Cat5 to RJ11 adapters

[booster]

Need some cable help here, as I am network illiterate at best.

I have been looking at all the connections for the new Magnum inverter/charger, and where to put stuff, and have run into a bit of a glitch.

I had planned on using the location of our current inverter remote at the front of the van by the fuse panel, or into the spot where we currently have the remote for the current Blue Sea charger. Cables are already to both spots, so I thought I was good to go without removing wall stuff to run cables.

Bad news is that both of the current cables are RJ45 8 wire, it appears, and the Magnum uses the RJ11 6 position/4 wire.

I need to go from 8P8C male cable to 6P4C female on the inverter and remote on both ends of the cable. I have found adapters that sound right, but will all the wires come out in the right place? Will these work, or will I need something else, or am I out of luck?

RJ11 Male to RJ45 Female Converter

[avanti]

Um...maybe. Those standards (which you can read up on from many sources) are designed to be compatible among different wire sizes (with the wire colors working outward from the center pins of the connectors), but there are occasionally issues concerning cross-over vs straight-through connections. The link you provided states the following:

"If you require a matching opposite to this converter (ie, RJ11 female to RJ45 male) our type C converter available below is the correct part."

This probably has to do with straight-through vs crossover.

Frankly, if it were me I would go to Home Depot and get the proper crimp tool, figure out what you need and modify your cable to be correct. Takes only a little practice, and the tool isn't that expensive.

[markopolo]

I'd crimp on new ends also.

[booster]

Originally Posted by avanti

Um...maybe. Those standards (which you can read up on from many sources) are designed to be compatible among different wire sizes (with the wire colors working outward from the center pins of the connectors), but there are occasionally issues concerning cross-over vs straight-through connections. The link you provided states the following:

"If you require a matching opposite to this converter (ie, RJ11 female to RJ45 male) our type C converter available below is the correct part."

This probably has to do with straight-through vs crossover.

Frankly, if it were me I would go to Home Depot and get the proper crimp tool, figure out what you need and modify your cable to be correct. Takes only a little practice, and the tool isn't that expensive.

Will all the tools crimp a standard RJ11 plug onto a Cat 5 cable?

I don't think the other one is a crossover, I saw them elsewhere. It looks to be the same thing but male and females reversed.

[avanti]

Originally Posted by booster

Will all the tools crimp a standard RJ11 plug onto a Cat 5 cable?

Yes. You might not be able to get the outer sheaf into the strain-relief, but you can lay in the individual wires OK.

[booster]

Such fun,

I just printed out the pin outs for Cat 5 and RJ11, and looked at what some adapters are. It look like I can use a Cat 5 coupler, the Amazon available Cat 5 to RJ11 adapter, and then an RJ11 cable. This may be better for me because it gives me more adaptable length with cable.

Looks like the Cat 5 straight through cable use the same terminations on each end, but the RJ11 swap the pins symmetrically. Probably to accommodate flat cable without having to twist it? Also appears that a straight through Cat 5 couple, actually crosses the wires (visualy) internally to leave the pins the same from both sides.

The Cat 5 to RJ11 adapter says that is crosses, assuming that is the RJ11 connections, but doesn't show a pinout. My guess would be that it probably doesn't matter because I will have one at each end, so if it crosses, it should uncross at the other end?

At least as a final, I should be able to just meter the two ends of the built up cable with adapters and see if the continuity match a plain RJ11 cable. At least that will make it non destructive.

Thanks for the input.

[avanti]

The "straight through" vs "crossed" issue has plagued datacom since the days of the teletype machine. The core issue is that if you have the same kind of connector on each side, and if there is a directional signal (i.e., an "input" on one side and an "output" on the other) you either have to cross the wires or have different pin assignments on each side. BUT, if you have TWO (or any other even number) reversals, they cancel each other out, and you are back where you started from. So, there exist "crossing" and "straight-through" versions of many kinds of cables (and, thus, adaptors).

It is really quite a nightmare. If you want to be entertained, do a Google search containing the strings:
DTE DCE
and sip the fire hose.

[booster]

I finally got all the parts collected to try to get the Magnum remote to work through a Cat5 cable with Rj11 adapters. I finally did get it to work, after some messing around. The crossing, non crossing, thing, can mess you up big time.

The normal Rj11 cable from Magnum has the connectors wired opposite if they are held side be side. To get that configuration, the two Rj11 to Cat5 adapters cancelled out each other so no problem. The get the same orientation at the other end, you need an Rj11 cable with the connectors not wired opposite. As it turns out I had some phone ones that were wired that way to test with, but now I made a twisted pair cable and it works fine.

As long as the Cat5 in the van isn't crossed from the one I used for testing, all should be good. I am amazed that Magnum didn't know how to address the issue, as I would think it would be common in inverter/charger upgrades.