Replacing damaged connector with keystone jack or male RJ45 and coupler?

[doodles]

Hi guys,

I'm having to replace a water damaged rj45 poe connector on a hiki camera and was wondering how best to proceed. I've seen @fenderman @nayr and @alastairstevenson help a lot with discovering pinout, but is there a consensus on which style end it would best to terminate with? Initially, I wanted to replace with a keystone jack as it's easier/requires less parts, but I found my camera used stranded thin cable on the poe line and was concerned it wouldn't hold up as normally solid core wire is used when punching keystone jacks. Although it adds another weak link, would it better to terminate by crimping a male RJ45 since it's built with stranded wire (similar to a patch cable) and use a coupler? Only downside I could imagine is that more noise on the line since there are more links in the chain, but being modular would allow you to just pop off coupler if it went faulty. Thanks in advance

 

[Holbs]

Cat5e/Cat6 keystone jacks are designed to be terminated with solid copper 24 or 23 gauge wire. With that being said... I have successfully terminated a stranded Cat5e to a keystone jack with care. What happens if I try to terminate a thinner stranded gauge? Not sure. But if your water connecter is actually damaged, I would try a RJ45 modular plug first, over a jack. They do make stranded cable mod plugs (I believe...smokey colored mod plugs?). However, I am sure the gauge of the stranded wire coming off a POE camera is dinky. But you gotta do what you gotta do.
I should post pix of how I terminate outdoor connection points. All visible brass pins get a goop of dielectric grease. The entire termination is wrapped with 2 sizes of waterproof shrink tubes (1" for the jack connection itself and then need a step down to make a good seal around cable...usually 1/2" I think).

 

[Teken]

You could also consider lightly tinning the wires with a soldering iron . . . Regardless, use the proper strain relief to bolster support for the RJ45 connector.

 

[looney2ns]

You can also find the complete replacement wiring harness on Ebay or Alliexpress.

 

[Holbs]

You can also find the complete replacement wiring harness on Ebay or Alliexpress.

This is the way

 

[doodles]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Cat5e/Cat6 keystone jacks are designed to be terminated with solid copper 24 or 23 gauge wire. With that being said... I have successfully terminated a stranded Cat5e to a keystone jack with care. What happens if I try to terminate a thinner stranded gauge? Not sure. But if your water connecter is actually damaged, I would try a RJ45 modular plug first, over a jack. They do make stranded cable mod plugs (I believe...smokey colored mod plugs?). However, I am sure the gauge of the stranded wire coming off a POE camera is dinky. But you gotta do what you gotta do.
I should post pix of how I terminate outdoor connection points. All visible brass pins get a goop of dielectric grease. The entire termination is wrapped with 2 sizes of waterproof shrink tubes (1" for the jack connection itself and then need a step down to make a good seal around cable...usually 1/2" I think).

Yup, it seems the RJ45 plugs I had laying around were rated for both stranded and solid so I just went with it and it seems to be holding fine (for now).

You could also consider lightly tinning the wires with a soldering iron . . . Regardless, use the proper strain relief to bolster support for the RJ45 connector.

That's not a bad idea if going for a keystone jack approach, but it seems to be holding with a stranded rated mod plug. What's a good DIY strain relief for the RJ45? I don't have a any strain relief boots so I was thinking of flooding the surrounding area of the connector with some hot melt glue. Might help with waterproofing as well.

You can also find the complete replacement wiring harness on Ebay or Alliexpress.

Whelp, didn't know they sold that so thanks, but realistically I was only 80% sure the connector was at fault. The idea of waiting 30 days for a cable to arrive, probe to find pin layout of cable (since it doesn't match hikivison color coding), and dissemble camera potentially ruining whatever waterproofing is left of the camera chassis itself (do they even use internal waterproofing adhesives?) only to find it was a surface level component that had blown is ... discouraging. Also don't female connectors just seem more prone to water corrosion by virtue of being more, well, open?


Thanks again guys