Cable Tester

[PBC]

As I am about to wire a fair few Cat 5e cables for my home AV set-up, I thought I would look at getting a cable tester (as I don't have a great success rate in fitting plugs to Cat cable).

Is this any good for what I want to do - CCS Tester from CableMonkey

Appreciate any help

Thanks

Phil

 

[vex]

Have a chat with Mike at Aca-Apex in Leighton Buzzard.

They have a great little tester with LCD panel that will give far more I do than that CCS.

A bit more money but should be worth it.

Hth

V.

 

[Trollslayer]

I bought that from CableMonkey, a good go/no go tester. It found several faulty terminations.

 

[PBC]

Thanks guys; will have a look at the one from CableMonkey

Phil

 

[PBC]

Can anyone explain the four lights on the Tester 1-2, 3-6, 4-5, 7-8 and what they show?

Just checked a working patch cable I had to hand and only got 1-2 to light up.

Thanks

Phil

 

[vex]

Either it or the patch lead is knackered.

The numbers relate to the colour pairs, so you can know where to start looking for faults.

So if it is a 586b lead' only the orange pair are working, if it is 586a then the green pair are working.

Hth.

V.

 

[vex]

Sorry, they should flash in sequence.
1-2
3-6
4-5
7-8

Anything different to that and you have a problem

 

[PBC]

Just tried some more patch cables that are working on the LAN here and they just give a constant light to 1-2 and 3-6

Do patch ethernet cables need to have all 4 pairs connected, or do they operate with only 2 pairs "live"?

Wondering if my cables are wrong; the tester faulty or everything is OK and I am still learning

 

[mikim]

A good cable tester is essential as the 8 light continuity ones tend to be a bit dodgy. The same goes for termination crimps & plugs as some just never give a great crimp.
Your cable ends need to be:

(reading from the plug clip side up)
Brown
Brown stripe
Green
Blue stripe
Blue
Green stripe
Orange
Orange stripe

+ground on casing if you are using shielding.

All 8 are required.

If you are only doing a few ends then it is pointless spending silly money on a tester. To be honest, just hook up a laptop to a router/switch and check in the network settings to see if you are negotiating correctly.

 

[PBC]

Is it true that all 8 are needed in a patch cable?

The cable I tested is marked on the cable "2 pair", which is what the tester is showing 1-2 and 3-6

Also I found this on the internet, which says for Straight-Through Ethernet Cable, that 4-5 and 7-8 are unused; so I assume the cables I have tested are only 2 pair and not fully wired.

Does this make sense?

Thanks

Phil

 

[mikim]

This is true... Ethernet only actually uses two pairs, but it is good practice to run all 8 cables to ensure connectivity. You also never know what's round the corner with regards to cable usage.

 

[PBC]

Thanks for the confirmation - still learning here

Phil

 

[mikim]

No worries, happy to help

 

[neilball]

Your 2-pair cable is only going to run at 10-100Mb/s, to run at 1Gb/s requires all 4 pairs in a Cat5e/Cat6 cable to be connected.