Screw Terminals vs RJ45 Jacks

ericvic

Active Member
I am looking at creating some new boards and I would like to poll current users of Hobby Boards equipment how many people use the screw terminals to attach their devices to the 1-Wire network over the RJ45 Jacks.

Thanks,
Eric
 
Hi Eric,

I use both: to connect the boards together I use the RJ45 sockets, but for the branch lines I use the screw terminals, e.g. the raingauge is connected with the screw terminals to the solar board, which is connected to the next temp board by means of the RJ45 connector.

HTH

Hans
 
Eric,

I find the RJ-45 jacks useful, as long as the board is mounted in an out of the way location.

For visible locations within my house, however, I find them unusable. I blend components into the room as much as possible to reduce their visibility. Since the RJ-45 jacks are exposed (not to mention the two cables) this rules out the use of the RJ-45 jacks for me. The screw down terminals and an extra blank without the RJ-45 cutouts allows me to hide everything except the box itself.

If you are creating some new boards, a smaller form factor box would be much appreciated where possible.

--
Jayson
 
The ideal is naturally going to vary from case to case (no pun intended).
RJ45 is handy if you need to connect/disconnect/re-route occasionally, and is probably preferred for main cable runs between enclosures or groups of sensors, but if there were only screw terminals and I wanted an RJ45 connection it would not be hard to achieve that with a short length of UTP plus a punch down socket.
Screw terminals come into their own on the smaller scale, e.g. when placing several things in one enclosure, or when trying to reduce bulk (as someone else mentioned).

Of the two I'd say that screw terminals are probably more flexible. Maybe they help keep down the cost too?.
 
Eric
I use both depending on appllication, especially I like using the rj45 12volt line to transfer power to all the devices.
 
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