edit update: I received the 2 new Z3’s I ordered in 3 days. That was a quick turnaround.

I went back to the website today to order more to give as Christmas presents and the sale was over.

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