Hi everyone! The past month I have experienced some problems with the slink, in some concerts the rental company of the venue has Cat7 runs (with the ETHERCON connector), and they already used with other boards, the quality of the cable is fine, they checked previously, etc.
When I connect my SQ-5 to the AR2412, nothing happens. No LED status, no link, nothing. Finally changed the cable for a Cat6, and it connected on the first attempt. This happened 2 times, and when I came to my home, I had my own test with a CAT7, and of course it didn’t work at all.
I’ve been looking for the specs and the information on the A&H website, but there are no references and information for this matter at all. Please, if anyone has some info about it, let me know.
From what I have read, the SQ series is not compatible with CAT 7.
CAT 6A is the maximum it is rated to work with I believe.
When I bought my SQ5 and AR2412s, I ordered CAT 6A cables, but unfortunately there was a packaging issue and the cables I was sent were CAT 7 even though labelled as what I ordered.
Though any documentation I can find currently only states CAT 5E or higher recommended. Usually I find if a company states using an older style of cable, it is best to stay lower and not go for whatever is newest, as chances are it will cause issues.
My initial reaction was disbelief that every Cat7 cable is going to fail to work with the console. That being said, the console was designed when cat cables were not shielded by default and even cables that were shielded often still used plastic connectors which means the shield wasn’t connected to the device it was plugged into. Perhaps there is a ground or other issue introduced when using a Cat7 cable (which are actually double shielded and typically use metal connectors to ensure the shield is connected). I also haven’t tried Cat7 cables with any A&H system, so I am completely ignorant on their effectiveness.
I will say that if you are approaching the max spec’d distances for Cat5e cables, then using a higher rated cable may very well cause problems. This is because the newer spec’s require a tighter twist rate for the internal pairs of wires. The more the wire is twisted, the longer the twisted pair will be inside the protective outer sheath. Therefore a Cat7 cable that is nearing the max distance for a Cat5e cable could easily end up not working because the actual twisted pairs inside the Cat7 cable end up being over the max rated distance.
Keep a cat5 cable and connector in your bag. Just breaking the shield can help you.
Also be aware they the latest black ethercon shells are not conductive any more (change of coating formula) so sometimes you may have the opposite problem! Stick to silver ethercons only.
I agree here. You will find that a CAT7 cable will likely reach maximum distance at around 60-70% of the stated distance of CAT5e. If over 50m it may be a roll of the dice.
From a networking perspective, there’s no reason Cat7 shouldn’t work, as it’s a higher specification cable, backwards compatible with Cat6a/6/5e and supports 100 Mbps easily.
The issue may be related to shielding, grounding, or connector compatibility. Cat7’s heavier shielding could, in certain cases, cause issues if not properly grounded, or the EtherCon connectors might not be fully compatible:
A few suggestions that will help narrow down the issue:
If you use a coupler near the AR2412 and connect the last meter with a Cat6 or Cat5e cable, does it work? This could isolate shielding or grounding issues.
Are the Cat7 cables wired to T568-B with all four pairs correctly terminated? Is there any chance they use a non-standard pinout?
Do you know which other consoles worked with the Cat7 cables in the venue? Did they use 100 Mbps protocols (like dSnake or AES50) or Gigabit protocols (e.g., gigaACE, Dante, Waves)?
Is the Cat7 cable in the venue a straight run, or does it go through patch panels or any network equipment?
Did the working Cat6 cable follow the same route as the Cat7, or was it a shorter, more direct path? Different routes could affect EMI exposure.
Does the Cat7 cable work with a DX168 (also 100 Mbps) or a gigaACE unit like the GX4816 (Gigabit)?
I don’t have Cat7 cables to test with my DX168, but I’d be curious to hear the results of any of these questions.
Hopefully, someone from Allen & Heath will be able to provide some insight into what might be going on here.
If the cable in question has an EtherCon shell, I’m with @jamie that it’s worth at least considering that the EtherCon might be the problem. It could be the wrong model, or have been put together out of tolerance.
I’ve had a few experiences where an EtherCon shell recessed the RJ45 connector a bit too far relative to the shell, and as a result either didn’t connect at all, or was prone to disconnecting if the shell was tugged on even slightly.
I’ll admit that those incidents were all on equipment that didn’t happen to use Neutrik-sourced EtherCon jacks….
We are using several brands of CAT 7 SFTP Ethercon cables on a daily basis for GLD, SQ and Avantis. But not with a cable length of more than 70 metres.
It could well be that a CAT 5e is more reliable at the 100 metre limit, as the individual strands are not twisted so tightly and therefore the total length INSIDE the cable is reduced.
However, the higher categories should actually compensate for this with strands with a higher cross-section and better shielding.
