Best cheapest way to couple cat5

[throbscottle]

I have some cat5 bulk cable sitting around which has had lengths cut off it over the years, but now I would like to run some between rooms in my house, and may need to connect pieces together. Ok I know it's cheap enough, but I already have the cable and the budget is tight.

Is it ok to just solder the wires together, if I stagger the joins over a couple of inches? Or do I need to get one of those fancy coupler jobbies? Or would it be better to make a little straight-through pcb for this?

This is for home use only so it doesn't have to be standards compliant, just retain most of the bandwidth.

TIA

 

[picbits]

I've soldered and heatshrunk it in the past without a problem - just stagger the joins and try and keep the twists the same and you'll be fine

 

[ZimBobWEH]

You use these https://www.telephoneparts.com/index.cgi?pview=1&pcode=100-UY2&placement=0.

Make sure you keep the pairs twisted as close as you can to the connectors though.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

You can get specific IDC joiners for them, those might be worth considering and of course it's fast and easy.

 

[dr pepper]

If you dont want to buy the crimp tool for the job you can get a little diescast metal tool for crimping them in a vice, I've never used one they look like they'd be really fiddly but if your just doing a couple, they usally come free with a couple of rj45's

 

[WTP Pepper]

Soldering them together won't be an issue.

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

Try to maintain the twist symmetry and you should be OK.

 

[throbscottle]

Wow, what a lot of helpful answers! Thanks everyone

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

One of the better ways of putting telco type wires together is using Scotchlok connectors. https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/UY(BX)/UY14911-ND/30676

I, personally, if I were joining wires within wall, I would use the solder, heat shrink method and maintain the twists. That, would have the best possibility of maintaining the CAT 5 standard. No crimps etc.

Try not to make splices within the walls and don't do what the HVAC installer did. Change the wire colors when a splice was made. There was a section of underground cable for the thermostat and it needed to be extended or spliced OUTSIDE at the condensing unit. The bozo really screwed it up. I used a cable with more wires, but kept the same colors to make the splice.

 

[OlPhart]

Howdy, If this is for Any Kind of ethernet use: solder, keep twist count consistent, heat shrink it All.

ScotchLocks are the bane of interconnection technology. I realize they're for convenient field use. I may be flamed for this, but users of ScotchLocks have No place in my shop (I feel similarly on "butt" connectors). The number of trailer & network "connections" I've had to fix of these galvanized my opinion. YMMV...<<<)))