So I'm sitting here contemplating how I'm going to terminate my Cat5e cables on a 66 block and provide Pentascanner testing for Cat5 compliance via a BR-866 adapter and I'm thinking.
How many field installers own a 587 tool and the means to test 110 to 568A/B connections?
The nationals are using Cat-3 key system installation practices, including taking the outer rows of a 66 block for sequential station jumpers, and expect 5e results.
Oh well, at these rates, I'll make it work.
Carl
As I remember, Siemon's made 66 Blocks that would work to at least Cat 5, and I think 5E. You had to run the entire pair into the center between the clips and then run the Tip up and the Ring down. It was a little clumsy after a lifetime of doing it the other way, but it worked. They had an adapter that clipped on to the block and connected to a test set. Maybe check their web site.
Sam
Well, it's a 578 tool for the dyslexic. Or
https://www.tecratools.com/product1270.html is an example. A 110 Multi Punch down tool.
I'm well aware of the punch up and down on a 66 block. That's why I charge extra for using that method since it doubles the time to punch.
Carl
That's what I thought it was but I didn't know the number. I just call it a 5 pair punchdown tool
Jeff
Yep, you can test and certify cat5 or cat3 on a 66 block using the BR-866.
Michael -
I'm guessing a BR-866 is an adpator like a testar that clips onto the 66 block and connects to a Pentascanner?
Sam
It's a adpator that slips onto the 66 block that then you can plug in a (4pr) 8 cond patch cable.
Thanks Mike! Who's the manufacturer?
Sam
They were originally made by Brand-Rex which was taken over by Hubbell.
Ahh - BR=Brand-Rex.
Thanks, Ed.
Sam
I have a few of those courtesy of Ed. I also have one that has a 3 pair jack and a 1 pair jack on the same unit. Not sure what that would be used for?
Jeff:
Those would be BR-866JA's. They were used back in the days when Merlin consoles required external power via the white/brown pair. The KSU didn't supply this power since consoles used a regular old station port.
Installers would place these adapters on the station blocks heading toward the console. They would then place a 4-pair cord between the adapter and the station port on the KSU.
The extra jack was used to plug the cord in for the power adapter. This was a simple wall wart with a modular jack on it. A plain old one-pair USOC line cord was used to complete this high-tech connection.
The BR-866JC's were the ones where all four pairs come out on a single jack, wired 568B. Before you ask, I don't know if there was a BR-866JB! :p
Man, I don't know HOW you know all of this
What is your reasoniong for a 66M? Why not a 110 block or better yet a patch panel? Is cost really that much of an issue? I am just curious is all. I have always wondered why anyone would impose a 66 on cat 5 wiring. Escpecialy since you have to terminate two sets of CAT5 to make a connection and that is not only much slower but you run the risk of inducing faults far more easily than if you used a dedicated CAT5 patch panel. And you may get away with possibly 100 MHz but certainly not 1000.
If you go 110 block you can use the S110P patch cables to test them. You can use the BR-866 as suggested, be sure it handles all four pair, they also come in 2 and 3 pair versions. Graybar sells them. But you do lose your CAT5 performance as the contacts are not gold tinned.
Because the idiots who supplied the phone system built it with 1990 specs. It "looks good" but it isn't worth a crap for installation or troubleshooting. My installations have two parts; phone sytsem and house cable with cross connects in between. These people mount up 66 blocks and run cross cuts to the outer pins, label them up with blue and green sharpies that fade to nothing in 3 years btw), then they ship it out and expect us to lay the house cables down on the inner pins of a 66 block---Cat5e no less :-)
These are installations that I don't put in my picture portfolio. I just do them for the cash and, yes, it's a union job so it's huge cash.
Carl
I see. I had kind of hoped that no sane installer would do a CAT5 job with 66 blocks if there was another way. I mean I know it can be done, but one has to wonder why when patch panels are so cheap and easier to work with.
No, I LOVE punching Cat 5e cable on 66 blocks because it's so fast and efficient punching one wire up and one wire down.
Crazy Carl
Ya nut. I sure hope you charge by the hour, dude. Seriously, I know what you mean. I have this one site that has just been rework after rework. It looks like organized hell and an experienced eye can see the compromises. But oh my, did it pay off like a slot machine
Hey, PMCook, just one question....IF.... Cat 5 and 66 blocks don't go together, why are the new 66 blocks rated Cat 5?
I've known of 66 blocks to wire Ethernet for a long time. Used to be you would see them in the old 10BaseT days using Cat3. Anything was better than vampire taps, thick ethernet or the failure prone RG-58. 66 and Cat5 do go together if you really, really want them to, but I only asked the question why use them. It just makes no sense when you have such better alternatives such as 110 blocks even if you just want to do a 1 to 1 connection. Time was patch panels were pretty costly but now they are just a mere fraction of the materials cost. Cat5 means network and you'll never make, say a bus-bar/bridge, with a 66 block for a network. Nor will you cross connect or bridge clip them either. So I just asked why bother.
Just to review, this is a telephone infrastructure wired to Cat 5e specs. There's enough slack at the frame to reterminate the house cable on patch panels and all the jacks are Cat 5e rated and tested. Only the phone system is in Cat 3 land, and it's a Toshiba CIX so it doesn't have to be. In fact, the last 2 systems I did for the Nationals are CIX's and I'm almost liking them. One system, a 200 I believe, is totally 5e from the jacks to the system, the other is 5e jacks to the 66 blocks and a 66 block KSU distribution on the digital line card. It's a smaller unit built on the DK frame (CIX 40? CIX 28?)
The only place I cheated was in an area that has 3 phones on one cable, per their specs. All the rest is one cable, one jack, and one phone.
Carl who even substituted those fancy 8-pin wall plates for the 6-pin screw terminals :-)
Carl, the smallest one is the CIX40. There was a CIX28 but I don't think it's made anymore.
I punch the whole shooting match down on a 300
pair 110 block and then I stock 110 to 8 pin
patch cords for data and then I use assorted
crossconnect wire for slt's digi pots
and if i have time I'll hide all of this in a 42 inch vault the only time I don't use 110 blocks
is when its all cat 3 dangling there or I am subbing for a guy that does not understand the way 110 stuff works and does not know the colorcode ......
forgive him, the BIX made him do it...
Ive seen many cat5e patch panels where the patches from equipment to station side were so messy that the weight of subsequent patches were pulling the earlier patches out. Some work that we will be performing includes the "cleaning-up" of such a patch bay. Is there cable management equipment that addreses this issue other than brackets and 4x4 vertical race way? On a new cat5 installation what termination equipment would provide greatest flexability and reliability, 110 blocks,cat5 patch panels,cat5 66 blocks.