PoE cam pigtail cut/rejoin?

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0ddentity
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2020 2:49 am

PoE cam pigtail cut/rejoin?

Post by 0ddentity »

Hi all,

I figure this has to be a common enough occurrence/problem that's it's been solved already, but I can't find anything..

The PoE ethernet cam boot + pigtail on most cams I've seen are of course quite a bit bigger in diameter than the cable itself (from the cam to the jack/connectors). I want to run the cable through ceiling/wall, make the cam flush with the surface and so want to drill the smallest hole as possible - which would be the cable diameter, however the ethernet boot/jack is much larger obviously.

Is there any solution out there for making this as error free as possible when cutting the cable (running it through the wall) and reconnecting it to on the inside? Seems like maybe punch blocks that then mate together would be more ideal than just twisting the wires together w/electrical tape..? Heatshink maybe but I don't have this..

I _assume_ most people would rather make as small a hole as possible in a wall/ceiling and so would have run up against this/have some suggestions - maybe not.

In one external cam case I bought an additional wall mount/ring and coiled the cable it in there and just ran the ethernet cable itself through the wall, but this next case is a low profile cam/something I want to keep as clean/least visible as possible.

Thanks!
mikb
Posts: 586
Joined: Mon Mar 25, 2013 12:34 pm

Re: PoE cam pigtail cut/rejoin?

Post by mikb »

Splicing CAT5/6 cable together with twist+electrical tape is not exactly within specifications. It may well work, it may introduced noise/emissions or a rather nasty reflection in the cable that stops it working.

Alternative idea: An external grade small weatherproof junction box. Drill small hole in wall that enters jbox when mounted. Feed a new, unterminated cable through hole inside to outside, into the junction box. Put a RJ45 jack on the end, and leave yourself a bit of slack both inside the jbox (coil it) and inside the house (just in case!). Get a proper cat 5 coupler/joiner (it has RJ45 socket at each end) to join the camera jack to the cable jack, and put all this inside the weather proof box. Your new CAT5 cable can run all around the house until it gets where it needs to go ... if you have a separate DC cable for the camera, then splicing that onto a 2 core cable is much easier (I call them chocolate block connectors!)

Or, drill a hole large enough for the connectors to pass through, and find a split-plate that has a smaller hole which can be installed outside to cover the larger hole. E.g. what is used for allowing fat connectors through small neat holes in desks :-

https://www.daro.com/category/lighting/ ... -257621772

Or cut one of these straight through the middle :)

https://www.toolstation.com/flat-plate- ... ate/p26894

Or, these kind of things :-

https://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-Split- ... B013Z71724
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Qty-External-O ... B00BIGHV8O
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Single-Gang-Ca ... B00BCRT7FO
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