Disconnected thoughts

Lately, it seems all my thoughts have been random, spastic, mental outbursts. So, when it came time to sit and write this column, I knew I’d be in trouble. Here are a few of those thoughts?some connector-related, some not. There will not be a quiz later.

Last time around, I wrote about the RJ-45 interface, apparently in somewhat glowing terms. One reader who has the (dis?)pleasure of working with RJ-45s on a regular basis wrote the following to me: “RJ-45 connectors appear to have evolved from the RJ-11 and RJ-14 telephone connectors and the number-one criteria seems to have been to make them as cheap as possible.”

Wait; it gets better: “These jacks have a round spring wire that contacts a flat contact on the plug. This results in a very small spring force and a small contact area. The contacts have a very thin gold plating. If the plug is bottomed out in the jack there is usually a good connection, but if the plug is pulled back toward the rear of the jack the connection frequently becomes intermittent. This happens even when the plug latch is still engaged. Then there is the issue of stranded vs. solid Cat 5 cable with the wrong type of RJ-45 plug. You have to have a high-power magnifying glass and know what you are looking for (most people don’t) to tell if the plug is designed for solid or stranded wire.

“We work in a harsh environment with lots of shock and vibration. The RJ-45 is unreliable in the office. If they go away, good riddance.”

I should have known what was coming by the subject line in this man’s email to me. It was: RJ-45 interface? :<

Maybe this commenter will see the brighter side after reading the article by Steve Loyal beginning on page 15.

Speaking of the RJ-45, it’s worth stating there are a lot of these connectors, along with twisted-pair wires, behind wireless local area networks. But for how long? I’ve heard some predict that, long-term, LAN architectures will consist of fiberoptic backbones and wireless, serving horizontal spaces. No more copper cabling. Interesting thought. I’m not convinced it will happen in my working life, but then again, I’m unable to count the number of things I’ve been wrong about over the years.

The other day on my commute into the office, I saw a car pulled over by police on the highway. I always assume the driver was speeding, so go with me on this one. As I drove by the offender, I noticed his license plate: LANMAN. In this case, a high-speed LAN did not work to its operator’s benefit. As a friend of mine pointed out, a little bit of delay skew might have helped the situation.

The necessary interrelationship between connectors and cables/wires will be showcased once again when the International Wire and Cable Symposium is held in conjunction with the annual seminar of the International Institute of Connector and Interconnection Technology. The event will take place in Charlotte, NC, USA November 8-11. It’s a unique opportunity to take wiring and connectivity technology out of their silos, put them together, and hash out the ways in which they affect one another.

On the first day of school, my son was putting on his brand new shoes for the first time. (Why he didn’t put them on before the first day of school is a longer story.) As it turned out, he had two left shoes and no right shoe. Somewhere in there is a joke about being a bad dancer. Somewhere else is a lesson for dad to go school shopping earlier.

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Patrick McLaughlin
Chief Editor
Patrick@pennwell.com