• Author Author: colporteur
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The Road to Raspberry Pi4B/ PoE Hat RoadTest Review (cable in between)

colporteur

I have a number of store bought cables of varying lengths I will test with. I will document those in my review. In addition, I will construct a maximum length CAT5 cable using crimping tools and connectors I have locally.

 

I have a basic pin out cable tester for CAT5 cables. I don’t have a Fluke network analyzer to do performance checks to prove out my cable assembly skills. I worked in cable plants for a number of years, so I consider my cable construction skills up to specification. That assumption may come back to bite my in the ***. Hey   care to float me a cable tester for the project?

 

I'm wondering whether stranded verses solid wire in the cable make a difference. I'm going to assume if the cable meets CAT5 specifications it is acceptable. Interesting these are the needle questions I wanted to discover answers for.

 

image

 

I'm curious if the RJ45 cable pinout specification T568A or T568B have any impact? Wait this is DC power. No crosstalk suppression involved. Take that off the list!

  • in reply to kmikemoo

    I have an older version of a telephone lineman's toner.

    https://canada.newark.com/tenma/72-8500/inductive-toneprobe-cable-locator/dp/80R7549?st=cable%20locator

    Newark has a much newer model than mine. I worked on main frame distribution racks for a number of years. That sweet beep was music to my ears.

     

    Looks like your kit was developed out of need. I don't think I can find my toner. It is somewhere in my workshop. I haven't had reason to use it for many a year.

  • in reply to colporteur

    That's an awesome story! image  I'm sure that I've done that more than once.

    image

    Dooh!

  • in reply to kmikemoo

    I have a cable colour code pinout in with the crimper. I couldn't tell you what standard it represents.

     

    Oh the joys of crimping. Here is a humorous story.

     

    Our company hired engineering summer students to work on site with a crew. Three summer students were put in a cable room after completing a course on cable terminations. The supervisor explained the cables needed to be terminated in racks. There were in the order of 200 cables pulled back from around an airport location.

     

    The supervisor came back later to discover the students took initiative. Instead of pulling cables to the final destination rack and then terminating them, the students pulled one cable to the final destination to establish correct length. They pulled the cable back and terminated it. They then set up chairs and a comfortable work environment where the three lads to chat while they terminated cables.

     

    The engineering students had terminated about 100 cables when one of the static crew arrived to check up on them. The cut cable ends were stacked at the door along with an unfortunate omission.  The omission was the label that identified where the cable originated. The labels were sitting on the stub ends stacked by the door. The cables although terminated were no longer identified. No one in the group thought of sliding the label down the cable before cutting off the end.

     

    The crew had a great laugh at the students expense. The line "How many engineering students does it take to terminate cables?" became a standing joke. The students next assignment was developing cable location skills. Applying proper labels was not optional.

  • Those simple network cable testers are great!  Sure it won't tell you the attenuation of your cable, but I used mine just last night to check a network cable to one of my computers.  The cable had one wire open.  No amount of angry recrimping brought it back so I had to change the end.  Then I had two open wires, but different from the first.  Some passionate recrimping brought them to (at least) continuity.

    On a sidebar, I can't remember the last time that I bought a cable with a T568A layout.  They have all been T568B for years.  And all of the network cable in my building and the main building next door is stranded.

  • in reply to shabaz

    Hummm, you are drawing on some points I seem to recall.

     

    It has been a number of years since I built cables for production plants. I occasionally pull out the crimper and connectors along with the box of wire at the model railroad place to run a cable.

     

    I do this without thinking. Relying on the pinout checker to confirm operation. I will have to step back and document a few things before the build on this project. Thanks for the crib notes.