Now that you have the right tools, lets make an ethernet cable.
Step 1) Strip off 2 inches of jacket on the cable. Cut the excess ripcord off. (Note: If you're using Cat6 cable, it may have a wire separator between the 4 pairs of wires. Cut that off as well).
Step 2) Untwist all 4 pairs of wire.
Step 3) Follow the standard 568b Wiring Diagram:
Orange
Green/White
Blue
Blue/White
Green
Brown/White
Brown
Step 4) Hold the wires flat and use scissors to cut straight across, leaving 1/2" of wire exposed.
Step 5) Insert the wires into your modular plug, making sure to keep the wires flat and in the same order. Verify that the wires are all flush at the very end of the plug. Note how the cable jacket is past the crimp spot on the plug and the wires are all the way to the end.
Step 6) Insert mod plug into crimp tool and squeeze handle. Keep slight pressure on the cable (towards the crimp tool) as you're crimping the plug. This will ensure nothing comes loose as you squeeze the handle and crimp down the mod plug.
Step 7) Remove mod plug from crimp tool and verify everything was done correctly. Note how the crimp is pushing down on the jacket and the pins have seated into the wire. Now follow the same process on the other side.
Step 8) Now that you have a completed ethernet cable, plug one end into your Transmitter and the other end into the Receiver. The wires will light up either "Green" or "Red". If you have done everything correctly, you should see all green lights. If not, you will need to go back and redo the side causing the error.
Don't own a crimp tool? Need more Cat5e cable? Order that all here:
Wire Stripper
Cable Cutter (Electricians Scissors)
Ratcheting Crimp Tool
RJ45 Mod Plugs 8P8C
Bulk Cat5e Ethernet Cable
Cable Tester
Like watching it done on video? Mercy will demonstrate the process of making an ethernet cable for you. Enjoy
We hope you like our demonstration of How to Make an Ethernet Cat5e Cable. Want to see more instructional videos, like How to Punch Down a Patch Panel or How to Terminate Fiber Optic Cable? Visit the Discount-Low-Voltage.com YouTube page.
Note: Maximum cable length for Cat5e cable is 100 meters. Anything longer than that might not work correctly.
Related Posts:
How To Terminate Cat5e/Cat6 Kwik Jacks Using the Kwik Tool
How To Punch Down Cat5e/Cat6 Keystone Jacks
How Low Voltage Cable is Made
Crazy Data Center Wiring Pictures and Video
Standard 568b Wiring Diagram
4 Pair Cat5e CMR Bulk Cable
How To Fish Wires Through a Wall or Ceiling
As mentioned in the article, if you are using Cat 6 modular connectors, you must insert the untwisted wires through a plastic "load block" prior to inserting the wires/load block into the Cat 6 modular connector.
ReplyDeleteThe load block must be oriented correctly so that the load block aligns the wires with the holes inside the Cat 6 modular connector. With the load blocks that came with my connectors, the load block has a flat side with holes and the opposite side is missing. The wires must be inserted from the hollow side such that they come out of the flat side with holes. Done in this way, the wires will be aligned with the holes inside the modular connector.
To aid the insertion process, I found that the following steps were necessary to get the wires correctly inserted into the modular connector:
1. Strip the cable jacket back about 1 to 1 1/2 inches, and untwist and straighten the 4 twisted pairs. By exposing this additional length of wire, I found it much easier to insert each of the eight wires into the load block.
2. Examine the ends of the wires to see if they were deformed into an oval shape by the cutting process. If so, use needle nose pliers to reshape the wire ends into cylinders. Oval wire ends may not insert into the holes in the load block.
3. Insert each wire through the load block according to their color codes.
4. Once all of the eight wires are inserted through the load block, slide the load block back toward the cable until the load block is as close to the unstripped cable as possible (I was able to get the load block to within a distance of about 1/4 inch or less to the cable jacket). I found that I had to repeatedly wiggle the load block and then pull on the cut ends of the wires to enable the load block to slide along the wires.
5. Once the load block has been slid along the wires as far as possible, pull on the end of each of the wires to remove any remaining slack between the load block and the cable sheathing.
6. Line up the wires/load block with the modular connector with the cable jacket aligned with the cable stress relief clamp on the back end of the connector. Then cut the wires protruding from the load block such that the wire ends align with the pin end of the modular connector.
7. As in Step 2, examine the cut wires ends again and use needle nose pliers to reshape any ends that were distorted by the cutting in Step 6.
8. Slide the load block toward the cut ends of the wires such that only (say) 1/16 inches of wire remain exposed beyond the surface of the load block. Examine each of the wires and straighten them as required so that each is perpendicular to the face of the load block. This will maximize the load block's ability to align the wires with the holes inside the modular connector.
9. Insert the wires/load block into the modular connector with the white orange wire aligned with Pin One of the connector. By pushing on the cable, the wires will slide on through the load block and will go fully into the holes in the modular connector. If you cut the wires to the correct length in Step 6, the cable jacket should be underneath the cable clamp on the modular connector as well.
10. Look through the walls/pin end of the modular connector to ensure that all of the wires are fully seated into the connector. If one or more wires aren't fully inserted, pull the cable back out and repeat Steps 8 through 10 until all of the wires are fully seated in the connector.
11. Use your crimp tool to crimp the connector onto the cable.
Great post on making your own Cat5e Ethernet Cables. I love all the step-by-step pictures and the video.
ReplyDeleteexcellent thankyou so much for taking the time
ReplyDeleteand trouble to explain this
Your very welcome
ReplyDeleteGreat video thank you- wish i had seen this first. I have put the wires in from copying what I could see in another shop purchases RJ45.
ReplyDeleteWhite/Orange, Orange, White/Blue, Blue, White/Green, Green, White/Brown, Brown
I assume from checking, that the individual wires are different in thickness/coilage hence my router & ethernet lighting up but no signal being passed through?
Thanks,
R
R,
ReplyDeleteYes, the pinout is the problem. Ethernet uses pins 1,2,3 and 6, and in this case you have pins 3 and 6 on different pairs. There is a very complete explanation of why this is a problem in the Wikipedia article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twisted_pair
Your video is awesome, thank you so much. I do have a question however.
ReplyDeleteWhen I use my tester to test a pre-made cable, I see that that the wires are literally straight through, meaning the sequence is:
Orange/White
Orange
Green/White
Green
Blue/White
Blue
Brown/White
Brown
Which is different than 568B as described in your video. can you tell me why the difference and if it really makes a difference? I'm about to make numerous cables and want to make sure I make them right...Thank you again!
I have old 'LG Cable UTP 4PR 24AWG SOLID CMP 90C CAT5E 350 MHZ ETL Verified TIA/EIA 568A UL E158012 cUL FT6 ISO/IEC 11801' and color coding seems not to be following Wiring Diagramstandard. Can you help me indentify Wiring Diagram? Thanks in advance....Ned
ReplyDelete