Eight is the number of copper conductors in a category 5 Ethernet wire. Before you roll your eyes at the “technical terms” it’s just that simple. Eight copper wires stretch the length the cable. They are covered in plastic (insulated) to keep them from touching each other. Of the eight wires each set of two are twisted around each other. Hence the name “twisted pair”. This is NOT rocket science, in fact even rocket science really isn’t rocket science. If you send a electricity (current) in one end of a copper conductor it comes out the other side. Think of it like an 8 lane bowling alley. You roll the ball it goes to the other end, then a conveyor belt brings you the ball back. So long as the lane is clear and the conveyor belt is working the ball goes back and forth and everyone is happy.
That leads into the inspiration for this article. Eight. I took it upon myself to attach our (the office I’m working in) new floor’s wiring to our old floor’s wiring. Things went just perfectly on the first set of wires. When I tested the second set I got nothing, assumed that the jack may be disconnected, and called it a day.
Every-so-often we all have interesting dreams. Last night I dreamt about all kinds of different animals. Some were familiar, and some were just weird. A little lizard that when afraid stands upright like a person and extends it’s neck about 4x its own body length and screams like a banshee. Then hops in a special way that catches the wind and allows it to float away. My old dogs. I’ve had quite a few, but my little beagle buddies were in my dream too. One of them found the crazy lizard. Then there was the snake.
Now I’ve never had a dream in which the snake wasn’t bad. It always causes trouble. It always hides away and while I’ve never been especially afraid of snakes in real life, in dream world they really bother me. Last night’s snake was scary. It was colored like a skunk shiny black and shiny white. I first spotted its tail, also pretty common in my dreams. I started to pull on it (because I always do this sort of thing when I find them in my dream) and discovered it was much bigger than it seemed. It had crawled way up in a hole and as I pulled it out I realized I didn’t want to see its head.
Anyway, I’ll leave that crazy dream for now. Maybe my neighbors were burning the marijuana weeds in their back yard last night or something. Yes, it’s literally a weed here. Who knows. I woke up pretty well rested and headed to work planning to get the jack fixed so that the wiring part of our move would just be done.
I went straight to the “plug” in question. Opened it up, and found that not only was it disconnected, but for some reason it had been connected and someone decided to just, apparently randomly, cut the wires? I’m picturing some disgruntled guy stewing about pay or something. Who knows, it was very strange. Anyway, I proceeded to reconnect the 8 wires to their correct places and with a smile on my face a bit overconfidently put it all back together. This should be done I thought.
I grabbed the tester (just picture 8 little bowlers to roll balls down the alley) and fired it up. 1-2—4-5-6-7–, 1-2—4-5-6-7– … Alleys 3 and 8 weren’t working. Bummer. I know I connected the jack well, most likely problem is the junction I made last night. Time to unwrap the electric tape. (Now, if you are actually technical you may be laughing about the use of electrical tape, I would be too if I hadn’t asked specifically for couplers and got something completely different & the answer “why would you need that, just splice… you know splice?”) … Splice & tape is a way of life for even the most accomplished South Asian technician.
Now may be a good time to point out that the general word here for electricians, phone repair men, even plumbers is “mistri” … It’s really not as big a mystery as everyone wants to believe. You get everything in place, just right, and things work. Even in computer science or rocket science for that matter. If the problem is very complicated just break it up into small problems and solve them one at a time. With a bit of intuition and experience, and most of all stubbornness, it becomes like riding a bike. Well, at least you would think…. the saga continues…
I hadn’t even begun to remove the tape before I saw the problem with one of the wires. The white/orange one (bowling alley number 3) was clearly broken. A sigh of relief knowing just where the problem is. Unfortunately the brown wire (alley number eight) looked pretty good. So I unwrap the mess and fix alley 3. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7– … Good news, this is clearing up nicely.
So now for that bowling alley #8. Currently the problem could be anywhere, the plug (jack) in the wall, the wire from that jack to the junction box, even the wire we pulled down to our main offices. Since the jack was the easiest to check I went back to that, switched the alleys around making brown alley 7 and white/brown alley 8. 1-2-3-4-5-6—8 … yup, that brown wire was the problem. Time to get a bit more drastic. I go back to the junction box, clip the end off altogether, and put a jack there so that I can put my tester there. Result: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 … Ah, that’s good, so I go down to our office and carefully analyze all of the cable on the other end. It looks perfect. Even the little gash I did find wasn’t in the cable I’m using! Welp, time to put another jack in the junction box. This one on the other side of my cable run from yesterday.
1-2-3-4-5-6-7– … well, it’s broken somewhere… Maybe I messed up the cable end, clip, cut, trim, push, crimp. Okay, new cable end…. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 … Eureka! Job done. Let’s close up our patient… and for the grand finale let’s test it all the way through. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7– …. WHAT? This is crazy, it was my cable end, I clipped it, replaced it, and that fixed it what in the world. Pop off a few connections test to the office again… 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 … ok, test to the jack, –2-3—5-6—- … huh? Test to the office again 1-2-3-4-5-6-7– … The tester has gone batty! What is going on here & how did it just happend to fail at 8 again? Maybe this crazy Chinese crimper is faulty and messing up the eighth pin (I mean bowling alley) and causing the problem on just that pin, but that doesn’t explain how only 2,3,5, and 6 are working. Giving the tester a jiggle results in 1-2-3(dim)—5-6— … okay this is just plain stupid. Chinese cheap stuff (just as I look down and notice the word “Germany” written across the handle of the crimper) … what in the world. Or maybe, just maybe Ephesians 6:12?
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
I’m suddently in a world of screaming lizards and snakes crawling around in the walls. Where gargoyles and orcish demons stick their fingers in the wires and bang on people’s heads with hammers. It only lasts for a few minutes. Even in a world of just chance what were the chances that there would be such a thoroughly time wasting scenario as this?…
Well I suppose pretty good if the tester is simply faulty or the wiring shorted (ball swallowing cracks in the bowling alley surface) either way I’ve done all I can and really not very happy with the result. Close her up anyhow, get back to my desk, and back to the less superstitious world where if only I had gotten to this intersection 10 seconds sooner I would not be stuck behind this toxic fume spewing truck. Where if we sit down and think through every contingency we will predict the future with certainty. Where results are only the sum of all of the decisions made before.
It’s not hard to imagine where superstition comes from. If life’s acrobatics are random chance, perhaps it’s just our self-centeredness that causes us to think otherwise. The ultimate woe-is-me form of self pity. Maybe life really did “create itself” and no sooner than it could think it became arrogant enough to believe that it certainly must be the brunt of some galactic joke. Whatever the cause, I still think there are snakes in the walls. Maybe if I got to that intersection 10 seconds earlier that oil burning death trap TATA polution generator would be there to… and if a tree falls in the forest there is never no one there to hear it!
…and sometimes, we just need to step back and let Daddy give us some inspiration.
Like: was the battery ok?
Or maybe even something crazier. Even with a fancy tone-tester, I tore three holes in the wall at home before finally finding the break in a “simple” 120v power cable. What caused it: a dumb mouse that literally chewed through the wire, electrocuting itself.
MrPete
August 19th, 2010
hi Pete, I’m glad you visited, you’re probably one of the few who could appreciate the predicament. I did end up pulling through new wires and voila, problem went away, and now there are twice as many pairs too!
MrJ
August 29th, 2010