DComTalk.com

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 jmccardl@bigpond.net.au

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.

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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Dmitri Abaimov, RCDD
http://www.cabling-design.com
Cabling Forum, color codes, pinouts and other useful resources for
premises cabling users and pros
http://www.cabling-design.com/homecabling
Residential Cabling Guide

To be able to solder you'd have to untwist the pairs so much that it will
ruin the cable's CAT5 performance.

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.

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.
--
Snowy

James Knott wrote:

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.

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.


-------------------------------------
--
Dmitri Abaimov, RCDD
http://www.cabling-design.com
Cabling Forum, color codes, pinouts and other useful resources for
premises cabling users and pros
http://www.cabling-design.com/homecabling
Residential Cabling Guide

DmitriCabling-Design.com wrote, in part:

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

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:

http://www.netcablesplus.com/Merchant2/ ... BLCOUPLERS

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

Thanks in advance.

JR

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?


-------------------------------------
--
Dmitri Abaimov, RCDD
http://www.cabling-design.com
Cabling Forum, color codes, pinouts and other useful resources for
premises cabling users and pros
http://www.cabling-design.com/homecabling
Residential Cabling Guide

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.

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

Probably the easiest way to extend the cabling is just run a new length of
cable. With all the hassles of trying to solder the pairs and then cover
the joins with heat-shink, all while making sure the twists are within the
limits for standard, it would be easier to just run a new length of cable,
and have an extra few feet for service loop in case you need it to go a
little further.
Heck, when you pull the new cable, pull some pull-string with it so you can
run additional if needed...never hurts. (assuming of course the conduit or
area you're pulling through can accomodate it of course!)

DmitriCabling-Design.com wrote:

johnr999 wrote:


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:


http://www.netcablesplus.com/Merchant2/ ... BLCOUPLERS

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

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?

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

John

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

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.

I'm a bit late on this issue but I've just joined this board and may have something of value to add.

I have been successful in splicing cat 5 ethernet runs with standard UR or UY scotchlock connectors. Just keep your twist tight up to the butt of the scotchlock. I use Datacom Tech LANcat V testers to verify that my cabling meets cat 5 specs.

I've found this useful when transitioning from underground or aerial cable to inside wiring.