Quick Jumper Wires - Tip

My ??? for a jumper wire!

Recently I was working on a project in desperate need of jumper wires and no where near my bench. Luckily I was at work, in a data center, and the telecomm guys had just completed working on a new rack. In the trash can was a short length of Cat6 ethernet wire. Bingo!

I have used it in the past as it makes some great jumper wires or in general use for a protoboard project.

Just strip off the outer jacket being careful not to nick the wires. Pull off the jacket and untwist the pair. It is some very nice solid core copper wire. It is 23AWG and fits a breadboard spot on.

I then put both end in some pliers and give it a tug to straighten it out.

It comes in a limited range of colors, but a fair selection.

So the next time you see some ethernet laying around, pick it up just in case.

Problem solved!

And yes in one of the pictures there are some jumper wires, but they were all female to female.

Here is a link to the data sheet for said cable.