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General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: pro_crip on July 17, 2010, 02:04:15 PM

Title: Cat 5e cable, what to do?
Post by: pro_crip on July 17, 2010, 02:04:15 PM

I got my hands on a spool of a coupla hunnert feet of cat 5e plenum rated cable. What can I do with this stuff? I think there was a design for speaker cable at venhaus made from this but other than that, I don't know what to do. Thanks for any and all suggestions.

Rich

Title: Re: Cat 5e cable, what to do?
Post by: ssssly on July 17, 2010, 03:13:26 PM

Makes a decent braided speaker cable. Also makes decent interconnects. Have also used it for signal wires in gear with good enough results that it has stayed in for the past 3 years.

Is also good for tying things up with. Very durable and strong.

Title: Re: Cat 5e cable, what to do?
Post by: rewind67 on July 17, 2010, 03:24:57 PM

Cat 5/5e/6 can make good interconnects; various recipes floating around online.

I've made my own versions of these IC's (using Belden 1585A): http://www.deadwaxcafe.com/vzone/wires.asp (http://www.deadwaxcafe.com/vzone/wires.asp)

Title: Re: Cat 5e cable, what to do?
Post by: pro_crip on July 18, 2010, 12:47:35 PM

Thanks rewind, making a whole mess o'interconnects is right up my alley as I'll (eventually) have a whole system to wire up. I spent the day sanding, time to reward myself with some whiskey.

Rich

Title: I did a cat 5 speaker cable a long time ago. I liked it.
Post by: VoltSecond on July 18, 2010, 05:45:52 PM

I made a cat 5 speaker cable a long time ago. I liked it.

(https://forum.bottlehead.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.siteswithstyle.com%2FVoltSecond%2FCAT_5_speaker_cable%2F4_braid_left_1_33.jpg&hash=fd169eac82ed23a61d2860327b77e8496fbce092)

Here's my notes on building one.

http://www.siteswithstyle.com/VoltSecond/CAT_5_speaker_cable/CAT_5_SPK_CABLE.html (http://www.siteswithstyle.com/VoltSecond/CAT_5_speaker_cable/CAT_5_SPK_CABLE.html)

Cat 5 interconnects work well too. If you run the cat 5 in clear tubing, it enhances the look and feel of the cable.

Title: Re: Cat 5e cable, what to do?
Post by: 2wo on July 18, 2010, 05:51:08 PM

You could wire your house,

That

Title: Re: Cat 5e cable, what to do?
Post by: STURMJ on July 18, 2010, 07:03:14 PM

I made the ven haus  speaker cable last year.  Sounds really nice, but looks even more impressive. It was quite a project though, gets your fingers strong.  CAT5 is four twisted pairs of teflon jacketed which makes it a good wire for many things, pull pairs out.  I made Ipod line level audio out connectors this weekend. Sounds GREAT on my crack, listening right now.

Title: Re: Cat 5e cable, what to do?
Post by: Jim R. on July 19, 2010, 06:16:45 AM

Just one note -- if you're using the cat-5 plenum with the bonded twisted pairs, you'll want to use a length of one color pair for your ICs as each pair has a different number of twists per inch and hence a different capacitance.  With the loose pairs you can always twist them to what you want, but it's still easier to get things more uniform by twisting a single wire and taking both pairs out of that one pair,.

Probably doesn't matter on a speaker cable though

-- Jim

Title: Re: Cat 5e cable, what to do?
Post by: 2wo on July 19, 2010, 05:34:32 PM

For speaker wires I took 3 lengths and striped the jacket off. Now chuck one end in a hand, or low speed drill. And as your trusty assistant  works the drill, grip the wire at the chuck and guide them into a nice tight rope twist. This is actually easy as with just a little help the individual pairs will lay down on there own. Just keep a little tension away from the drill and let the twisted rope run through your fingers as if it was a threaded rod.  It

Title: Re: Cat 5e cable, what to do?
Post by: ssssly on July 19, 2010, 10:29:35 PM

My favorite is a flat braid of four twisted pairs. Twist the pairs together as described above. Then take four pairs and flat braid them http://www.virtue.to/articles/braiding.html . Separate the positives and negatives and terminate. Keep in mind that for most cat5 you will need about twice to three times the length you want the finished product to be. 

Have also had good results with a multiple braid. Twist you positive and negative pairs together. Then do a regular braid of three twisted pairs. Take four of those and box braid them. This version seems to have more noise rejection for longer runs while the first method I described seems to have a cleaner sound for runs 6' and under but then seems to pick up more noise on longer runs.

If anyone else has a favorite recipe would love to hear it.

Title: Re: Cat 5e cable, what to do?
Post by: Maxwell_E on July 20, 2010, 04:34:18 AM

Approximately what AWG would you say the flat braid of 4 pairs creates? that looks a lot more attractive than spending hours doing the 27 Pair VH design.

Title: Re: Cat 5e cable, what to do?
Post by: Jim R. on July 20, 2010, 09:06:00 AM

If I'm reading them correctly, that would be 4 ropes of 4 pairs , and because you're only using one wire per pair per leg, that comes out to 16 strands per leg, and 16 strands of 24 awg is 12 gauge.

HTH,

Jim