atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Cabling Telephones Systems Wiring Your thoughts

If you put a cable certifier on a cable and it tested the cable with short on pins 4,5. Then you press the button to retest it and it then indicates pins 1,2 and 5,6 are 'miss wired' but 4,5 are clear. Then you press the button to retest again and this time it indicates only pins 5,6 are 'miss wired'.

what would you think?

I would change either the patch cords or the batteries in the tester.

Start by testing each patch cord by plugging the main unit directly into the remote with each patch cord.Verify them and continue.

Try using both units plugged into AC, eliminating the batteries.

If all these show OK then either repunch the jacks or cut the jacks off and replace them with new ones.

If all else fails try for an exorcism.

Sam

:rofl: I know it's not very funny but Sam is seriously funny sometimes.

What kind of tester is it?

Are you the only one testing this cable? if you have a partner at the far end he may have been jacking with you. Other than that your tester may need to be serviced

Does this cable tester indicate at which end of the cable the fault is located?

It possible you have the remote is plugged into the wrong jack/port and there is a device plugged into the other end of the cable?

Try swapping the tester and the remote and see if the results change at all.

Sounds like you are not using a 2 way tester. I have seen this before and it drove me nuts til I added the 2-way injector to my Pentascanner.

OK, what happened to me was that my crimper had gotten old and was not properly seating the pins. Looking straight on at the connector I could see some pins higher than others. This caused intermittent faults. Even the HD crimpers using swappable dies wear out if you use them enough. The cheaper ones are even worse as their rivet joints loosen up. Also, not every connector works in every crimper. I bought a bag of one brand that just did not fit my Paladin crimper. Some of those crimpers only take round cable connectors. Some only seem happy with flat. And if you have a swappable die model you have to be sure to use the right one. I run into no end of trouble with home made patch cords so I eschew them as a rule.

When the batteries on running low on our Pentascanner, it gives really weird readings, mostly with Near End Crosstalk. Using the AC adapters gave the correct tests!

One thing about tester/certifiers is they will tell you which end has the problem. Good power and cords and if the device has a calibration feature, use it!
By chance, your not testing hubbell x-jacks are you?

It wasn't my tester or my test. I believe it was an Agilent Wirescope. I was looking over the shoulder of a guy using it. When I said that's kind of odd, why would you get different responses, how can you rely on a tester that is doing that? Then I asked some of the same questions posted here. Are the batteries good in the remote end? Have you ever calibrated it? Do you keep testing it until it tests good then you accept it? He just dismissed it and said 'well, it can do that because of the cable connections, you know, if it moves a little in the jack. It'll give you different results.'

On one test he indicated there was a 'kink' in the cable. Then he said it was a far-end or near-end termination fault he wasn't sure.

So I said 'well okay'. I just don't see the point in a tester like that. Why don't you plug a PC in and see if it works? If it doesn't, Then you know as much as the your tester is telling you: Something is wrong.

I posted this because I wondered if anyone else would not think this was kind of odd and just accept it like this guy in the field did.

I know with the fluke testers if you overtighten the screw on the test connector you can break it causing problems. As well as if your end is to loose it will cause problems as well. Finger tight they say

If that guy in the field was working for me, I would have fired him on the spot.

Sam