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Hardware => Lynx MR16 / 16 CH DC Controller => Topic started by: mmais68569 on February 06, 2012,

Title: MR 16 & CAT 5 Help
Post by: mmais68569 on February 06, 2012,
I am back to square one again trying to wire 5050 RGB nodes with CAT 5. Below is my setup every time I plug them in & run the sequence they have a quick flash & the mosfet short out.
Picture one
#1 has cat 5 solid orange connected to neg. ch 1  to control red color
#2 has cat 5 solid blue connected to neg. ch 2  to control blue color
#3 has cat 5 solid brown connected to neg ch 3  to control green color

Picture 2
#4 has cat 5 orange strip, green strip, brown strip connected to ch 1 pos. for power to the modular.

Picture 3
Cat 5 from the controller goes to a keystone jack wired
1  Orange strip
2  Orange
3 Green strip
4 Blue
5 Blue strip
6 Green
7 Brown Strip
8 Brown

A mfg cat 5 cable from Monoprice runs to the splitter Picture 4& 5

Continued next post more pictures.
       Mike
 
Title: Re: MR 16 & CAT 5 Help
Post by: mmais68569 on February 06, 2012,
Then the modular is pluged into the splitter Cat 5 wired
1 orange strip
2 orange
3 green strip
4 blue
5 blue strip
6 green
7 brown strip
8 brown

The CAT 5 runs to the modular (2) wired this way
orange solid to red lead
blue solid to green lead
brown solid to blue lead

orange strip, brown strip, green strip to black lead to supply power

So what am I doing wrong all I have read this is the correct way to wire them
Title: Re: MR 16 & CAT 5 Help
Post by: chrisatpsu on February 06, 2012,
on the keystone jack, make sure you're using the appropiate wiring scheme   586a, or 586b   if you pick the wrong one, you'll cross your red- and your common anode +
Title: Re: MR 16 & CAT 5 Help
Post by: mmais68569 on February 06, 2012,
I wired it as a 586b

          Mike
Title: Re: MR 16 & CAT 5 Help
Post by: chrisatpsu on February 06, 2012,
instead of using the object in picture 5, can you wire your rgb nodes into a keystone jack?

using your setup, i'd wire the mr16, and the nodes into a keystone jack, then run a wire straight between the jacks.
Title: Re: MR 16 & CAT 5 Help
Post by: chrisatpsu on February 06, 2012,
btw, just a side note, the cheapest place i caould find cat5 keystones in at monoprice.
Title: Re: MR 16 & CAT 5 Help
Post by: rm357 on February 06, 2012,
Cat 5 splitter?

You might want to verify how that is wired. Cat5 ethernet networks don't do splitters... If it's a phone line splitter, it might be rearranging some of your lines

I'd also try just one side at a time - If you are blowing mosfets, you've probably got a short somewhere.

RM
Title: Re: MR 16 & CAT 5 Help
Post by: bcstuff on February 07, 2012,
I used some of those cat5 splitters for Halloween but would not recommend them. The ones I used from Monoprice were straight thru and I even pulled one apart to verify. The ones I had bought the contact wires bent in a loop so that all 3 ports had the same pin out.

There were 2 problems with theses Jacks:

1) sometimes when you plugged a male cat 5 into them the wires would cross inside. I had to be real careful when plugging them in to make sure that they did all stay straight.

2) A few of them got wet because I was not diligent in making sure they were covered properly and they corroded overnight.

I made some custom cat5 splitter cables with male plugs on both ends and used the inline couplers and had less issues. They still corroded but by that point I was a little more diligent about waterproofing.

One other thing, the first time I wired one of those keystone jacks, I wired it wrong, check to make sure it is wired the way you wanted.

One way to check your keystone is a cat5 plug with a short piece of cat5 cut off so you can access the wires.
You could then check  each color on the multimeter.

Title: Re: MR 16 & CAT 5 Help
Post by: dmaccole on February 07, 2012,
FWIW:

*I don't use the keystones, I use what are called "biscuit jacks." I get them for about 50 cents each (in quantity) from DeepSurplus.com (no connection, just longtime satisfied customer).

*The RJ45 Y adapters that are currently being sold by Monoprice are crap; Dave Moore says that they used to sell a quality product but changed suppliers last summer or fall. I ultimately had about 40 here and never got more than two or three to work correctly. I found some on eBay which also had bad failure rates, but they were much better than the Monoprice ones (out of 10 that I bought from eBay, about three or four were bad).

