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Oxidation of RJ-45 jack pins.


James Shelby

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I am having a problems with oxidation inside my rj-45 jacks. I have found it in my older (2006, 2008) 16 channel controllers and a few new ones. A few years ago I found I couldn't address a few cards by using the pots and was told by tech support it could be oxidation. I can change the jacks myself but my question is is there a product I can spray inside the jacks to help with the problem. I have spray silicon will that work or what do you guys recommend? 

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56 minutes ago, James Shelby said:

I am having a problems with oxidation inside my rj-45 jacks. I have found it in my older (2006, 2008) 16 channel controllers and a few new ones. A few years ago I found I couldn't address a few cards by using the pots and was told by tech support it could be oxidation. I can change the jacks myself but my question is is there a product I can spray inside the jacks to help with the problem. I have spray silicon will that work or what do you guys recommend? 

LOR  (LOR mode) only uses 2 pins: 4+5 (the blue pair). It uses the next pair to power the MP3 director (if used).

To be honest. I would avoid de-oxit sprays as they really get places where they should not and need to be neutralized. You can use Electrical rated Contact grease (after they are clean)

[Puzzled] Do you store these in a salt air location or a place with high industrial pollution? If not, you might have a FLUE pipe failure for your water heater/furnace.

If the switches were dirty (inside), volume control (remember when they applied power AND adjusted volume?). Tuner-Tonic was another cleaner from the past, used to clean and lubricate the old turret (made a clunk) TV tuners.

Radio Shack (another ting of the past) would have had some of those .

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Most of my problems are with 4 and 5. They are stored in road cases in a warehouse (over 100 controllers) and a few are in wooden boxes. I was thinking they had drawn moisture over the season and the problem happens over the spring and summer. Every year I replace 5 to 10 cards during setup and nothing until next season. I thought I could clean them at tear down and lube them with something.

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As mentioned, a decent contact cleaner first, possibly use a soft brush to assist in cleaning them. Do not push them inward. Then you should be able to use a "bulb grease" which is not conductive. Do not use a silicone spray as I think it would make things considerably worse by insulating the contacts. A long time staple of contact cleaners is good old fashion Isopropyl alcohol and a q-tip. Remember too that both the RJ45 connectors and the Cat5/6 cable connectors need cleaning.  

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A Red Ruby eraser on the PLUG end contacts, does a wonderful clean

Again, those pins in the jack are easy to bend (ruin). Do peek and make sure they are not just stuck down.

👍 90% alcohol sprayed in there may allow them to pop back.

💡 (not tried). Take an OLD RJ45 Plug. take a couple of swipes with coarse sandpaper ACROSS the contacts. (remove git and debris) You just made a mini file.

run that in and out a few times and see if that scrapes the pins enough.

FWIW, I think there is something else going on in that warehouse (maybe chemicals at the other end) that is making bad air. You might need to sealed Bag these.

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All that's in the warehouses are Christmas stuff and assembly/repair areas. I don't have much to do in December so i will give it a better look. I should do the cleaning and some sort of lube at tear down in January. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I used DEOXIT D5 , it is a spray but I put it on a qtip and clean the RJ45 jacks and the RJ45 plugs, works great. I have used it for years on all connections in my audio system .  Last year I had a controller going nuts , the main chip was a little lose, powered down took out the chip cleaned it, rebent it put it back in and worked like a champ.

David  DLH LITES

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