hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr2406.txt

Episode: 2406
Title: HPR2406: Putting Ends onto CAT6 Ethernet Cables
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr2406/hpr2406.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-19 02:24:34

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This in HPR episode 2,406 entitled, Putting End Onto C866 on its cables.
It is hosted by Shane Shenan and in about 8 minutes long, and Karimah Cleenflag.
The summary is, This one might experience learning how to put the end Onto C866 cable.
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Hello hacker public radio audience.
This is Shane Shenan and I live near Niagara Falls in Ontario.
And I'm here to share with you a stressful but rewarding experience that I had recently.
I had to learn how to put the ends onto some Catch 6 Ethernet cable.
So here's how it happened.
One of the passers up my church asked me about help with their video project.
I already work in the video booth some Sundays and I'm the guy that puts the lyrics and the slides up on the projection screens.
But what they wanted to help with was to make sure that when the next baptism happened,
that there was a good strong video feed coming from the video camera next to the baptismal tank.
In the past, we were displayed the baptism up on the big screens by using an iPhone app.
An iPhone pointed at the baptismal tank.
And then I guess it would send the signal through the internet to our video booth in the back of the church.
Anyway, it wasn't ideal.
It's a lag, kind of a stuttery feed, not the best.
So now they were going to do it properly and they already had some Catch 6 cable going under the floor of the sanctuary.
The last time they renovated the church, they thought to put a lot of extra cables in there.
So we already had two Catch 6 cables under the sanctuary floor, but they didn't have ends.
So it was going to be my job to put ends on them and I didn't know how.
So I ranged with the pastor that I would show up on a wasting night when there would be a worship team in there having practice.
I didn't have a key, so they would let me in and they would lock up when they left.
So that meant I had about an hour to half to get this thing figured out.
When I got there, though, the pastor I talked to had laid out all the equipment, the video camera and all these other things.
And it would be my job to connect everything that was needed.
But the most important part, the first task I had to do was to put these ends on the cables.
So that day I had looked up a diagram of what the cable wire should look like.
I'm going to put a link to the picture that I used in the show notes.
So I figured out that I had to use straight through wiring.
I forget what the other kind is, but I figured it would be a straight through.
And so I find this diagram called straight through wiring, EIA slash TIA, 568B.
The article that I read said that this was the most common method these days.
And I figured it would be a straight through project since we were taking the feed directly from the video camera.
And you know, it had to go where it had to go.
I figured it wouldn't be more complex than that.
So I had borrowed some tools from a friend.
I had a crimper tool and I had a bag of ends that would go into the cables.
And the crimper tool also had the cutter for stripping the sheath, the blue sheath off the cat's six cable.
So I began.
I fed the blue cable end, or sorry, the blue cable,
through the part of the crimper tool that would strip the sheath off the cable.
And I twisted around like I'd seen in a YouTube video.
And then I pulled that sheath off and I saw the eight wires that I was going to be using.
And then I started, you know, pushing those eight wires in the right order into the plastic end.
But when I stripped the blue sheath off the cable,
I had bit too deep.
And some of one of those eight little cables,
one of those eight little wires, I'd bitten into it.
So it broke off.
Then I was just left with seven of those wires.
That wouldn't do.
So I cut them off, started again.
I fed the cat five cat's six cable I mean into the into the stripper part of the tool,
rotated the tool like I'd seen on YouTube,
pulled the sheath off it and revealed those eight wires again.
Guess what?
Once again, I had held the tool to tightly and had bitten to one of those eight wires.
Started again.
I tried for a third time, fourth time, fifth time.
And the room I'm working in is not quiet.
I'm working in the sanctuary of the church and the worship team is there,
practicing for the upcoming Sunday service.
So it's great music, nice and loud.
It's loud as I like it, but a little bit distracting when I'm trying to learn for the first time.
How to use this crimper tool to strip the wires off the cat's six cable.
It took me 90 minutes.
After an hour and a half, I had successfully put two ends onto the cables.
And I just had two more to do because we're using two cables and we needed four ends.
So at least during that hour and a half,
I learned how to hold the tool and how to strip the case enough, the cable,
in such a way that it wouldn't cut through into the eight different wires.
And I learned how to push those wires into the end and how to crimp it.
Now the first time I tried to crimp it.
I put the end, the plastic end, in backwards into the crimp and crimp and tool.
And then I couldn't get a doubt.
And I had to physically break the plastic end off inside the crimper,
before I could remove it.
So lots of trial and error.
This is why one of my favorite phrases is time and space.
Time and space.
When you're trying to learn to do something, give yourself more time than you think you'll need
and give yourself a quiet space to do it.
Anyway, it was a learning experience.
And I think that if I had to put some ends onto some cat's six cable now,
I think it wouldn't take me longer than 30 minutes.
No, I'm kidding.
It'll probably just take me four or five minutes.
So that's my learning experience.
I bet some of you guys and gals put ends on the cat's six cables all day,
and you've been doing it for years.
But that was my first experience, and I thought I'd share it with the community.
Okay, thanks for listening.
Goodbye.
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