Tips on Cat6+PoE wiring for Aeotec Multisensor 6

I posted last year with some questions about the best Indigo-compatible motion sensor in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=152&t=17320

Now I wanted to share some tips about how I wired the interior of my house to use Indigo and the Aeotec Multisensor 6. This is a new construction project, with a bit of existing house modification, so the walls and ceilings were already open. The reason I did it this way is that after 7+ years of using Indigo motion sensors, I'm tired of replacing batteries! And the Insteon sensors seem to be far less configurable compared with the Multisensor.

Insteon does have a new motion sensor that can be hardwired, but it's (a) lacking a recessor kit so needs to be surface-mounted, and (b) was not available a month or so ago when I purchased everything; here's a link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/B06XY58C52

The steps:

1. Draw wiring diagram overlaid on house floorplan, with Cat6 going to locations of the Multisensors. Everything terminates in the mechanical room--a large closet devoted to this purpose that's centrally located. Leave excess Cat6 and make sure it's not covered up during drywall. A long nail for this purpose seems to work well.

2. Once drywall is done and painting is complete, bore holes in walls or ceiling for the Aeotec "DSE010 Multisensor 6 Recessor" kit. The kit makes things look a lot better for a hardwired installation. Otherwise you have wires hanging out of the walls.

3. Terminate the Cat6 and attach a PoE to female 5V USB converter to each location. I used this one by Wasserstein, which looks large but is small enough to fit through the holes bored for the recessor kit: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NA ... UTF8&psc=1 Here's a photo of what it looks like before being stuffed inside the ceiling cavity: https://goo.gl/photos/veaz6ApKFTJHKRaH8

4. Plug the Multisensor's male USB output into the female USB converter and wiggle the recessor kit into the wall or ceiling. If you're not careful (I speak from experience) you may need to do some drywall patching and painting. Here are some photos after doing some painting touchups, so the Multisensor is hanging from painter's tape: https://goo.gl/photos/kVDubbvajGWw7Hsj8 https://goo.gl/photos/godKbGjYARdsurTDA

5. Connect the Cat6 ends at the home run location to the PoE injector. I used this one by WiFi-Texas with PoE ports that are always-on: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BI ... UTF8&psc=1

6. This is what the final installation looks like: https://goo.gl/photos/pAQ9jdgZJku4G9Pr8

Some other tips: I made the mistake of locating most of the Multisensors in the wall when I planned on surface-mounting them early on. But then I realized flush-mounting via the recessor kit makes more sense, and for that ceilings look better. But by then it was too late to move things, so most of my Multisensors ended up in the walls instead of in the ceilings.

I'm just starting to add the sensors to Indigo now so don't have everything up and running yet. But the initial Multisensor is working via the first Cat6 cable I lit up as a test, and I'm hoping the rest of the sensors have power as well! I haven't installed the exterior Multisensors so don't have any experience to report there yet. I hope this helps in the form of Insteon/Multisensor tips...

Nice tips, thanks for the write up!


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Hi dbm, thx for posting - I also plan to run wiring for a few Aeotec Multisensor 6 sensors in my attic. Same reason, they look cleaner, no replacing batteries and you get more data from the Aeotec Multisensor 6 sensor.

I was planning to just run a 5vdc distribution system - using something like the components below and some cheap 2 conductor copper wire. I was wondering if there was a reason you went with POE. Do you have a plan to use the networking capabilities for something or did you have most of the HW / cable already.

Cost for a 5vdc system would be under 30 dollars so I wanted to find out why you decided to go with your design vice something less expensive since the Aeotec Multisensor 6 sensors communicate via Z-Wave and only require power to work?

I was planning to just run a 5vdc distribution system - using something like the components below and some cheap 2 conductor copper wire. I was wondering if there was a reason you went with POE. Do you have a plan to use the networking capabilities for something or did you have most of the HW / cable already.

POE injectors typically use 48 volts and the POE to 5VDC convertors down-convert 48 volts, less the resistive loss of the CAT5 or CAT6 wiring. If you try to distribute 5VDC, you will most likely have an unacceptable voltage drop in the wiring and you will essentially lose regulation of the voltage, since the regulation will only occur at the output terminals of the power supply. The other alternative is to use a power supply with remote voltage sensing, but that would require a separate power supply at each point of use as well as needed 4 wires (2 for power and 2 for remote sensing), so it's not going to save much and most likely will cost more. POE is reliable and relatively inexpensive.

I use POE injectors for any 5VDC or 12VDC remotely power devices and they are one of the best ways to avoid having to use local AC power or batteries.

I was planning to keep all the wire runs the same length, even if that meant some extra wire coiled up at some sensor locations. 50 ft of 18 gauge wire is only about ~0.3 ohms (I think).

Since all the runs are the same length the voltage adjustment on the PS can be used to bring all line voltages up to compensate for the resistance loss, which, I don't think will be that much.

Let me know if you think that would have any issues - I mess around with a bunch of stuff but I'm not a card carrying engineer.

Thanks for the feedback... and ideas

I suspect that the resistive losses for a multisensor 6 are going to be pretty negligible; I was going to try to use one as a relay between a barn and house that were about 150 yards apart by putting it in a box on a fencepost halfway between the two buildings and hooking it up to one of the solar rechargable USB power packs; but that failed because the current draw was so low that the USB charger pack kept shutting down; so I got a 6 volt sealed 4 amphour gelcell and a cigarette lighter to USB adaptor and it's been running for over a week so far... I bet the LED in the usb plug in is eating more power than the Aeotec, and once the 4 watt 6v solar panel I have on order for the battery comes in, I suspect it will be easily be able to keep up with the trickle of power that the sensor is drawing.

norcoscia: Howdy! It's a fair question.

I opted for Cat6 for a few reasons: first, so I had some extra wires if necessary (for instance, for window or door alarm contacts). Second, for future-proofing: maybe the next generation of sensors will run over Ethernet or require PoE--better not to rip the walls open. Third, I had our general contractor run Cat6 cables, and he was already comfortable with Cat6 wiring. Fourth, it's easy to terminate cleanly in the mechanical room where the PoE injector lives in a rack.

Compared to the cost of home construction, Cat6 isn't that expensive. Monoprice sells 1,000 feet for $170. I view it as cheap insurance. But I express no opinion about whether it makes sense for anyone else!

OK, I understand now - makes sense to do a clean neat install especially if the contractor was knowledgeable about running ethernet. When I finally do my install I'll post some photos - look for the one with a leg sticking through the ceiling

I've read reviews that dse010 mount recess is poor quality , non matching colour and expensive for what it is . Has no one made one or used something better ?