Talk:25-pair color code

Too many mnemonics?

I just added a mnemonic for the colors that differs from all the others in that it is visual rather than linguistic. Not being a native English speaker, I find it quite useful and a valuable complement to the other. But why are there so many other mnemonics? Wouldn't it be more encyclopedic to keep only the best (and maybe least offensive) ones? Mumiemonstret (talk) 09:40, 13 June 2014 (UTC)

Musings

I previously worked for a telecommunications equipment manufacturing company. The US and European codes are different. As for the number of colors, we had pinnouts up to 128+ terminations, with different binders to differentiate between each 64 color grouping of wire. Some clients requested the binder wrapped in with the termination, so they could trace it later. Others would have us cut them flush with the cable jacket. There were many terminations which were specific to each client, and did not follow any known industry standard. These special requests being mainly for local communications in COs, or between servers. Sadly, it has been many years since I working in this industry, and I do not remember any of the color codes. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.185.0.238 (talk) 06:40, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

25- and 20-pair color codes

Is this specific to the US and/or the UK? I've just finished a cabling registration in Australia that has unique colours up to 100 pairs - using some striped colours. To be specific:

File:00

1. Blue - White
2. Orange - White
3. Green - White
4. Brown - White
5. Slate - White
6. Blue/White - White
7. Blue/Orange - White
8. Blue/Green - White
9. Blue/Brown - White
10. Blue/Slate - White
11. Orange/White - White
12. Orange/Green - White
13. Orange/Brown - White
14. Orange/Slate - White
15. Green/White - White
16. Green/Brown - White
17. Green/Slate - White
18. Brown/White - White
19. Brown/Slate - White
20. Slate/White - White

Then repeats..

• 21-40. Paired with Yellow
• 41-60. Paired with Black
• 61-80. Paired with Violet
• 81-100. Paired with Red

I presume it is a per country thing - if not, It'd be great if someone could do up an image like the 25-pair one, except for Australian 100-pair. (might be easier just to do the first 20) :)

-- Chuq 02:57, 7 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Chuq, this page is about the 25 pair colour code and is correct for Australia as per Appendix B at [S008:2006 (as at April 2006), what you have lsited above is also correct for 20 pair colour code. There are also listed there 2 pair (quad), 3 pair telephone cable colour codes, 1 - 5 pair cable colour codes, 10 pair, and optical fibre colour codes. So in essence they are both right. Rfsjim (talk) 23:33, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

"Tracer" color is mentioned but not defined. David 17:58, 19 April 2006 (UTC)

different color scheme: "Telco50" cable? (Avbidder, 20080912)

I couldn't find documentation on the net (later found it on paper delivered from the vendor) for the cable that came with a Zyxel VES-1012 DSL concentrator. Don't know if it's specific to this device or if it's an known standard somewhere; the cable was referred to as Telco50 cable.

See http://fortytwo.ch/blog/archives/2008/09/#e2008-09-12T11_34_26.txt (feel free to copy any of this for the Wikipedia article.) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Avbidder (talk • contribs) 09:50, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

US colour code 25 pair cable

1 blue/white 2 orange/white 3 green/white 4 brown/white 5 slate/white 6 blue/red 7 orange/red 8 green/red 9 brown/red 10 slate/red 11 blue/black 12 orange/black 13 green/black 14 brown/black 15 slate/black 16 blue/yellow 17 orange/yellow 18 green/yellow 19 brown/yellow 20 slate/yellow 21 blue/violet 22 orange/violet 23 green/violet 24 brown/violet 25 slate/violet —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.115.41.82 (talk) 20:42, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

Tip/Ring

> These terms are based on the ¼" (6.5mm) TRS connector

I believe that it's actually the "Bantam" connector; telephone switchboards didn't usually use 1/4" except for the headset connector, did they? Has anyone got a citation either way?
--Baylink (talk) 23:31, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Photo

The cable depicted in the photo does not seem to correlate with this article. The conductors in the photo each have 2 colors per conductor. This article clearly describes pairs of conductors, with each conductor having a single color. Moreover, this article is clearly about twisted pair. The cable depicted has no twisted pairs, they are individual conductors. ++Arx Fortis (talk) 01:12, 9 August 2010 (UTC)

the article doews say some wires have stripes to show which wire they go with.

The wires have been un twisted so that you can see them

though i agree this picture is unclear —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.147.190.72 (talk) 13:25, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

Color abbreviations

I learned a single-letter color abbreviation scheme at the Tech Model Railroad Club long ago, which I assumed was used more generally with telephone equipment. However, I can find no mention of it on the Internet. To resolve the ambiguities among colors starting with B and G, it used X for black and Z for brown, along with S for slate. Has anyone else ever come across this? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.53.195.38 (talk) 18:04, 15 June 2011 (UTC)

There are variations in the abbreviations used by different organizations. Old GPO/BT practice in Britain, for example, was to use a mixture of one- and two-letter codes, e.g. B for blue, BK for black, and BN for brown, so the standard blue-orange-green-brown-slate sequence was B, O, G, BN, S. Many Bell System documents in the U.S., on the other hand, used two-letter abbreviations for all, hence the same sequence would be BL, OR, GN, BN, SL (interesting that "BL" was used for blue, with "BK" for black). 87.112.148.252 (talk) 09:49, 29 March 2013 (UTC)

confused descriptions

I've been trying to learn this code for some time - and I have to say - there are parts of this article that really make it difficult to grasp. How can there be a "tip color" for each group of 100 pairs in a cable of more than 600 pairs... there are only 5 tip colors! You don't have enough colors to cover the first 6 super binders.

I think it would be nice if someone could actually correct and properly explain this.

StacyGRN (talk) 04:23, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Answering that

The colour for each Tip conductor in the cable is the White, Red, Black, Yellow or Purple. In a pair cable those are the conductors one would put on the Tip of a jack strip or give the +ve connection or A leg of block wiring into telephones. The colour in that pair is the -ve or B leg at -48 volts. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Midnight Hour (talk • contribs) 20:07, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

25-pair telco cable pinout

The chart adds confusion vs resolving it.

Color (R) (T) Color (minor/major) (major/minor) 1) Blue/White 26) White/blue

The major/minor err minor/major confuses me, and I've punched on 66 blocks etc. for many decades.

The major color of 1) is blue, and white is its stripe. But the minor/major makes you think otherwise.

12.202.84.227 (talk) 20:51, 22 May 2018 (UTC)

I agree, for pair 1 - Ring, Blue is the major color. I went ahead and changed it

2601:18A:8201:D132:C5B2:9E95:7DBE:A872 (talk) 16:47, 15 August 2018 (UTC)

No, the major color is always the same in one group, the majors are white, red, black, yellow, and violet, as the article correctly states. It is not confusing. Kbrose (talk) 23:47, 30 August 2018 (UTC)

Minor color

Some cable uses unstriped minor cable; i.e. the BL-W pair has a BL w/ white stripes and SOLID white. This should be noted so the hapless don't untwist too far and use the wrong white with a major. 96.231.170.51 (talk) 23:25, 23 December 2018 (UTC)

CW 1308

This page claims that CW 1308 cables use this color code

I have been unable to find an original copy of the specification itself, but I found reference on several suppliers to CW1308 color code charts, and they indicate use of an additional color "pink" to extend the code to 30 pairs e.g. https://www.elandcables.com/media/38292/cw1308-internal-telecom-cable.pdf Plugwash (talk) 16:56, 25 October 2023 (UTC)