Multi-wire stripper for Cat5? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Starlord
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2015, 02:45:06 pm
content: Hey guys,I want to use some Cat5 cable for wiring up LEDs, and I have a lot of LEDs to wire up, but I don't want to have to strip each individual wire in the cable.I'm pretty sure there are some automatic hand tools which can strip multiple wires at once with a single squeeze of the trigger, but it's hard to tell by looking at a tool how it works or if it's any good, so I was wondering if anyone has a particular tool they'd recommend for the job.Looking for something cheap, in the $15-$25 range, but might pay a bit more if it's a quality tool.Note that I'm not looking for your standard Cat5 stripper/crimper tool, as I'm pretty sure those only strip the insulation off the bundle and not the individual wires inside.

author: PeterFW
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2015, 03:57:52 pm
content: I am not shure what do you want to do, im 90% certain my reply wont help you out......but maybe something like this might help you:http://www.ebay.com/itm/50-pack-lot-Keystone-Jack-Cat5e-Ivory-Network-Ethernet-110-Punchdown-8P8C-/261170126972?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3ccef3e07cAnother solution could be to etch small boards and use a couple of those:http://www.ebay.com/itm/50-pcs-52-8P8C-Modular-Network-PCB-Jack-Connector-Side-entry-Without-flange-/141006392140?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20d4a2cb4c

author: Kjelt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2015, 04:07:15 pm
content: Quote from: Starlord on March 08, 2015, 02:45:06 pmSo if I understand you correctly you do NOT want to use RJ45 plugs or jacks but just the single wires right?In that case you are out of luck since a CAT5 cable has twisted pairs so you first have to untwist them anyway. Then using a standard wire stripper is not that much extra time anymore.I would suggest looking at an alternative like using RJ45 connectors but those also take some time to put in the right order. So a faster alternative would be to use flatbandcable with headers.

author: Starlord
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2015, 05:39:18 pm
content: Correct, I do not want to use plugs on the cables. I want to cut the plugs off and solder the bare wires to solder pads.I've been using this kind of wire stripper:http://www.amazon.com/Hakko-CSP-30-1-Stripper-Maximum-Capacity/dp/B00FZPHMUG/ref=sr_1_1?s=power-hand-tools&ie=UTF8&qid=1425835925But now I'm looking at getting something like this:http://www.amazon.com/Tools-VISE-GRIP-Self-Adjusting-Stripper-2078300/dp/B000OQ21CA/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_topThe reviews say some people have used them for Cat5 and they can strip a couple wires at the same time. If nothing else, it would make stripping a big faster and more consistent since the stripped ends will be the same length.

author: Kjelt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2015, 05:51:21 pm
content: Could be that it works but it does not look to be designed to do that.There was somewhere on this forum a topic about electrical (heated) wire strippers, they were somewhat more expensive but they might do all your wires in one go.

author: PeterFW
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2015, 05:59:57 pm
content: Cheap wire strippers are only good for... nope... not one single use comes to mind.Not even as a paperweight, but maybe i have not met the right one yet...

author: mariush
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2015, 11:20:59 pm
content: You could just get a solder pot and stick the wires in the solder, the insulation would melt away and the wires will be tinned. Yes, you'd have to take care of the smoke made by the plastic insulation and the solder will not be clean anymore but as long as you'll clean the junk forming on top you would be fine.I'd make an observation, be careful what network cable you're using. Lots of those cheap cables are CCA (copper clad aluminum), cheap aluminum wires with just a bit of copper plating, so there's a risk your wire strippers will dig into the aluminum and make the wire weak.

author: RobertHolcombe
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2015, 11:44:24 pm
content: Those self-adjusting strippers are not suitable for low gauge wire because they rely on the left jaws biting into the insulation, which additionally doesn't work well on the stiff & slippery insulation of CAT5 conductors

author: Starlord
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2015, 12:37:20 am
content: Has anyone used the Wirefox series by Phoenix Contact? They're $100 ea, and I hesitate to spend that much on a wire stripper, but if it will do the job reliably I might drop that much. I couldn't find any videos of one actually being used, just this 3D rendered one:...Actually, I just watched this video which had some connectors I was looking at and they show one of them in use at :56 in:Anyone know how to convert mm to AWG? I looked up a conversion chart online but it doesn't seem to match up with what Phoenix lists on their website for AWG sizes. For example, one set, according to digikey is 0.02mm ~ 10mm Cable Diameter, while another one is 0.08mm ~ 2.5mm Cable Diameter.Is that mm^2? And are those 34 awg and 28awg minimums?And of course now I can't find the page that I was looking at before which showed the different Wirefox types with the sizes listed in AWG. But I do remember that I didn't see a size smaller than 28awg listed.

