instructables

Ethernet RJ45 Cable Tester

by scimmiettarossa

Hi all

this is my first instructable, so forgive my less-than-optimal description (and some missing photos)-

The idea (well, the need, actually) was to check the proper cabling of a long (40m or so) ethernet cable from my
flat to the basement; the routing itself was tricky, with a lot of narrow passages, so the probability of damaging the
cable was high. Obviously I had no professional ethernet tester available!

I got inspiration from xklathos' DIY-UltraCheap-RJ-45-UTP-Cable-Tester project, but it had a big limitation, in my
case: it is not applicable when the two ends of the cable under test are far away, i.e. with the cable already in
place.

Furthermore, I wanted something that was able to detect short-circuits, errors in wiring at the connectors, and, as
an addition, suitable both for straight-through and cross-over cables.

There are plenty of "smart" projects out there, all relying on integrated circuits and leds, to perform a cyclic test of
each channel, but I had no such hw available.

Summarising, the required characteristics are:

capable of testing cables "in-place"

detection of
open channels,
short circuits,
wrong wiring

applicable to Cat 5, 5e, 6 cables, shielded and unshielded

minimum hw required

The project ended in a "passive-only" couple of terminals, to be used in conjunction with a multimeter capable of
reading resistances-

So... let's go!

Ethernet RJ45 Cable Tester: Page 1

Step 1: Collecting What Is Needed

hardware:

3x female RJ45 shielded connectors ("jacks") (for example from a broken/old router/switch); you can
use also unshielded jacks, but of course you cannot test STP cables for shield continuity
2x small breadboards
8x 1kOhm resistors "RA" (or similar value, the important is that they are equal to each other, and at
least 2 orders of magnitude higher than the cable resistance...anything in the range of 470-4700
Ohm should be OK)
1x 10kOhm resistor "RB" (or similar value, proportional to the 8 above)
about 20 cm of ethernet cable
some shrink tube (small diameter)

tools:

plier
knife/cutter/scissors
solder and soldering iron
multimeter, measuring resistances
hot glue gun (optional, even silicon sealant, vinyl glue, foam, anything to avoid shorting wires..)

Ethernet RJ45 Cable Tester: Page 2

Step 2: Preparing the Sockets

if you have 3 new female jacks of the wall-mounted type, for each of the jacks:

prepare a 6 cm piece of the ethernet cable, removing external insulation cover

separate each wire
insert the individual wires in the slots of the jack, press them with the tool or its cover
use another wire to connect the shield
remove individual insulations at the other end of the wires

if you have an old router/switch/NIC:

cut the PCB around the jacks, until you have 3 single connectors, already soldered in their small
piece of PCB
for each of the jacks:
with a file or sand paper, smooth any edge of the PCB
prepare a 4 cm piece of the ethernet cable,
remove external insulation cover
separate each wire
completely remove individual insulation
solder each of them on the protruding ends of the leads
use another piece of naked wire to connect the shield

Ethernet RJ45 Cable Tester: Page 3

Ethernet RJ45 Cable Tester: Page 4
Step 3: Remote Terminal

This unit will be passive only, with only one female RJ45 connector on it, and all the resistors:

cut a piece of breadboard a bit larger than the jack (let's say 10 holes), and twice longer (let's say 15
holes)
take one of the already prepared sockets
insert the wires from the jack into a strip of 8+1 holes, and solder them (if you used salvage
connectors, insert the naked wires in as much as possible, in order to avoid short-circuit between
them)
trim the exceeding length of the wires
use hot glue to fix jack and breadboard to each other, thus avoiding short circuits
insert and solder the resistors according to the schematic

Ethernet RJ45 Cable Tester: Page 5

Step 4: Local Terminal

This unit will be the measuring one, with two RJ45 connectors (for testing both straight-through and cross-over
cables, otherwise you can use only the straight-through connector):

cut a piece of breadboard a bit larger than two jacks width (let's say 13-14 holes), and 14-15 holes
long
take the two already prepared jacks
insert the wires from the jacks into a matrix of 4x2 holes (plus 1 for shield), and solder them (if you
used salvage connectors, insert the naked wires in as much as possible, in order to avoid short-
circuit between them)
trim the exceeding lengtt of the wires
use hot glue to fix jacks and breadboard to each other, thus avoiding short circuits
use short pieces of the remaining wires to make point-to-point connections of the connectors
terminals, according to the schematic above (pay attention at the swap between pairs 1-2 and 3-6!!);
if needed, use shrink tubes to help with insulation
with the multimeter, verify for absence of short-circuits
again, use hot glue to fix all the wiring to avoid damage/shorts etc..
optionally, solder some rods at the test points, to facilitate use

Ethernet RJ45 Cable Tester: Page 6

Step 5: Using the Ethernet Tester

Ok.. everything is ready

Now we need a prepared ethernet cable (hopefully working!!!) as a test unit.. let's start with a straight cable.

plug the connector at the "remote-end" of the cable into the "remote terminal"
plug the "local-end" connector in the "local terminal" ("straight" receptacle)
set the multimeter in "Ohm" mode, with the appropriate range (greater than 8xRA, or RB)
connect the "black" multimeter probe to the Test Point 1 ("TP1" in the schematic), used as common
reference
connect the red probe step by step to the TestPoints TPn:
if the cable is OK, the multimeter will display a value close to RA*n for each single
point (for example, with the 1kOhm resistors, you should find 2 kOhm on TP2, 3 kOhm
on TP3, and so on)
if you see (almost ) 0 Ohm, there is a short circuit between wire "1" and the wire under
test
if more than one TP show the same resistance value, this means there is a short
somewhere along the cable
if you see infinite resistance on TP"n", this means that wire "n" is interrupted
somewhere
if you see infinite resistance on all channels, this means that wire "1" is interrupted
somewhere
if the above formula is not matched with the right sequence, this means that there is
some improper wiring

connect the red probe to TestPoints TPsh:

Ethernet RJ45 Cable Tester: Page 7

 it the shield is OK, you should see the value of RA+RB (11 kOhm, for example)
if you see inifinite resistancet, shield is interrupted somewhere (unlikely) or is not
present at all in the cable (probable)
if you see a resistance lower than RA+RB, it is short-circuited with another channel

If you have a crossed cable, simply use the "cross-over" receptacle, and the process is the same

NOTE 1: in the pictures you will see different values on the multimeter display, because I had no 1kOhm
resistors available for the prototype

NOTE 2: To Be Done: find a small enclosure for the two terminals, to give them a more "solid" appearance

NOTE 3: by the way, the flat-2-basement cabling, tested with this tester, was OK!!

NOTE 4: all the post production was done with Free/Libre Software:

photo editing: GIMP 2.8 (GNU General Public License v.3)

schematic drawing: QUCS 0.0.18 (GNU General Public License version 2.0)
publishing: Firefox 57.0.3 (Mozilla Public License 2.0)

1. cable under test

Ethernet RJ45 Cable Tester: Page 8

 1
1

1. should be 2.00 with 1kOhm resistors!!! see NOTE 1 1. should be 3.00 with 1kOhm resistors!!! see NOTE 1

1. should be 4.00 with 1kOhm resistors!!! see NOTE 1

I've got a box full of old parts and cables, I could really use one of these!

It's very intersting!

Ethernet RJ45 Cable Tester: Page 9