Stranded UTP and crimp connectors

stranded cable for stranded crimp connectors, (altronics P1380) solid cable for puchdown and solid crimp connectors (altronics P1388).

If you use the wrong connector it may be less reliable.

if you only have solid crimp plugs and use them plan on replacing them at some time.

Thanks. I checked my receipt, the girl who served me chose the connectors, she took a quick look at the cable and grabbed the connectors from the tray, the two types were right next to one another. She got the right ones :-). Good service!

Hi Bruce,

Stranded cable should be used for the making of patch leads and the standard RJ45 Male connector is designed for that type of cable...

Solid core cable is designed ONLY for infrastructure... ie. inside your walls etc and designed to be terminated onto Female or Krone sockets etc.. the cable gets punched into a V which bites into either side of the canductor..

To complicate things there are RJ45 conectors (Male) that are supposedly for solid core cable (usually have a curve on cable entry) but I wouldnt reccomend using them.

Basically only use solid core in walls etc and use puch down terminating connectors , and only use stranded cable for patch leads with crimp type connectors...

Also generally we dont make patch leads these days as they are readilly available and dirt cheap.

regards,

mick

RJ45 crimp on solid core is useful in large infrastructure work where you're going from a patch panel to fixed switch gear.

We installed a patch frame with 5000 points on it, 2000 of those went directly to the switch gear as fixed wiring. Chopping the ends of patch leads to put into the back of the patch frame would have made no sense.

And before you ask why not just patch directly from the switches into the panel - the panel was a Siemons non-RJ45 system (without the breakable plastic clips) On section of the panel went to building infrastructure another to a phone system and the other to the switch fabric.

Always use the correct crimp type (solid vs stranded) with the correct cable

- I don't know how many times I've had to fix cables that had the wrong end on them and would flake out. Even had a batch of pre-made patch leads from a supplier with the wrong crimps - didn't use them again.

Don't chop the end off, buy longer ones, chop them in half, and use both ends, it takes me over a minute fo do a rj45 plug correctly, by the time that's multiplied by what the client pays and the parts are added in. it's cheaper to use one end of a pre-bult cable, even it it means wasting a metre of cable in the middle.

And you get anti-snag and moulded strain relief for free