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View Full Version : Flat cat5e suppliers?

Zirax
03-02-2009, 14:58
Does anyone have any idea of where to get some flat cat5e on a reel from? Ideally I need 35-40m to do a long run in the house.

I have tried the following places, some of these only do a 30m length (not enough)

scan
dabs
ebuyer
comms-express
maplin
Novatech
ebay

Any other places I could look?

I am considering just using powerline instead as this will form the network from the router to my main gigabit switch. Hence the backbone would be gigabit between main machines and the servers, with 200mb (max) available for the net. It would be a lot cheaper to just use flat cat5e though :D
Zirax
03-02-2009, 15:17
Never head of RS, but a good little site. That will come in handy. Alas no flat cat5e
Burble
03-02-2009, 15:18
Farnell maybe?
Zirax
03-02-2009, 15:22
http://uk.farnell.com/videk/2965-30f/lead-flat-cat5e-utp-beige-30m/dp/1283826

Nearly, but thats a good pic of what I have seen.
Burble
03-02-2009, 15:24
I can find a few places that sell 30m flat patch cables (http://www.adeptnetworks.co.uk/cat5e-lsoh-flat-patch-leads-grey_1051_1005.htm), but can't find anywhere selling 40m of unterminated cable.
Zirax
03-02-2009, 15:29
If you find somewhere that does a 40m patch cable, that would do! I was looking at unterminated purely because I've found the longest pre-made lengths you can buy is 30m.
Burble
03-02-2009, 15:30
30m seems to be the longest I can find. You could always buy 2 lengths and join them with some solder and heatshrink. Not ideal but shouldn't cause any problems.
Zirax
03-02-2009, 15:37
You read my mind. I think I can get away with using two pre-made wires. Then you can buy network cable extenders that allow two to click together. I have a spot in the wall that would be ideal to do this and have it hidden. Or your plan of soldering and heatshrink does sound good as well.

Brilliant, problem solved :D
Burble
03-02-2009, 16:57
A cat5 coupler would do the job, that's for sure. Easier than soldering but which option is best depends on where you would do the join. For example I wouldn't have a bunch of solder joins under the carpet where there is going to be foot traffic.

I was going to use a coupler when I ran a length of 5e from the office to the lounge but couldn't find it so ended up cracking out the soldering iron instead.