We use a fairly basic homeplug for occasional use of an old PC upstairs
in the opposite corner of the house.

We have a TT system with a split load box with each side having its own
RCD. The upstairs power ring is on a different RCD from the downstairs
ring. There has been some discussion here on whether this is a problem.

Unscientific and as reported by PowerPacket Utility:

Plugged in beside the upstairs PC speed is about 28Mbps

Plugged in to a socket the other side of the room about 32 to 40Mbps

Plugged into the light socket which is on the same RCD as the downstairs
power ring about 48 to 65Mbps

It does therefore appear that the RCDs do make a difference unless
anyone has any alternate suggestions.

All figures tend to reduce in the evenings. No extra electronics on but
there are lights.

On Fri, 09 Apr 2010 17:03:15 +0100, John Rumm wrote:

Invisible Man wrote:
We use a fairly basic homeplug for occasional use of an old PC upstairs
in the opposite corner of the house.

We have a TT system with a split load box with each side having its own
RCD. The upstairs power ring is on a different RCD from the downstairs
ring. There has been some discussion here on whether this is a problem.

Unscientific and as reported by PowerPacket Utility:

Plugged in beside the upstairs PC speed is about 28Mbps

Plugged in to a socket the other side of the room about 32 to 40Mbps

Plugged into the light socket which is on the same RCD as the
downstairs power ring about 48 to 65Mbps

It does therefore appear that the RCDs do make a difference unless
anyone has any alternate suggestions.

All figures tend to reduce in the evenings. No extra electronics on but
there are lights.

My experience would support that also...

The answer to the question "do they work through RCDs?" being a
definitive "yes". However you can expect some loss of performance.

What I can't really qualify as yet is whether its the RCD in particular
or the MCB which has the effect, or just the migration to another
circuit etc. Empirical tests would suggest they all play a part - in
that throughput on one circuit only tends to be better from one to
another on the same RCD, which is still better than to another on a
different one.


All the mcbs that I've seen use a series electromagnet for overcurrent
trip (I have a clear plastic demo one which shows this clearly). I
suspect that most RCDs are the same for the overcurrent part, so between
two RCD circuits you effectively have two series inductors. I'm pretty
sure that will do something nasty to data speeds, particularly in
conjunction with cable capacitance.

Also, any high efficiency lamps will introduce some waveform problems on
the supply, possibly along with some noise while they are on. That won't
help either.

Because the inductors would probably introduce some degree of attenuation
between the two protected circuits, I suspect that you could treat each
circuit separately and that results on each may not be the same -
depending on connected loads, lengths of cable etc.

--
Mick (Working in a M$-free zone!)
Web: http://www.nascom.info
Filtering everything posted from googlegroups to kill spam.

On 09/04/2010 17:03, John Rumm wrote:
Invisible Man wrote:
We use a fairly basic homeplug for occasional use of an old PC
upstairs in the opposite corner of the house.

We have a TT system with a split load box with each side having its
own RCD. The upstairs power ring is on a different RCD from the
downstairs ring. There has been some discussion here on whether this
is a problem.

Unscientific and as reported by PowerPacket Utility:

Plugged in beside the upstairs PC speed is about 28Mbps

Plugged in to a socket the other side of the room about 32 to 40Mbps

Plugged into the light socket which is on the same RCD as the
downstairs power ring about 48 to 65Mbps

It does therefore appear that the RCDs do make a difference unless
anyone has any alternate suggestions.

All figures tend to reduce in the evenings. No extra electronics on
but there are lights.

My experience would support that also...

The answer to the question "do they work through RCDs?" being a
definitive "yes". However you can expect some loss of performance.

What I can't really qualify as yet is whether its the RCD in particular
or the MCB which has the effect, or just the migration to another
circuit etc. Empirical tests would suggest they all play a part - in
that throughput on one circuit only tends to be better from one to
another on the same RCD, which is still better than to another on a
different one.


To get to the upstairs power ring the signal has to traverse 2 mcbs and
2 rcds.
To get to the upstirs light ring the signal has to traverse 2 mcbs.

Downstairs circuit has 2 TVs, 2PCs and peripherals connected.
Upstairs circuits had nothing electronic on them at the time.

On Fri, 09 Apr 2010 09:11:46 +0100, Invisible Man wrote:

All figures tend to reduce in the evenings. No extra electronics on but
there are lights.

Interesting comment.

Are the lights CFL's or tungsten? Does the speed recover if you
switch the lights off? I doubt it will but be interesting to know.

Homeplug uses up to 1155 carriers between 1.8 and 30MHz. At night the
"noise" level from broadcast and other stations in that frequency
range will increase. Just like LF and MF broadcast stations increase
the noise level for ADSL at night.

--
Cheers
Dave.

A little off-topic...

