Cat 5 or Cat 6

[Rolyasm]

I have to make a Cat 5 connection to my A-bus keypads. My brother has some Cat 6 cable that he will give to me. Can I use the Cat 6 in place of the Cat 5? It would save me buying a roll of Cat 5. It looks like the Cat 6 has more wires. Thanks for any help.
Roly

[Kevin P]

Cat6 will work fine. It simply has more twists per inch than Cat5. Otherwise it's the same stuff pretty much, just costs more (except in your case where you're getting it for free).

Are you building a new house? If you are, use the Cat6 for networking and get Cat5 for your A-bus.

[Rolyasm]

Thanks Kevin,
The house is already built. I was adding some local source input (RCA) wall keypads to my existing system. I will give the Cat 6 a try. Thanks.

Roly

[ToddAnisman]

Cat6 will work fine. It simply has more twists per inch than Cat5. Otherwise it's the same stuff pretty much, just costs more (except in your case where you're getting it for free).

Are you building a new house? If you are, use the Cat6 for networking and get Cat5 for your A-bus.

Yes. But to clarify- CAt 6 has Different twists for each pair, as well as separation (spacing) within the wire.

A word about using Cat5/6 for AV- use shielded if you can. Things like gefeen extenders and the like work much better with shielded cable than with unshielded. Just a hard earned piece of knowledge...

-Todd A.

[Chris D]

Interesting, I'd like to learn, too. I really don't know the exact differences between 5 and 6. I thought Cat 6 was the same purpose/design as Cat 5, but enabled a higher data rate. You guys describing that "Cat 6 has more twists per inch", and "different twists for each pair as well as separation within each wire" - Are you saying that Cat 5 and 6 both have the same number of wires inside, but Cat 6 is just a better packaging of those wires? What does that give you?

Kev, why do you recommend the Cat 6 for networking, but the Cat 5 for A-bus? Something special about their capabilities, or is it just an issue like Cat 6 would only be overkill for the control panels or something?

Roly, I'd sure like to know more about your project! What keypads are you adding, what's the control system equipment, how are you snaking the wires through your existing walls? Thanks!

[Marzen]

Yes. But to clarify- CAt 6 has Different twists for each pair, as well as separation (spacing) within the wire.

A word about using Cat5/6 for AV- use shielded if you can. Things like gefeen extenders and the like work much better with shielded cable than with unshielded. Just a hard earned piece of knowledge...

-Todd A.

Yes, but I think you aren't able to go maximum distance with shielded due to increased capacitance and differential signal xfers. Probably a moot point in a home install anyway, but a good idea especially around electrically noisy items like fluorescent lamp ballasts, door bell line, etc. There is also a AV version of C5 solid core that has an identical twist ratio, this helps with color skew compensation.

[Kevin P]

Kev, why do you recommend the Cat 6 for networking, but the Cat 5 for A-bus? Something special about their capabilities, or is it just an issue like Cat 6 would only be overkill for the control panels or something?

Correct. Cat6 is overkill for the control panels, so if you have a spool of Cat5 and a spool of Cat6, using the Cat6 for networking will give you more capacity for the future, as Ethernet speeds increase.

[Chris D]

So Cat 6 IS capable of higher speeds than Cat 5?

[ToddAnisman]

So Cat 6 IS capable of higher speeds than Cat 5?

Chris- Yes.

Reason is:

A) The Different twist on the wire reduces Crosstalk in each pair due to hystoresis fields,

B) the Center separation that keeps the wires apart acts as a dielectric.

Cat. 6 is capable of 10G speed afaik. That's pretty rare right now, but as things improve...

[ToddAnisman]

Yes, but I think you aren't able to go maximum distance with shielded due to increased capacitance and differential signal xfers. Probably a moot point in a home install anyway, but a good idea especially around eclectically noisy items like fluorescent lamp ballasts, door bell line, etc. There is also a AV version of C5 solid core that has an identical twist ratio, this helps with color skew compensation.

Actually shielded can go farther, but your'e spot about the Color skew compensation. So, the clioffnotes are

Cat 5e or Shielded cat 5 - use for AV

Cat 6 or Cat 6 Shielded- use for Networking.

I use tons of Gefen extenders, and am seeing far better performance with Cat 5 Shielded Cable on the DDC line. I am extending two Apple 23" Cinema displays 70' and 100' respectively with decent results. the screen res is 1900x1200 - So Basically 1080p.