I think that if in the future I were wiring an environment that used Cat5 cabling and needed Y connections, I would make them myself from three biscuit jacks.

\dmc
Title: Re: MR 16 & CAT 5 Help
Post by: bcstuff on February 07, 2012,
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FWIW:

*I don't use the keystones, I use what are called "biscuit jacks." I get them for about 50 cents each (in quantity) from DeepSurplus.com (no connection, just longtime satisfied customer).

*The RJ45 Y adapters that are currently being sold by Monoprice are crap; Dave Moore says that they used to sell a quality product but changed suppliers last summer or fall. I ultimately had about 40 here and never got more than two or three to work correctly. I found some on eBay which also had bad failure rates, but they were much better than the Monoprice ones (out of 10 that I bought from eBay, about three or four were bad).

I think that if in the future I were wiring an environment that used Cat5 cabling and needed Y connections, I would make them myself from three biscuit jacks.

\dmc

Too bad I bought mine before Dave put his review up...
His is 5 reviews down.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=105&cp_id=10513&cs_id=1051304&p_id=7294&seq=1&format=4# (http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=105&cp_id=10513&cs_id=1051304&p_id=7294&seq=1&format=4#)

and a video from david describing what dmc and I have said.
http://www.monoprice.com/products/cImgViewer.asp?f_idx=118629&f_user_id=1053208&seq_nu=cW3h1VeXJaw (http://www.monoprice.com/products/cImgViewer.asp?f_idx=118629&f_user_id=1053208&seq_nu=cW3h1VeXJaw)

</rant>
We now return you to your previously scheduled topic.
Title: Re: MR 16 & CAT 5 Help
Post by: mmais68569 on February 07, 2012,
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FWIW:

*I don't use the keystones, I use what are called "biscuit jacks." I get them for about 50 cents each (in quantity) from DeepSurplus.com (no connection, just longtime satisfied customer).

*The RJ45 Y adapters that are currently being sold by Monoprice are crap; Dave Moore says that they used to sell a quality product but changed suppliers last summer or fall. I ultimately had about 40 here and never got more than two or three to work correctly. I found some on eBay which also had bad failure rates, but they were much better than the Monoprice ones (out of 10 that I bought from eBay, about three or four were bad).

I think that if in the future I were wiring an environment that used Cat5 cabling and needed Y connections, I would make them myself from three biscuit jacks.

\dmc

Which biscuit jacks is that you are using?

     Mike
Title: Re: MR 16 & CAT 5 Help
Post by: bcstuff on February 07, 2012,
Mike,
You would need the RJ45 jacks. There is only one on the link referenced by dmc.

http://deepsurplus.com/Network-Structured-Wiring/Surface-Mount-Biscuit-Jacks/RJ45-Single-Surface-Mount-Jack (http://deepsurplus.com/Network-Structured-Wiring/Surface-Mount-Biscuit-Jacks/RJ45-Single-Surface-Mount-Jack)

Looks like the cheapest price I could find too.
Title: Re: MR 16 & CAT 5 Help
Post by: Slite on February 08, 2012,
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Mike,
You would need the RJ45 jacks. There is only one on the link referenced by dmc.

http://deepsurplus.com/Network-Structured-Wiring/Surface-Mount-Biscuit-Jacks/RJ45-Single-Surface-Mount-Jack (http://deepsurplus.com/Network-Structured-Wiring/Surface-Mount-Biscuit-Jacks/RJ45-Single-Surface-Mount-Jack)

Looks like the cheapest price I could find too.

Arent those kind of on the largish side though? If you want to make a Y-adapter out of them I mean?

/Stefan
Title: Re: MR 16 & CAT 5 Help
Post by: chrisatpsu on February 08, 2012,
i'd start with making it not short , then get fancy with the y adapters  >:D
Title: Re: MR 16 & CAT 5 Help
Post by: chrisatpsu on February 08, 2012,
if you switch to biscuit jacks on both ends...  why don't you double up on the conductors?
red = white.orange & orange
blue = white.blue & blue
green = white.brown & brown
common = white.green & green
Title: MR 16 & CAT 5 Help
Post by: rm357 on February 08, 2012,
Doubling the wires doesn't really buy you anything.

If you start pushing enough current to need doubled wires for the individual colors, you will be overloading the return, which has actually been reduced from three to two... Six in two out is not a good balance...

RM
Title: Re: MR 16 & CAT 5 Help
Post by: chrisatpsu on February 08, 2012,
was thinking for redundancy