Coaxial Powering - Overview

Power blocks, Cables, Splitters, and power inserters are the only devices that can be placed during the powering design mode. Any of these devices can be selected for placement during powering design, or can be 'inserted' into existing design, after the Coax network is completed. They will be selected from the Coax equipment toolbar just like any other device used in Coax design. To begin powering design select the powering command from the Placement section dropdown:

By selecting the powering command, the user can place power supplies and power jumpers/cords (cable) and splitters to be used for connecting the devices which contain power ports. The Coax software detects whether a splitter is placed during powering design mode (as opposed to Coax design mode) and will consider any splitter placed during powering mode as a power splitter.

Note: Any device that will be connected to a power cable (other than a power splitter) must be configured to use a power port—this is done in the Coax spec file. Power jumpers can be linked to any device that contains a power port (Amplifiers, Taps, or Inserters) or power splitters.

Tip: When routing a power cord from a supply location that is located several (or many) spans away from the insertion device, and the user needs to include some additional cable distance (i.e. to account for the power cord which runs from a supply cabinet up to the actual strand location on the pole…sometimes 20’ or more from the cabinet), add that footage to the ‘initial’ span footage, and key-in this initial footage. All additional spans in this power cord routing can be selected in the same manner that coax design is routed—by simply clicking on each strand or trench footage.

From the Placement section dropdown, the Power Supply Boundary command is used to place new or modify existing Power Supply Boundaries. The boundary should include all Coax design and devices, including all inserters, splitters, jumpers, and a single power supply that will be used to power all design within the boundary.

If power supply boundaries are preferred, rather than power blocks, select:

The final step of coaxial powering includes the actual voltage and current calculations of all the coaxial devices and updating the Amp blocks and supply block information from those calculations. This is accomplished using the Process Powering command from the Coax tab:

This command should not be executed until all powering elements have been placed in the design-including all power blocks (or power boundary), inserters, splitters, power cables, and the power supply itself. When Process Powering is selected, the user will be asked to click on the power supply or boundary to be processed, rename or accept the name of that power supply, and then click OK. This will begin the powering and calculation mode of the selected power supply. When finished, there will be a highlighted route showing where the power calculations occurred.

Note: When using a supply boundary to define the powering area – select the supply boundary to be processed first and then select the Power Supply to start the powering process.

Note: ‘Clear Highlight’ option is used to remove the highlighted lines after processing powering.

There will also be a powering report displayed that will provide voltage and amp draw, resistance, power direction, and success or failure status on every active that was powered. The column headers and the information they provide are defined below:

Index: Mslink
Device: Model Name (Amps and Supplies also show the user defined name)
Powcnt: Power House Count
Single_Curr: Current Draw of the device itself during current session
Resistance: calculated at this device à cable model Ohms (per 1000 units) multiplied by distance
Cal_Curr: Actual Current Draw at device during current session
Current: Original Current when command started
Cal_Volt: Actual Voltage at device calculated during current session
Voltage: Original Voltage when command started
Cal_PS_Dir: PS direction as determined during current session
PS_Dir: Original PS Direction when command started
Side: Upstream or Downstream
Status: Passed, Failed or Caution

Note: The powering results do not become permanent in the database until the ‘Apply’ button is clicked.

Highlighting any device in the 'Tree View' in the left hand pane, will display that device and any 'children' devices downstream from that device, in the right hand pane.

Highlighting any device in the right hand pane, and then right clicking it will provide options for locating that device in the tree, locating it on your map, or copying the report information for all highlighted devices to paste in a text or spreadsheet document.

Note: Highlighting any device in the left hand pane, and then right clicking it will provide the option of showing only the ‘children’ information for that device in the right hand information pane.

If it is desired to obtain a complete report on the entire powering process, this can be done by right clicking any cell in the right hand pane and selecting the 'Save As…' option-the entire power report can be saved in a text file or in a 'comma separated values' file:

After the powering has been processed and applied, the highlighted powering trace can be removed by selecting the 'Clear Highlight' option on the menu:

The ‘Change Power Count %’ command is a method of reducing the current draw requirements when using power passing taps. The Power Count number is adjusted based on the percentage entered. Use the following steps to utilize this function:

From the Utilities section of the Coax tab, select Change Power Count %:
Enter a percentage to reduce the current draw requirements-i.e. if you enter 50 in the key-in window, this will reduce the power requirements for the taps in your design for this area to 50% of the total house count.
Define a shape for the PowCnt % reduction to be in effect.
Select OK (after the defined area for powering reduction is processed) and then continue powering.