Cat5 vrs. phone cable

[jjerpbak]

as an example:

I have 2 controllers



I have been told that I can use phone cable to connect the 2 controllers (obviously cheaper). In looking at the boards, I see a phone cable jack for input only

The only output jacks appear to be cat5



I haven’t tried this yet, but can you plug in a phone cable into a cat 5 jack as the documentation suggests

Do I need an adapter?



Jon

[-klb-]

RJ-11 plugs will work in RJ-45 jacks, you just have to insert them carefully, making sure they are centered as they go in.. Once they are in, the contacts in the jack will have dropped into the grooves in the plug, and hold it in place side to side. The plug latch should engage normally if centered. (and sometimes even when it is not)

The difference that causes an extra input jack to be needed for phone cord is that while most cat 5 cable is straight through, phone cable is rolled. Pin 1 goes to pin 6, 2 goes to 5, etc. So the phone in connector compensates for the rolled cable pinout.

That said, phone cable does not have the resistance to external electrical noise that twisted pair cable like cat 5 has. So I personally have no experience using phone cable with LOR.

- Kevin

[Denny]

I believe the only Cat 5 cable that must be used is the one to the first controller from your computer/adapter. I use Phone wire for all my long runs with no problem. Where I have two controllers next to each other, I use the Cat 5 -- only because I have some short ones. I believe my display for this year uses at least four 100 foot phone cables.

[sparky741]

How long is the cable run? If it only a few feet, phone cable is fine. If it is a fairly long run(100+ ft), you may want to stick with the Cat5 on account of its noise immunity. You could use Cat3 cable also. Better than plain phone cable, but still cheaper than Cat5.

[Tim Fischer]

I use 100% phone cable, no cat-5 at all. Always have (this is year #5)

-Tim

[jjerpbak]

Thanks for the feed back