IDEAL IENet™ PRO is First Hand-Held Tester Specifically Designed to Troubleshoot Industrial Ethernet Cabling

IDEAL INDUSTRIES NETWORKS DIVISION, a global leader in data communications solutions, has introduced the IENet™ PRO Industrial Ethernet Cable Tester.

Optimised for LAN testing efficiency, the IENet PRO empowers network professionals to instantly verify the integrity of two-pair and four-pair Industrial Ethernet cables, and to assure proper terminations by detecting opens, shorts, miswires, reversals and split pairs in fractions of a second. With its integrated RJ-45 (UTP/STP) and shielded M12 coax interfaces and Profinet® formatted results, the IENet PRO is the only hand-held tester specifically designed for this cable type.

As Industrial Ethernet spreads across the network infrastructures of today's manufacturing and processing plants, the risk of costly downtime due to cabling faults increases, explained Tony Kumeta, General Manager. The need to troubleshoot hardened Industrial Ethernet cable is best met by a tester specifically designed for the industrial environment that is easy to use, reliable and offers the ability to indicate a variety of wiring faults. The IENet PRO uniquely meets those requirements.

The IENet PRO's ergonomic design gives the operator full-featured Industrial Ethernet cable testing in the palm of his hand. A single button push selects between voice, 2 and 4 pair data, or video, keeping user interactions at a minimum to help prevent mistakes and unnecessary repetitions. In addition to detecting wiring faults, the IENet PRO will measure cable length and indicate correct wiremap to T568A/B standards for shielded and unshielded cabling. It will also warn the user of voltages on cables, blink network hubs for visual cable tracing, and generate four unique tones to make fault isolation easier. Straightforward Pass or Miswire results are displayed in the Profinet® Industrial Ethernet format on the unit's LCD screen. This bright backlit full dot matrix screen is easy to read even in dark wiring closets, and viewable in extreme low-light environments.

The unit's detachable remote enables one-person operation, eliminating the need for technicians to be at both ends of the cable during testing. The standard IENet PRO package (part #33-772) comes with one remote with an RJ-45 and M12 interface. It is also available with eight remotes (Part #33-773). Remote ID numbers are indicated on the LCD display.

Industrial Ethernet cables differ from standard network cables found in commercial or residential applications. Industrial Ethernet cables are more ruggedly constructed to ensure optimum network performance and uptime, even when subjected to damaging EMI, extreme temperatures, crushing, vibration, corrosive chemicals, and UV exposure.