Tester UTP cable wiht 4017
Device for testing ethernet cables. 4017 - Decade counter step by step lights up the LEDs for checking The cable.
This is a simple ethernet cable tester driven by one integrated circuit. The device uses cmos 4017 - Decade counter. Decade counter step by step lights up the LEDs from LED1 to LED8, at the same time LEDs from LED10 to LED17.
I use blinking LED like clock generator. A LED which has a built-in blinking IC.
We need to build two separate small boards:
- a master board whith IC 4017, that will be plugged into one end of the ethernet cable that we need to test,
- a slave board, that will be plugged into the other end of the ethernet cable that we need to test.
- If everything is ok, you should see LEDs on the master and slave unit turning on one after other for one second each.
- If there is some broken wire, the corresponding LED on the slave unit will not turn on.
- If there is some inverted wire in the cable, you will see the LEDs turning on not in a sequential order
Supply voltage range for cmos 4017 is between 3V to 15V. I use 9V battery.