RJ45 and power cable in an inverter panel

[endau02 0]

Good day folks, I met a difficulty in routing the wires in an inverter panel. Lets say an example like Allen Bradley's PowerFlex (feeding a small capacity motor, say 2hp) where the power cable and the ethernet RJ45 both enter the inverter from the bottom. Is there any way for me to separate the power cable and RJ45, though so far we dont run into any problem when we run both power and RJ45 parallel? We have not install bigger inverter where the noise from the power cable would corrupt the communication. Thank you :)

[drforsythe 15]

When I use a drive with ethernet, I just try to separate the cables as much as I can in the control enclosure. There isn't much you can do when it comes to the point of entry on the drive, though. You should be able to get at least 2-3 inches of separation there as well. That should be adequate to reduce or eliminate induced noise on the ethernet cable. The best recommendation I can make is to use shielded ethernet cable, not a "typical" office ethernet cable if you have noise issues. Simple routing of cables should be good enough, though.

[endau02 0]

Yes, I agree with you. 2-3" is very likely. Sometimes I can only have 1" the most. So far we use only the shielded ethernet cable. Some technicians find it very hard to crimp them, lol. And we dont have any issues with noise. Do you place the ethernet cable and power cable in the same trunking? Or rather is there any standard (allows or against) it? So far, we place them in the same trunking and they work. I know this is just marginally reasonable, worried that there are standards forbid it (placing ethernet and power cable in the same trunking).

[drforsythe 15]

I run the cables separate as a best practice when possible. It is not a good idea from a theoretical standpoint to run the high power cables in the same run as the signaling and low voltage signals. However, I am not aware of a standard that requires it. If I am wrong, maybe someone will present us with the specific code.

[gleblanc 1]

Are you using shielded terminations with your cable? I have a hard time seeing any benefit to the shielded Cat 5e/Cat 6e cable if you're not using shielded terminations. At the plant they ran shielded from our patch panels to the drops on the floor originally, but lately we have been running un-shielded in conduit and haven't had any interference issues (knock on wood). What brand/type of shielded connectors are you using?