atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Cabling Telephones Systems Wiring Modular Plugs on Cat 5e

Has anyone ever used these Platinum Tools EZ-RJ45 Cat 5e Connectors? I am old school and use the modular crimp plugs but I have been eyeing these for the past few months. I hate putting tips on Cat 5e but it has to be done. Any feedback or input?

https://www.cablegiant.com/default.aspx?p_id=4&product_id=280

I avoid putting tips on myself at all cost, but I have used the EZ connectors, I never had a problem with them.

We haven't put mod ends on Cat5e in 6 or 7 years. As our company policy is set, we always terminate on a jack, a jack insert or a patch panel. Period. No exceptions. I won't have it any other way.

I'm sure there are times when that policy just isn't going to be acceptable, but we haven't found one instance in many years. The last time we used plugs and crimper was a subcontract job for an IT company that demanded that we do it that way. It still bothers me. We should have walked away from the job.

We just took over a hotel with about 100 phones and 20 or so terminals on a network. Here they have a nice rack and the IT guy has crimped on plugs on the end of the Cat5e terminating in switches and routers with 10 ft of extra cable hanging down in front of the telephone system --with the switches & whatever all hanging like upside down popsicles in the back. What a mess. The first thing we did was dress up the cable the best we could, and I am going to push the company every two months or so, to let us, or their IT company, put in a patch panel so that things are done right.

They just paid us to put in a new CPU and a new Voice Mail---so it might be a while before they have the money budgeted for other projects. The CPU & VM projects were the result of years & years of IT guys not knowing what they were doing. It's a long sad story.

As an installer, I would not want to put myself into the same category as those IT guys who just haven't a clue. That's one of the reasons why we don't make our own patch cords and we don't terminate plugs on Cat5e. Saving some time and a little bit of money today can run into big money for the customer in 5-6 years at times. JMHO

Has anyone ever used these Platinum Tools EZ-RJ45 Cat 5e Connectors?

Only people I have ever heard use them are sparkies and geeks. Real telecom techs know when not to install plugs but when they do they use real plugs and a real presser, not that DIY stuff.

-Hal

Hal, I think the plugs you are thinking of are the R-Shack specials that have two halves that are held together with a screw - targeted, of course, at the same people who buy twist-on coax connectors. The plugs that were referred to above are just standard 8P8C plugs with the end open to allow pushing the conductors through the plug body and then trimming them flush - they are still crimped with the same modular crimp die. Several manufacturers actually make such a plug.

That said, I agree 100% with JWRacedog that terminating horizontal cable with modular plugs is just plain wrong. It always slays me when a CG says they insist on structured cabling, and then you see that they have all their horizontal cable coming out of a hole in the wall and terminated with modular plugs. I'm sure that nowhere in the reams of EIA/TIA specs for structured cabling is this allowed.

What makes matters even worse is that I'm constantly finding solid conductor cable that has been terminated with the wrong type of plugs. While most of the manufacturers and distributors now push "universal" plugs that (claim to) work on solid or stranded conductors, there are still plenty of plugs out there that are of the center-piercing contact design intended strictly for stranded cable. These plugs can be forced onto soild conductor cable. Brute force is required to make a ratcheting crimper release in this situation, along with the fact that the plug body usually cracks and the copper breaks through the insulation on the side opposite the contact. You would think that this would be a dead giveaway that something isn't right in trunk-slammer town, but these red flags seem to get missed somehow. Hence the dictionary defenition of the word "clueless."

It also doesn't help matters much that there are lots of bags of center-piercing type plugs sitting on warehouse shelves that are mis-labeled as being for "standard" CAT5 cable. The person responsible for labeling the package either misread "stranded" as "standard", or assumed it was a typo and "fixed" it. To most folks, "standard CAT5" means solid conductor cable. Of course, the same package also claims to contain "RJ-45 plugs", so a smart person would know to not to trust whoever labeled that bag.

Jim
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I pretty sure I am not a sparky, a geek, or a Do-It-Yourselfer....I have strarted to do more and more IP Cameras which as forced me to terminate at tip onto a cat5e or Cat 6 cable. These are not premade patch cables. These are long Cable runs that need an rj45 at the end to plug into the camera. Thanks for everyones input!

I don't like putting plugs on cable either. Every once in a while I'll put a new plug on a patch cord at work when the tab gets busted off. In my own business, I have made some custom cords for phone systems and the like, but for data I always use premade cords.

I've never seen a camera that needed an "RJ45." Must be something new.

I've never seen a camera that needed an "RJ45." Must be something new.

IP surveillance cameras have around for a few years.

"I've never seen a camera that needed an "RJ45." Must be something new.

Marc is correct "google" POE and Camera.