wiring 66 blocks

[Babybearjs]

well, I invested a bit of money and got myself some 25 pair cables and some 66 blocks... I'm in the process of upgrading my home wiring from several  4 pair cables to one 25 pair... was able to find a great deal on cat5E 25 pair cable through deepsurplus.com. they had end of spool cuts for 20.00/each and are about 45 feet each. plus I found someone selling a 100 foot chunk for 0.40/ft. which I grabbed up.... now the main question I have is about the bridging clips... can I use them the full length of the block without any trouble? I'm concerned about shorts... this is the first time I've used 66 blocks and have always been a fan of the old 44A blocks because they seem to work better connection wise, but are harder to terminate. I'm also running my DSL signal through the system so I'm concerned about speed degradation... what info can you guys give me.... I have 6 jack area and each jack has 5 cat5 jacks in them (25 pair supports 6 jacks with the Slt/Vio pair being left behind....) the 5th jack at each location will be attached to my router for computer use... the rest of them are for telephone service. the system looks a lot neater... no more spaghetti.... 

[ESalter]

Almost all 66 blocks are 6 terminals wide.  Those 6 terminals are split into two groups of 3 that are not connected.  So, you connect inbound on one side, outbound on the other, then put bridge clips right down the middle to bridge the two sides together.  Data will always slow down when you untwist the pairs, but my guess is it won't be enough to notice.  Just try not to unwind any more than you need to.

---Eric

[WesternElectricBen]

Start from the top of the block:

White groupe:
Blue*
Orange*
Green*
Brown*
Salts*

Red groupe.
*
*
*
*
*

Black Groupe.

(*)

Yellow groupe.

(*)

Violet groupe.

(*)

[Babybearjs]

thanks for the reminder on the color groups... man, how tedious this project is... I'm quite slow in my punching of the blocks... white, red, black, yellow, and violet.... TIMES 3! on each block. and there are 6 blocks to punch! and to top it off, these are UNDER MY HOUSE! and, sitting on the ground.... ( manufactured home ) the only 6 pin unit I have is at the beginning of the line and I'm thinking I'm going to have to repunch it.... my layout is like this:


                             Front
                             Bdrm                               Livingroom                                                              Back Bedroom           
                              XX===============XX===================================XX
                               =
                                =
                                 =
                                   = (Splice)                      Livingroom                    Kitchen                            Back Bedroom
             (KTS) XX=====xx===============xx==============xx================XX

so you can get an idea of what I'm doing... a lot of work. the (XX) represents the jack locations and about where the 66 blocks lie. the back bedroom is the end of run for both sides of the home so there is no 66 block there.           what does everyone think??   
                             

[poplar1]

So  are you running just one 25-pair cable from the KSU to the first 66 block, then punching one station cable there plus another cable which goes to the 2nd block? For example, the first column is the feed from the KSU, the second column is vacant, the third column is for the station (telephone), and the fourth column is for the cable to the next block? Then bridging clips connecting the 2nd and 3rd columns?

Cuz you could also loop the feeder cable on each left-hand pin of a block without cutting it off, using the non-cutting end of the blade. Then you would have room for up to 3 station cables on each block in addition to the looped-through feeder. If you have enough cable so that 2 or 3 station cables would reach one splice, then you wouldn't need 6 separate 66 blocks. If you had unlimited cable, you could home run all of them back to the KSU, with no connections under the floor.

Perhaps you prefer to continue as you said, cutting the cable then punching down another cable to feed the next block. The advantage of doing it this way is that you can open the bridging clips--to isolate a trouble for example-- if you are using split blocks with the feed from the KSU on one side and the stations (and feed to the next block) on the other . However, bridge clips can cause problems later on. That's why we tried to find solid blocks for feeders. With the larger 66B blocks you had room for a feed +5 stations (6 pins across). However, we usually punched down two station cables per 66M1-50 block, the feed on one or two 66B blocks, then ran 3-pair jumpers to cross-connect the station blocks to the feeder block. This gives greater flexibility in an office environment where people are moving often and the system is not square. (Square=all phones have the same lines in the same order.)

