Standard or passthrough RJ45s, crimpers etc - whats your preference?

[rorton]

Whats peoples preference with RJ45 connectors and tools? Ive always been a standard 8p8c fan, and always crimped RJ45s onto stranded cable and left solid cable for permanent install and onto punchdown blocks etc. Done many thousands for data networks patch cables and CCTV and never had a problem.

I had a go at using the same knippex crimpers and some RJ45 connectors that said they were for solid cable onto some solid core cat5e cable, and couldn't get a decent termination, cables wouldn't test properly.

Ive been looking at the pass through easy connectors and thought I'd try those and see if they work any better for solid cable.

Is there a specific brand of connectors people are using, whats everyone's preference? I can only assume that the connectors I got we're not for solid cable, but read lots of posts where people use any old rj45 with success.

 

[Phil]

Hi @rorton,

It's a great question.
A topic that never seems as straight forward as it should be.

As a business, we here do not get hands-on with terminating and crimping very often.
We are pretty much always making temporary test connections, and just use bought patch leads of an appropriate length for our needs.

I was hoping that some of our installer forum members might comment on your thread, as they have way more real-world experience than us in this aspect.

My basic starting point is - that whoever you buy from should be able to recommend products that work together i.e. good cable, with crimp-on RJ45 plugs to suit and a tool that does the job well.

However, it has been a moving target.
We, for years, have recommended Excel cat5/6 cable.
And, the crimps and tools seem to come and go, and it is no longer clear what the ideal 'set' is.

IP CCTV Cables and Plugs | Buy from a UK supplier


Crimping is fiddly at best.
I've seen the 'Easy' tools and crimps, and think the pass-through and cut after method should be easier.

On top of this, we are being encouraged to promote XeLan cable and accessories rather than Excel now.
But, they sent me "their latest" promo catalogue in the few days since your query AND it was dated 2021 and referenced no RJ45 connectors nor tools to match the cables offered in the catalogue - Doh!


Where there is confusion, lets see if we can shed some light - I am going to challenge our Tech Team to source some sets and test (and feed back here).

Thanks for the very relevant query.

And, we would still welcome input from anybody more hands-on than we typically are

 

[rorton]

Thanks for the reply, I’ve read conflicting things about the pass through easy plugs, with people saying that because the ends of the rj45 are open, it’s more prone to failure, air getting in and affecting the copper or something like that. The concept is good though and looks less fiddly.

be great to get some input as I can’t for the life of me work out why I can’t make a successful connection using excel solid cable, monoprice plugs that say they are only for solid cable, and the same knippex crimpers I use to successfully make stranded patch cables.

 

[rorton]

I bought some Excel Fast Plugs that got delivered today - I dont have the pass through type crimper yet, just a normal one, so resigned to snipping the ends off for this test.

Using Ultima Solid LSZH Cat5e, the Excel easy passthrough RJ45s crimped on no problem, was much easier to verify the cable layout (must be me so used to stranded but found it more difficult to get them in order using solid cable than stranded!) and the main thing is, the cable tested perfect - no problems. I had to snip off the excess cable poking out the end of the RJ45 , which isn't ideal, but they worked.

I then went back to these MonoPrice solid core RJ45s I still had, crimped them up, and no luck, pins 1and 8 showed connection, all others didn't. Had a bag of random other RJ45s - no idea where I got them, and same result.

I may invest in a set of pass through crimpers to use with these as they do a good job on solid cable at least.

Has anyone has any long term problems with using easy through connectors? Read issues about oxidisation with the cores being exposed at the end - if doing outdoor IP cams, I use the supplied waterproof hood thingy that comes with them so not sure how true this is.