A 3D-printed ethernet RJ45 clip to secure/repair/fix broken tab (2020)
thingiverse.com
thingiverse.com
I'm still working my way through the 50-count bag I bought in 2018; evidently I don't actually encounter that many broken cables, they just exert an outsized effect on my psyche when I do.
(Kidding, I already know you justify them by printing bottlecap openers.)
Obviously this is not a super important thing in the scope of our world and my day job. But still, it feeds my curiosity (as does this site) and that alone is more than worth the investment to me.
Also, being able to design and manufacture a plastic part in a matter of hours any time of day or night has become a really useful tool. Only a few days ago the window latch on the front door of our apartment broke off and we've already had too many break-ins. It was too late in the day to go buy a new one but the printed one works really nicely.
Sorry for nit-picking.
I like your reasoning tho; I got mine when it was on sale, and just before the pandemic - so I have plenty of learnings about PLA, ABS, PETG, temperatures, glue or not, surface, and most of all -- plenty of piles of material creating 'modern art' rather than my planned masterpieces. '-)
Becoming a wizz at industrial design was never my goal. There's universities for that. But it's wonderful to see how everything comes together.
Also, imagining something only in your head and then seeing it come to life on the screen and then in the real world is a magical thing.
I guess carpenters and sculpters etc get this all the time but I totally lack the manual skills needed for that. The 3D printer solves my handicap of having two left hands.
Most people that buy a 3d printer download some models from thingiverse and then get bored with it. It's when you learn design that it really becomes amazing. And it's not all that difficult at all.
Mechanical engineering consists of learning tools for analyzing designs, such as fluid mechanics, materials, solid mechanics, thermodynamics, statics and dynamics, control system theory, etc.
I think you can really pick up Fluids, vibrations, and advanced mechanics on your own with that background, if you end up needing it. But to the larger question, yeah you need calc 1-3, ODEs, and actually a good bit linear algebra to be able to understand and apply 300-level engineering and beyond.
Perhaps, distilled, it's this: having a 3D printer, by itself, won't turn you into a MechE. But, if you do have a 3D printer, you can learn the basics of ME and try out some practical ideas with real parts.
I specifically got my 3D printer to make gears. I do have a Sherline mill, as well as a 12" (Chinese) lathe; so I do have the specific tools to create involute gears out of metals. However, since I planned on doing so many different gears, as I wasn't really sure what I needed, AND the fact that with subtractive manufacturing, if you make certain mistakes, you throw the whole piece away and start over -- 3D printing makes creating new parts as trivial as starting it up again. The other total win of 3D is e.g. Thingverse where you can d/l a design -- it's the closest thing we have to Star Trek's replicator.
Lastly, Michael Faraday wrote an entire book on candles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chemical_History_of_a_Cand... So much can be learned from little!
On the other hand, no better way to learn an STM32 and automatization than looking into Prusa Mini firmware github ;-)
And you got things wrong, 3D printers don't print bottlecap openers, they print little boats ;)
Half an hour in CAD and another half an hour of printing a dozen of them, and now I can replace them any time they break.
I also printed some curtain clips for my wife rather than drive to the DIY shop or wait for Amazon to post me some; Perhaps not cost effective, but better than driving a couple of miles for £1 of plastic clips?
I have young children so I occasionally print aesthetic things, but as a rule, I reserve 3D-printing (or "printing" as my daughter knows it because she's never known printing to have fewer than 3 dimensions) for practical things.
It's funny, my wife has never been on board with my hobbies so much as she is with 3D Printing.
(Yes, that is a monocular HUD on his face, it's his teleprompter. There are a bunch of videos on the channel chronicling the various iterations of it)
For 2D printers: they are just money pits due to the toner costs; and do everything they can to make sure you buy Their toner. Buy a name-brand color laser, use it sparingly, and it's a wonderful way to have the occasional color picture, graph, or research report w/color diagrams. (I have a Brother, which I like.)
Of course, you can upgrade them, but if you have an off-brand printer it can be hard to find good upgrades to fix the problems.
I started off with a clone of a decent printer, but the clones are iffy. I lucked out and got a good one! The next one I bought from that brand was crap.