I know most installer still use compenent. But I think HDMI ocer Cat5 or better yet fibre is the way to go.

-Todd A.

[Marzen]

I have found that both shielded, stranded and CAT6 reduce max length. You cant escape the math and probably wouldn't see this effect in a home install. Granted I'm not an installer & might overlook some real world application, but I am involved with the design process of these units.

[Chris D]

This is really good for me to know, guys. I've been pondering options to how to upgrade a home video distribution using composite to high-definition, preferably HDMI, but possibly component.

[dyazdani]

I know most installer still use compenent. But I think HDMI ocer Cat5 or better yet fibre is the way to go.

-Todd A.

So, are you saying you can run HDMI through CAT 5 cables? What do you need to accomplish this?

[Kevin P]

HDMI over RG6 would be ideal for my setup, where I already have the coax run for component/RGB video.

[Marzen]

So, are you saying you can run HDMI through CAT 5 cables? What do you need to accomplish this?

You could use an HDMI extender

[whoaru99]

So Cat 6 IS capable of higher speeds than Cat 5?

Cat5 up to 100MHz bandwidth, Cat6 up to 250MHz bandwidth

[Chris D]

Ah, cool... I can't remember what full 1080p uses for bandwith, but it's somewhere inbetween 100 and 250 MHz, right?

[Marzen]

1920*1080*60hz = 124416000 / 2 = 62208000 or 62.2Mhz with no headroom.
31.1Mhz for 1080i.

[ToddAnisman]

I have found that both shielded, stranded and CAT6 reduce max length. You cant escape the math and probably wouldn't see this effect in a home install. Granted I'm not an installer & might overlook some real world application, but I am involved with the design process of these units.

Hmmm...I agree with you on stranded and Cat 6 reducing length, but Shielded is treating me much better than Unshielded wire for longer runs in RW sit. My app is less home theater and more commercial Studio, so we have a very difficult environment for the extention to survive- Central Machine room, Lots of Power running everywhere, lots of field noise etc. What type of extenders or cable products are you working on?

-Todd A.

[Marzen]

Sorry, I worded that poorly. I meant to say that due to the increased capacitance from shielding, the leading edge of the signal becomes rounded, this effect increases over distance. As for cat6, the twist ratio makes it more difficult to correct for color skew and reduces my overall max length from 600' to say around 450'. Granted, more parts would alleviate that problem but would drive up the cost.
I work primarily with legacy kybd & mouse, vga, rs232, audio (L/R & Dig coax), and most recently with usb kybd/mouse. Some side work on dvi.

[Pookie007]

The industry standard for Cat 5, Cat 5e, Cat 6 or that new gigabit stuff limits the length to 100 meters. This is approximately 300 feet. Cat 5e will run anything you currently own. If Cat 6 is available for free, I would use it for everything (including analog phone that runs fine on Cat 3). This provides the most space for growth. If you are building from scratch, it is cheaper to pay the cable difference than to pay an electrician to manage multiple spools for different cable. You also have increased waste with multiple versions of cable.

Just to give a simple answer on the original question.
1) All the cables have 4 pairs, 8 wires total. They are color coded blue, blue/white, orange, orange white, green, green/white, and brown, brown/white.
2) Match the connectors to the cable. The outer diameter varies with manufacturer. If your connectors don't match up right, the worse case is having a connector opening that is too small, you could damage the cable and hurt performance.
3) You don't care about twist rate, if the pairs are bonded, the spacer in Cat 6, etc. That the data nerds debate this.

[ToddAnisman]

Sorry, I worded that poorly. I meant to say that due to the increased capacitance from shielding, the leading edge of the signal becomes rounded, this effect increases over distance. As for cat6, the twist ratio makes it more difficult to correct for color skew and reduces my overall max length from 600' to say around 450'. Granted, more parts would alleviate that problem but would drive up the cost.
I work primarily with legacy kybd & mouse, vga, rs232, audio (L/R & Dig coax), and most recently with usb kybd/mouse. Some side work on dvi.

Hmmm.. that makes sense. Our environment must be very tough because I am lucky to get 50% of the rated length from Gefen with Shielded cable. I simply can't get the extenders to work at all without, so there must be some fields that are distorting the Data Line to the point that the monitors can't sync. Our distances are far less than 450' more like 100' and 60'.

Cool that you work on that stuff. Do you work for NTI?

-Todd A.