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Is there a gizmo? (CAT5 accessory)


rhino

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Does such a gizmo exist?

 

I have a 10' CAT5 cable and a 15' CAT5 cable.  I want to connect these end-to-end in my display to make one 25' CAT5 cable. 

 

(Yes, I know the 25' cables exist.  But, when putting the display together and have to adjust on the fly, I find myself out of 25' data cables but still have some 10' cables in my inventory.  Just would like to connect these shorter ones end-to-end and be done with it, instead of coming back another day with a 25' cable in hand.)

 

Do these things exist?  And if so, where can I purchase these things?

 

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Just a small warning on these couplers.  I have used these a lot for the same reason you mentioned.      They have tended to be a point of failure for me.  Tracing back I found several which did not work and replaced them. 

Also, in 2014 my show was struck by lightning.  I believe an uncovered cat-5 coupler on the roof was the entry point for a surge which blew out 7 CCP controllers and other stuff.    I do still use them but more carefully now. 

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1 hour ago, ItsMeBobO said:

Just a small warning on these couplers.  I have used these a lot for the same reason you mentioned.      They have tended to be a point of failure for me.  Tracing back I found several which did not work and replaced them. 

Also, in 2014 my show was struck by lightning.  I believe an uncovered cat-5 coupler on the roof was the entry point for a surge which blew out 7 CCP controllers and other stuff.    I do still use them but more carefully now. 

 

BobO --

 

Thanks for the heads up!  I need all the help I can get.  Not really concerned about lightning in our area for that time of year.  It's the snow and ice.  (This year, I was melting 4" of ice to get to my extension cords during take-down.)   Regardless -- still good to know.  And bummed to hear about your equipment mishap.  EEK.

 

The real application I'm looking at here is for the ELLs.  I hate having to unscrew them just to change out a 10' cable for a 25' cable.  Too time-consuming during a high-stress setup time.  So, I'm thinking of pre-installing all my ELLs with 5' data cables, then "couple" them up to a 5' or a 10', if needed.  Much quicker during setup, me-thinks.  Whatcha' think?

 

I'm always looking for ways to cut down on the setup time.

 

Thanks again, and thank in advance.

 

 

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I bought a bunch of them from LOR - they work great!  I no longer have to open the controller boxes to attached the cables!

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19 hours ago, wbaker4 said:

I bought a bunch of them from LOR - they work great!  I no longer have to open the controller boxes to attached the cables!

Love the feedback.  That's good to know.  I believe this will be saving us a lot of time... next season.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 2/5/2016 at 3:29 PM, ItsMeBobO said:

Oh...  this may be it.   http://store.lightorama.com/rjwada.html

yhst-1552586516070_2270_9927251

 

 

Okay -- just received my first 6 of these from LOR.  How does one get 2 of these coming in/out of the controllers?  (My Professional series are already in storage, and I don't know if there are 2 portals in the case; but, there's only one portal in the Residential case that I have here at the house for testing.)

 

 

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2 hours ago, rhino said:

 

Okay -- just received my first 6 of these from LOR.  How does one get 2 of these coming in/out of the controllers?  (My Professional series are already in storage, and I don't know if there are 2 portals in the case; but, there's only one portal in the Residential case that I have here at the house for testing.)

 

 

 

Never mind.  I think I got it now.  My bad.

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They will if you need them.   FYI  these are not easy to connect.    They can help with the CCP or CCB because those boxes have EIGHT screws.   The waterproof Cat5 dongle has several pieces to insert and screw so its a trade off for sure. 

Personally I don't think they are needed on the regular 16channel AC controllers because those boxes have lids which are easy to open.  

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On 2/5/2016 at 2:29 PM, ItsMeBobO said:

Oh...  this may be it.   http://store.lightorama.com/rjwada.html

yhst-1552586516070_2270_9927251

 

 

I use these on my CCPs.  Wonderful time saver!

Note that at least some generations of those have had a water proof (or lack thereof) problem where water gets in around the cable on the back side of the housing.  I had one like that and found that the entire housing was full of water.  I have my CCP controllers under a black trash back and make sure that the dongle is ty-wrapped to the stakes that hold the CCP controller in such a way that the dongle is completely covered by the trash bag.  I do point out that my lawn sprinklers DO run during show season so anything in the lawn WILL get sprayed from multiple directions every few days.  Once in a great while we get some rain too...

 

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I may be dumb lol but I bought the cat5 coupler from Home Depot for a buck and it was outside all season never had either of the two fail. Maybe just luck and we had some bad weather this year in tx 

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my issue isn't so much about the weather but a sister-in-law that's a bit aggressive when helping us tear down after Christmas.  She can't tell the difference between a Cat5 and an extension cord.  She also things it's a good idea to give something " a good yank until it works itself loose" so I tend to have issues with loose RJ45 connectors on my controllers.  Only known cure is an elephant gun but they don't have elephant season in Nebraska!!   Thought about getting deer antlers and making her a hat.

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