Help me identify what kind of cable this is

[Thedog]

Looking at some old wiring and trying to figure how these cables run and if I can use the pipes for ethernet... what kind of cable is this? My guess is either telephone or some larm/old type of video surveillance?

 

[Markverhyden]

Can't remember seeing that red/blue white before. But individually twisted pairs makes me think it may be some kind of video extension cable. If I had my druthers I'd make new runs using Cat6. But if it's a difficult situation or an emergency then I'd expect the run to work ok properly terminated.

 

[Altster]

I just did a bit of searching thru color charts and I couldn't find anything that looks like this. It is certainly NOT a VGA (analog) cable.

I'm betting it is some sort of specialty / custom cable - possibly in medical field?

3 shielded pares with "drain" (bare wire) and two odd balls.

Let us know what you end up finding out about this. I'm now very curious!

 

[Altster]

Looking at some old wiring and trying to figure how these cables run and if I can use the pipes for ethernet... what kind of cable is this? My guess is either telephone or some larm/old type of video surveillance?

You "could" use it for Ethernet. You would need to make note of it and attach it to the cable at both ends so that the next person that comes along isn't confused about it.

Personally I wouldn't use it for anything. I'd either pull it out or cut it flush and use correct cabling for Ethernet.

 

[mr m]

That looks like S/FTP Ethernet. It's just a shielded cable.

All cables are identified by printing on the outer insulating jacket so check it out. A handy tidbit that most people don't realize is that there are length markings also printed on the jacket. Real handy for figuring out how muck cable is left in a box if you can get to both ends and do a little math.

 

[Mercenary Roadie]

First off it's a direct bury cable. You can tell by the white cloth which replaced the gel.

No, you "could" NOT use this for Ethernet. The one pair has no twists and the other three pair don't have the correct twist to them.

It's not an S/FTP Ethernet cable either. It isn't for any type of Ethernet.

No idea what it used for. There are thousands of variations of cables out there. Just look up some on the Beldin website.

 

[fencepost]

If it's solid core you should be able to use it for Ethernet at up to 100MBit speeds. Technically "10BASE-T and 100BASE-TX only require two pairs (pins 1–2, 3–6) to operate." Document it at both ends (e.g. a label on the faceplate of "2-pr NonStd Max 100T"). If it's not solid cable it may be a little more troublesome putting it into a jack since stranded cables can compress; similarly if it's solid putting an end on it may be harder.

The importance of the twist rates is that they be different within the same cable to avoid crosstalk, but the actual twist rates used aren't standardized that I remember seeing, and I was looking for info on that when I was looking into Cat6 cable specs which ended up being a lot fuzzier than I expected.

 

[Mercenary Roadie]

I don't know if the twist per inch is standardized or not. But, they have to be different and not the same as this cable is. There is more to cable characteristics than just it being solid wire and the number of twists. You have to have the correct resistance, impedance, capacitance, etc. There is a reason that we use cable manufactured to the various ethernet standards and not just any old 4-pair twisted pair cable.

 

[fencepost]

It's a difference over "is it right" vs. "will it work." As a licensed LV contractor, for you it needs to be right and nothing with that cable is right. My pragmatic take on it as a fat software guy closing in on 50 far too rapidly is "it's not right, but it may work anyway if you're willing to accept a slower speed as 'working.'"

I'd be astonished if that was thinner than 24AWG which is the minimum spec for Cat5. There aren't enough pairs for PoE anyway, so that's a moot point and I wouldn't recommend trying it anyway on an unknown cable. The twists look different to me (particularly the orange pair) so if two of the three usable pair actually are different that should be enough to avoid crosstalk. Technically you could run 10baseT over Cat3, so if 10MBit is defined as "working" then I'm pretty positive this could work.

It may be really dirty and utterly Not Right, but I have spit, electrical tape and a Leatherman and I'm not afraid to use them.

 

[Markverhyden]

Actually it would work with PoE, there are 4 pairs ignoring the two bare ground wires. But it's hard to say what the gauge is. RJ45's are very limited but one could cram slightly larger or smaller, including braided into a keystone and then use a patch cable. But if it needed PoE I'd not use anything less than 24 gauge. As @mr m said the specs are stenciled on the outer jacket, so you could get the gauge from that. I'd be interested in what is says.

At any rate, as I mentioned, I'd run new Cat6 cable. But if it's an emergency I'm sure I could get it working. Heck, might even test out to 100 if it's not too long or near any meaningful EMI. Over the years I've seen some very interesting "patch" jobs. Not even close to spec but they were working.

 

[Mercenary Roadie]

It may be really dirty and utterly Not Right, but I have spit, electrical tape and a Leatherman and I'm not afraid to use them.

Nothing personal, but it's attitudes like this that make my job harder, costs the customer a lot more money then they should have paid in the first place and gives everyone a bad name.

 

[fencepost]

Nothing personal, but it's attitudes like this that make my job harder, costs the customer a lot more money then they should have paid in the first place and gives everyone a bad name.

That's why I try to avoid getting sucked into cabling, and I actually don't do hacked-together things like that though if it was in my own home I'd have no real problem with it. That said, I can see situations where I'd spend 15 minutes terminating that with a jack at both ends and seeing if it worked - such as if it was a single run that was needed. What's your minimum for a site? Would you even quote for a single run?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

No, you "could" NOT use this for Ethernet. The one pair has no twists and the other three pair don't have the correct twist to them..

Just plain "Ethernet"...10 megs..didn't necessarily need twists. I recall lots of "flat" ethernet cable back in the day, for custom fittings like in baseboards, or short runs. Those cables didn't have twists. Never for long runs...full length spec. Just for short runs.

I sorta recall it being around in "fast ethernet" times too (100 megs).
Haven't seen it in recent times (gigabit).

 

[frostbyte5014]

Reminds me of some cable we replaced about 15yrs ago for a hospital that went to vital sign monitors in their NICU.