Pulsar Observatory Build - Electrical and Data Requirements

[DeepSkyMan]

Hey guys, hoping to launch my Observatory build this year (2.7m Pulsar), and looking for some advice on electrical requirements.  Apologies for the brain dump, but when I started typing this up, I just seemed to keep coming up with other questions:-)

My observatory site will require a 20m cable run from the house, which I am hoping will be as a spur off existing circuitry, although still to get my tame electrician to give me the low-down on the best solution. 

Normal approach is to run a sub-surface conduit for both data and electricity supply, however it occurred to me that an alternative approach might be to have above surface conduits running from a supply point at the house to a receiving point at the observatory, somewhat along the lines of caravan hookups at camping sites.  Would be interested to hear from folks on this approach, especially if anyone has gone down this route.  

Assuming we go down the sub-surface route:

1/.  What would be an appropriate depth to lay the power and data conduits?

2/.  Has anybody had data quality issues when running Ethernet in close proximity to a power conduit?  Data medium will be over CAT6, so I’m hoping that the more stringent specifications will be sufficient to remove this as a possible problem.  I’m aware of general protocols, which advise  against laying data cables parallel to power cables for extended lengths.  In the event that this is still an issue what approaches have people taken to providing similar data solutions for their own observatories?

3/.  I’m also interested in future proofing the obsy with regards to power sockets.  Straight up, the following supply requirements spring to mind:

—  Mount

—  Computer

—  Camera

—  Dew control (transformed to 12V DC).  Possible I may continue to use my existing batteries for this purpose.  How have you guys tackled this?

—  Dehumidifier

So I’m thinking 4 double sockets should cater for these and provide me with sufficient expansion for unforeseen circumstance.  Is this sufficient?  Am I missing something?

 What is the maximum advisable current draw?  Intention is to have all supplies run through a fuse box local to the observatory and of course all plugs will utilise standard domestic fuses as well.

With regards to lighting what solutions have you guys gone with?  I was thinking about just using a single standard red outdoor light, but it occurred to me that shadows might be an issue and so got to thinking about a surround lighting approach, perhaps using something similar to this:

https://hartingtonheath.com/product/i-lumos-10-x-20mm-rgb-led-flexible-waterproof-neon-strip-light/

On the possibility of an entirely WIFI based approach to data.  Is this realistic?  This would likely require booster units for the existing house WIFI, however I’m thinking that even then, data transfer rates for imaging might be an issue if I graduate to remote operation.

Kind Regards

Paul.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 4, 2021 by DeepSkyMan

[JayStar]

Hi, very exciting Paul...

I have had no problems at all running power cable and cat6 cable 20m from my house. Never dropped once in the years since I had my observatory installed (well actually I installed it myself and it was a nightmare because the POD wall would not fit exactly right - should be much easier with a Pulsar).  My cables run along my fence and then down at the back of the garden and back to the Obsy.  Not in the ground at all and all installed by a sparky and within regs.

In terms of power sockets, I guess you can never have enough.. I actually had 5 double sockets installed... but in truth I only use 5 of the 10 sockets... That is because my 12v 30A supply provides all the power to the mount and equipment.  The other 4 sockets run a dehumidifier, a monitor, a laptop when I am in there and a thermostatic heater which kicks in if the temp drops to below 3 degrees C.  I installed those weather proof sockets (just in case of leaks)... non standard plugs (i.e. plug/adapter combos) won't fit! (not a major problem because you can always change them, but still, it's a pain).  Worth thinking about when you choose the sockets.

I had a fuse box installed inside the Observatory. 

Again - think about getting a 12v power supply that provides 30A.. more than enough to power all the equipment. Takes up just 1 AC plug and then can be connected to a power console.  My 12v supply is connected to a Kendrick Power Panel which has all the outputs needed for dew control , motor focusers, 8v converter for DSLR's, mount etc.. even things like USB hubs and 12v mini Pc's.

I had my electrician install 2 lights with switches - one red and one white.  They are the industrial looking ones , like you get on boats I guess.

I would definitely go with cabled as opposed to Wifi ... Wifi I am sure will be fine overall  (most of the time) but if your obs is 30m away from the house you are just creating a new problem to solve an existing one of running the cable (which you have to do anyway for power).

Some info about my process here: Decking and SkyShed Pod - Page 2 - DIY Observatories - Stargazers Lounge

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 4, 2021 by JayStar

[DeepSkyMan]

1 hour ago, JayStar said:

Hi, very exciting Paul...

