Unsuitable Length of Ethernet Cable In Your Application?

Sometimes we may encounter the situation where the length of Ethernet cable bought in store is not suitable for the application. Is there an cost-effective way to solve this problem? Terminating the cable with RJ45 connector or using a RJ45 coupler to connect two cables by yourself can be a good option. This passage will introduce these two ways to solve such awkward problem.

Before we come to the termination process, let’s have a brief overview of RJ45 connector. The letter “RJ” represents “registered jack”, which is a standardized physical network interface for connecting telecommunication or data equipment. RJ45 connector features eight positions and eight contact pins (8P8C). Material of the connector often uses plastic which makes it look transparent, thus the connector can also be called crystal connector (shown as the figure below). RJ45 connector is the most common twisted-pair connector for Ethernet cables.

 

Using special tools for termination is very important. You should not cut the cable with other unprofessional tools since it may cause damage and increase signal loss. Jacket cutter or wire stripper is needed to safely cut the jacket off and not hurt the inner wires. Cable crimping tool is necessary for crimping the RJ45 connector onto the wire to make a compact connection. Wire cutter is used to neatly cut the cable ends. Ethernet testing tool is important for the final check of the cable when termination is complete.

After everything is prepared, you can start terminating the Ethernet cable. Just follow the steps one by one, and the process can be done within several minutes.

 

Step one. Trim the end of the Ethernet cable with a crimping tool. Strip off about one inch of the jacket, leaving the twisted pairs outside.

 

Step two. Separate the 4 twisted wire pairs from each other, and then unwind each pair. Flatten the 8 individual wires as much as possible to make preparation for proper individual insertion into the connector.

 

Step three. Make clear on which standard you are based, then carefully place the wires in order according to that standard.

 

Step four. Hold the RJ45 connector and carefully insert the prepared wires into the connector, pushing them through the connector until the wire ends come out of the connector’s pin side. Make sure the color order is correct. If not, remove the wires from the connector and do it again.

 

Step five. Carefully cut the wire ends using crimping tool. Make sure the ends are as flush with the connector’s surface as possible to ensure a good plug-in connection.

 

If you have experience to install or maintain cables in LANs, you may know how important to terminate Cat5e, Cat6 or Cat6a bulk network cables with RJ45 connectors. Mastering this skill sometimes can save time as well as money in Ethernet cable installations.

A RJ45 coupler, or inline coupler, is a small device with two female RJ45 jacks that joins two wires with Ethernet plugs together (shown as the figure below). Inline couplers do not provide any amplification or signal boost, and can cause attenuation and signal degradation unless they are of high quality. The primary use for a RJ45 coupler is to turn two short Ethernet computer networking cables into one long cable. When processing this, the RJ45 couplers need to be built to carry two cables with the same bandwidth in the network. This can be a convenient way to join two RJ45-terminated cables together to form one long cable.

 

Learning the skill of Ethernet cable termination or connecting two cables with RJ45 couple efficiently solves the problem of unsuitable cable length. In this way, Ethernet cables can be more flexible to suit different applications. FS.COM provides the related copper products mentioned in the article, such as 1000ft Ethernet cable, Cat5e coupler, Cat6 coupler, RJ45 to RJ45 connector, etc.