author: Starlord
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2015, 12:39:23 am
content: Also, how would those self adjusting strippers fare at say, pulling the outer sheath off cat5? I'm gonna need to do that too. Might be faster to use a tool like that than those plastic ones you have to twirl around the cable.

author: SL4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2015, 12:47:34 am
content: Quote from: PeterFW on March 08, 2015, 05:59:57 pmA big issue the OP will encounter is not only cheap strippers, but 'nicking' the conductors - resulting in broken unreliable connections over time (more wires == more problems)Also OP - seriously look at the type of CATx cable you are using, stranded (patch) vs solid core (plenum) cable will make a huge difference to how you approach the wire preparation and solution... and the choice of any RJ connectors if needed.

author: Starlord
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2015, 12:51:29 am
content: Quote from: SL4P on March 09, 2015, 12:47:34 amThis is the type of cable I was going to use:http://www.assmann.us/specs/DK-1511-xxx_xx.pdfI wasn't planning to crimp any RJ connectors on the cables myself, I was just going to buy pre-assembled cables and cut them in half.

author: SL4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2015, 12:56:22 am
content: That's seems like decent cable - and itis a PATCHcable - withstrandedconductors (7*0.19), which are more suitable for flexing, and less liklely to be 'damaged' by nicking a single conductor of the strand.If you doeveruse RJ connectors - be sure tospecify forstrandedconductors!

author: PeterFW
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2015, 12:57:59 am
content: Quote from: SL4P on March 09, 2015, 12:47:34 amI would bet a solution wich does not require the stripping, of Cat-Cable would be much more efficient and less prone broken wires.It sounds like OP wants to wire a huge amount of leds to Cat-Cable, cheap chinese adapter boards with 8P8C sockets, standard patch cables and a 500m spool of cheap single wire will be much less of a hastle and only add a couple of bucks.I have done this sort of stuff, you want to keep it as cheap as possible...

author: SL4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2015, 01:00:29 am
content: Quote from: PeterFW on March 09, 2015, 12:57:59 amIf that is indeed the case - I'd go for a single high-speed serial buss - with one RJ + power to each module. (SPI / RS485 or whatever is needed). Connectors are useful, but also a point of failure when there are too many of them!

author: Starlord
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2015, 01:31:34 am
content: Quote from: PeterFW on March 09, 2015, 12:57:59 amWell, if you have a suggestion as to how I can more easily attach this type of LED to my boards, I'm all ears:I thought about designing my own PCB with a modular jack on the bottom, but:1. Those LEDs are expensive and I can get them for half price from China already mounted on a star board.2. I will be running these without a heat sink (average current (for all dies in total) of 150mA), and I don't now if FR4 will dissipate the heat as well as the aluminum substrate.3. The smallest modular jack I could find is still wider along the diagonal than the star board itself and I believe wider than the tube I intend to install it in.4. I am aware there are smaller connectors out there but having to strip and solder hundreds of wires is bad enough, crimping them by hand would be torture.5. I want to use a multi-conductor cable so all the wires are in a bundle. I don't want a bunch of loose wires everywhere.6. I want a professional look, so no ribbon cables.Believe me I'd rather not strip and solder all these stupid wires, but I need a very bright RGBW LED in a small area.I'd also have loved to put the LED driver on the back side of the board itself, but no room thanks t that connector that would have to be there, and the drivers are linear current regulators and would generate too much heat on top of the copious amounts the LED would already be generating. :/Although at $100 for a striping tool and thinking about all the stripping I'd have to do, designing a custom PCB to avoid all this somehow is looking rather tempting.

author: SL4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2015, 01:57:54 am
content: Quote from: Starlord on March 09, 2015, 01:31:34 amSuggestionsLose the mounted LEDs and buy the LEDs alone. (cheaper)Design a PCB (perhaps aluminium substrate for heatsinking) and load the SMD LEDs yourself (or assembly house)This will probably work better, and be more reliable that having hundreds of LED stars mounted to a carrier board.No multi-conductor cable. Put shift registers or LED multiplexers and drivers on the carrier panel.One DC power connector and one (RJ or whatever) data connector.You may like to sprinkle a couple of temperaure sensors on the boards top monitor and shutdown the drivers if the boards exceed safe operating temperatures... (no dead LEDs!)Designing for cooling is a good idea - even of you do't want to implement it... finned heatsink or fan air-flow slots...Once you've built 50 of these, you'll understand why point-to-point wiring is a total no-no in manufacturing. It is expensive to install, ugly and unreliable!!AndNOstripping