I have had no problems at all running power cable and cat6 cable 20m from my house. Never dropped once in the years since I had my observatory installed (well actually I installed it myself and it was a nightmare because the POD wall would not fit exactly right - should be much easier with a Pulsar).  My cables run along my fence and then down at the back of the garden and back to the Obsy.  Not in the ground at all and all installed by a sparky and within regs.

In terms of power sockets, I guess you can never have enough.. I actually had 5 double sockets installed... but in truth I only use 5 of the 10 sockets... That is because my 12v 30A supply provides all the power to the mount and equipment.  The other 4 sockets run a dehumidifier, a monitor, a laptop when I am in there and a thermostatic heater which kicks in if the temp drops to below 3 degrees C.  I installed those weather proof sockets (just in case of leaks)... non standard plugs (i.e. plug/adapter combos) won't fit! (not a major problem because you can always change them, but still, it's a pain).  Worth thinking about when you choose the sockets.

I had a fuse box installed inside the Observatory. 

Again - think about getting a 12v power supply that provides 30A.. more than enough to power all the equipment. Takes up just 1 AC plug and then can be connected to a power console.  My 12v supply is connected to a Kendrick Power Panel which has all the outputs needed for dew control , motor focusers, 8v converter for DSLR's, mount etc.. even things like USB hubs and 12v mini Pc's.

I had my electrician install 2 lights with switches - one red and one white.  They are the industrial looking ones , like you get on boats I guess.

I would definitely go with cabled as opposed to Wifi ... Wifi I am sure will be fine overall  (most of the time) but if your obs is 30m away from the house you are just creating a new problem to solve an existing one of running the cable (which you have to do anyway for power).

Some info about my process here: Decking and SkyShed Pod - Page 2 - DIY Observatories - Stargazers Lounge

 

 

 

 

 

JayStar, how did you mount the sockets and lights inside the SkyPod?  Meant to include this in the original post, but slipped my mind.  Have you some photos of your obsy interior?  I’m trying to get a feel for how best to lay things out in the Pulsar unit.  Since the walls are just fibreglass, I can’t see how they could be mounted on the walls, which means I suppose rigging some sort of frame on the flower for all the electrical units.  I intend to have a single accessory bay, so perhaps this space might be used in some way, or alternatively mount the sockets on the floor around the periphery of the obsy walls.

Edited January 4, 2021 by DeepSkyMan

[JayStar]

My sockets are mounted directly on the walls - there are plenty of people who have mounted sockets on the Pulsar wall directly... by drilling through.  In fact, I believe the install of the dome rotation unit involves drilling.

Alternatively you could put them on the floor in a weather proof unit.

Pics of my build in the link (post above)- last page..sockets are basically on the walls between the bays., like so...

 

Edited January 5, 2021 by JayStar

[Hallingskies]

I used fibreglass car body repair filler to glue the socket back boxes and cable duct clips directly to the walls.  No drilling.  Works fine.

[old_eyes]

My observatory is 75 metres from the house (well the house wall nearest a consumer unit). I had a spur taken from that consumer unit to an external junction box and had a waterproof double socket unit installed for gardening bits and pieces. Then from the junction box armoured cable in a trench buried 18" deep embedded in sand with warning tape over it. On top of that I ran a conduit with Cat5 ethernet cable in it. Then backfilled. I hired a power trencher and a man to operate it for half a day to dig the thrench. It would have been desperate by hand! Mini consumer unit in the observatory. Then three double sockets. Should have put more in, but you never get things right. We do get brief power cuts in this rural area, so I run anything sensitive off a UPS which has 8 sockets anyway. I ended up using 1 socket for an internal mains light in the warm room, 1 for the UPS, 1 just to monitor for power cuts (using a mains relay in a box ) so that in an automated future I can shut everything down safely if the mains fails and before the UPS battery is exhausted. 1 for a powerline ethernet adapter (see below), and 1 socket is used occasionally for an externally mounted waterproof double socket for gardening partner who thought me providing power only to my obsy was unfair.

I laid the cable. Electrician installed sockets, consumer unit and junction boxes, connected everything up and tested it properly.

It has worked perfectly for 18 months now.

I have tested the ethernet cable, but tend not to use it for complicated reasons to do with the LAN in my weirdly shaped house. Because I have metre thick stone walls in places, I use powerline ethernet in the house. Just as a test I plugged a spare module into a socket in the obsy, and got an instant solid connection. So that is what I use all the time. I know many people despise them and claim they cause interference, but I cannot pick up any and I am so far away from neighbours that it would not affect them.

