Making up an Ethernet cable (or failing to)

Is it solid core wires, or multi strand? Which type of wire are your crimp plugs for?

I bought a crimper ages ago to make up Ethernet cables. I've not idea whether it was for single core or stranded cable - I don't remember being offered crimp plugs for the two different types: I just used the ones that were bundled with the tool.

I found it impossible to get it to work, mainly because of the problem of arranging the wires in exactly the same configuration at both ends so (for example) the red wire was pin 3 and the blue one was pin 4 at both ends. I couldn't get all n wires to go fully into their respective holes in the plug simultaneously so all of them were crimped.

I gave it up as a bad loss. The instructions and the salesman made it sound so easy, but I was too clumsy (?) to get all the wires into the right places on both plugs.

It is probably *much* easier to crimp plugs onto modern flat (ribbon cable) Cat 5, where all the wires are inline, than older circular-profile cable which is what I was trying to do (flat-cat 5 hadn't been released then).

mostly they're for stranded, as that's most patch leads, but when the O/P said it was outdoor cable, Ithough that would more likely be solid?

Just use the Dave Jones squint while sticking your tongue out technique!

You can get plugs that have a detachable cable guide. Thread the separate cables before inserting it into the plug.

There is solid and there is stranded and you never get a correct joint if you use the wrong one. Most wall sockets punch down solid, most plugs are for stranded

You can also get plugs with holes at the ends. This allows you to push an excess of wire through so that the colours can easily be checked before crimping. Some of these are also rated for use with either solid or stranded wire.

For example:

John

It's much easier with solid core cable (this Cat6 outdoor is solid core). I spent some time making up leads using off-cuts of the Cat6 outdoor cable and that worked every time - right up until the point where it actually mattered.

I promise that my tongue was in the required configuration. I find it impossible to do this sort of thing without (much to my wife's amusement).

Solid - and the connectors _seem_ suitable for that.

The 24 AWD solid cores made it easier to get & keep the cores arrayed in the correct order whilst feeding them into/through the connector. The extra flex of multi-strand (I tried putting connectors on an old patch cord for some practice) made this seem almost impossible.

I have a basic crimp tool and a bag of RJ45 connectors from years ago, of both the standard and guide ('load bar') versions. I just couldn't get cat6 external cable to crimp properly - pushing it into the plug would always kink somewhere and miss a wire or two from the terminals. Maybe cat6 was too thick?

I was going to buy some 'passthrough' RJ45 connectors but they seemed to be quite hard to buy in small quantities (roughly £10 for a bag), so I ended up buying a set including the crimp tool which also trims (£15 a few weeks ago):

Theo

They look useful, I have a load of plugs but can't differentiate the solid/stranded versions. On the other hand I don't have too much trouble getting the wires in the right order (no tongue involved!) and I have a lot of home-made cat5 leads around the place which work pretty reliably up to gigabit speeds. I test before installation with a cable tester and that weeds out the odd failure (usually an unconnected wire, not misplaced wires).

Andy Burns snipped-for-privacy@andyburns.uk wrote in news:m0gs3tFar14U2 @mid.individual.net:

Useful, thx.

Just to add a coda to this, I checked for continuity from end to end of the cable with a multimeter (just in case I had managed to break a core somewhere in the middle of the cable, with some rough handling) - it was fine. I then re-terminated (one end of) the cable one more time, and all is well.

Hmm. Ta for that.

The OR droid who fixed up my internal wiring when I was upgraded to DV used gel-filled crimps to join a 2-core flying lead phone extension (plugged into the SH2) to my solid CAT5E internal extension wiring.

I wonder if this is OK. If not, what would be the best way ?.

I am tempted to remove the crimps, clean off the gel muck and solder + heatshrink them.

Comments ?.

The jelly crimps are generally good, I have some where the underground wiring enters in my wall cavity, keeps the damp out.