cdness
2006 - Present
While working on a build for a friend of mine's tank we came upon an issue. He had a VDM with 2 ports but needed 3 lights on top of the tank. He didn't care about individual control of the lights but wanted them all to dim via the apex. Now we could go with the manufacturer's solution and split one port of the VDM to two lights them the third light on the other port, however that seemed too much like a wasted port to me and too much extra programming. Instead I figured I can build a better solution.
Since the dimming ports on the APEX are standard RJ45 sockets I figured I could recycle some old networking parts and make a splitter. I have steps below followed by pictures of the process.
Parts List:
4 - Toolless RJ45 Keystone jacks
4 - 12" pieces of flexible Cat-5 or better wire
1 - 4 port plate cover
1 - Surface mountable wall box
8 - Cable Crimps
8 - 2" pieces of 3/16" shrink wrap (Optional)
* Assorted zip ties as needed
1. Wire up the keystone jacks according to the color code on the jacks. I used the B standard but either one should work.
2. Strip off the outer wire sleeve about 5 or 6 inches down the wire to expose the twisted pairs.
3. Untwist the twisted pairs into individual wires
4. Zip tie the sleeved part of the wire together into a bundle to make the next step easier
5. Find the like color wires and twist them together. They should twist together fairly easily as they were originally twisted within the outer sheath. Do this for all 8 colors.
6. Cut each of the colors at the longest point where they can all be equal length.
7. Put the heat shrink on each length of wire at this point and shrink with a heat gun or lighter. This will hold the wires together for the next step.
8. On each color, untwist the wires about 1.5" and strip the plastic off to have about 3/4" of the copper core showing
9. On each color, twist the copper core wire together tightly. Trim to fit into the crimp connector and finish the crimp.
10. Insert keystone jacks into the front cover
11. Wrap the wires as needed to get them to fit in the box
12. Close up the box and you are all set!
This will split a single wire from the VDM into 3 other ports... I used a blue port for the VDM port, but it really doesn't matter as they are all wired identical.
Pictures of the process:
Keystone jacks and wires stripped down:
Zip tied together with like wire colors twisted together. Not trimmed yet:
Heat shrinked, crimpped and installed in the front panel cover:
In the box:
All closed up:
It works!
Let me know if you have any questions!
Since the dimming ports on the APEX are standard RJ45 sockets I figured I could recycle some old networking parts and make a splitter. I have steps below followed by pictures of the process.
Parts List:
4 - Toolless RJ45 Keystone jacks
4 - 12" pieces of flexible Cat-5 or better wire
1 - 4 port plate cover
1 - Surface mountable wall box
8 - Cable Crimps
8 - 2" pieces of 3/16" shrink wrap (Optional)
* Assorted zip ties as needed
1. Wire up the keystone jacks according to the color code on the jacks. I used the B standard but either one should work.
2. Strip off the outer wire sleeve about 5 or 6 inches down the wire to expose the twisted pairs.
3. Untwist the twisted pairs into individual wires
4. Zip tie the sleeved part of the wire together into a bundle to make the next step easier
5. Find the like color wires and twist them together. They should twist together fairly easily as they were originally twisted within the outer sheath. Do this for all 8 colors.
6. Cut each of the colors at the longest point where they can all be equal length.
7. Put the heat shrink on each length of wire at this point and shrink with a heat gun or lighter. This will hold the wires together for the next step.
8. On each color, untwist the wires about 1.5" and strip the plastic off to have about 3/4" of the copper core showing
9. On each color, twist the copper core wire together tightly. Trim to fit into the crimp connector and finish the crimp.
10. Insert keystone jacks into the front cover
11. Wrap the wires as needed to get them to fit in the box
12. Close up the box and you are all set!
This will split a single wire from the VDM into 3 other ports... I used a blue port for the VDM port, but it really doesn't matter as they are all wired identical.
Pictures of the process:
Keystone jacks and wires stripped down:
Zip tied together with like wire colors twisted together. Not trimmed yet:
Heat shrinked, crimpped and installed in the front panel cover:
In the box:
All closed up:
It works!
Let me know if you have any questions!
You aren't too far from me so it wouldn't cost much. If you made it to Fargo I'd even trade for a frag or two if you wanted 