Stuff in the warm room is mains, stuff in the telescope room is strictly 12V, so I use a Nevada 12V 30A supply to drive the telescope room. It has worked fine so far. I used pretty hefty cable from the warm room power supply to the pier distribution point to avoid voltage drop. I get a solid 13.7V at the pier with everything running, and the whole rig is pulling about 4A.

I considered a Pulsar dome myself, and one tip that a forum member gave me (can't remember who) is to make sure your mains stuff in the dome is well protected from condensation. Suggested standing off the mains board from the wall to stop condensation running down, and some kind of hat to protect from any drips.

[DeepSkyMan]

Ok...  so some great feedback so far guys, much appreciated.  However as so often happens, more knowledge has the habit of raising yet more questions.  What started of as a relatively simple ‘let’s build an observatory’ approach is rapidly growing arms and legs🙂

1/. I have a thorny little issue with regards to multiple voltage requirements.  My remote control computer is an Intel NUC, that runs off 19VDC, all my other gear, dew control, camera and mount run off 12VDC.  I would like to run a single cable from a wall unit which will hold the mini consumer unit, and perhaps UPS (similar to Old_eyes approach), to the pier and from there have a distribution unit to service all the different gear.  The Intel NUC will be situated on the pier.  Any suggestions folks as to how best to tackle this?

2/. There is also the fact that all my cabling and interfaces are currently geared up for standard field operations:

—. Dew control has the std cigar lighter type power plug (Kendrick dual channel controller)

—. Camera has both a cigar lighter and an Anderson PowerPole connection option

—. Mount (Vixen Sphinx) has a cigar lighter connection

I would like to standardise on a single interface connector, preferably something like the Anderson Powerpoles, the cigar lighter connectors have never filled me with much confidence.  As I am not really one for electrical DIY, this implies that I will need to look for an off the shelf solution as a distribution box, is there such a beast out there?  What alternatives have you guys used foryour power connections?

Kind Regards

Paul.

 

[discardedastro]

On 04/01/2021 at 20:59, DeepSkyMan said:

 

1/.  What would be an appropriate depth to lay the power and data conduits?

2/.  Has anybody had data quality issues when running Ethernet in close proximity to a power conduit?  Data medium will be over CAT6, so I’m hoping that the more stringent specifications will be sufficient to remove this as a possible problem.  I’m aware of general protocols, which advise  against laying data cables parallel to power cables for extended lengths.  In the event that this is still an issue what approaches have people taken to providing similar data solutions for their own observatories?

Over short runs you'll be fine - if you want to be paranoid use Cat6A and attach the screen to a good ground, or use fibre and media converters. Practically speaking on 20-30m it's not going to be an issue. 6 versus 5e won't make any difference - 5e and 6 are identically shielded/screened, and 6A is too for the purposes of your install.

Fibre and media converters is definitely the best answer because there's no metallic path to the house, but adds £80 in bits quite easily. At 30-50m you can just buy off-the-shelf patch cables, though, so actually quite cheap overall - a 30m duplex LC singlemode cable is only going to set you back £10, transceivers £5 an end, and some cheap converter boxes that connect your Ethernet cable to a fibre transceiver can be had for <£40 an end.

Don't do Powerline 🙂 you'll annoy every ham radio enthusiast in a mile if nothing else.

Depth-wise, I'd aim for >30cm depth. If you're doing conduit (and you should) then use something with a smooth interior and seal it once you've laid the cables and a draw rope in to prevent water ingress (Filoseal or similar gunk that's re-enterable - silicone sealant may do in a pinch, sand the conduit interior for adhesion).

At 20-30m I'd go for a reasonably chunky mains cable to make sure you can pull 10-16A with little voltage drop - that'll cover you for practically everything quite comfortably. 30A at 12V is circa 2A at 230V, so would give you plenty of headroom for dehumidifiers, motors etc and ensure your input voltages for 230V kit stays nice and high. 6mm2 should be plenty but 2.5mm2 would be okay in a pinch.

UPS is definitely a good plan regardless of how you get power into the site - don't forget your UPS will need enough current to recharge while also running all your kit after powercuts, so dimension your incoming supply 50% above your baseline. If you're not certain on waterproofing of the site then a covered plastic box with holes cut in the side or commercial options like the Dribox series would do well for keeping everything dry - they have some big ones which will fit something like an Eaton Ellipse or similar.

