Copper Cable Connector Types

Welcome to a beginner s guide and list of the types of computer connectors and cables.

Copper cable connector types.

Copper is the electrical conductor in many categories of electrical wiring. Over the many years in computer history several different kinds of cables were invented and re invented there are so many these days that a beginner will be completely lost in the tech jungle. The actual connector type is known as an 8p8c eight position eight contact. Copper has been used in electrical wiring since the invention of the electromagnet and the telegraph in the 1820s.

Solid cable uses a single piece of copper for the electrical conductor while stranded uses a series of copper cables twisted together. With all the different types of cabling come a number of different cable connectors. A single core coaxial cable uses a single central metal usually copper conductor while a multi core coaxial cable uses multiple thin strands of metal wires. Prior to the common use of polyethylene and other plastics for insulation telephone twisted pair cable was insulated with waxed paper or cotton with a wax coating applied to the copper.

Stranded cable is more flexible and should be used at your desk or. The overall sheath of this type of cable was usually lead. Speaker cable used to make the electrical connection between loudspeakers and audio amplifiers. Single core coaxial cable and multi core coaxial cable.

Strictly speaking the actual connector type should be reared to as an 8p8c and the wiring pattern is rj45 but in reality the term rj45 for ethernet cables is used almost universally. These cables consist of an inner copper wire of varying thickness surrounded by insulation and another shielding. This section takes a look at the most common cabling connectors. Type a b are defined in the hdmi 1 0 specification type c is defined in the hdmi 1 3 specification and type d e are defined in the hdmi 1 4 specification.

Copper wire is used in power generation power transmission power distribution. Wire connectors are ul listed fasteners used to make a tight low impedance connection between two or more electrical wires in an electrical box. Registered jack 45 rj45 the cable connector that is found on almost all utp and stp cables is a registered jack 45 which is mostly commonly referred to as rj45. When 10 mbps ethernet was most popular during the 1980s and early 1990s networks typically used one of two kinds of coax cable thinnet 10base2 standard or thicknet 10base5.

Both cables are a similar standard to category 3 cable. The invention of the telephone in 1876 created further demand for copper wire as an electrical conductor. The following image shows both types of cable.