I'm tired of waiting for a friend to come do it...i'm thinking about going to Frys to buy a crimper and jacks and do it myself. Anybody have any good tips?
How hard is it crimp and put jacks on CAT5 cable?
- Thread starter LakerGod
- Start date
Not bad.
Tip #1: Don't use the stripping tool on the crimper. Use the cutting tool to cut off about 1" of housing, then clip it down to length once you have the wires arranged properly. The stripper tends to nick the cables, & cuts them way too short to organize unless you have fingers the size of toothpicks.
Remember...
White Orange
Orange
White Green
Blue
White Blue
Green
White Brown
Brown
Left to right, clips facing up.
Viper GTS
Tip #1: Don't use the stripping tool on the crimper. Use the cutting tool to cut off about 1" of housing, then clip it down to length once you have the wires arranged properly. The stripper tends to nick the cables, & cuts them way too short to organize unless you have fingers the size of toothpicks.
Remember...
White Orange
Orange
White Green
Blue
White Blue
Green
White Brown
Brown
Left to right, clips facing up.
Viper GTS
i messed up about three connectors before i got it down. The hardest part is making sure you have the correct wire-order. They tend to slip out when you're feeding it in the connector.
-=bmacd=-
-=bmacd=-
Its not very hard to make them. It just gets very frustrating at times. Oh, and retail stores tend to rape you on the price of crimpers.
not bad, just use a few end connectors and practice once or twice with a diagram in front of you (to get the twist right, know the colors). Once you know you've done it right you can clip off the end and use it (with the color coded wires) as a cheat sheet and throw it in your kit.
PS: Both ends are exactly the same wiring pattern, not mirror images.
PS: Both ends are exactly the same wiring pattern, not mirror images.
The Stigenator
Lifer
- Oct 9, 1999
- 15,216
- 3
- 81
damn you and your white orange BS
its
Orange Stripe
Orange
Green Stripe
Blue
Blue Stripe
Green
Brown Stripe
Brown
tried to read yours and it screwed up the mantra I had in my head
bah
its
Orange Stripe
Orange
Green Stripe
Blue
Blue Stripe
Green
Brown Stripe
Brown
tried to read yours and it screwed up the mantra I had in my head
bah
You can get crimpers pretty cheap at Home Depot. You might be able to get the terminals and cable there too.
Geekbabe
Moderator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
I have really small hands and my crimpers are really hard for me to use, lol, it doesn't look real professional to have to stand on your crimpers in a client's office 
Can anybody recommend good crimpers for small handed people ?
Can anybody recommend good crimpers for small handed people ?
Viper: The order you specified is correct (568A), but it should be "clips down" (open end facing you).
FWIW
Scott
FWIW
Scott
Don't get a cheap crimper because it is a pain the a$$ trying to dislodge the jack after you have crimped it.
I really suck at this. I have trouble untwisting the wires and putting them in order, trouble putting them in the stupid jack, and i can't crimp to save my life. None of the crimp-jobs i've done have been able to fit the cable into an ethernet port.
I have a quick question. I finally crimped both ends of a cable, and i used my own computer as a test. It might be just me, but it seems a very tad slower than with my regular pre-crimped cable. Is this just me, or does how you crimp the cable affect speed? Thanks again.
i think its the "placebo effect" taking place here...i doubt anyone can "notice" a diff in speed of 2 cat5 cables...
buy more connectors than you need since this is your first time. it's not hard at all.
i recommend getting stuff online.
i used to have a page, but it's gone.
i recommend getting stuff online.
i used to have a page, but it's gone.
Chances are you flubbed the crimp job. If the cable is out-of-spec, it won't perform at high speed. It's the main symptom for a bad cable (works well @ 10, sucks at 100).
It's really not that hard. Try it like this:
Strip about 2" or so of jacket, you'll be cutting it down to ~1/2" or less later, but the extra "tail" makes it easy to organize the wires.
Start with the orange pair, untwist it back to just before the jacket, smooth all the kinks & wrinkles out of each wire, and put the white-orange, then the orange between your left thumb & forefinger. The jacket of the cable should be just touching the bottom of your index finger.
Repeat for the other pairs. When you're done, the pair-order should be orange-white, orange, green-white, BLUE, blue-white, green, white-brown, brown - left-to-right, with the ends up.
Keep holding the wires - pull/stretch & flatten the collection of wires until they look like a colored ribbon - no gaps,
Using diagonal cutters or scissors, whatever, trim off the excess tail just above your index finger - the goal here is to have ~1/2 inch (~1 cm) of flat colored wires exposed. any more than that, and the cable is out of spec.
Pick up the connector with your right hand, clip down.
Insert the loom of flat wires into the end of the connector. After about ~1/8 inch, the wires will engage the channels of the connector. With a little downward pressure (against the floor of the connector) advance the wires into the connector. THE ENDS OF THE WIRES MUST BE VISIBLE AT THE END OF THE CONNECTOR - also referred to as "Eight shiney copper dots"." Once the wires are mostly inside the connector, you can grap and push from the jacket.
The jacket of the cable must be advanced into the connector until it is well under the dimple in the top of the connector. The wires are going to retract a bit back into the jacket, you'll have to hold tight while pushing with the jacket.
Put the connector into the crimper and crimp.
When you're done, you should still see eight shiney copper dots at the end of the connector, the jacket should be captured by the strain-relief of the connector, and all of the contacts should be flat across the top of the connector.