[old_eyes]

31 minutes ago, DeepSkyMan said:

1/. I have a thorny little issue with regards to multiple voltage requirements.  My remote control computer is an Intel NUC, that runs off 19VDC, all my other gear, dew control, camera and mount run off 12VDC.  I would like to run a single cable from a wall unit which will hold the mini consumer unit, and perhaps UPS (similar to Old_eyes approach), to the pier and from there have a distribution unit to service all the different gear.  The Intel NUC will be situated on the pier.  Any suggestions folks as to how best to tackle this?

My pier computer is a lenovo mini that runs off a 20V supply (I think). I found an adapter that is for running a lenovo laptop from a 12V cigar lighter connector  in a car. I just connected that to the 12V supply and away we went. I don't know what is in the little gadget, but presumably a voltage up-converter.

[discardedastro]

Just now, old_eyes said:

My pier computer is a lenovo mini that runs off a 20V supply (I think). I found an adapter that is for running a lenovo laptop from a 12V cigar lighter connector  in a car. I just connected that to the 12V supply and away we went. I don't know what is in the little gadget, but presumably a voltage up-converter.

It'll be a buck-boost converter. I'd stick to switched-mode supplies fed from mains if you've got mains handy - it'll be cleaner output for the PC - but decent quality buck-boost converters with plenty of output capacitance definitely exist. That or use a Raspberry Pi or similar 5V PC if you're using a Linux stack like KStars/Ekos - not so handy if you need Windows on the pier/scope though, but 5V is much easier to produce well than 20V!

[old_eyes]

3 minutes ago, discardedastro said:

It'll be a buck-boost converter. I'd stick to switched-mode supplies fed from mains if you've got mains handy - it'll be cleaner output for the PC - but decent quality buck-boost converters with plenty of output capacitance definitely exist. That or use a Raspberry Pi or similar 5V PC if you're using a Linux stack like KStars/Ekos - not so handy if you need Windows on the pier/scope though, but 5V is much easier to produce well than 20V!

All I can say is that the lenovo has been perfectly happy for the last 12 months. But sure many people work very successfully with Raspberry Pi's. I considered that route, but felt I lacked the skills. A ready made box for me. Life is complicated enough as it is 🙂

[discardedastro]

23 minutes ago, old_eyes said:

All I can say is that the lenovo has been perfectly happy for the last 12 months. But sure many people work very successfully with Raspberry Pi's. I considered that route, but felt I lacked the skills. A ready made box for me. Life is complicated enough as it is 🙂

That's fair! 🙂 the NUCs are great little boxes. You can get Mini-ITX format machines which will take 12V as their input and run Windows but a bit more work.

[Nigella Bryant]

I laid two underground armoured cable and cat6 cable from the house to my pulsar dome. You can never have enough sockets in the dome. I've six on the main wall and six on the pier. I use them all. 

[malc-c]

Hi Paul,

My advice would be to have a couple of electricians give you a quote (when covid restrictions permit) for running any main power to the observatory.  There are certain standards that may need to be followed and the cable may need terminating on its own RCD/ESD at the consumer unit.  Whilst most DIY's would probably use the armoured cable like an external extension cable and lay it on top of the ground it might not be acceptable in the eyes of your household insurance company.   The Armoured cable will need terminating in a suitable IP66 rated box at either end, and then you can run whatever spurs / ring you want.  Unless you are running a few 3kw heaters, normal 2.5mm cross section armoured should be fine.  Again, they would be best place to confirm what you can and cannot do legally / or safely.

You can get external CAT6 cable for network, which can be run above ground.  If you intend to bury it then again, seek advice as there might well be certain requirements such as laying plastic tape identifying what cables are below.  It's not really for you, more for the next person who owns the house and may have builders in... the last thing they want it to come across a cable that they have no idea what it is. 

It's also worth checking out your local planning regulations are.  There are certain regulations regarding the maximum height of an outbuilding within XX meters of a boundary fence etc.  It's quite possible that the observatory doesn't comply or your location isn't applicable, and I'm sure Pulsar will advise you if any of their products require planning permission for a given location. 

 

[DeepSkyMan]

1 hour ago, malc-c said:

Hi Paul,

My advice would be to have a couple of electricians give you a quote (when covid restrictions permit) for running any main power to the observatory.  There are certain standards that may need to be followed and the cable may need terminating on its own RCD/ESD at the consumer unit.  Whilst most DIY's would probably use the armoured cable like an external extension cable and lay it on top of the ground it might not be acceptable in the eyes of your household insurance company.   The Armoured cable will need terminating in a suitable IP66 rated box at either end, and then you can run whatever spurs / ring you want.  Unless you are running a few 3kw heaters, normal 2.5mm cross section armoured should be fine.  Again, they would be best place to confirm what you can and cannot do legally / or safely.

