Shortening an Ethernet Cable

[jac]

The remote display for my MPPT controller came with an Ethernet cable that was way to short. I've bought a replacement but now have about 2m of spare cable coiled up which I would like to tidy up at some stage. I don't want to have to spend loads on crimps etc that I will probably only use once but a few quid is fine.

So is there a cheapish way to reliably cut a cable to length and fit the cables as required?

 

[Steve Clayton]

Put the surplus in an empty toilet roll centre

 

[Lon nan Gruagach]

It is possible but preferable would be to buy a cable the right length.
Or find someone with a crimp tool (loacal pc shop)
To do it your self:
You will need 2 flat head screw drivers, a sharp knife and a good set of wire cutters.
The screwdrivers should be of size that..
1 can push down individuaol pins from the top of the connector.
2 push down the cable clamp bit of plastic near the rear.
Colour order: orange/white, orange, blue/white, green, green/white, blue, brown/white, brown. This is by far the most common, but do check, either way the pairing will be the same.
It is important to maintain the pair twist as far as possible.
Use the knife to remove 30mm ish of outer sleve.
start with outside colours (orange/white and brown) use thumb and firsrt finger of your strong hand to squeze the cores where they exit the cable sleve, fan out the cores in the colour order (the blue pair sits n top of the green pair).
Run finger grip along and pull each core to work out any wiggles from the twists.
move the clamping thumb out (from the sleve) to where the cores site neatly side by side.
make all cores parallel
maintaining a firm grip with your strong hand, use your other hand to work the parallel cores both ben up/down and side to side, this will contition them to not spring out to a fan again.
measure the distance from the cable clamp to the front of the plug and trim the cores to this length.
slide them into the plug aiming slightly downwards (there are aligntment grooves on the bottom of the cable entry.
slide right into the plug (they appear to reah right to the front.
now use the larger w=screwdriver to activate the clamp
then one at a time push the pins into place

typing time: 10 minutes
task time: 30 seconds with practice.

 

[David2452]

You can buy an RJ45 ratchet crimp tool for under a fiver from ebay and plugs are 2d a dozen, the crimp tool looks as if it should work at least once surely. You may be better served taking it to an independant computer shop and have them shorten it for you as they can be a pain, especially if the cable is multi strand which it should be for marine use.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/351252813985?limghlpsr=true&hlpv=2&ops=true&viphx=1&hlpht=true&lpid=108&chn=ps&device=c&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0-L&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=108

 

[Yngmar]

Cheap crimpers and connectors are a great way to achieve white hot rage and a poorly cobbled together connection. You're better off putting a series of figure 8 knots in the cable. Either live with the extra 2m (it doesn't do it any harm) or borrow a proper crimper from someone.

 

[nigelmercier]

If you mean an RG45 cable, I have the tool and spare plugs I could post to you. However, it would be cheaper to just buy a new cable from CPC.