Is this how you are wiring the jacks? Or are you using a separate jack for each button?
Jack #1
W-BL  1T (TIP)
BL-W  1R (RING)
W-O   1A
O-W   A1
W-G   LG (Lamp Grd)
G-W   1L  (Lamp)
W-BR  2T
BR-W  2R

Jack #2
W-S    2A
S-W  -------
R-BL   LG
BL-R   2L
R-O    3T
O-R    3R
R-G    3A
G-R     -----

Jack #3
R-BR   LG
BR-R  3L
R-SL   4T
SL-R   4R
BK-BL  4A
BL-BK  --
BK-O   LG
O-BK   4L

Jack #4
BK-GN 5T
G-BK   5R
BK-BR  5A
BR-BK   ----
BK-S    LG
S-BK    5L 

Jack #5 (DATA?)

V-B/B-V 
V-O/O-V
V-G/G-V
V-BR/BR-V


What about the separate pairs needed for individual buzzers and individual flashing lamps?
6 ringers, 6 buzzers, plus additional 3 pairs for flashing lamps on three stations (not counting the pair already assigned for the stations that don't have flashing lamps)= 15 pairs if you use full pairs for each. Minimum of 8 pairs anyway in addition to the 15 pairs for 5 lines--I don't see how this leaves 4 pairs for data,unless you plan to have fewer than 5 lines (4 lines and intercom).
Available if running one 25-pair feed for 5 lines:
Y-BL/BL-Y
Y-O/O-Y
Y-GN/GN-Y---one buzzer?
Y-BR/BR-Y
Y-SL/SL-Y---one ringer?

V-SL/SL-V

Also available the unused A1 leads for buttons 2-5 (Slate-white, green-red, blue-black, brown-black).

[Babybearjs]

the way you show, is the way its being wired... I use colored jacks to match the colors in each set...blue, orange, green, black (cause theres no brown jacks), and gray. in the back bedroom I have a 6th jack on one wall all the other jack plates have 5 jack plus a Ant. port (television) the 5th jack is for internet and is separated at the 66 block, but I'm discovering I can interface the LAN connection on the 66 blocks if I am careful in my wiring... the cable set for my lan Jacks are: Org/Yel, Grn/Yel, Bwn/Yel, Slt/Yel  (pairs) my Black and gray jacks are for buzzers and buttons... still being planned out.....  I had to completely repunch a block because I had the setup wrong... I'm trying to keep the continuity of the runs so the I have to use bridging clips to activate individual jack arrays. its hard to explain until you actually see what I'm doing... I wanted to upload pictures of the work, but my camera eats batteries and when I went to take a picture, the camera shut off (low battery, again!) to give you a better idea of my layout, my home faces west, so the length of the trailer faces North/South. my runs are the length of the trailer, one on each side... and all the jacks are on the outer walls...  the good news is..... I have dial tone! and internet, but only at my computer... but, of course, theres always "wireless" if I need it....oh yeh, I got my lightbox hooked up.... tomorrow.....I connect the control circuits and clean up my mess....

[WesternElectricBen]

A better color code form Wikipedia:


Ben

[unbeldi]

...
Data will always slow down when you untwist the pairs, but my guess is it won't be enough to notice.
...

This is strictly not true.

The main effect of untwisting too much of a twisted pairs is in the cross-talk and, in gigabit networks, also return loss (echo).  The 'data' does not slow down as the bit rate is actually by design a constant and maintained at the frequency of the link, e.g., 100 MHz.

Some untwisting is permissible, until the resulting noise impairs the signal sufficiently to effect error rate, and eventually causing packet drop at the link layer or higher up.

[Babybearjs]

thanks for the info.... that would explain the use of Cat3 for data.... I just told phil that I have a 66B4-25 block that I took the last 12 rows out and broke off the 2 center pins on all the rows to use them for my internet jack connections. worked out pretty good...   has anyone ever had to customize 66 blocks??