You can get external CAT6 cable for network, which can be run above ground.  If you intend to bury it then again, seek advice as there might well be certain requirements such as laying plastic tape identifying what cables are below.  It's not really for you, more for the next person who owns the house and may have builders in... the last thing they want it to come across a cable that they have no idea what it is. 

It's also worth checking out your local planning regulations are.  There are certain regulations regarding the maximum height of an outbuilding within XX meters of a boundary fence etc.  It's quite possible that the observatory doesn't comply or your location isn't applicable, and I'm sure Pulsar will advise you if any of their products require planning permission for a given location. 

 

Thanks for your feedback Malcolm.  I’m not one for DIY, so absolutely I will be getting the electrics done by a qualified electrician.  As for planning permission my understanding is that this really only becomes a requirement if the construction is adjoined to an existing structure or it exceeds certain height restrictions, and the impression given on the Pulsar web-site is that permission is generally not required for their product,  however I take your point, probably best to have all the Ts crossed and the Is dotted 🙂

 

Edited January 7, 2021 by DeepSkyMan

[malc-c]

1 hour ago, DeepSkyMan said:

Thanks for your feedback Malcolm.  I’m not one for DIY, so absolutely I will be getting the electrics done by a qualified electrician.  As for planning permission my understanding is that this really only becomes a requirement if the construction is adjoined to an existing structure or it exceeds certain height restrictions, and the impression given on the Pulsar web-site is that permission is generally not required for their product,  however I take your point, probably best to have all the Ts crossed and the Is dotted 🙂

 

I'm no expert, but it's something like 2m to the eves and 2.5m to the ridge if within 2m of a boundary such as a fence - I doubt it will be a problem with the Pulsar as I'm sure they wouldn't build something that would (in a normal installation) breach planning regs as it would restrict sales.  

[JayStar]

Do get planning permission IF you are within 2m of the boundary.

I had to go through it and I am glad I did.  I did get a challenge almost a year after I built the obs, which quickly went away as I had all the planning permissions signed sealed and delivered.

If you are more than 2m from the boundary you should be fine as long as the eves (where the dome roof starts) is less than 2.5m from ground level (it is on all Pulsars) AND the top of the dome is less than 4m from the ground (I think).. again, I don't think any Pulsar dome is that high.... unless of course you are on a raised platform.

 

 

Edited January 16, 2021 by JayStar

[JayStar]

On 07/01/2021 at 00:33, Nigella Bryant said:

I laid two underground armoured cable and cat6 cable from the house to my pulsar dome. You can never have enough sockets in the dome. I've six on the main wall and six on the pier. I use them all. 

Hey - what is that around the pier that is holding the board for the sockets?  Looks useful for pier mounting equipment...

 

[Nigella Bryant]

28 minutes ago, JayStar said:

Hey - what is that around the pier that is holding the board for the sockets?  Looks useful for pier mounting equipment...

 

Just large cable ties JayStar. 

[malc-c]

Current regulations for outbuildings, which an observatory is classified as:

Quote

Outbuildings are considered to be permitted development, not needing planning permission, subject to the following limits and conditions:

• *  No outbuilding on land forward of a wall forming the principal elevation.
• *  Outbuildings and garages to be single storey with maximum eaves height of 2.5 metres and maximum overall height of four metres with a dual pitched roof or three metres for any other roof.
• *  Maximum height of 2.5 metres in the case of a building, enclosure or container within two metres of a boundary of the curtilage of the dwellinghouse.
• *  No verandas, balconies or raised platforms (a platform must not exceed 0.3 metres in height)
• *  No more than half the area of land around the "original house"* would be covered by additions or other buildings.
• *  In National Parks, the Broads, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and World Heritage Sites the maximum area to be covered by buildings, enclosures, containers and pools more than 20 metres from the house to be limited to 10 square metres.
• *  On designated land* buildings, enclosures, containers and pools at the side of properties will require planning permission.
• *  Within the curtilage of listed buildings any outbuilding will require planning permission.

The term "original house" means the house as it was first built or as it stood on 1 July 1948 (if it was built before that date). Although you may not have built an extension to the house, a previous owner may have done so.

Designated land includes national parks and the Broads, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, conservation areas and World Heritage Sites.

