This is a very nice tool for making network cables. The connectors (RJ45) comes with, 8 holes at the end of the connector in the direction of where the wires are being inserted into the connector for crimping. The reat advantage is the holes allow for the wires to come out of the end of the connetor, hereby allowing for easy examination of wires before crimping. This allows making sure each wire is inserted where it is supposed to be, and it gurantees connection, therefore mistakes are drastically reduced. Anther advatage is, you do not have to worry about missing including the jacket in the final crimp. You just keep pushing unjacketed wires through the holes until you have inserted enough of the jacket into the connector such that it can be grabed by the connector as the result of the crimp. It can save a lot of time when making cables.

http://www.platinumtools.com/featured.html

I like that very much, easier and not so many connectors wasted.

Maplins do something similar

http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?...13521&doy=28m4

I took a look at Maplin. It looks good. What you posted shows sheilded RJ45 connectors. I remember several years ago I had to do a lot of digging to find an RJ45 with metalic element on the case to used as shield. My problem at that time was, I could not find any sheilded cable that was compatible with that connector. Unfortunatley, I do not recall the specific natue of that project, but it had to do with supresing any radiated noise out of the cat5 cable, because the cable was being run adjacent to some other sensetive equipment.

Now one question I have regarding the Maplin one, how does it do in preserving the twist? I noticed that some people are not aware of preserving as much of the twist as possible when making cables. Both cat3 (voice grade telephone cable) and cat5 use no. 24 wire. Cat3 is good up to 10Mbs. Cat5 can go over 100Mbs. The difference between the two cable is the twist incorporated in the cable pairs. In cat3, the twist is loose and kind of random. In cat5 the twist is calculated for specific distance and for specific plane. This is to ensure equal amount of common mode noise voltage rides on each wire in each pair such that they are equal and are 180 degrees out of phase at the point of entry into the device, hence, any iduced noise will be minimal. The connector that I listed greatly aids in preserving the cat5 pair twist. With this connector, you can untwist wire without fear, and then keep pushing the wires through the holes until the section of the cable that has intact twist comes into play.

Anyhow, thank you very much for your reply.

I've not looked into the Maplin ones.
I try not to make many cables now, I've got the ones running from the router upstairs, it's just as easy now to buy them ready made.

thank you for posting the link

This is to ensure equal amount of common mode noise voltage rides on each wire in each pair such that they are equal and are 180 degrees out of phase at the point of entry into the device, hence, any iduced noise will be minimal.

Hmm, I think the twist is actually to "cancel" eddy currents (crosstalk) and create common mode noise rejection - common mode noise being interference being equally induced on the pairs from outside sources such as fluorescent light ballasts, motors, nearby transformers, etc.

But the idea is the same, to minimize "noise" - electrical interference, and minimize signal attenuation.

With standard RJ-45 connectors, it does take a little practice and a fine eye, but I have had no problems with 50ft runs of CAT6 and running a 1Gb LAN. It was AFTER I made those cables that I came across the Sentinel Connectors which use a standard crimping tool. They are similar to the Maplin connectors.

Here's a nice White Paper on UTP Technology.

Originally Posted by Digerati

Hmm, I think the twist is actually to "cancel" eddy currents (crosstalk) and create common mode noise rejection - common mode noise being interference being equally induced on the pairs from outside sources such as fluorescent light ballasts, motors, nearby transformers, etc.

But the idea is the same, to minimize "noise" - electrical interference, and minimize signal attenuation.

With standard RJ-45 connectors, it does take a little practice and a fine eye, but I have had no problems with 50ft runs of CAT6 and running a 1Gb LAN. It was AFTER I made those cables that I came across the Sentinel Connectors which use a standard crimping tool. They are similar to the Maplin connectors.

Here's a nice White Paper on UTP Technology.

My understanding of "crosstalk" is (I could be wrong) that crosstalk is caused by nighboring pairs, and not by outside sources. I think it is the amount of unwanted energy getting from one pair into the other". But, as you said, the idea is the same, to minimize "noise". Whatever the source of the noise, the tightness of the twist and the wires in a pair being so close, make the noise almost equal on each wire, but 180 degree out of phase.
Thanks for your response and thanks for the white paper. I am pretty sure I will learn something new from it.--Take care.

You are right, crosstalk can be from neighboring pairs, but it can also come from separate cables running adjacent and in parallel to each other - not normally a problem with Ethernet - even though the frequency is high enough, the potential (voltage) is not. Still, it is a good idea to have all the cables cross over each other instead of being exactly parallel the entire run. However, running AC cables along the same run can induce "60 cycle hum" (50Hz in Europe) in adjacent cables. So it is always a good idea to run power cables down one path, and data cables down another. This is easpcially true with audio/speaker cables.

I remember a young troop who was so proud of how neat and tidy the wiring of his home theater system was - he spent hours dressing up everything in perfectly spaced parallel runs of all his cables; data, line-level audio, speaker, and power. Nothing worked! The 60 cycle hum out of his speakers was horrendous; his HTPC would not connect to the Internet, and the display on his monitor/TV from the DVD and HTPC was "noisy". I had to laugh, then sent him off to read up on eddy currents, inductance, and magnetic flux.

Moral of the story - if all the wires in the back of your computer desk look like a rat's nest - leave leave them alone!

Something that I learned from the white paper is that the common mode noise is not 180 degree out of phase on the wires belonging to each pair. It is actually the same potential. What happens, the reciever changes the polarity of the siganl on the "-" port, and then adds that to the signal on the "+" port. That is how they end up cancelling. Although my original thinking was correct about the final result regaridng common mode energy (voltage or current, either way), but it was not accurate about what was actualy happening.
Thank again for the article. I enjoyed it, and saved a copy of it on my computer for future.