cable tester

[laserblazer]

I got one from B&Q years ago for about £40 and it has been invaluable. Hills Components are now offering a similar thing for £4.75 Hills Components UK

 

Seems like a bargain to me.

[localzuk]

That looks identical to the one I bought for myself on eBay about 10 years ago, and a quick look still has them on there for £3.61.

 

RJ11 RJ45 LAN Ethernet/ Network/ Port Cable Tester on eBay (end time 04-Feb-11 01:52:55 GMT)

 

Or £2 if you fancy getting it from Hong Kong

 

Network LAN Cable Tester for RJ11 RJ12 RJ45 CAT-5 UK on eBay (end time 07-Feb-11 06:49:02 GMT)

[m25man]

If all you want to do is confirm the wire map you might as well spend £3 rather than £60

 

If you want more then you have to spend some real money.

For basic testing and certification I use the cable IQ tester. £900

For everything else it's the DTX £7000

 

Wire mapping will tell you that the pins are punched down in the correct order but they won't tell you that the run is over length, bent around tight corners, tie wrapped too tightly too a 3 phase cable or suffering from a dozen other typical installer errors.

 

Just because the LEDs light up in the correct order doesn't mean it's good!

 

If you really want to test your cabling properly rent something to do the job from one of the popular tool hire companies.

[localzuk]

If all you want to do is confirm the wire map you might as well spend £3 rather than £60

 

If you want more then you have to spend some real money.

For basic testing and certification I use the cable IQ tester. £900

For everything else it's the DTX £7000

 

Wire mapping will tell you that the pins are punched down in the correct order but they won't tell you that the run is over length, bent around tight corners, tie wrapped too tightly too a 3 phase cable or suffering from a dozen other typical installer errors.

 

Just because the LEDs light up in the correct order doesn't mean it's good!

 

If you really want to test your cabling properly rent something to do the job from one of the popular tool hire companies.

 

Not realistically priced for most schools. I would get laughed at if I asked my boss if I could buy a £900 tool, let alone a £7000 tool. And hiring something in? As a whole, the school doesn't like doing hiring.

 

I'm sure many schools are in a similar situation, and we simply have to make do with the £2 cheapo job.

[m25man]

Equipment Specifications - Testerhire.co.uk - providing hire of the Fluke DTX1800 cable analyzer

 

£175 for a weeks hire, you can validate and certify the entire school during half term for that!

[Chunky]

I Agree with LocalzUk - and at the end of the day, most of the time it works just as well - and if it doesn't ? It's still less expense to redo something than spend £900 on a tool. (however goot it may be)

We can buy an awul lot of cable, testers, crimpers, wall points, update switches... for that money.

 

Personally, I like the expensive stuff for myself - I bought myself a £200 Amp crimper back in the day, and a £300 cable tester - nowdays you can pick up equivalent for a fraction of the cost - and they work more or less as well too.

 

Chunks

[localzuk]

Equipment Specifications - Testerhire.co.uk - providing hire of the Fluke DTX1800 cable analyzer

 

£175 for a weeks hire, you can validate and certify the entire school during half term for that!

 

Not here you couldn't! About 600 network cables, leading to 11 network cabinets, with a single person to do it. You're talking several weeks work, unless we hire someone to assist. Its just not going to happen! £175 is a lot of money anyway.

[dirtydog]

id love to have only 11 network cabinets

[caffrey]

you can buy several variations of these testers at dealextreme as well, got one from there - works as it should

[SpuffMonkey]

We've got one of these Cable Tester - NETcat Pro which is a nice compromise between the cheapo £10 testers and the big pro models. I bought the add on kit to - with 8 extra "ends" so you can test 8 points in a room straight off without messing about.

[plexer]

I Agree with LocalzUk - and at the end of the day, most of the time it works just as well - and if it doesn't ? It's still less expense to redo something than spend £900 on a tool. (however goot it may be)

We can buy an awul lot of cable, testers, crimpers, wall points, update switches... for that money.

 

Yes you could but even after spending money on all of those how do you know the cable that you've just installed is up to the job of having high frequency electro magnetic waves running over it.

 

Sure it's good enough to light an led from a 9v battery but that is a worthless test.

 

Ben

[Chunky]

Yes you could but even after spending money on all of those how do you know the cable that you've just installed is up to the job of having high frequency electro magnetic waves running over it.

 

Sure it's good enough to light an led from a 9v battery but that is a worthless test.

 

Ben

 

Out of the hundreds of cables and cable runs, I've had 3 cable plug crimp fail and 1 faceplate bork. In the way of actual cable run fails, I've had one cable install that needed replacing. Not a bad rate? Not, 100%, but certainly good enough for me. The proof of the pudding comes when the PCs are connected up - no problems

 

All PCs connect to the switches at the speeds the cards will allow - and no problems with data spam, or slow down. I can see why some people want to spend loads on cable runs, but when you're in a school on a very tight budget (this may not apply to those in England) then you do what is needed.

 

(I do , however, prefer to go for good quality cable, and make sure the cable has been certified - installation certification just adds the "nod" to the install)

 

Chunks