I recently printed a Voron v0.1 and it's been decent so far, and I'm working on some upgrades. Luckily it's really popular and there are lots of known upgrades. The kit was more expensive than my other 2 printers combined, and it's a lot smaller... But I'm planning on using it to completely retrofit at least one of the other 2 now.
I find that when you 'dial in' the particular material (best speeds / feeds / temperatures) then yes, you get reliable performance.
But, I find that every spool of material -- especially PETG types --- require some experimentation to find when there is good adhesion to the glass plate, temps, speeds, etc.
And, yes, I printed this RJ-45 clip a little while ago in PETG that I know well, and the part looks good; I think I 'overbuilt' the supports because the center is packed full of material.
The XY2-Pro is actually an Ender 3 clone, and I think that's part of why it was so good. A friend of mine got a new Ender 3 V2 and it was smooth sailing for her. I definitely recommend the Ender 3 as the budget printer for newcomers. Prusa is another one, though obviously a lot less "budget".
They have problems, but they're usually easily solved, and you'll never fight with drivers.
Furthermore, the cheapest 3D printers are _made_ to use with generic supplies, it's not like the "give away the inkjet, sell the ink" model you see with 2D printers. They're almost universally based around open-source software and mostly-open hardware now, so there's a thriving ecosystem of mods and upgrades, which can be bewildering but you don't need any of that at all to get started.
The problem is that they're mindblowingly slow. A typical 3D print might run 5 or 10 hours, to make a functional object like a desk pen organizer. And because parts of the thing get hot, you don't want to leave it unattended -- fires are rare but they can happen. So, you have to plan your prints around your life, or vice-versa.
Mercifully, the default mode of operation is just to read files from an SD card that you sneakernet over to the thing. That gets annoying if you're doing a lot of small prints and tweaking things (and there are network options for that, or direct USB connection), but it's a godsend when your printjob is longer than your workstation's typical uptime...
Most cheap 3D printers are children of the reprap project, and the hacker spirit is still there.
3D printers are often made of cheaply available standard parts, and use the same type of filament. Not all printers can print all materials, but there are no technical measures preventing you from trying, and they tend to be mod-friendly. On the software side, they almost all run open source firmware, and take standard G-code. G-code is generated using a slicer, there are several of them on the market, also typically open source and compatible with all sorts of printer from many brands. Everything is interoperable, even when a brand has the whole vertical. For example Prusa makes filament, printers, slicer software and has a repository for models, and none of these are tied to the brand. No DRM, no huge drivers, no overpriced consumables, totally unlike 2D printers.
The flip side is that you feel like you are buying a new hobby rather than a tool. It is certainly a useful tool, but especially on cheaper printers, sometimes, things don't work right out of the box, you have to make some adjustments, understand its capabilities, know what parameters to use out of hundreds, etc... It is rarely "push a button and get your part", you have to know what you are doing, and even then, sometimes, it fails. That's how they are annoying.
To me it’s the opposite: printing dust-gathering figurines and other baubles with a 3D printer seems rather unappealing.
To each their own!
I printed a set of new hinges for a large outdoor plastic storage unit. It has my lawn mower, strimmer etc in it. It would have been skipped years ago because the doors kept falling in or out. Bit embarrassed that we bought the bloody thing in the first place but printing new hinges has avoided landfill and a replacement. The new hinges have lasted four years and counting. SW UK, local unofficial temp range -5C to 35C in that time, so not too nasty. The PLA has discoloured a bit due to UV but not gone brittle.
I also have some little tanks on my desk and a dragon. There's some phenomenal models on Thingie.
At less then $200, it is well worth it.
I think you should tell more about the 6ft auger though! :)
They're about 4 cm in diameter and just cover the center of the wheel. They're not full hub caps. The dealer wants $20 for one cap. Yow!
I printed a couple of sets for probably less than $1.00 in filament.
For price comparison a pack of EZ RJ-45 (Cat6 rated) is around $20 and a pass thru crimper is about the same. Even cheaper if you go old school.
But yeah, pass-through RJ-45 is great.
