Keystones and Wallplates

[felixrosbergen]

Hi All,

Getting ready for the finishing of the installation in my new home and I'm going to need a bunch of wallplates and keystones...

Whats the main differences between the Leviton, Cyrex and Leviton products? Are they compatible?

It seems that at least if i forgot to order something the Leviton keystones/plates are also available at the local HomeDepot which is a big plus.

I need to decide now so i can have a consistent installation...

Your experiences / recommendations are much appreciated.

 

[sic0048]

Color is one big difference. Not every "Ivory" or "White" etc is the same. There are a couple of manufactures that the colors do match pretty well, but most do not. Other than that, there isn't much difference IMHO. So find the color that you really want, and use that manufacture's stuff. It's especially important to match colors with your other plug and switch covers if they are close to your LV covers.

 

[MikeB]

I went with Leviton for their wide variety of quickport connectors, colors, etc. Being able to source them at your local Home Depot is a plus as well. I used them for my Cat5e, Cat6, RG-6, RCA and speaker connectors.

 

[felixrosbergen]

yeah...i'm leaning towards Leviton as well...but wanted to get some other opinions...

At least when i need one or two pieces i forgot to order i can pick em up at HD rather than order online and wait/pay for shipping...

I got my 42" Leviton can from HD, it was about $5 more than online...but no shipping cost....

 

[jlehnert]

At one point, Leviton and OnQ were color compatible, but that was before OnQ got grabbed by Legrand. I don't know if they still are.

Make sure you do have everything color matched. The color differences are more noticeable than you would think. Everything in my house is Levition, except the GFI outlets where Cooper from Lowes. The difference is glaringly obvious under even moderate lighting. If I ever get around to tiling the backsplash in the kitchen, the GFIs WILL be replaced.

 

[Neurorad]

Where do people buy Leviton online?

Do you use Leviton Quickport, or Leviton 'Universal'? I also see 'Standard 19 inch TIA equipment rack' listed.

 

[felixrosbergen]

Has anybody used the keystones from Monoprice? Do they match in color to Leviton keystones and plates?

I like the prices at monoprice but want to stay compatible with Leviton so i can pick up pieces at the local homedepot in a pinch.

For RCA keystones do you put a RCA connector on a coax and inside the wall or do you actually put an F-connector on the back? I would prefer somehting that is screwed on inside the walls.

For speaker binding posts...do you solder the wire to the backside of the keystone? How hard is this...i'm not a big hero with the soldering iron...

I'm about 2 weeks out from closing on my house and moving in...at which point the termination fun will all begin...no more nights on the couch...just nights in the basement doing cat5e and RG6 terminations...

I heard for component runs it's important to have the same cable lenght for the different coax's....how close does this need to be matched? Or we talking within the same 6" or foot here or within the same inch?

 

[PaulD]

For speaker binding posts...do you solder the wire to the backside of the keystone? How hard is this...i'm not a big hero with the soldering iron...

I am using Leviton parts across the board in my new house to insure color match (it is a WAF issue). I went with Ivory because just about every manufacture makes stuff in that color and the match is good. I found that the almond color varies between vendors.
Leviton has several types of speaker connectors. I am using the "binding post" style that allows me to use banana jacks or spade connectors o the front. The back side connects to wire by sticking the bare wire end into a cavity on the the connector and locking it in with a set screw....no soldering required.

 

[felixrosbergen]

Does 23awg solid Cat6 be terminated on a cat5e leviton keystone? I want to put the cat6 in, but the price of the keystones is outrageous and i don't need the speed in most places.

Only place where i think i need the speed is at the kitcen PC where i plan to rip DVD's from there directly to the server harddrive.

 

[jlehnert]

For RCA keystones do you put a RCA connector on a coax and inside the wall or do you actually put an F-connector on the back?

Most of the pros are using a system where the keystone is PART of the jack so there is only a single connection (patch cord to keystone) instead of two (jack to back of keystone, front of keystone to patch cord). Leviton has this capability, as does Platinum Tools as part of the "Cable Pro" line. The keystones themselves are not bad, but the tools are somewhat pricey, so you will need to decide if you're going to do enough terminations to justify the cost of the tool.

 

[Sacedog]

I used Leviton for my whole house. Repeating what is above, but large selection of types, and some of the more common types were available at HD, for when I ran short.

I found a lot of mine from this guy http://www.fruitridgetools.com. He sells surplus, and has GREAT prices on quickport jacks and plates. I also bought a bunch from http://www.tselectronic.com, as they had the 2nd best prices I could find. I have purchased multiple times from both places, and would recommend them.

