atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Cabling Telephones Systems Wiring I can't help myself...

Part 1:

A friend bought a modular home from a CA firm, and had it shipped to Long Island. During the negotiations, I butted in and told my friend that he should have the electrical engineers at the plant get in touch with me and discuss his particular low-voltage needs as the home was being assembled. It is a beautiful million dollar modern house. He said that they had already told him that they will wire the house for the very latest requirements in home communications.

I told him that in my experience, the best thing to have them do is to rough-in a box at each location HE SPECIFIES and then have them install a flexible conduit from the box to the basement, leaving a pull string in each tube. He stated that they will not do that, because it would be less efficient than having them do the whole wiring job in the factory, according to them.

At this point I realize that regardless of my friendship with the victim, and in spite of my expertise, I'd better butt out.

Months go by and the house is delivered and assembled. Months more go by and now the friend and family are ready to use their telephone, TV and data wiring. The electrician can't seem to figure out how to get anything to work, the cable TV guys have cut into the coaxes and placed splitters all over the ceiling of the basement, and the modem is in a bedroom where one of the few Ethernet jacks is located. I go to take a look.

At each location, there are 2 RG6 coax cables terminated and 2 Cat5e cables terminated, all crammed into a Leviton Decora faceplate...the one where you can't use ICC modules because of the proximity of the holes in the Decora insert. Both Cat5e's at MOST of the locations terminate in 2 RJ11 jacks. At a few locations, the company installed 8p8c jacks on one of the wires, but there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to where. They used various shades and makes of blue Cat5e, and a few lengths of gray, but with no adherence to any regular policy of what color is for what service. Some data jacks get blue, some get gray, etc. They have run the 4 wires from each location through the walls, and down to the basement. Following the bundles through the basement insulation, they finally wind up in a large bundle that goes through a 3" diameter hole in the floor, heading back up into a wall cavity on the first floor of the home. Correction...SOME of them do and some of them do not. I wasted a good hour finding the ones that disappear into the first floor, and finally locate them wound up inside a finished wall in a utility closet. Since they were installed with staples, I cannot get them to pull back down into the basement, and must cut them flush at the floor level and re-route them to a less-than-convenient spot in the basement, far from the electrical panel, and terminate them.

Part 2:

Today, I go to the local electrical supplier to buy a handful of Leviton Cat5 8p8c inserts so that I can convert the RJ11's that were installed by mistake. As I am waiting to be served, a pleasant young man in a T-shirt that says he works for an HVAC company asks a counterman for "six of those clear plastic computer cable ends and the tool that crimps them on."

I engage the kid in a conversation about why he needs those items. I suggest that he should terminate the cables on a patch panel, and use commercially-available patch cords to make his interconnections. He states that he kinda knew that was the right way to do it, but the electrician had abandoned the job due to lack of knowledge about patch panels (there is one at the site, but the IT guy said not to use it). He explains that he is working in a large commercial occupancy that is nearing completion, that the electrician had run Cat5e cables from various thermostats and controls, but had just left the wires hanging out at the equipment location. The kid needs to crimp on the plugs, and plug the cables into the HVAC equipment. His boss told him to buy the plugs and crimper, look up how to install them on his smartfone, and get-'r-done.

I wrote my name and mobile number on his receipt, and told him that even though I was standing there in my government code-enforcement uniform, I was really a wiring expert in disguise, who had been forced into my current menial job due to just the sort of circumstance we had each found ourselves in at this precise moment.

I wished him luck, mentioned that he needed to Google "568A and 568B" and we parted company.

Arthur, there has to be a Part 3

Sounds like your getting ready for a Reality Show.....

Stories like these make my head explode.

It's just sad, and everywhere you look.

My mom bought a modular home from a canadian manufacturer about 15 yrs ago. They too used Leviton decora wall plates. But thankfully used Grey CAT3 for phone and Blue CAT5 for data. Wiring was stapled inside of the walls too. To replace some of the decora jacks, I had to reach into the wall and pull the staples out to get some slack.

I had to completely reterminate all the connections in an apartment leasing office. The wire was all cat5e but the jacks were flush mount 4 conductor screw mount jacks. I originally lost the bid to the electrical company that ran the wire.

Wasn't it AT&T that started that crimp the head on stuff with the "self installable" Merlin? What length cables do you need? Here have some ready made ones. Even now when I install those fancy 1 pair systems with RJ45's on the front face. All the station cable goes to a traditional frame, A feed cable goes to a patch panel patch cables go from the patch panel to the equipment and all my terminations are x-connect. If you want to move a phone either do it in software or at the frame. Don't go making a mess of the patch cables it's not necessary.

According to John L. Shelton, the Merlin system first appeared in the early 80's. The equipment carried the AT&T label, but the early KSUs indicated that they were built by Western Electric.

Which explains why they are still out there working. LOL