Soldering cables?

D

Digital-Vortex

Gawd
Joined
Dec 11, 2001
Messages
961
Hey all.

I got into a problem with the cat5e cable in my house, the cable behind the wall is jammed (damn plasterers) and i dont feel upto replastering, I was wondering tho if its possible to extend it by soldering on more cable?

in short. would solder cause issues with the network?

thanks
 
Yes, it would. You would be introducing some nasty potential interference issues. Look into getting some RJ45 couplers or a punch down block.
 
Agreed, the couplers work great as long as they are Cat5e/6 rated. If not, they wont work. Small detail.
 
Well theres very little cable in the wall box. so putting a connector on it aint happening. so i wanted to solder them, then wrap them in tape so there not conductive :D

Il post pics of the results
 
Good luck. For one the outside coating on CAT5 will melt at a very low temp. Plus the fact that you are untwisting the copper. One more thing you are changing the Ohm rating on the wire by putting another metal in there.

My guess is it's not going to work. If it does I bet your bandwith is going to be crap.
 
Ok, this is what i have to work with.

wall.jpg


The ends of the pairs i have tryed to put back on to the wall socket (thus the odd ending bits) but there not long enough. the good thing is the face plate is modular so i can move the socket to one side. but even then its not long enough.

any ideas?
 
yikes! there's no excess you can pull at all?

whenever I run cable, i try to leave some excess coiled in the box that could be used later if i ever have to work on it.
 
theres plenty of excess cable. but then they plastered it they trapped it in the wall. so i cant get it out :confused:
 
Is that pic upside-down or is the cable coming out of the bottom? If there is conduit, then you could chop the cable in the attic(if that's how it's wired) and use a punchdown block. Looks like you might be screwed though, soldering will most likely drop your rate to 10mbps with a lot of errors at best.
 
Nope, its the right way up, comes up from the bottom of the socket.

i think im just going to chanel out the plaster
 
why don't you remove the screws hold the metal box in place and reach in with your hands?
 
I fail to see why you can't put an RJ45 connector on it and use a barrel connector. There's more than enough length on that cable to terminate it. You'll just be uncomfortable doing it, but not as much if you were to try and solder in that space.
 
Definitely use a coupler. You can get them at any Radio Shack for nothing.

You could even just put an RJ45 plug on the end and get an extender, again from Radio Shack.

I believe the only real difference is that you're "punching" down the wires on either an RJ45 or the coupler itself.

Bob always gets these answers in before me. :)
 
Soldering or crimping cables together is just going to screw you over since it will disturb the twist frequency and could allow for more interference and crosstalk. Where is the cable stuck? Is it stuck right behind the box or is it stuck somewhere else? If it is stuck near the box then I would just try to break the plaster away from around the cable.
 
I would just shove a coupler in, but its more lack of space rather than the lack of cable! The box isnt that big.

I;m just going to chisel out the plaster thats holding the cable and sort it that way, easier to repair that than deal with it. thanks for your help!
 
why not pull the box out, flip it around so the cable comes out the top and gives you a few more precious inches?
 
LittleMe said:
why not pull the box out, flip it around so the cable comes out the top and gives you a few more precious inches?
Click to expand...

I think he said the run is from the bottom. Turning the box won't give any additional cable.

If you know there is extra cable, I'd just grab it with a pliers and pull till it came free. I'd make sure to cut quite a bit off since you'd have a messed up end and probably pull some of the twists out, but atleast you could work with it then.


 
Call back the contractor and complain? That's a bummer man. You could put a keystone on what little you have in the box and make a cable with an rj45 end on it with an open end giving you just enough cable to reach another keystone on the face plate?
 
LittleMe said:
Call back the contractor and complain? That's a bummer man. You could put a keystone on what little you have in the box and make a cable with an rj45 end on it with an open end giving you just enough cable to reach another keystone on the face plate?
Click to expand...

For a second there I was going to say the keystone is the best bet, but look how mangled that wiring is! (maybe it's the lighting..) I don't think even a keystone would do the trick.

Now maybe you can hold the sleeving and pull the wires some. I have had a little luck in the past with getting a little, and I mean a little bit, of wire to come out. That is if the wire is not as mangled as it appears and you can use a keystone.
 
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