Wiring Essentials

Good wiring decides whether a LOXONE project runs smoothly for years or keeps you busy with call-backs. There’s more than one right way to wire LOXONE, so this guide focuses on proven best practices.

01Two cables, one color logic

LOXONE uses two cables, and each color has a job. The green Tree Cable connects all Tree devices, such as sensors, actuators and lighting, to the Miniserver. The purple Audio Cable connects all LOXONE Audio devices.

Why the colors? To make wiring as simple as possible:

• Recognizable at a glance: You can tell the cables apart immediately, on site and in the distribution board.
• Colors match the terminals: The wire colors inside match the terminals on every LOXONE product, so even helpers on site can wire them correctly.

02Inside the cables: the wire pairs

Inside the Tree Cable, there are two colors to remember, each paired with white:

• Orange/white is for power: 24 V DC. There are two of these pairs: a thin one for buttons and sensors, and a thick one (1.5 mm²) for higher loads like lighting.
• Green/white is for Tree communication.

The purple Audio Cable has just two pairs: green/white carries the Tree Turbo data, and orange/white supplies the speakers with 24 V. Same logic, same rule: green for data, orange for power.

03Color to color

Every LOXONE product has colored terminals that tell you exactly where each wire goes. The rule is simple: color to color. The green/white pair goes into the green/white terminal, and the orange/white pair into the orange/white terminal.

The same logic applies to every LOXONE product. Once you’ve learned it, you can wire them all.

04Why 24 V?

Electronics run on low DC voltage. That’s why LOXONE generates it centrally, with the Power Supply & Backup in the distribution board, instead of putting a separate power supply in front of every device. That saves power supplies, saves wiring work and lowers standby consumption.

And why 24 rather than 12 volts? With the same current, you get twice the power: 4 A at 12 V gives you 48 W, at 24 V it’s 96 W.

24 V also makes dimming easy. Every LED runs on DC. Converting mains voltage inside each fixture is complex and wastes energy, and that’s why LEDs on conventional dimmers often flicker. With 24 V DC straight from the distribution board, your lights dim smoothly and without flicker.

In short: one central power supply, more power per cable and clean dimming.

05Topology: anything goes, except a ring

Tree wiring gives you full flexibility in the layout. You can wire in a tree, a line, a star or a bus with branches, and you can mix them. The only thing to avoid is a closed ring, because it causes communication failures. We recommend the tree topology.

06Special cases

A few products need more than the Tree Cable:

• Additional mains cables: Products that need a separate power source, for example a wallbox, need a mains voltage cable in addition to the Tree Cable.
• Intercom: The Intercom needs a Power over Ethernet (PoE) connection.
• Wall Display: It uses the Tree Cable, but needs to be connected via Tree Turbo.

07Tree Cable: one cable per room

The most important rule of thumb: plan one cable per 30 m² (300 ft²) and connect all devices in a room to that room’s cable.

• Combine smaller rooms: A toilet or a storage room can share one cable with another room.
• Use more cables for bigger rooms: An open-plan living area may need additional Tree Cables.
• Treat the heating manifold as its own room, with its own Tree Cable.

Plan a buffer: In general, up to 50 products and 500 m (1,600 ft) per Tree Cable are possible. The 500 m apply to the data line: with high-power loads such as Tree lights or dimmers, the possible length is considerably shorter due to voltage drop. We recommend connecting no more than 35 products per cable to start with, to leave room for products your customer may want to add later.

Example: The distribution board with the Miniserver is in the utility room and is the starting point for all cables. It also houses the Power Supply & Backup and should be placed centrally to keep cable runs short.

Roughly one Tree Cable is planned per room, with smaller rooms like bathroom and toilet combined. The heating manifold gets its own Tree Cable. The Wall Display in the living room uses the Tree Cable too, but is connected via Tree Turbo. The shades also get mains voltage cables, drawn in red, in addition to the Tree Cables.

08Audio Cable: one cable per room or zone

The purple Audio Cable follows the same rule of thumb: one cable per room or audio zone. Use the Master-Client technology wherever you can: only the master speaker needs an Audio Cable to the distribution board, and the client speakers are daisy-chained from the master. That saves cable and installation time.

Example: There is a combined audio zone for the kitchen and living room, one for the bathroom and toilet and separate ones for each bedroom. Each zone has one master speaker and, if the size requires, additional client speakers.

Learn more: You’ll find more about audio and the Master-Client technology in the Audioserver documentation.

09Why LOXONE cables?

Staying within the LOXONE product portfolio is the safest and easiest way to build a smart building, and that includes the LOXONE cables for Tree and Audio.

• Easy installation: The dedicated color logic of cables and products is easy to install and helps you delegate tasks to co-workers or subcontractors.
• Less cabling effort overall.
• Flexible layout: When the wiring is done right, you can easily adapt to your customer’s needs at any time, whether later in the project or years from now.

SummaryChecklist

• ☐  Right cables planned for each product, including additional cables if needed?
• ☐  Right layout chosen, with no closed ring?
• ☐  Cable limits respected, voltage drop considered and buffer left for later additions?

A few minutes here saves hours later. Plan it right, and LOXONE gets installed faster than you’re used to.