lengthening CAT5 cable

Not if you're competent at soldering. However, you may have a problem with the insulation vaporizing, as that type of cable is not intended to be soldered. I seem to recall reading about crimp on splices, but don't remember where.

Reply to
James Knott
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I am 61 years old and had an angiogram recently. The result was that my 9 year old stents were working well (in the LAD) BUT I had developed a 50% blockage in my Right Coranary Artery (RCA). I beleive this artery feeds the lungs, and my lungs are allready compromised by brick dust and other building particles. My cardiologyst said that I should wait till the RCA is 70% blocked before angioplasty and stentng (or surgery).

Maybe this might explain why I run out of steam very quickly and get "unstable angina pains". I have been fairly well till recently but have started getting angina pains with little excertion and sometimes just out of the blue.

Any comments greatfully received.

J McC snipped-for-privacy@bigpond.net.au

Reply to
J-McC

This is my second problem in life sorry it is posted in wrong group, I wanted to know if it wise to solder connections on cat5 cable, I needed to lengthen it by 5 Metres and where I need to extend/join it is a very awkward area for access. I can crimp a cat5 socket and then plug in a patch cable but I would rather make a "proper" non mechanical joint (ie plug/socket). If the cable run was easy I would simply re-run the cable but in aussie parlance it "was a bastard to run". This network runs at 100mhz.

Any comments greatfully received.

J McC snipped-for-privacy@bigpond.net.au only read below this line if you are old and have cardiac problems! =================================================================================

Reply to
J-McC

To be able to solder you'd have to untwist the pairs so much that it will ruin the cable's CAT5 performance. Very much not recommended. Maybe you can use the old cable as a pull string for a new one that's the right length?

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Reply to
Dmitri(Cabling-Design.com

You can get a punch down block to extend 5/5e cables. We bought half a dozen at work but I can't remember who from, it may have Black Box but there again it may have been someone else. I am led to understand that it is allowed for in the spec', just don't ask me where.

Reply to
Ian Snowdon

Two-wire crimp-ons (can be bought at Home Depot) would suffer from the same problem: too much untwisting. Professional 25-pair crimp-ons (710-type) are *WAY* beyond the scope of this little project. Ian suggested a solution that might have worked from electrical characteristics stand point: use a proper category wiring block (110-type) as a transition point allowed by the standard. However, the block, the clips and the tools to put it all together would most likely cost three times as much as a replacement cable that's simply long enough.

BTW, getting back to soldering: if you get a 4-4 plenum cable you don't need to worry about insulation melt-down. You'd struggle to get it *off* the copper instead ;-) However, you still need to provide means to restore the insulation (shrink tube most likely) which needs to slide on the soldering point. It's been about 15 years since I last done soldering for living, but I don't think you will be able to do a good connection/insulation without untwisting at the very least 3/4 of an inch whereas only 1/2 inch FOR THE ENTIRE CHANNEL is allowed by the standards. Add doing this at an odd location far from your trusted bench, and you get a very tough task at hand, no matter how pro you are.

I'd say re-pull the cable using the old one as a pull string.

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Reply to
Dmitri(Cabling-Design.com

DmitriCabling-Design.com wrote, in part:

I did not see this suggested, so I wanted to ask if it is a reasonable approach to use an Ethernet Cable Coupler as shown below:

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Is this a no-no or only useful for certain applications? If so, which?

Thanks in advance.

JR

Reply to
johnr999

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My guess would be it would work better than soldering it. In order to use such extender though you'd have to have the cable with a plug crimped on it as well as a patch cord to length. It won't be up to the standard (such adapter adds 2 connection points and only one is allowed by the standard), but chances are great it will work. I guess, you are only interested in the end result (working or not) and no so much in standard-compliance, right?

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Reply to
Dmitri(Cabling-Design.com

Reply to
Mark J

Which brings up an important point that hasn't been addressed -- is the existing cable solid or stranded wire, and how is it currently terminated?

If it's stranded wire, it should be terminated with a plug. An extender is probably the best solution.

If it's solid, it should be terminated on some kind of IDC connector -- either a jack (in which case you can use a normal patch cable to get to where you want to go) or a 110 block (in which case you can punch down another length of solid cable to get where you need to go).

-Larry Jones

Even if lives DID hang in the balance, it would depend on whose they were.

-- Calvin

Reply to
lawrence.jones

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Do you think actual performance would suffer with a cable coupler?

John

Reply to
johnr999

Thanks for all your help folk. I was quite intrigued by the replies. I have used a punchdown pad (the back of a cat5e connector) and used this to extend the cable. It works very well.

As I have said I would have pulled a new cable but it was difficult enought to install as most of the plaster sheets had been installed before I was called to run my cables, so access was very limited.

I did also ask on the 24hourshelpdesk group but unfortunately it is wrecked by some very uncouth folk who use such profanity which is totally uncalled for. I am no prude and enjoy the odd swear word when i injure myself but some of the idiots on that site are over the top. Some of the others are excellent with their help and advice.

Thanks to you all Jim McC snipped-for-privacy@bigpond.net.au

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Reply to
J-McC

I've seen cat5 splicers advertised but i've never actually seen one, inside it, or whatever. I strongly suspect it's just a single 110 punchdown point with the C4. In any case, I've read that punching down cat5 cables to a 110 block and running a cat5 extensions will pass testing. But everything nowadays seems to be cat6 which is much more critical, or cat5E with is still critical, and may not pass test. If the run is not long, I would try the 110 punchdown and see how it works. But if you don't have the space, then that's too bad, just bite the bullet and pull a new cable.

If the pairs are untwisted and spliced, the untwisting two pairs near each other will be more prone to crosstalk. The actual splice isn't what causes the problem, it's the paralleling of conductors. One electronic splicing trick is to space the splices out along the cable, several inches apart. That way, each splice is far enough from the next splice to reduce interference. I would try to keep them several inches apart. Some day, I will try this with some leftover lengths of cat5e cable and then test them with my Fluke DSP-2000. I'll probably use some heat shrink tubing over each conductor, and solder the joints.

One time the electrical contractors worked on a remodel and moved some power poles. We then moved the people from that room, and I tore out cat5 the wiring from the poles. I found the sparkies had spliced the cat5 cable with white telephone 'beans' AKA mouse rubbers. They had been working for a few years like that without any apparent problems. :-/

Which reminds me, I have to start a new thread on my recent experience with a similar problem. It'll have Keystone Jacks in the subject line. See you there.

Reply to
Watson A.Name - "Watt Sun, th

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Holy spit, they're ten bucks! Crimping on connectors to any solid conductor cable is very bad practice, and this kind of coupler isn't a good idea either.

Reply to
Watson A.Name - "Watt Sun, th

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