Home Wiring

[Sapper PE LS]

I just bought a house that has some built in speakers in the kitchen. I traced the wires through the basement and the input is in the den where the end of the wires go into this kind of rectangular shaped black plug. There are four wires going into that plug and of course four terminals that go into whatever device it used to be hooked up to, which makes sense because two wires go to each speaker. I can't post a picture right now, but I'm curious to know something is that type of plug a standard thing for home stereo type systems? I've never seen this type of plug before, but the whole system looks pretty new, like maybe installed within the last five years. I'm going to be rerunning the wire though to a spot in my kitchen where I'll use the wires with a different type of radio / ipod player thing, but it will require the purchase of a new radio / ipod thing because the one I have has built in speakers and I'm wondering if I can just get one that has that type of jack in the back and not have to cut the plug off. Okay, I know that is not extremely easy to understand, so I'll try to post a picture later this evening.

 

[kevo_55]

The wires for speakers should be low voltage so the wiring should be pretty easy.

I believe that you can buy pretty much every type of speaker plug at a good electrical department at your home improvement store. You may need to cut off the type of plug that you don't want and make the connection with the new plug yourself.

How good are you with soldering?

 

[mudpuppy]

To make sure I'm understanding what you want to do--you want to connect your ipod to run the speakers in your kitchen?

If so, your ipod may not be able to put out enough power to run a set of large speakers. You'll probably need an amplifier in between. Unless the speakers already have an amplifier built in--it would help to have the picture you're talking about.

 

[Sapper PE LS]

Soldering skills are poor to slightly worse than amateur. I am pretty sure I could rig something up, but do t want to if I don't have to.

 

[Sapper PE LS]

No, I want to use one of those iHome type devices that you can put your iPod into and wire that iHome unit to the speakers. TheiHome has the built in amp, and it actually looks like the speakers are amplified as well, there is also a volume knob on the wall that the wire runs through. I will take pics tonight and post.

 

[wilheldp_PE]

The easiest way to hook the iHome unit up to the speakers will be with banana plugs or spring clips. You can get wall plates that have either/both of those connection type and easy-to-connect wire terminals on the rear of the wall plate. You should be able to just route the speaker wire to the new location and hook them up to the rear of one of those wall plates. Piece of cake...no soldering required.

 

[Exception Collection]

There's a wall socket/cable outlet at my house where the electrical wiring is A: hooked to the kitchen circuit (socket is on LR side) and B: it's wired so that the cable at least comes down from above, loops through something unknown, and then comes up 5' to the panel. It's the socket most convenient for the TV, and the wiring is so bad that if the microwave and the TV are both running there's a good chance the circuit will flip.

Oh yeah, and it looks like upstairs the previous owner had the wires going to two sockets in separate panels patched so they could power his ceoling-mounted speakers through the wall space.

 

[Supe]

If you're shopping for wall plates and connectors, try Monoprice.com and partsexpress.com.

Waaaaay more options, and a good bit cheaper than HD and Blowes.

 

[Sapper PE LS]

So, new developments on this. I never did get any pictures, but don't think I need them now. I ended up mounting our small tv in the kitchen. My wife likes to watch Good Morning America while doing her morning routine, etc, etc. Anyway, it occured to me that those speakers were in the perfect location to be the speakers for that tv and the volume knob is on the wall. So, four snips with a pair of wire cutters, a couple of twists to connect it to jacks that fit the back of the tv, and voila, tv in the kitchen with volume control knob on the wall and happy wife who can give yogurt and bananas to our daughter while watching Hoda and Kathy Lee.

