sundance-communications.com/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information RJ11 to RJ45

I manage industrial properties and the fire control panels have comm lines supplied as RJ31x boxes.

When a have a comm fail I cannot determine if it is the phone company or the fire system at fault.

I would like a simple way of determining if there is a dial tone at the box. Is there any way of converting a RJ45 connector to RJ11 so I could use a standard phone handset with cord to see if there is a dial tone present?

Thanks, Larbo

If you plug a telephone with a standard RJ-11 plug into the RJ-31X series alarm jack, it will lift the shorting pins and let you test for dial tone. Yes, the RJ-11 plug is narrower than then RJ-31 jack, but it will center into the jack and do the job.

Or you could take a dual surface jack, with an 8 pin jack insert, and a 6 pin insert, wire the white/blue of each to the other, and use a Cat-5 patch cord to go from the RJ-31 to the 8-pin jack. Plug your phone into the 6 pin jack

Hi TTT,

In review, if I take a standard phone and plug it into an RJ31 jack, it will work (probably self-centering with the locking tab). Can I take a handset alone and do the same or do I need to use the whole phone?

Also, could I take a Cat5 wire and handset wire and splice them together? If so, what color wires need to be joined?

Thanks again, Larbo

You need to use the set not just the handset.

Good Luck

Mike

Then I'll try to find one of those combination "phone in the handset" units. Thx

I was not such a great listener and I took a chance by plugging in a handset (4-pin handset cord) to the RJ31x.... dial tone!!!! It centers up with the locking tab, just like the 6 and 8 pins cords.

Is this potentially a bad thing to do?

Thanks again, Larbo