Carrying around a crimper, stripper, scissors, and a baggie of ends would certainly fit my character, but realistically it's bulky and heavy enough that I'm gonna take it out when I think I won't need it. Which means I won't have it when I actually do need it.
It's less of "save a day" and more of "don't have to bring the replacement cable next time to fix it"
....you do test the cables you've crimped right ?
Below is my favorite. Caveat, it takes some getting accustomed to if you're used to the standard plier style(They make those, too).
edit:plier handle style, not wrench
https://www.kleintools.com/catalog/cable-tools/ratcheting-ca...
(The second is the Iwiss IWS-2820M, for open-barrels with a short wire-grip section, 2mm or below. That's basically most JST styles. The Iwiss crimper has all the same nest sizes as the Engineer PAD-11 but is much better made, smaller, and cheaper to boot.)
There are, of course, countless $300-and-up official tools for specific terminals, but as far as generics go, these two are the cream of the crop.
Beware ebay triangulation scams with the 63811-1000. It should cost $55-65, any less and you're being lured. Safest to get it from one of the vendors listed on Octopart. For the Iwiss, as much as I hate to say it, just go to Amazon.
* Not for use with standard (non Pass-Thru™) connectors
...what does that mean ? Standard dime-a-dozen connectors won't work ?
edit: expanded
I hope the ratchet is good; I just had the ratchet blow out on that Klein that everyone recommends, and I went back to my trusty Ideal Telemaster.
I started with an Anet A8 which taught me a lot about 3D printers (and even more about how they fail!). My Prusa Mini just works, and it's rare I need to reprint anything.
Replacing nozzle is a bit of an ordeal as well.
Otherwise it's a great printer.
Sounds like an excellent argument for just printing one when you need it.
I did not invent this. I've seen legendary graybeards do it. I see it as a rite of maturity, like cyclists who discard the caps of their presta valves.
There are already so many things that can go wrong when setting up a network and there's no need to deal with potentially flaky physical connections. When I find broken clips in the lab I snip the cable in half and throw it in the bin. £5 for a new cable is a lot cheaper than spending time diagnosing a network problem.
(if I don't snip it in half, on occasion people extract the 'perfectly good' ethernet cable out of the bin)
Wheel reflectors are also pretty useless so you can remove those too. Plus you save some weight.
Never understood that. More visibility = potentially slightly less likely to get hit by a distracted driver so why remove the shiny reflectors spinning on your wheels?
And what’s a 20g saving per wheel when we carry so much more extra weight on our bodies.
Personally I just buy tyres with reflective tape on the sidewalls. These are mandatory in some EU countries & are pretty effective in my experience.
And yes, wheel reflectors are utterly useless.
They are serviceable too. If you find it isn't sealing you can disassemble and clean the sealing surfaces, replace the locking oring or nut etc.
https://reflectivesupplies.co.uk/products/salzmann-3m-scotch...
are better than plastic plate reflectors in every way.
My weight gain is some multiple of how much I saved. Those Zipps have been outdone by my own gluttony. But one day I shall make the valve caps matter!
Grip the tab, but lightly, so that a small force will pull it out.
When you have a lot of wireless devices, for every one you take off wireless, you have less radio traffic, less interference, and everyone else has a better connection :-)
In my network, unless something has to be wireless, I run a cable :-)
i would argue that being seemingly extreme here is worthwhile. If possible, run it inside rigid conduit. Some more cost now, but conduit makes it a much more maintainable system. Solid yet upgradable digital infrastructure, for the home or small office.
I once did this for a small office space which I had the freedom and budget to do as I wished. After that, everything was rock solid for years. Floods, critters, insane humidity... survived it all. If somehow a cable went bad, it could be used to pull through its replacement.
If in 10-20 years fiber became the new LAN cable, then just pull it through yourself without an electrician. If you need to hire an electrician who has the clbest tools for termination, their billable hours will be much lower.
Rigid conduit every room, maybe even two walls per room since you are already paying a pro to be under/over there already.
If it's a retrofit then maybe it's too late, but a renovation or new build... I would always spend that extra money if at all possible.