Are there any Homeplug adapters which provide a mains outlet and
the ethernet receptacle in one housing? So that for example you could
connect a NAS to a Homeplug network via a single mains outlet? All the
adapters I've seen 'use up' a mains outlet, which seems a shame.

Thanks for any pointers.

J^n

On 09/04/2010 23:41, Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Fri, 09 Apr 2010 09:11:46 +0100, Invisible Man wrote:

All figures tend to reduce in the evenings. No extra electronics on but
there are lights.

Interesting comment.

Are the lights CFL's or tungsten? Does the speed recover if you
switch the lights off? I doubt it will but be interesting to know.

Homeplug uses up to 1155 carriers between 1.8 and 30MHz. At night the
"noise" level from broadcast and other stations in that frequency
range will increase. Just like LF and MF broadcast stations increase
the noise level for ADSL at night.

No CFLs on upstairs lighting circuit. Never on for long and need full
brightness as soon as they are turned on. There are however a couple of
CFLs on the downstairs power ring. A quick test suggests they reduce
speed by about 5 percent.

On Fri, 09 Apr 2010 09:11:46 +0100, Invisible Man
wrote:

We use a fairly basic homeplug for occasional use of an old PC upstairs
in the opposite corner of the house.

We have a TT system with a split load box with each side having its own
RCD. The upstairs power ring is on a different RCD from the downstairs
ring. There has been some discussion here on whether this is a problem.

Unscientific and as reported by PowerPacket Utility:

Plugged in beside the upstairs PC speed is about 28Mbps

Plugged in to a socket the other side of the room about 32 to 40Mbps

Plugged into the light socket which is on the same RCD as the downstairs
power ring about 48 to 65Mbps

It does therefore appear that the RCDs do make a difference unless
anyone has any alternate suggestions.

All figures tend to reduce in the evenings. No extra electronics on but
there are lights.

Interesting.

I did get round to getting / fitting the Homeplugs (the std speed
ones) at our friends (long, was two houses) house and saw about
9-10Mbps when at full stretch (14M when plug side-by-side).

I wasn't sure if the faster units would suffer a greater loss than the
slower ones (and hence why I went for them). Plus, I'm not sure how
often they would really see 20Mbps on their VM BB?

Cheers, T i m

On Sat, 10 Apr 2010 00:36:59 -0700 (PDT), jkn wrote:

Are there any Homeplug adapters which provide a mains outlet and
the ethernet receptacle in one housing? So that for example you could
connect a NAS to a Homeplug network via a single mains outlet?

Yes, I've seen them fairly recently on the web. One a "wall wart"
type the other a "dalek" with, IIRC 4 ethernet ports and 6 mains
outlets.

Have a look at the Solwise site.

--
Cheers
Dave.

On Apr 10, 11:27*am, John Rumm wrote:


http://www.solwise.co.uk/net-powerli...push-piggy.htm


Excellent - thanks John (& Dave). I hadn't seen them in earlier
trawls.

J^n

John Rumm wrote:
Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Sat, 10 Apr 2010 00:36:59 -0700 (PDT), jkn wrote:

Are there any Homeplug adapters which provide a mains outlet and
the ethernet receptacle in one housing? So that for example you could
connect a NAS to a Homeplug network via a single mains outlet?

Yes, I've seen them fairly recently on the web. One a "wall wart"
type the other a "dalek" with, IIRC 4 ethernet ports and 6 mains
outlets.

Sounds like the "Piggy 6"

Have a look at the Solwise site.

Indeed:

http://www.solwise.co.uk/net-powerline-av-piggy6.htm


Ugly little bugger, but a masterpiece of practical functionality.

On Fri, 09 Apr 2010 23:41:34 +0100, Dave Liquorice wrote:

snip

Homeplug uses up to 1155 carriers between 1.8 and 30MHz. At night the
"noise" level from broadcast and other stations in that frequency range
will increase. Just like LF and MF broadcast stations increase the noise
level for ADSL at night.


Nasty, vile things. They aren't bothered about which frequencies they
screw up either. Most of the Amateur bands are between those frequencies
and homeplug stuff can obliterate all reception at several tens of metres
away from the house!

--
Mick (Working in a M$-free zone!)
Web: http://www.nascom.info
Filtering everything posted from googlegroups to kill spam.

On Sat, 10 Apr 2010 16:42:20 +0100, Steve Walker wrote:

http://www.solwise.co.uk/net-powerline-av-piggy6.htm

Ugly little bugger, but a masterpiece of practical functionality.

Apart from the tuft of mains cables you'll have sticking out of the
top of the thing. WTF couldn't they have two rows of three offset so
the cable from the top row passes between the plugs on the lower row.

If the AV kit that requires network connections appears here I think
I'll be going for the Netgear XAV1004.

--
Cheers
Dave.