Terminating Ethernet Cable At Height For CCTV Cameras

On the Ground

The standard Cat 6 plug is a pain to work with: I have to untwist the 4 pairs, make them perfectly straight, lay the 8 wires side by side with no gaps, and then insert all of them into the RJ45 plug in one go.

It sounds easy, but since the wires are flexible, it is actually very hard: very often the wires move around and become misaligned or misplaced during the fitting. If that happened or any other part of it went wrong, I would have to pull out the whole lot and restart again.

I had successes before, usually after a couple of attempts, often accompanied by frustration in between. It requires me to activate the fight mode, give it 100% focus while sitting in an “Orz” position¹, so there’s quite a lot of energy poured into it.

At Height

However, even if I want to, it becomes physically impossible when it comes to fitting a plug in the air for the CCTV cameras: the ladder is a bit wobbly with uneven ground underneath it, and it is windy and raining due to a summer storm.

Since I wasn’t happy with the normal Cat 6 plug, I was keen to try new products. So when I first saw the IDC Punch Down to RJ45 Plug from Kenable ², I ordered a few. It turned out to be a smart little move (this time).

This product has a built-in RJ45 plug that is already wired up, so I can skip that difficult part. All I have to do is punch down the wires into the IDC terminal. Punching down itself is very easy; I can do it half-minded with one hand.

Another benefit is that I can split the fitting into multiple steps, and I can take mini breaks for my arms between steps. Once one or two wires are inserted into the IDC terminal, it binds the cable to the plug. The binding is strong, so it hangs in the air and swings a bit with the wind with no issues. Then I take my time for the rest of the wires. If you don’t appreciate how important it is, trust me, your arms become rather fatigued when working with your hands overhead.

Footnotes

¹ For people who don’t know what “Orz” stands for, “O” is head, “z” is legs and hips, and “r” is arms.

² This post is not affiliated with Kenable