George Geef Posted November 17, 2008 Share Posted November 17, 2008 I was try to remove my cat5 cables and apparently I dislodged the ports and now I get a fashing red status light and the hardware can't find my box. Help! What to do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denny Posted November 17, 2008 Share Posted November 17, 2008 Assuming you didn't short anything when you "dislodged" the jack, try using the other cat 5 jack. I think that Dan mentioned before that you could use either jack. Also, if this is not the first controller in the chain that is connected to the computer, you can use a phone line to connect to the previous controller. Only the first controller needs connected to the computer with a cat 5 cable.Sounds like you might be using a booted cat 5 cable. These have a nasty habit of getting "stuck". If so, in the future, you may want to use unbooted cables.Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
javerill Posted November 18, 2008 Share Posted November 18, 2008 Denny wrote: Also, if this is not the first controller in the chain that is connected to the computer, you can use a phone line to connect to the previous controller. Only the first controller needs connected to the computer with a cat 5 cable.Now I read this! Could have saved me some serious money for extension cords. Well, now I know :cool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FBW4 Posted November 18, 2008 Share Posted November 18, 2008 Yeah guys. There is really no reason to not use telephone cable unless you JUST HAVE Cat five cables laying around. I use Cat 3 phone wire for 485 for LONG distances without problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-klb- Posted November 19, 2008 Share Posted November 19, 2008 If you have Cat 3 phone wire, it is a huge step up from silver satin. Cat 3 wire is twisted pair for noise immunity, just not as tight or consistent as Cat 5. Silver satin is not twisted at all, just wire laid out in parallel. - Kevin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FBW4 Posted November 19, 2008 Share Posted November 19, 2008 NOW. But I use to use old bell wire too. It was terrible but worked great then as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
javerill Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 I was having problems with a cat5 cable from controller 5 to 6. Remembering I just read this thread I tried the phone cable. It didn;t work AND the power light never came on.is it possible that the ordinary phone cable have is not cat3 phone cable? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-klb- Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 The flat phone wire is not Cat3, but there are users who have no problems with it.When using phone wire, make sure you have it running from one of the RJ-45 ports on the previous controller to the RJ-11 port on the next one. Running from RJ-11 to RJ-11 or RJ-45 to RJ-45 with a phone cord will short the power supplies together with reversed polarity. Also, inserting the RJ-11 phone cord into the RJ-45 jack takes some care to ensure it is centered, and making contact with the metal contacts. It usually goes in right with no attention paid, but occasionally it will fail to make contact if you just push it in... - Kevin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Fischer Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 I use all flat phone wire with the exception of a few links. Even the first link from the computer to the first controller can be cat 3 or flat cable. Everybody seems to think cat-5 is 'required' or 'better' but flat phone cable is cheap and has been working for me for 5 years, going on 6 now...Regarding the original problem: if you can desolder/solder, you can get parts via LOR. Otherwise you can send the board in for repair...-Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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