Heavy Duty Ethernet for the Axe-Fx II and MFC-101

One is cat5, and the other is cat6, and I bet there is a reference table somewhere that tells you what the differences are.

I like the one that comes in colors though! lol
 
Since the cable is going to be used for control signal and not audio, you don't gain much from the CAT6 besides a little stiffer cable since the CAT6 has a channel for each pair inside the cable.

I have experience with the CAT5e cable (Belden 1304A), and it's an extremely heavy duty cable. The one I used was Ethercon for the controller connection on a G-System. The cable itself is super heavy duty and stood up to nightly abuse at gigs. It was stepped on, coiled improperly, basically abused for 2 years straight and still worked like a charm and even looked pretty good after that time. I'm not sure how it will hold up with regular RJ45 jacks, but I'm guessing it should be pretty good as the cable is pretty stiff and the jacket is thick.
 
This looks like a standard cable to me. I looked it up and it doesn't look very special. About the same grade as anything else. There are better cables that have either a better inner jacket or outer, sometimes both. The cable mentioned would probably hold up well but I would take two with me. I'll ask my hardware guys what cable we used in one of our warehouse projects where we had to put some cables across a dock door. We found some pretty heavy duty stuff we bought in bulk and make our own.
 
bkrumme said:
Since the cable is going to be used for control signal and not audio, you don't gain much from the CAT6 besides a little stiffer cable since the CAT6 has a channel for each pair inside the cable.

I have experience with the CAT5e cable (Belden 1304A), and it's an extremely heavy duty cable. The one I used was Ethercon for the controller connection on a G-System. The cable itself is super heavy duty and stood up to nightly abuse at gigs. It was stepped on, coiled improperly, basically abused for 2 years straight and still worked like a charm and even looked pretty good after that time. I'm not sure how it will hold up with regular RJ45 jacks, but I'm guessing it should be pretty good as the cable is pretty stiff and the jacket is thick.
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Interesting. To me it looks rather 'normal'. Belden even makes better cable.
 
If you're worried about durability of the connectors I'd suggest taking à look at Neutrik's line.
These are kind of à sleeve over the actual RJ45's. After mounting these together they are similar to XLR's in strength.
 
winger said:
If you're worried about durability of the connectors I'd suggest taking à look at Neutrik's line.
These are kind of à sleeve over the actual RJ45's. After mounting these together they are similar to XLR's in strength.
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These can't really be plugged directly into the Axe-FX II or the MFC-101 can they? Doesn't look like they have the proper jack to receive the Neutrik sleeve over RJ45 plug.
 
bertbacharat said:
Just to clarify is there an advantage to using Ethernet over midi? Why is everyone planning on switching to Ethernet?
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No problem with still using MIDI, but the Ethernet cable will supply power to your MFC-101 without an external power adapter.

Jack Napalm said:
Interesting. To me it looks rather 'normal'. Belden even makes better cable.
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That's what I thought as well before I bought the Ethercon cable. The outer jacket on this is super tough. Even better is this one:

Best-Tronics Mfg., Inc.: BT-0964-XXX

Ahess86 said:
These can't really be plugged directly into the Axe-FX II or the MFC-101 can they? Doesn't look like they have the proper jack to receive the Neutrik sleeve over RJ45 plug.
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No, they can't. You have to have an ETHERCON jack to plug in an Ethercon cable.
 
bertbacharat said:
Just to clarify is there an advantage to using Ethernet over midi? Why is everyone planning on switching to Ethernet?
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Just a side point here- I don't think the axe-fx is running ethernet over that cable. The cable is 8 conductor twisted pair cable. It is commonly found in Category 5E and 6 variants. The difference is more important for ethernet applications than this, which is almost certainly not ethernet.

Its just using this type of cable presumably because it is widely available and relatively inexpensive.

Lots of things run over Cat 5/5e/6 cable including regular telephones, digital telephone systems, intercom systems, serial connections, as well as ethernet.
 
bertbacharat said:
Just to clarify is there an advantage to using Ethernet over midi? Why is everyone planning on switching to Ethernet?
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Longer cable lengths possible, readily available compared to MIDI cables, uses AxeFX II power supply to power the MFC.
 
It begs the question; how long a cable can you use with the Axe II and MFC? Ethernet is rated at a 100 meters, which isn't being used. What's the max distance for this thing?
 
LMO said:
There are conventional RJ45 connectors available that work with "EtherCON" cable.
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Ethercon is the connector, not the cable. I should have been more clear. The cable is the same with EtherCON or EtherNET cables.
 
Ahess86 said:
These can't really be plugged directly into the Axe-FX II or the MFC-101 can they? Doesn't look like they have the proper jack to receive the Neutrik sleeve over RJ45 plug.
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True, but that could be fixed by using a patch bay on the pedalboard.
 
Hope I'm not over-complicating things, but my idea now is to make an interface of sorts both at the rack (Axe-FX II) and the pedalboard (MFC-101) so that I can use the EtherCON connectors instead of a cable w/ the regular RJ45's plugging in and out of both devices. The concept:

AxeFXII -> short patch cable w/ RJ45's (6" +/-) -> Neutrik NE8FF Coupler -> Belden cable w/ EtherCON jacks like this -> another coupler at the pedalboard -> another 6" patch cable w/ regular RJ45's -> MFC-101.

Thoughts, input?
 
I remember using a CAT5 for my G-System and the one I had was too stiff. It wouldn't lay flat on the stage and always caused problems. When someone gets one of these CAT5's can you tell me if they are better? The benefit of MIDI and guitar cables for that matter is they are designed to be used on stage and studios, and therefore lay flat. CAT5 cables are designed to interconnect computer (or similar) devices where laying flat isn't a priority.
 
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