I now have enough RJ45s (ethernet cables) with broken connectors to consider buying a tool to replace them. What do I need to get? And where from?
- posted
13 years ago
I now have enough RJ45s (ethernet cables) with broken connectors to consider buying a tool to replace them. What do I need to get? And where from?
Without checking, I'd suggest CPC, Farnell or RS as first ports of call. Might pick up cheap ones on fleabay but in my experience crimping needs quality tools. Ready made leads are pretty cheap though although it greaves me to throw away stuff that can be repaired.
Bob
Have you tried giggling for "rj45 crimp tool uk"? That seems to get a slew of answers. I might have suggested Maplins but their offering seems expensive, you can get some for a few £. Amazon has one for £12 or so and you can get the connectors and a tester for a few quid more.
What's your experience in this area? I always at work had trouble getting the wires lined up in the right order - and I don't know what the order is but see this site:
Cheers,
CPC seems to have:
Repairing them's fine, but you then tend not to get snag-free boots on the lead, which tends to be what gets them broken in the first place, rather than spend £xx on a crimp tool, spend the money on moulded snagless replacements?
Cheers Adam
Get a job in an office and do some skip-diving.
I've got so many "scrapped" leads here that I've been known to use them as baler twine around bundles of wood. Most come out of racks during offfice re-orgs, where someone is too lazy to take the tiewraps off and relay the bundle, it's easier to just buy new ones.
Yeah, I'd already reached that conclusion - how Amazon can do a crimp tool for £3.45 ... ?!
Agreed. That and the hassle of re-running them (I have a wired network).
Ho, yus. But I was after reccomendations along the lines of "don't buy this one", or "this one's really good".
Nil. In days of yore I got the comms people to make me some up, but now I work for Gigantic Faceless Multinational, I don't even know which continent they're on.
[Looks at URL]*grin* I already bookmarked that one!
Naah. This is my household network.
Good point, and I shall do so in the future, but the prospect of crawling through the loft to re-run cables rather encourages me to repair them for the moment.
I picked up a reasonably robust tool from a computer fair for around =A312, and I've had no problems with it - apart from the problem of getting the wires into the plug in the right order. I picked up a cable tester for around a fiver which made checking for this sort of problem a lot easier. It's nice to have the boots on the ready mades, but if I'd been using ready-made cables for my installation I'd have had to cut some of the ends off and remake them after threading through tight spaces. I've noticed at work that a lot of the cables have had their boot slid down the cable because the boot makes plugging and unplugging difficult...
Yes the ones with the separate boot can be a bit awkward, but the ones with the little moulded lugs are better
is about the reasonable minimum. There is less need for ratchet action on RJ45s than cable crimps since the forces required are far less.
Another option, is have you considered terminating the wires into modular sockets, and then using fly leads for the final connection to equipment. It tends to make for a longer lasting and more reliable install.
Bob Minchin formulated on Tuesday :
My ebay crimper, crimps and line tester are more than good enough for the ocassional use I give them. Be aware that you need different crimp ends for solid wires, versus multi-strand. The multi-strand flexible ones are the default.
BTW, how do I tell (other than cutting the plugs off and looking) if a cable is solid or stranded core? I guess I need to buy both kinds of plug and use the appropriate one ...
In my next house, and knowing what I do now... :o)
If it's a factory made patch lead it will almost certainly be stranded, but other then that if the cable is nice and flexible, it's stranded. If the cable is stiff and/or holds its shape when you bend it, it's solid, also if it has length markings printed along the jacket that usually means it's solid cable that's been pulled of a drum.
Other than than, I'd say buy a big bag of crimp-on ends for stranded and a handful of ends for solid in case you find any that need doing.
Main snag I've found with fitting your own plugs is the originals are usually moulded on so have a much stronger cord grip. Of course if they're not often unplugged, this may not matter. But if existing ones have broken it may well.
Stranded is more flexible and springs back more after being bent. Plugs designed for stranded seem to work on solid and vice versa if you are not handling them too often.
If you bought patch leads (of whatever length) then they are probably going to be stranded. If however you made up your own leads from cable and plugs then you may have solid core.
You can get RJ45 plugs like that for self attachment as well, however as I noted elsewhere the lugs can stop the plug inserting far enough into the crimper to squeeze the right bit.
Righto.
I look forward to a report on how you get on with whatever tool, and how you find doing it. As I mentioned, I had problems getting the wires in. No trouble with flat cable, mind you, for RS232 connections, but I don't think I ever managed to crimp a network cable successfully.
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