Cat5e wiring questions

[Gatt]

Hi all,

I'm working on wiring my modular panel,  and am now up to the point where I'm going to start wiring my cat5e wire into connectors(Keystones?)

These guys,  for reference...

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xiy/R-100662472/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

And I've went ahead and watched a couple youtube primers.

I've never done this before,  so I've got a couple questions if no one minds?

1.  What's the A/B thing?  Do I need to worry about it or can I just lay my wires on the inside and punch them down?

2.  Do I need to strip the wires before punching them down or will the connectors self-strip?


3.  Does it matter if I leave some of the terminals empty or do I have to wire each,  because a joystick connector won't require all 8 wires.

Thanks in advance!

[EvilNuff]

1. There are two cat5 standards A and B, if you wire a cat5 wire run as long as you make both ends the same you're fine...does not matter past that.  For your purposes just for use in your cab do whatever you like.

2. No need to strip all the connectors i've used strip for you.

3. Does not matter, though i'd just wire the full compliment to either A or B standard in case you want to add something else later on, some buttons or what not.

[WhereEaglesDare]

Those levitons are great btw.  Just use the B Standard on all your connections and you'll be okay.  Before you do it make sure you make a spreadsheet for all your wiring for example

1P1B - Orange
1P2B - Orange/White
1P3B - Blue

Ground - Brown and Brown White
and so on

Most cables that you pick up from a retail store will use the B Standard, but even if they use the A Standard as long as both ends of the cables are A then it will be fine.

When using Cat5 cable solid wire is better than the stranded for this since the cabling wont be moving much, instead your patch cables will be moving more.

I hope I made some sense.

[Gatt]

Hey thanks guys!

@eagles,  I actually just used Doc's color-coding scheme on his modular mame writeup,  which now I'm really gratefull I did.  When I started I didn't know the wires were assigned positions in the connectors,  my life's alot easier having used his infos.

[telengard]

Hey thanks guys!

@eagles,  I actually just used Doc's color-coding scheme on his modular mame writeup,  which now I'm really gratefull I did.  When I started I didn't know the wires were assigned positions in the connectors,  my life's alot easier having used his infos.

I use Cat5 and keystones etc on my modular setup and just came up with a designation for both joystick/button input (switches) and optical controls.  I *highly* recommend getting a patch panel if you are going modular.  Makes things a LOT easier.

Also, if you can find them, the pass-thru ones are much easier to deal with (no crimping!).

~telengard