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Triplett Fox 2 & Hound 3 – PN: 3399 User Manual

Page 52

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tracer tone strength, connect either clip of the FOX 2 to a
ground while the target cable is connected to the RJ-45 jack.
However, when using this grounded technique, the tracer
tone strength may be so dramatically increased that the tone
will crosstalk onto adjacent cables, making the path of the
target cable difficult to differentiate from the path of the other
LAN cables. This is especially true if the LAN cables are
bundled together, which promotes crosstalk.

To identify the LAN cable, pair 4/5 must be momentarily
shorted to active True Trace. These are the center 2 pins on
an RJ-45 connector. These can be shorted out with a small
wire . . . or a special user constructed plug/jack made for
this purpose.

Specialized LAN testers, like the Triplett PairMaster,
WireMaster XR-2, WireMaster XR-5, or LAN TDR can easily
identify LAN cable faults. These faults are usually right at
the RJ-45 connectors. If an open fault is identified in the
LAN cable, make sure that the open is in one of the active
pairs. In a typical 568A/B CAT 5 LAN, only pairs 1/2 and 3/6
are used. Pairs 4/5 and 7/8 are not used. Opens in these
pairs will not affect the performance of the LAN.

To find an open fault in a LAN cable, first check the RJ-45
connectors on the ends of the cable. If these are OK, some
special test cables, or a Break Out Box (BOB) is necessary to
find the open along the path of the cable. First, trace the
path of the cable using the pre-described methods. Then
insert a BOB, our use a special cable to connect the clips of
the FOX 2 to the LAN cable. Connect 7 of the LAN wires