Heavy duty CAT5e/Ethernet cable

Ryan Lantzy

Ryan Lantzy

Junior
Jan 10, 2011
266
0
16
Allegheny Mountains
Has anyone used that Gepco CT504HD heavy duty CAT5e cable? I'm having a heck of a time terminating it with RJ-45. I've probably built a thousand or so CAT5 cables in my life and I've never had any issues, but the wires just don't want to fit in the RJ-45 connectors I have.

Tips? Thoughts? Maybe a different brand of RJ-45?
 
Re: Heavy duty CAT5e/Ethernet cable

Rob,

Not the outer jacket - as you suspect I'm using EtherCons and I figured it would grip the cable jacket. I'm actually having trouble stuffing the inner conductors into the RJ45 connector.

I gave up for now, and put the cable and connectors over an A/C vent. They sat outside for a while and I'm wondering if the heat caused the insulation on the conductors to expand a bit.
 
Re: Heavy duty CAT5e/Ethernet cable

I think I read when I was having the same issue Ryan, that there are different connectors to accommodate the thicker individual conductor jacket... It made me stop making my own with that cable, and used different cable... Luckily it was just jumpers... Check it out! Stranded vs solid, cat 5, 6... There's several types, I have to believe there are bigger slots for stranded and jacket...
 
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Re: Heavy duty CAT5e/Ethernet cable

Ryan Lantzy said:
Rob,

Not the outer jacket - as you suspect I'm using EtherCons and I figured it would grip the cable jacket. I'm actually having trouble stuffing the inner conductors into the RJ45 connector.

I gave up for now, and put the cable and connectors over an A/C vent. They sat outside for a while and I'm wondering if the heat caused the insulation on the conductors to expand a bit.
Click to expand...

You won't get enough expansion/contraction in the cross-section to make a difference. Use cat-6 ends, they'll accomodate the larger diameter strands and still provide proper contact. (as verified by a SignalTek load tester)
Sometimes the larger opening for the jacketed cable doesn't tighten enough on some cat-5, but since it's going in an ethercon it really doesn't matter (as mentioned previously)
 
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