Hello, First time poster, excuse my lack of detail here.
I'm working on creating a tower mounted digitizer/tuner enclosed in a NEMA box. The box contains the radio, preamps, and a fiber media converter(so i can just run one fiber down the tower), fans, and a custom made power distribution unit that has a 6 pin canon connector input on the box. It functions very much like a PCI-E connector on a graphics card. 3 power cables, 3 ground cables, all 20AWG in the box.
I have a bench DC power supply that maxes out at 15VDC and 48A. I can use this power supply to power my box with no problems with a custom made 3ft long 6 conductor cable (18AWG). I draw approximately 6amps when the unit is functioning fully at 15VDC. (Power distribution can handle 20volts). Box needs at least 13 Volts to function.
My issue is that I'll need a cable run of at most 300ft, avg 150ft, to reach the box when it's on the tower. I've made a 300ft cable with 6 conductors (18AWG) but I cannot get the box to power on. I've verified the voltage at the power distribution unit pins so I know its reaching all the way there. I've tried to take into account the cable loss of around 4 ohms round trip but it still doesnt work. I have higher voltage power supplies that I tested with the box and 300ft cable and they still dont work. One is a 24Volt, 6Amp psu. The other is a 48v 15amp psu.
We are trying to keep the cable small, hence the parallel conductors.
I feel like this is a small issue that I'm overlooking. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.
I'm working on creating a tower mounted digitizer/tuner enclosed in a NEMA box. The box contains the radio, preamps, and a fiber media converter(so i can just run one fiber down the tower), fans, and a custom made power distribution unit that has a 6 pin canon connector input on the box. It functions very much like a PCI-E connector on a graphics card. 3 power cables, 3 ground cables, all 20AWG in the box.
I have a bench DC power supply that maxes out at 15VDC and 48A. I can use this power supply to power my box with no problems with a custom made 3ft long 6 conductor cable (18AWG). I draw approximately 6amps when the unit is functioning fully at 15VDC. (Power distribution can handle 20volts). Box needs at least 13 Volts to function.
My issue is that I'll need a cable run of at most 300ft, avg 150ft, to reach the box when it's on the tower. I've made a 300ft cable with 6 conductors (18AWG) but I cannot get the box to power on. I've verified the voltage at the power distribution unit pins so I know its reaching all the way there. I've tried to take into account the cable loss of around 4 ohms round trip but it still doesnt work. I have higher voltage power supplies that I tested with the box and 300ft cable and they still dont work. One is a 24Volt, 6Amp psu. The other is a 48v 15amp psu.
We are trying to keep the cable small, hence the parallel conductors.
I feel like this is a small issue that I'm overlooking. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.