A long time ago when we were going to Cat5 UTP, I had a lot of these MX20Ts left over. So I made up a 15 pin plug with the negative 9VDC on pin 6 and positive on pin 13, and soldered the wires to the battery contacts. I taped the battery to the back with some electrical tape. Here, I untaped it because the battery is dead.
I used the plug as the on/off switch and when I plugged in the Cat5 patch cord in the jack, the link LED would light up if the patch cord was connected to the switch.
But the even more useful purpose was to ID the port on the switch. You have someone at the workstation plug in the patch cord, count to ten, unplug the patch cord, count to ten, etc. I’m in the IDF closet watching the switch(es) for the port with the blinking link LED.
So the guy that was helping me at the workstation would say, that’s cool! Would you make me one? So I made several for the guys at the other campuses and departments.
If the odd 15 pin plug wasn’t available, I soldered the wires to the pins and used an on/off switch from Radio Shack – that was good enough for the others. The 9V battery would last a long time with intermittent use. Just remember to repair, recycle and reuse! 👍
