making cat 5 cable ends

[therealbigjim]

What is the magic trick to crimping a male end on a cat 5 cable. I have a cable tester that blinks green for each pair. I tested the tester on a factory cable and I get all green lights. SOOOOO....I carefully strip and flatten out the cables pairing the colors togather and carefully inserting it in the the plastic plug. I crimp and it is not right....I don'tall green lights ..... 4 connectors later I gave up.....any advice?

[chrisatpsu]

i strip back about an inch of the cable, then untwist the conductors.
i sort out the order of the pairs, ( i use 586b)   

white/orange
orange
white green
blue
white blue
green
white brown
brown

I then get them as close together then do a twisting motion with my fingers (looks like i'm trying to break a stick of gum in half by holding my thumbs together, but i do it in a circular motion)

i line up my crimp end, and then cut off the rest with angle cutters (making sure the cut is straight across)

push the crimp end on the cable until  all 8 ends i can see at the end of the plug.
i make sure the jacket sleave is partially inserted.

then place in the crimper, and crimp while applying a little pressure on the cable into the plug.

it takes about 5min to do an end.
i have a high success rate.

[Garyi]

I use the same method. I think the trick is to cut the ends off square after lining them up.

[sirloinofbeef001]

Once I get the ends all straight, I make all the ends equal then. I had a small problem with the first couple putting the jack on the wrong way. Being in a big hurry.

[therealbigjim]

I think I may be reversing the middle pairs from one end to the other.....

[kgustafson]

I highly recommend getting an RJ-45 tester if you are crimping your own cable.  You can pick one up for under $20 (just google it).

These things are worth their weight in gold.  I use mine all the time to make sure my cables are correct.  It also helps if you have to do any cross-overs for things like LOR equipment (as I have) and making sure the pin-outs are all in order.

Kurt

[mmais68569]

One thing you need to make sure the clear connector end is place on correctly. there is a right way pins 1-8 & a wrong way upside down pins 8-1 if you turn the connector over it will not work. I hope this makes sense.

              Mike

[JonB256]

....I carefully strip and flatten out the cables pairing the colors togather and carefully inserting it in the the plastic plug.

Big Jim, note in the post just below your first, the wires don't go in perfect pair order. For the standard "B" spec, the Green pair gets split apart. Take a look at a factory cable. You'll see that the Blue then Blue/white wire are between the greens.

Somewhere in Wiki-space I'm sure there is a reason, but ALL ethernet and CAT5 specs have you split that pair apart. Your cable tester knows it, too.

[chrisatpsu]

1 white/orange
2 orange
3 white/green
4 blue
5 white/white
6 green
7 white/brown
8 brown

ethernet uses pins 1,2,3,and 6.
the orange pair, and the green pair are the conductors in the cable with the most "twists per inch"  this has to do with it being a cat5e cable.
i believe also that the twists in the cable help eliminate interference from outside sources.

if you switched the places of the green and the orange, you'd have the "586A" standard, even though it's not as popular.
now, all of that aside...

for Lynx DMX, all you really need to worry about is the...

1 white/orange
2 orange

as that's the only conductors carrying the signal. so if you're making cables that aren't working for here, check the first two pins.

take an empty cat5 end,
turn it over so that the clip is on the bottom, and the metal contacts are facing away from you.  the left side needs to be white/orange. this is the same for both ends, so when you do the other side, hold the connector in the same way, and the left needs to be the white/orange.

[therealbigjim]

Thx for the info. The cable does work for DMX, it did not test in the tester. I did not split the blue and green as stated by
chrisatpsu. 
 

[chrisatpsu]

even if you dont split the pairs, it's still usable as a 10baseT cable
the splitting of the pairs, just turns it into a 100baseT cable

[scharbon]

Not to celebrate imperfection, but if all you are using the cables for is the DMX signal from the dongle to your controllers (i.e., not using pixelnet) you only need the first two cables (1 and 2 on your tester) to work. 

Since I use these cables exclusively for my Christmas light show, I shoot for 8 solid connections, but will settle for any combination that includes the correct two pairs properly connected.

Steve