 

[felixrosbergen]

For RCA keystones do you put a RCA connector on a coax and inside the wall or do you actually put an F-connector on the back?

Most of the pros are using a system where the keystone is PART of the jack so there is only a single connection (patch cord to keystone) instead of two (jack to back of keystone, front of keystone to patch cord). Leviton has this capability, as does Platinum Tools as part of the "Cable Pro" line. The keystones themselves are not bad, but the tools are somewhat pricey, so you will need to decide if you're going to do enough terminations to justify the cost of the tool.

Is this http://www.hometech.com/pdf/le-40782cpf.pdf what you are referring to?

Can this be compressed using this http://www.paladintools.com/view_tool.php?...p;parent_id=138 tool?

The leviton unit seems to be 1.75" long and the Sealtite pro doesnt seem to have an opening this size.

Anybody know if this will work? If not i supposed to will go the standard way of compressing an end to the cable and then using the passthrough wall plat. I just hate to have something in the wall that is not screwed or retrained in some way.

I'm actually not seeing the Red/Green/Blue RCA keystones that are non direct compression. WHat are all you guys that are distributing component video doing for this? I'd like to have the color coded rings rather than 5 of the same gold color.

 

[Sacedog]

For RCA keystones do you put a RCA connector on a coax and inside the wall or do you actually put an F-connector on the back?

Most of the pros are using a system where the keystone is PART of the jack so there is only a single connection (patch cord to keystone) instead of two (jack to back of keystone, front of keystone to patch cord). Leviton has this capability, as does Platinum Tools as part of the "Cable Pro" line. The keystones themselves are not bad, but the tools are somewhat pricey, so you will need to decide if you're going to do enough terminations to justify the cost of the tool.

Is this http://www.hometech.com/pdf/le-40782cpf.pdf what you are referring to?

Can this be compressed using this http://www.paladintools.com/view_tool.php?...p;parent_id=138 tool?

The leviton unit seems to be 1.75" long and the Sealtite pro doesnt seem to have an opening this size.

Anybody know if this will work? If not i supposed to will go the standard way of compressing an end to the cable and then using the passthrough wall plat. I just hate to have something in the wall that is not screwed or retrained in some way.

I'm actually not seeing the Red/Green/Blue RCA keystones that are non direct compression. WHat are all you guys that are distributing component video doing for this? I'd like to have the color coded rings rather than 5 of the same gold color.

That is the exact tool that I used to compress those same jacks. I used some F connector ones, and a bunch of RCA ones too. The all worked really well. FWIW, that tool was one of my favorite tools to use...it was easy, and worked every time.

Leviton makes different colored RCA compression jacks. If you go to their website, under Connected Home, you can get the part numbers, and do a web search. The best price you will find will probably still be tselectric though.

 

[PaulD]

Does 23awg solid Cat6 be terminated on a cat5e leviton keystone? I want to put the cat6 in, but the price of the keystones is outrageous and i don't need the speed in most places.

Only place where i think i need the speed is at the kitcen PC where i plan to rip DVD's from there directly to the server harddrive.

I looked at some Cat5E specs and the they call out that components should be able to use 22-24 ga wire. I had a similar question because I wanted to use the connectors for some other 22 ga wire I wanted to use. However, I discovered that different wire might use different thickness on the insulation. Since the connectors use a "displacement" style blade to cut thru the insulation for solid wire, the connectors would not work well with all 22 ga wire. However, the wire found in Cat5e or Cat6 cable has thinner insulation so I would think that the Cat5e connectors should work OK with Cat6 wire as long as you are not expecting the connection to perform at Cat6 levels.

 

[felixrosbergen]

That is the exact tool that I used to compress those same jacks. I used some F connector ones, and a bunch of RCA ones too. The all worked really well. FWIW, that tool was one of my favorite tools to use...it was easy, and worked every time.

Leviton makes different colored RCA compression jacks. If you go to their website, under Connected Home, you can get the part numbers, and do a web search. The best price you will find will probably still be tselectric though.

Maybe i'm a bit dense..it's hard to image that keystone being able to fit in the tool, but if you've managed then i'll certainly try it as well. Makes for a more secure connection IMHO and one less connection so less potential for interference..

Is it me is is Leviton's website extremely slow?

I think my plan is to get the 48 quickport 19" pathpanel and then put keystones in it...i know this is not the most economical way, but this way i can mix and match cat5e, cat6 and coax and can put for example all the ports for a certain room next to each other. Also i like the idea of being able to just sit down to put the cat5/6 keystones one and then go and snap the quickport into the panel rather that spend a few hours in an awekward position trying to terminate a bunch of cat5 on a pathpanel with 24 cat5 ports...