Who is your "go to" supplier for pre-made patch cables?

C

CORT

Active Member
I am reworking my home security/ automation panel and need a quantity of pre-made cat 5e patch cables. I bought some Leviton branded cables at Home Depot that turned out to be junk (many with broken terminations or excessive impedence). Can you suggest an online supplier of reasonable quality cat 5e patch cables? The cable should be stranded, and I prefer moulded ends. Thanks.
 
Noob here, sorry. What device did you use to check the impedance?

I've been trying to teach myself about cables - how important is impedance for cat5e? Is it the variation in impedance that's important?

I just installed 2 Levition patch cables, from HD, on Sun. Haven't used them yet.

I need to purchase several more, will be interested in some rec's also, thanks.

Edit - Thanks, BSR!
 
Neurorad said:
Noob here, sorry. What device did you use to check the impedance?

I've been trying to teach myself about cables - how important is impedance for cat5e? Is it the variation in impedance that's important?

I just installed 2 Levition patch cables, from HD, on Sun. Haven't used them yet.

I need to purchase several more, will be interested in some rec's also, thanks.

Edit - Thanks, BSR!
Click to expand...

Hello Neurorad, that's a pretty specialized field. Where are you?

This is what I have to test cables. I always check my runs with it once they are terminated. It is an Ideal Industries Link Master Cat 5 cable tester. You can find it at Home Depot too.
62-200.jpg


This device doesn't measure impedence. Rather it checks for simple conductivity. Some of my Home Depot Leviton cables failed on conductivity. Another cable read fine on conductivity but failed to work with my system--It took a while to figure out that the cable was bad even though it showed conductivity. Checking the cable's individual leads with a standard ohm meter showed something like 1000 ohms resistance across one set of wires. With the RS485 bus for the Elk system and an Elk DBH, low impedence seems very important. Otherwise the system thinks a device is terminated end of line meaning down stream components on the Elk DBH can be silenced.
 
GrayBar has very high quality cable, but you do pay a little extra. They are both online, and have many 'stores' as well.
 
I'm in middle TN - saw in your 'stolen backflow preventer' thread that you were in East TN. Been here for almost 8 years now, originally from CT, by way of VA, FL, and MD.

One of the drawbacks to my line of work is that I was in my office at 7A, despite the icy roads.

I will purchase that Ideal cat5 cable tester. My home saw it's first cat5 runs a month ago, haven't had time yet to really do anything with them (fortunately - now I'll test them). Thanks!
 
Sorry to carry this further OT, but is there a device anyone could rec for testing cat5 with female connectors/terminations?

I guess I could use 2 patch cables, one on each end.
 
Many of the testers have adapters like inline couplers, etc useful for testing. Unless you need it right away you may be better off ordering a tester online. You will usually get more for less than at HD.
 
CORT said:
I am reworking my home security/ automation panel and need a quantity of pre-made cat 5e patch cables. I bought some Leviton branded cables at Home Depot that turned out to be junk (many with broken terminations or excessive impedence). Can you suggest an online supplier of reasonable quality cat 5e patch cables? The cable should be stranded, and I prefer moulded ends. Thanks.
Click to expand...

I have used this company in the past for inexpensive ethernet cables. I have used them mostly at work to reduce the time/hassle involved in terminating cables. They have them in several colors. I can't speak for the quality but I have not had any fail to work so far. I never tested them, i just plugged them in.

http://www.cablewholesale.com

Brian
 
I have used PI Manufacturing out of California for over 5 years. Their cables are super cheap, and made well. I have used these both at work, and at home, and never had problems with them.

http://www.pimfg.com

When you see the price ($1.75 for a 14' molded Cat 6 cable) you will probably think cheap crap...but like I said, they work great. We use them at work, and are running Gigabit Ethernet to all of our desktops with them:

http://www.pimfg.com/local_cat_a_keyword.a...working%20Cable

There is both molded and standard patch cables on the page above. Spend the extra few cents and get the molded ones.

Also, their site isn't the speediest one out there. :)
 
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