Does anyone know of a multipin ethernet snake

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Wang191

[H]ard|Gawd
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I have a special application where I need to quickly connect and disconnect 10-15 ethernet cables on a daily basis.

What i'm looking for is to have 15 RJ45 cables get soldered or punched down to a multipin connector. Something like a multipin whirlwin mic connector. Then the user can walk up to it with a snake and screw the large snake onto this connector. Then roll the snake out and have 15 jacks on a stage box.

Anyone know of such a connector?
 
Modifying the cables like this will likely cause interference problems. The connectors and cables are designed in a specific way and deviating from this can be a source of problems. If all you need to do is disconnect them, why not put them all on one switch, and then disconnect the switches uplink as needed.
 
it's actually a design for a broadcast studio where tallent can be located at any number of input panels depending on what day it is and what is being broadcast. The tallent has headphone amps that are fed digitally over cat5 plus a KVM extender that is on 5 cat5 cables. There are other control panels that are also cat5.

To make it simple for everyone to operate I wanted to design it into some kind of multi pin connector so no one had to figure out what connector went where on the input panels each time they had to setup for a show.
 
Wang191 said:
it's actually a design for a broadcast studio where tallent can be located at any number of input panels depending on what day it is and what is being broadcast. The tallent has headphone amps that are fed digitally over cat5 plus a KVM extender that is on 5 cat5 cables. There are other control panels that are also cat5.

To make it simple for everyone to operate I wanted to design it into some kind of multi pin connector so no one had to figure out what connector went where on the input panels each time they had to setup for a show.
Click to expand...

They have some connectors like this ... to get an idea try google'ing for hardened cisco router. A bunch of the military spec designs should give you an idea. A mil-spec switch might actually fit the bill for what you want.

edit: this is what I am talking about: http://parvus.com/products/ProductPage.aspx?ProductID=134

566.jpg

568.jpg
 
that looks almost like a whirlwind w1 connector.
So at least they do make something like what I'm looking for.

Thanks.
 
it's not IP. It's end to end connections that happen over cat5.

normally you have
switch -> patch panel ->cable run to room ->wall patch -> computer

in this case it's
headphone AD-> patch panel -> cable run to room -> wall patch -> headphone DA
 
Another solution may be to use an RJ-21 connector. Its fairly standard, and you can find products from several vendors that use it directly for ethernet, and pre-made cables easily. Usualy used to move a large number of connections between patch pannels. Each cable holds 12X 10/100 connections. It is limited to fast eithernet speed because only 4 conductors pass thru the connector for each port, the other 4 are grounded to the shielding. Works realy well if your not needing gigabit speed.

Edit:

Standard cables and octopus style breakout: http://www.l-com.com/familylist.aspx?id=70

Standard 24 port RJ45 to 2 x RJ21 patch panel: http://www.panduit.com/search/product_details.asp?N=5000001+957+3001560+&recName=DP24584TV25Y

Yet another source: http://www.connectworld.net/syscon/telco_cables.html

Standard pinout for ethernet (bottom of page): http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps700/products_tech_note09186a00800a7af7.shtml
 
Have you ever thought of contacting whirlwind. The reason I say this is b/c i remember over hearing a conversation at a studio that my friend works at that they were starting to work with Cat 5 and designing custom installs and this came directly from a guy that works there. I live in Rochester and know some people that do a lot of work with them and are friends with the head guys so I will ask around and see what i can find out for you.
 
that would be awesome if Whirlwind is getting into ethernet. I would be able to get everything from one place and have them build a floor box for this too.
 
you could just get a couple of cat5 25 pair cords and get a telco guy to help you get an amphenol connector on there. you could custom design the end connector based on your cabling ability.
 
I just want to make sure the connector is rated for ethernet. I want to make sure it passes the specification.
 
Wang191 said:
I just want to make sure the connector is rated for ethernet. I want to make sure it passes the specification.
Click to expand...

You really aren't going to find one then, because the intended market for Ethernet doesn't really have a big use for this sort of thing. What you are asking for I don't think exists in any of the specs, so you will need to improvise I guess.
 
Well that cisco box up there has the amphenal connector on it. That's got to be close to spec for military purposes.

I have a call into whirlwind too. Hopefully they respond soon. Design stage is just about over.
 
quick question...what's passing over the wires that it has to meet ethernet spec. Im not in the field you speak of so I don't think I understand the big picture.
 
i have a computer in an equipment room that needs a kvm extender into the studio.
There are intercom systems and headphone amplifiers.

basically think of each of these as something that needs 8 wires to communicate (not tcpip or other networking protocols). The devices send power and data over the wires in proprietary formats.
They have been designed to work over cat5 cable becuase it's common and has a specification and standards.

I have so many devices that need to be connected and disconnected that I'm looking for a simple connector that can be taken off all at once to make it easy for the operator to use it.

personally i think it'll work over one of these amphenol connectors but I would like to see somone else doing this with a data network first (as the embeded cisco device above). Amphenol has not returned my call as of yet however.
 
The Whirlwind stuff is not cat 5 snakes. It is a digital snake system for audio that uses cat 5 cabling as its transmission media. It's called E-snake and it's actually pretty cool.
An RJ21/50 pin amphenol connector would work, but again it's only good for 10BaseT and uses 2 pair per connection.
PS. Kaos is that you? :)
 
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