 

 

The 4m height is if the structure is more than 2m from a boundary, if it's less then the max height is 2.5m

Either way, it's worth contacting your local council to enquire.  Like I said before, I am sure Pulsar would make their domes to comply with these regulations, however no two installations will be the same, such as raised platforms etc

 

Edited January 16, 2021 by malc-c

[DeepSkyMan]

50 minutes ago, malc-c said:

Current regulations for outbuildings, which an observatory is classified as:

That’s very useful Malc, seems my planned build conforms to all these requirements😃

[DeepSkyMan]

Ok, so having read up on data cabling, and considering that I will laying about 30m of data cable in-line with my power cable, I’m thinking that my best option is outdoor rated CAT6/6A solid F/FTP to minimise the possibility of EM interference.  

A minor wrinkle in the decision making concerns the bending radius of solid CAT6 in the context of the observatory build.  My intention is to run the data cable up through the centre of the observatory and into the pier, which means that it will need to go through a 90 degree change from horizontal to vertical, my concern is that the solid construction might not cope with this and that consequently stranded might be better.  On the flip side, solid cable being less flexible should be easier to run through the conduit.

Can anybody recommend a good cabling supplier?

 

Kind Regards

Paul.

 

 

 

 

[malc-c]

If it helps, the run from my router to the observatory uses standard cat 5 cable with a cable length around 55-60 feet.  It runs through the wall, up and over a gate, then along the bottom of a fence before spanning the 18" to the observatory,  where it passed through the side wall and gets plugged straight into the NIC card.  It's not in any ducting, just clipped using normal cleats or cable staples.  In the 8 years it's been installed I've never had a network issue related to the cable.  No loss of signal, deterioration or degradation of the cable and as all you are doing os remote desktopping into the observatory PC to kick things off and saving images to the remote PCs hard drive, there is very little data transmission.  I've even had it save the raw subs to a network share on a networked hard drive ( 2TB SATA drive in a caddy connected via USB to the rear "server" port on the router) and not experienced any issues - The network is a standard 1Gb speed.  IMO there is no real need to look at solid core cat6 for such projects, I doubt that you would make full use of the rated data transmission speeds cat6 solid core offers.    

Edited January 18, 2021 by malc-c

[Bukko]

On 16/01/2021 at 17:34, DeepSkyMan said:

Ok, so having read up on data cabling, and considering that I will laying about 30m of data cable in-line with my power cable, I’m thinking that my best option is outdoor rated CAT6/6A solid F/FTP to minimise the possibility of EM interference.  

A minor wrinkle in the decision making concerns the bending radius of solid CAT6 in the context of the observatory build.  My intention is to run the data cable up through the centre of the observatory and into the pier, which means that it will need to go through a 90 degree change from horizontal to vertical, my concern is that the solid construction might not cope with this and that consequently stranded might be better.  On the flip side, solid cable being less flexible should be easier to run through the conduit.

Can anybody recommend a good cabling supplier?

 

Kind Regards

Paul.

 

 

 

 

Hi Paul,

Just a few thoughts...

Having a single trench is OK, I assume you will have a separate conduit for the power and signal cables?

 I assume the conduit would be a coil? Is so, it should have a draw wire running through it, so all you need to do is securely attach the cable to the wire and pull. It might be neccessary for someone to also push at the other end, if it gets tight... If you are using straight lengths, then push some wire ahead as you join them together.

It would also be a good idea to separate the two conduits as much as you can in the trench. Anything is better than nothing.

If you use armoured cable, ground the armour and it will act like a faraday cage and reduce interference.

And solid strand Ethernet cable can easily be bent pretty tightly. I would not keep tightly bending and straightening it more than neccessary, but making a 90 degree bend should not be much of a problem.

Good luck.

Gordon.

[M40]

On 16/01/2021 at 17:34, DeepSkyMan said:

Ok, so having read up on data cabling, and considering that I will laying about 30m of data cable in-line with my power cable, I’m thinking that my best option is outdoor rated CAT6/6A solid F/FTP to minimise the possibility of EM interference. 

Can I suggest that you use a duct grade cat5e. The outer jacket is far stronger, it has a suitable jacket voltage rating to allow you to run it in a flex or solid conduit alongside a power cable, will not be concerned with bending radius, is good for about 500M so 30M is not a challenge and just to put ice cream on the top, it's far easier to make off than cat6. I would also go for a 4mm SWA from it's own 25A RCBO. I wouldn't install 2.5mm (max distance is about 31M).  Enjoy.