A few more things, FWIW:
If your connectors came with little plastic insters, you must use them, or the crimp will never work (these come with nearly all CAT5e certified connectors).
The wires can have a MAXIMUM of 1/2" untwisted (any pair).
The cable can have a MAXIMUM of 1/2" of wire exposure (out of the jacket, including the part exposed inside the connector)
Solid conductor cables are easier to terminate, but suck as jumpers, since they break easily after manipulation.
Stranded conductor cable are a PITA to terminate, buy a jumper instead, you'll be way ahead of the game.
If your connectors aren't labled as "Cat 5" (or 5e, 6) then they aren't made for data, they're made for phone (voice / analog), and will add to the probability of a sub-optimal cable.
ALL THE RULES must be followed (pair-order, exposure, strain relief, etc) or your cable is going to suck.
With rare exception, there'll be posts following this with " I just put the wires in and it works just fine" or "color order doesn't matter" or statements that most of this stuff doesn't matter - these people should be ignored, since they haven't got a clue about cabling systems. It DOES matter. Do it right, follow the rules.
If you can't / won't follow the rules, just buy the jumpers or hire someone to terminate the jacks - or suffer with glitchy / flakey network, poor performance, and be held to ridicule ...
Good Luck
Scott
It's really not that hard. Try it like this:
Strip about 2" or so of jacket, you'll be cutting it down to ~1/2" or less later, but the extra "tail" makes it easy to organize the wires.
Start with the orange pair, untwist it back to just before the jacket, smooth all the kinks & wrinkles out of each wire, and put the white-orange, then the orange between your left thumb & forefinger. The jacket of the cable should be just touching the bottom of your index finger.
Repeat for the other pairs. When you're done, the pair-order should be orange-white, orange, green-white, BLUE, blue-white, green, white-brown, brown - left-to-right, with the ends up.
Keep holding the wires - pull/stretch & flatten the collection of wires until they look like a colored ribbon - no gaps,
Using diagonal cutters or scissors, whatever, trim off the excess tail just above your index finger - the goal here is to have ~1/2 inch (~1 cm) of flat colored wires exposed. any more than that, and the cable is out of spec.
Pick up the connector with your right hand, clip down.
Insert the loom of flat wires into the end of the connector. After about ~1/8 inch, the wires will engage the channels of the connector. With a little downward pressure (against the floor of the connector) advance the wires into the connector. THE ENDS OF THE WIRES MUST BE VISIBLE AT THE END OF THE CONNECTOR - also referred to as "Eight shiney copper dots"." Once the wires are mostly inside the connector, you can grap and push from the jacket.
The jacket of the cable must be advanced into the connector until it is well under the dimple in the top of the connector. The wires are going to retract a bit back into the jacket, you'll have to hold tight while pushing with the jacket.
Put the connector into the crimper and crimp.
When you're done, you should still see eight shiney copper dots at the end of the connector, the jacket should be captured by the strain-relief of the connector, and all of the contacts should be flat across the top of the connector.
A few more things, FWIW:
If your connectors came with little plastic insters, you must use them, or the crimp will never work (these come with nearly all CAT5e certified connectors).
The wires can have a MAXIMUM of 1/2" untwisted (any pair).
The cable can have a MAXIMUM of 1/2" of wire exposure (out of the jacket, including the part exposed inside the connector)
Solid conductor cables are easier to terminate, but suck as jumpers, since they break easily after manipulation.
Stranded conductor cable are a PITA to terminate, buy a jumper instead, you'll be way ahead of the game.
If your connectors aren't labled as "Cat 5" (or 5e, 6) then they aren't made for data, they're made for phone (voice / analog), and will add to the probability of a sub-optimal cable.
ALL THE RULES must be followed (pair-order, exposure, strain relief, etc) or your cable is going to suck.
With rare exception, there'll be posts following this with " I just put the wires in and it works just fine" or "color order doesn't matter" or statements that most of this stuff doesn't matter - these people should be ignored, since they haven't got a clue about cabling systems. It DOES matter. Do it right, follow the rules.
If you can't / won't follow the rules, just buy the jumpers or hire someone to terminate the jacks - or suffer with glitchy / flakey network, poor performance, and be held to ridicule ...
Good Luck
Scott
I would like to know:
How do large scale networking projects get all the patch cables etc crimped? That must take FOREVER!
How do large scale networking projects get all the patch cables etc crimped? That must take FOREVER!
BD231
Lifer
- Feb 26, 2001
- 10,568
- 138
- 106
Kinna dose take forever
, but the tool's make it pretty easy and quick to make a patch cable. I took a Cisco networking class in highschool and one of our project's was to route internet to 36 computers in the class from the office where the main server was. It took about 8 hours of class time for 13 students, we had to make cables and everything, well they did anyway. I'm no good at making those cables because I'm color blind as a dog. NEVER try to make a patch cable if your color blind, boy is it impossible .TRENDING THREADS
-
Discussion Zen 5 Speculation (EPYC Turin and Strix Point/Granite Ridge - Ryzen 9000)- Started by DisEnchantment
- Replies: 25K
-
Discussion Intel Meteor, Arrow, Lunar & Panther Lakes Discussion Threads
- Started by Tigerick
- Replies: 21K
-
Discussion Intel current and future Lakes & Rapids thread- Started by TheF34RChannel
- Replies: 23K
-
-
Facebook
Twitter