Cat 6 Cable or maybe 5?

I went out to the local electronics supply store and decided to grab some Cat 6 cable while I was there. When the sales guy asked what kind I needed I told him that I wanted it to strip the wires out. He suggested that the Cat 5 is cheaper, uses the same color wires and is almost identical for this purpose. I bought some and opened it up when I got home and it has the same colors listed on the rrrf.org site.

Is there any reason why Cat 6 cable should be used instead of Cat 5 cable?

Vince

The only reason I can think of is that cat6 is easier to get. Cat5 is dying out. But it'll work just fine. Try and keep some of the wires twisted together, so you can connect any high speed serial lines using one of the wires in a twist as data, and the other as ground return. This'll reduce interference a whole lot.

--Blerik

yeah, cat 5 is just fine for that. its actually easier as well because it doesnt have the internal divider. unfortunately for me, i though that cat6 would be better and bought 1000ft of it. when that runs out, i'll be buying 1000ft of the cat5.

cheers!

blerik Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Try and keep some of the wires twisted
> together, so you can connect any high speed serial
> lines using one of the wires in a twist as data,
> and the other as ground return. This'll reduce
> interference a whole lot.
>
> --Blerik

Good to know, I'll keep that in mind.

Thanks for the info.

Vince

If it makes you feel any better, the CAT6 will be useful for (re)wriring your home computer network... it does a better job of carrying gigabit than CAT5e does.

And I don't know how quickly you go through cable, but I've had a 1000ft reel of 5e for a looooong time, and it still doesn't show any sign of running out

well, i sell it on the RRRF store. i'm about 1/2 way through it

I used wire pulled out of a disused monitor cable. Seems to work just fine.

yup, pretty much any smaller gauge wire works. cat5/6 is just very common and has plenty of uniquely colored wires. very handy.

If you ever want a twisted pair a battery drill on one end works very well just pull the other end tight and spin away.

---

Ian
[www.bitsfrombytes.com]

Twisting that way causes the wire to loop and coil when you release the tension though.. I much prefer doing it by hand - not twisting, but crossing the wire over and over again so neither wire is twisted, but they coil around each other. This method will leave you with a cable that stays as straight as the wires it's made of.

FYI: Cat-6 uses 23-gauge wire and Cat-5e uses 24-gauge so the Cat-5 will not fit as snugly into the Arduino pinholes. I doubled-over a solid-core 24-gauge Cat-5e wire and it fit great. Unfortunately, the solid-core wire breaks up easily and when it breaks at the Arduino connector there is a chance that it will stay in the connector (like mine did :-( ).

After a couple more wires broke, I re-wired with Cat-5e patch cable (stranded wire) and soldered to a pin-strip plugged into the Arduino. This is solid and allows for some repositioning without stressing the wires. No more broken wires!

-darren

side note: i have a design for an arduino breakout shield with screw-terminals for each pin. works great for all sorts of wires! no more broken pins in your arduino.

yay!