Especially for things like streaming boxes which want a good connection and use high bandwidth.
I save the wifi for things that really need it, and they should be faster as a result.
Microwaves always kill wifi for me if they’re in the path between device and AP.
I handed him one of my old Ubiquiti M-series APs, the ones with the spectrum analyzer function built in. Showed him how to use it on his laptop, how to turn in a circle and estimate the azimuth of the source, etc. He went home that evening and as soon as his connection dropped, he fired up the analyzer. Very quickly localized the source to the driveway side of the house.... to the neighbor's kitchen.
At that point he called me for advice, and I said to knock on the neighbor's door, because this is really unsafe. He put me on speakerphone and I was able to tell them what we found, and they cut me off, saying they knew the door seal was damaged -- it got torn a few weeks prior when someone caught something in the door -- they just had no idea it was a big deal. (It's normal to feel a warm draft near the corner of the unit since the fan exhaust blows out down there, so the warm-sunshine feeling wasn't distinct enough to alarm anyone.)
They replaced the microwave the next day and the problem went away.
Light bulbs with tiny bits of filament in the bulb, holes drilled in the cage by fire safety morons, faulty doors etc.
Is this for computers like they had in the really old movies like Back to the Future?
Yep, exactly that. We used the 1.21 Gigawatts standard, which was only half as groovy as today's 2.4 Ghz WiFi.
Especially when the laptop does not have an Ethernet port. For me it's USB-C to Ethernet adapter when my laptop is in my office room, and pathetic WiFi elsewhere.
I take it I should try one of these USB-C to USB-C magnetic things (a la Magsafe): don't know if they're any good.
Using the phone keyboard?
As such the article left me a bit confused, why not just cut off the end and putting a new plug on? with an 8 pin connector this is very easy. But I am in the industry and tend to have a crimper close to hand. perhaps some are not as fortunate.
I think both opinions are right. If you’re a professional working in the field, RJ-45/8P8C is awesome because you can do large runs of cable and crimp on connectors after which is a lifesaver. The longevity of the connector is less important than ease of installation/replacement. I’ve done a little work with marine ethernet and CAN which uses M8/M12 circular connectors and those are pretty painful in contrast.
For consumers, it’s exactly the opposite. They’re unlikely to have the tools to crimp connectors. Most cables off Amazon come with lots of plastic that makes the cables rigid so it’s a pain to route and use in a home.
When I say "industrial", I mean for home use, of course. There is obviously a lot of potential for a more robust yet cost effective and practical connector for home use. Field termination being no excuse. First off, even metal 8P8C connectors have plastic tabs. If single-pair ethernet ever takes off, the "industrial" M8 push-pull connector seems a good one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet_over_twisted_pair#Con...
All my RJ45 and RJ45-EZ connectors in my bag have this locking strain relief tab at the back.
Overly complex. BNC bayonet FTW! It's main fault is the lack of good strain relief.
No connector with tiny springy bit in the socket instead of in cable is worth being called "good". But I do like the big pull tab
I’m picturing you and your partner having a similar scenario and it’s rather amusing. :)
1. Sometimes the connectors don't latch properly in the port and fall right out. I try to bend the tab out further to help it latch but it never stays.
2. Some patch cables have rubber over moulding that covers the latch that's so stiff that I have trouble getting it to release. Who even wants the latches to be covered? One of my cables has a thin rubber tab over the clip that stops it from snagging on things, I guess, but doesn't inhibit unlatching. But it seems that the most popular over moulding is the terrible one.
You will then discover that an uncovered clip magically catches on EVERY SINGLE other cable on the way through. It will also catch on the rack, any other devices within reach, and somehow the power switch for the entire installation.
In fact if you ever lose your car keys down a drain, simply poke an ethernet cable with an uncovered RJ45 plug through the grate. Your keys will be firmly attached to the tab, along with five other sets of lost keys, several rodents and the grate itself.
Comparing it to other types of connectors, RJ45 is probably one of the worst ones out there (at least VGA has screws that don't break), but it's also as prevalent as USB-A so I wonder if anything will ever replace it.
