The job you hate most?

I vote for wiing up RJ45s. Sometimes the wires go in just right. Other times you need to fiddle for ages. And you need to get two sets correct for a working cable.

Reply to
Newshound
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Plugs or sockets?

Either always work first time for me.

For plugs: Cut the outer sheath off with a sharp Stanley blade, 2" back; Un-twist the pairs back as far as the remaining sheath; Use your finger and thumb to pull each core dead straight, fanning out in an arc; Arrange the cores into the correct order, again fanning them out in an arc; Clamp them parallel in the correct order with one hand near the sheath; Pull them straight and parallel with the other thumb and fore-finger; Keep them clamped in the correct order with thumb and forefinger at the sheath end. Cut to length; Insert into plug, wires are now short and stubby enough to rigidly push fully home in RJ45 plug; The inside of the plug is moulded to guide each core down the correct channel; Visually check each core is fully home against the end of the plug; Check core ordering one last time; Crimp.

Worst Job: When I was a student, I had a summer job working in Pizza Hut kitchens.

( No, not a hygiene horror story. Every night, we cleaned the place till it sparkled. Ovens, make-tables, fridges, everything, on wheels, moved to clean all the inaccessible places. Scrubbed spotless every night. All ingredients prepped freshly every morning. No left-over soggy veg used. Fresh dough made every morning. I was impressed, considering what I was expecting. You could safely eat your dinner off the floor. )

No, the worst job was every few weeks, I had to un-screw the wing-nuts on top of the grease trap the size of a large plastic storage bin on the dishwasher drain and clean it out. YUK. Double YUK. Triple YUK.

Reply to
Ron Lowe

I hear you..... I have all the gear in the back of the car for doing network cables, but i rarely let on, because it takes so long to wire the bastards up.

Gaz

Reply to
Gaz

yeah rj 45 plugs can be **take a deep breathe** frustrating. I'm now halfway sure to get em first time However I bought a batch of plugs where, as well as getting all cores the same lengh and in correct order, the genius of design had the terminals in 2 lines of 4 , OFFSET! and above each other. I'd still be there now........

Reply to
edalechurchcottage

Patch cords I don't mind too much. It beats soldering high-density d-types any day. Or coax connectors that won't fit over any cable rated to even 1/2 the current that the plug's rated to.

Reply to
Chris Hodges

Pointless exercise as they are so cheap to buy.

Reply to
Andy Hall

Stewart RJ45s, RS #199-3133, Stewart #943-SP370808-M2 (and there's a sister product for stranded) have a handy feature in this respect: a small separate "comb" strip with 8 holes is supplied. This is put onto the cable first allowing all the cores to lined up in the right order. Next, the whole lot is inserted into the plug body and crimped - the comb allows the now perfectly aligned wires to be pushed home without a fuss. Even a butterfingers like me can get a good termination done in a couple of minutes.

I'm not entirely sure if these are formally rated to gig speeds, but I fail so see how they couldn't be in something as simple and small and as simple as an RJ45 - I've been using them for years at Fast Ethernet speeds reliably.

Beats me why more plugs are made with a feature like this.

Cheers

Tim

Reply to
Tim S

Dubious colour vision makes this even more fun...

The protanomalous RJ45 mantra: "Poo-stripe, poo, light-poo-stripe, blue, blue-stripe, light-poo, dark-poo-stripe, dark-poo"

Kim.

Reply to
kimble

Rewireable IEC cold condition plugs/sockets[1] - especially the ones with a screw for a terminal and no hole to stick the wire in. You are supposed to bend the flex end round the screw, tighten it, not get any strands pop out, and repeat three times!

[1] As used making up UPS to conventional 4 way power strip adaptors or custom length power leads.
Reply to
John Rumm

Ah, the Gillian McKeith style of networking.

Owain

Reply to
Owain

I find plugs frustrating, but use Ron's procedure and very rarely crimp up a dud!

Often have to do sockets though- when networking an office for instance...

Tim.

Reply to
Tim..

I find that the end that comes out of the box, or off the reel is easier to make than the other end when you cut it off. Something to do with the way the conducters untwist. anyone else find that? Of course the crossovers are worse still.

Reply to
Graham

When I do them they're normally run through flexible conduit that's too small for the plugs - and/or the length has to be right to within ~10cm.

Reply to
Chris Hodges

Funny you should mention that. This morning I was handed six cables made up by a so-called electrician at a well known Supermarket that I wont name here.

They has an Electrak plug at one end and a *male* IEC connector at the other. Besides being useless for there intended purpose of powering my PC's and TFT's, someone could have been electrocuted trying!

Reply to
Graham

Or

1) Purchase cable
Reply to
Dr Zoidberg

Bitstring , from the wonderful person Newshound said

Nope, I'd vote for something more software-ish.

Trying to find a workable set of drivers for a Creative sound card.

Trying to find the correct/complete driver set to reinstall Windoze.

Moving all my data and programs to a new PC, or new OS, and checking they work right.

Entering M$ofts stupid product codes, written in 3 point type on a crumpled sticker on the back of a bent box, with Os and 0s and 8s and Bs and Is and 1s to guess at.

These all have the advantage that I don't have to do them often ..

Reply to
GSV Three Minds in a Can

I also vote for something software-ish.

Comming back to messing around with windows after using OS X. Drivers, networking, spyware.

Reply to
mark

Re IEC, buy proper Schurter connectors... o Plugs do securely engage into IEC sockets o Connectors are relatively easy to wire o Contacts have decent wiping action & mechanical strength

Schurter cost more, but are potentially a safer solution.

Reply to
Dorothy Bradbury

Anything, anything at all to do with inkjets. They're fine if you use them a lot, but if you use them a lot, you might as well have a laser. Use the occasionally and they f*ck up horrendously, and they're all so cheaply made now as to be not worth buying.

Reply to
Doki

Now that *is* a useful tip, I must order some. Just did my first RJ11, much easier to confirm before crimping with the nice bold colours!

Reply to
Newshound

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