Currently I have an old Nutone Intercom System IMA-4406 with intercom units in each of my 6 bedrooms and the main unit in my grand room.
It’s old and doesn’t work well anymore. The CD player doesn’t play, the intercom units can’t call back… It’s on it’s last leg. It’s time for an upgrade.
So given the Cyber Monday deals, here is my plan. I plan to buy the $40 echo show 5 deals for each bedroom, along with flush mounts and PoE adapters, and install that in each room running back to a PoE switch in the wall box where the Nutone controller currently lives.
I’ll be reusing the existing IW6 cabling, which is 3 twisted-pair, similar to Cat-5e, but only 3 pairs instead of 4, so this can easily be terminated into an RJ45.
To control the system, I would install one of the new Echo Hub devices flush mounted.
My Ring doorbell is currently integrated with the Nutone Intercom. So once I pull it out, I will need to get a new doorbell transformer/chime unit. That doesn’t have to live in the wall box, but since the doorbell is currently there, it’s in the drawing.
So help me out… Poke holes in my plan. My biggest concern is the IW6 cabling. It’s 22 gauge vs 24/26 that ethernet cabling typically is, and I don’t know what it’s rated for concerning heat. I’m hoping the PoE+ wouldn’t cause any overheating, but I really just don’t know and from what I can tell that’s the biggest concern I have. There’s no way I can run new cabling, so I’m working with what I’ve got.
Will that cabling even work? Poe and 1000gb I’m pretty sure needs all 4 pairs. Cat5 and 5e both use 4 pairs, so what you have is closer to cat3. This likely won’t work, and if it does, you’ll run into issues eventually.
I once was troubleshooting issues with a group of machines and it turned out to be the cabling in the ceiling was only cat3. It looked fairly new. Slow, occasional delays and drops. Replaced it all with car5e and all was good.