Even before USB-C became an option, mini-HDMI is just a different league of reliable without being that much bigger.
A broken RJ-45 is still usable and fixable. A broken micro-HDMI makes you feel lucky it was the cable and not the device that goes in the bin this time. But only after hours wasted on fiddling with it because the closest shop carrying them wouldn't arrive until after the weekend.
Erm? You must be exaggerating a bit, I use cables/connectors hundreds of times with zero isses.
Misuse / mistakes happen, yes. But?
https://www.cabletiesplus.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/0...
[1]: https://softei.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Hirose_10-03-2...
There were some thin ones with retractable ethernet socket (via clever mechanics) but apparently pretty fragile
If you are a consumer who tries to buy right, buy once, commercial products are a great place to look for this reason too. Industry often requires serviceability and robustness.
Essentially doesn't really look like a 3D-printing project so much as an injection moulded part design.
The component won't be undergoing any stress at all, and for a continual print like above it will be plenty strong for the application.
It has a compliant clip that bends to clip and release; its entire purpose is to retain cables against being pulled out of sockets; and it is designed to press-fit around the body of an ethernet connector which, if it is not too loose or a perfect fit, will subject it to a continual stress.
Are you looking at a different object than me?
Not sure why you think an FDM printer can't print this component with sufficient strength, it'll be plenty strong enough.
It's less than 10 min of print time so it's worth trying, but expect it to fail.
But sarcasm aside, you don't want to reterminate a pre-made patch cable. Under a very strange Universe fluctuations where you don't have a spare patch cord, spare 8p8c jack with a crimper but you do have a 3D printer with a plastic loaded and ready to print....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wire#Stranded
These are typical in pre-capped wires. While they allow more flexibility of the wire, their ends are hard (if not impossible) to change.
I dabble in electronics and I eliminate stranded wire whenever I find it. Some people love it but I find it really inconvenient.
All those things I learned after accidentally buying tons of stranded cable for re-wiring my house :)
https://www.truecable.com/blogs/cable-academy/how-to-termina...
Oh, and it was made of springy metal, in this maybe dream.
Tried to find it and found a few variants, but the one I had in mind is the "ix industrial ethernet" that's used by the MNT Pocket Reform.
Edit: I think this is it. https://linkup.one/linkup-snagless-rj45-cat6-stp-connectors-...
There are cheaper ones, but they're all terrible. Personally, I think the X1 is the best. Prusa's printers are good, but a little dated.
People who bought them as a cool consumer gadget similar to VR. These printers are gathering dust because there ultimately isn’t that much interesting plastic junk to print.
Silently churning out hundreds of rapid prototypes a month for engineers & makers. In my circle it’s just become an assumption that you have 2-3 printers running when prototyping a project. 3D printers have just become a background tool rather than something that you actively tinker with + improve. I got mine down to decent print quality and haven’t upgraded it in years, but print daily!
It takes a lot of activation AND creative energy to figure out something useful/functional to print, then execute on your vision.
Maybe it'd be better to collect models that solve a specific problem, like "kitchen drawer organizer set" or "cable management kit." I want the game-ification to help provide activation energy needed to do something creative and get into the habit of using the 3D printer to solve household problems. This has certainly helped my house buy less plastic crap shipped from overseas. For example, I need a new dog poop bag dispenser for my curb - instead of buying one, I'm going to 3D print one. =)
If I do launch something like this, I'll make sure the naming is "Make Something Useful" or "Make Something Functional."
I second the recommendations for Prusa and Bambu Labs. My Prusas are especially reliable for daily tasks, and started my obsession with 3D printing a few years back. If you have an open weekend coming up, the self-assembly Prusa kit is a delightful example of excellent technical documentation.
Then again, I use a Mac at home (Linux servers though), and have an Ender 3, so maybe that comparison isn't as valid as I thought it was.
I will caution that learning the ways of 3D modelling/slicing takes significant investment. Even if all you do is grab something off Thingiverse to print.
The learning curve is not hard and info is everywhere online. But it is of reasonable quantity compared to a $300 printer.
If you already have those skills, then a 3D printer is no brainer.