 

[knight1fox3]

There were (4) 6x9 in-wall speakers mounted with wiring to a central junction wall plate in our living room/kitchen area. I wanted to do something similar to power the speakers but didn't want a full-blown AVR to do it. I found this http://www.amazon.com/Yamaha-CRX-332BL-Micro-Component-Receiver/dp/B005YXXS4I'>bookshelf AVR that fit and worked perfectly. On the plus side, it also had an i-Pod dock and a USB port (for MP3s on USB drives). It also had an auxiliary input that I was able to connect our flat screen to. Pretty much does everything I need it to so the steep price was well worth it IMO. I also just recently connected a powered sub to it's pre-out port. Which is kind of funny, but added much more depth to the sound in the room.

 

[Dexman PE PMP]

Finally got my TV antenna installed in the attic over the weekend. The hardest part was the fact that there was NOTHING for available connections up there. I ended up having to run new wiring and install a splitter in one of the bedrooms. Such a PITA.

Oh, and I really hate blown-in insulation...

 

[knight1fox3]

Finally got my TV antenna installed in the attic over the weekend. The hardest part was the fact that there was NOTHING for available connections up there. I ended up having to run new wiring and install a splitter in one of the bedrooms. Such a PITA. Oh, and I really hate blown-in insulation...

Didn't all your coax. ports get run to a central distribution location (i.e. multi-media drop)? I wouldn't expect any connections to be in the attic. And hence was the case for me too. But all I did then was run the antenna coax cable down through the ceiling and floor (in a closet) to the main input of the media drop. Which distributed the OTA signal all over the house. The only thing I had to do was isolate the outside coax. incoming connection which is what our Time Warner internet signal comes over on. I ran that straight to a dedicated port where I have our router mounted.

 

[Sapper PE LS]

I was up in the attic this weekend and noticed a pretty good setup that the previous owner had done. It's got an inline antenna amp as and splitter. Guy obviously had an antenna up there, but thats gone now. We are getting our cable installed tomorrow, so it will probably just sit there in the attic unused for years to come until they start putting decent programming back on the OTA stations.

 

[Dexman PE PMP]

Finally got my TV antenna installed in the attic over the weekend. The hardest part was the fact that there was NOTHING for available connections up there. I ended up having to run new wiring and install a splitter in one of the bedrooms. Such a PITA. Oh, and I really hate blown-in insulation...

Didn't all your coax. ports get run to a central distribution location (i.e. multi-media drop)? I wouldn't expect any connections to be in the attic. And hence was the case for me too. But all I did then was run the antenna coax cable down through the ceiling and floor (in a closet) to the main input of the media drop. Which distributed the OTA signal all over the house. The only thing I had to do was isolate the outside coax. incoming connection which is what our Time Warner internet signal comes over on. I ran that straight to a dedicated port where I have our router mounted.

We do have the central box, but it's down in the basement. The satelite dish was mounted on the east side of the house (about 9' off the ground), and that cable was run around to the north side (about 3' off the ground) to the Cable TV prewired box.

I took advantage of the fact that each of the 4 upstairs bedrooms are pre-wired with dual coax cables. I tried to pull one back up into the attic, but the cable installer zip-tied the cables together, so I had to run a 3rd coax down the wall to the room's box and install the in-line amplifier and splitter there.

Edit: here's a picture of the back of my house. I put the antenna in the exact opposite corner of the house.

 

[Supe]

I envy the crap out of your sod.

 

[Dexman PE PMP]

I envy the crap out of your sod.

If it makes you feel any better, my dogs envied their crap all over it too...

That pic was from this time last year right after it was installed. It's still in pretty good shape, but I've replaced that maple tree and have had to do several spot repairs from their endless need to dig.

 

[Sapper PE LS]

A good technique to stop dogs from digging in your nice grass is to make a dig zone under some shade where they will prefer to dig as opposed to the yard. They usually dig for a cool spot to lay if it is hot, so what I've always done is leave a small 5'x5' square in an obscure part of the yard that is free of grass and then put a few plants around it to camouflage the holes, making sure it is under a tree or awning and sprinkle some bacon bits or other treats around the area. Sprinkle every day for a week and I bet you don't get your yard dug up anymore.