author: PeterFW
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2015, 02:23:05 am
content: Quote from: Starlord on March 09, 2015, 01:31:34 amYou should get a few LEDs and drivers to test them.Compare lower power LEDs to the one you selected, human vision has a somewhat logarithmic sensitivity for light.Sompare the lumen per watt for each LED because...If you only drive each die at 37,5mA that is not all that much, there should not be a need to run all 4 clors at once since that is a RGBW.I would estimate the average power consumption at <100mA, that is damn low and should emit a manageable amount of heat.Be shure that you really need all that power, a small board with a bunch of thick copper and via stitching to the backside might be an option.On the same board you can mount the LED driver and connector, maybe even a small heatsink on the back.But from my experience (only measured with my finger) a WS2803 led driver runs reasonably warm at 100mA.I am going out on a limb here but a 3x3cm board with 70µm copper front+back might just be enough.If you still would like to use a patchcabel for wiring (wich in this case is reasonable) the board might have to be a bit bigger.The cheapest solution, bare led + thick copper board + rj45 hack on the board + patchcable. That would be around $1.5 dollars per board including the connector.No need for wire stipping, cursing, bloody fingers, cramps, burned thumbs...

author: Starlord
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2015, 02:46:34 am
content: 1. Leds on star board from China - $6. Bare LED (Not available from China) - $15.2. I believe aluminum PCBs are expensive. I also don't think it's possible to have vias in an aluminum PCB, which as necessary if I'm to mount a connector on the back side without the need for adding jumpers all around the edge.QuoteThere won't be a hundred LEDs in a single device; I'm making a hundred devices with one or a few LEDs in each.QuoteIf I do that then a tiny 20mm diameter board (3cm^2) will have to dissipate the whole 5V input - 0.75W of power:http://circuitcalculator.com/wordpress/2007/02/16/pcb-thermal-copper-area/And according to that, even with a 150C juncton temperature, I need 6.4cm^2. Though they do state that both sides of the PCB can be counted if you have thermal vias and the LED is something like 20-30% effificent. So I might barely squeak by, but I really don't want to go over 100C.QuoteWell if I just connect the LED with wires I'd have room to attach a tiny heat sink to the underside, but if I were to make a custom PCB I wouldn't have anywhere to put one with the connector taking up all the space.The PCB for the LED has to be the size of that star board, or only slighly larger.QuoteYou don't have to tell me that. If I could figure out another means of doing this that fits within my size / budget constraints, I would gladly go that route.But stripping cables costs less, and takes less time than crimping custom cables. Unless those custom cables are modular cables, then I can do those fairly quickly. OR ribbon cables but unless I'm using big ugly 0.1" connectors, there's no standard and I can't be ensured of a steady supply of the connectors I need if I use say, a 2mm connector. Also the cable would come out of he LED at a right handle, and it really needs to come straight out the back.I'd love to use a JST connector if only I wouldn't have to face the prospect of crimping all those wires by hand.I guess I'll have another look at how large that modular jack is and see if it will fit or not and if it does maybe I could make a custom PCB, but I'm pretty sure it won't.

author: Starlord
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2015, 02:52:30 am
content: QuoteI won't be running all 4 colors at once. I will be running one or two dies, on a 50% duty cycle (flashing), at 150mA each.QuoteWell, on a board the size of a postage stamp, if you put the drivers on the board, than the board has to dissipate the whole 5V 150mA. If you don't, then it's manageable... barely.

author: Starlord
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2015, 02:57:56 am
content: QuoteSo 2oz copper, both sides, with soldermask and via stitching?I thought about it but I still don't know if that jack will fit, I have to look into it.And the price you listed may be what the PCB costs, but if I have to buy the LEDs in the US, then instead of paying $6 for each one I'd be paying $15. At that point using that particular LED doesn't really seem viable. :/

author: SL4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2015, 02:59:20 am
content: Those LED prices seem terribly expensive - although I can't say I've specifically purchased those RGBW chips.Even if it reduces wiring by 75% - put 4x RGBW chips on a single substrate (assuming you can get the RGBW LEDs down to (well under) $1.50 each).ANYPCB solution will end up cheaper in the end result.Mounting, thermal management, wiring, assembly reliability etc...But you can pick two out of three -you can't get all 3/3!!QUALITY / RELIABILITYFAST / EASYPRICECheers

author: PeterFW
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2015, 04:20:24 am
content: Quote from: SL4P on March 09, 2015, 02:59:20 amIndeed, there seems to be a huge gap between what you want to do and what the budget allows.And the dimensional demands may be not feasable, a "postage stamp sized" board is not enough.Do you really need RGBW? I have rarely seen equipment with RGBW leds.A decent optic+rgb led (color mixing) is way, way, way less then the price you quoted above.And i have not met a standard human recognise the difference.And be cautious with fake china LEDs... they tend to have a rather short lifecycle.A lot of 100 China RGB clocks in at about $60 but you want to be able to "quick change" those.But you dit now say if you have evaluated if you really need that much power.

