Cat5 etc tester, toner suggestions.

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TwoBlocked

TwoBlocked

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Bradford County, PA
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Industrial Electrician
Looking to get a combo cable tester and would like some recommendations. Need to be able to test Cat5e and cat6 and also send a tracing signal. Being able to send a tracing signal on ordinary conductors (non-powered) and test phone lines would be a plus.
 
TwoBlocked said:
Looking to get a combo cable tester and would like some recommendations. Need to be able to test Cat5e and cat6 and also send a tracing signal. Being able to send a tracing signal on ordinary conductors (non-powered) and test phone lines would be a plus.
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The first thing to know about ethernet cable testing is there is a difference between verify and certify tools. A verify tool is all most need for run of the mill jobs as it will identify most issues such as crossed pairs even though pin to pin is correct. A few hundred bucks for one such as Fluke.
On the other hand, if you are doing "certified" work then you need a full certifier. In the many thousands of $.
As for a toner, any name brand is fine.
 
I use a Fluke toner and an Ideal VDV Multimedia tester. The tester will also send a tone but I usually just use the toner.
 
I have a cheapo klein tester VDV526-200 its under $60 and checks the pinout and can identify split pairs. It also injects tone on whichever wire you want.
 
Todd0x1 said:
I have a cheapo klein tester VDV526-200 its under $60 and checks the pinout and can identify split pairs. It also injects tone on whichever wire you want.
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This is the one I chose along with the VDV500-123 tracing probe. THANKS FOLKS! Could have used it today. We were thinking we had a bad cable, but a CAT5 got mixed up with a RS485 (also with a RJ45) on an HMI.
 
Oh, okay, now I know what you meant: split pairs. Pin-to-pin is maintained, but proper pairing is not.

Yes, it matters, and I know why it matters: differential op-amps and common-mode noise rejection.

I can't imagine that anyone who knows how to terminate Ethernet wiring would wire it that way. o_O
 
There are times we need to connect directly to a controller without an ethernet switch. We have crossover cables for that. Be interesting to see if the tester recognizes it as a valid crossover cable.
 
TwoBlocked said:
I know. I follow behind some "loose cannons". The VDV526-200 will fail a straight through RJ45, the VDVC500-705 won't. No biggy, I'll just make something up with alligator clips.

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The 526-200 will fail a straight through (like flat phone cable) cable for split pairs but the wiremap will still show correctly so its not unusable.

Klein and others make a RJ45 -> alligator clips to use the toner with bare wires. Its like $6.00
 
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