author: Starlord
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2015, 02:38:23 pm
content: Quote from: PeterFW on March 09, 2015, 04:20:24 amThere aren't a lot of cheap high power RGB LEDs if you get them from legit sources:http://www.digikey.com/short/7599rjThe XM-L I've chosen puts out 1.5x the lm/W of the cheapest one there.Now how bright do I actually need this thing to be? I have no idea.I'd previously been using 1.5-2.5W 12v LED bulbs designed for cars. I don't know what brand of LED they used, but they looked like this:https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/surface-mount-smd/pure-white-5050-smd-led-120-degree-viewing-angle-6000-mcd/316/1248/#/tab/SpecificationsEach bulb was cylindrical, with 4 LEDs around the circumference and 1 at the tip. Most recently I was using bulbs with 13 LEDs. But one with 9 would suffice - for white. But I need color in addition to the white now. But for now let's just calculate the brightness of the white bulb.Assuming the LEDs were the same at that one on superbrightleds, it can handle 3x20mA continuous - 60mA.Now if the bulb is truly 2W, that's 2W / 12V = 166mA. 166mA / 60mA = 2.5 leds.Clearly something is wrong, since that isn't anywhere near the 13 leds per bulb my "2W" leds had. Actually, I've got a multimeter and one of the LEDs... so let's test the current...93mA. Huh?93ma / 13 leds = 7mA per LED? What the hell? Why are they under-utilizing the LEDs by that much?Also, 93mA * 12V is only 1.1W. So 2W is a lie.

author: PeterFW
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2015, 03:21:27 pm
content: Quote from: Starlord on March 09, 2015, 02:38:23 pmNa... tinker a bit with various types of LEDsYou get a much better feel for it when you compare two LEDs at various currents with your eyes.I had a look, since high power RGB isnt something im all that familiar with, i only installed a couple pre made RGB LED light effects.I could not find a US source... locally they cheapest is a edison for about $9 at volume including a lens.But if nothing works out in the end, get a bunch of itty bitty tiny board, put 8 solder pads on them and a 8P8C connector, glue them to the back of the LED, wire that with your run of the mill single stranded wire and put a glob of epoxy on every joint. Use one of the double barrel syringes with a static mixer, youre done in a couple of minutes.

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 11, 2015, 04:09:12 am
content: What about 4 sets of single color SMD LEDs on a custom board?

author: kingofkya
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 11, 2015, 04:41:44 am
content: YEah and cat5 can get hard/fragile when you solder it due to solder wicking. ITs really not worth it. Just get some PCBs made like this.http://kneale.us/minibb.htmlTheses ones are for led ribbons and other light stuff buy you can get the point. some fr4 material is significantly cheaper than your time.I might have a few boards around assuming you only need a few.

author: Starlord
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 11, 2015, 06:23:40 am
content: Well after some tests with an RGB LED (not the RGBW led I mentioned) and being unhappy with the color mixing, I am considering putting several LEDs on a single board, but in some cases I may need RGB leds mounted within flashlight reflectors, and such a solution won't work for that, I need one tiny point of light.As for the breakouts... What's the point? Why would I want to terminate a cable at a breakout only to then have to extend wires from said breakout and solder them to the LED? Stranded Cat5 cable isn't any different from any other kind of stranded wire as far as I know. It seems like sticking a breakout in the middle just increases the cost and actually requires me to strip twice as many wire ends.Of course I'm not entirely sold on using Cat5 for this either. I'm still looking ay my options. I wish there were a connector as easy to crimp as a modular jack which had a vertical jack so I could have the cable come straight back out of the board. I don't want to crimp individual wires by hand. And a ribbon cable connector is 90 degrees. It would work, but not really ideal. Hirose makes some nice 2mm connectors, and Digikey crimps connectors on wires for them but the wires are expensive and not long enough I need something around 18" and they only go up to 12". :/

author: kingofkya
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 11, 2015, 05:05:15 pm
content: You can use thicker wires and a crimp so you get more fleaxable wires. Anyways The other thing you might want to look at is the wire they use on trailers with there 4 pin connectors is fairly cheap.EX:http://www.carid.com/wesbar/5-flat-trailer-end-connector-4-length-mpn-002409.html?gclid=CjwKEAjwz_-nBRC0zbDb_YOT1TgSJACW2VECdHc-YlbrhLJe9hz0cHnfP9ZQGtYgvI3gcO_St_0PZRoCfJ_w_wcB