Telecom Color Code Calculator

This calculator will help you translate any cable pair in to it’s corresponding pair color or pair number.

You can type in a cable pair number and it will display the pair color, binder color, binder group, super binder group, and the color abbreviation that this pair would be written in.

Or…

You can select a the pair color, binder color, and super binder; and the calculator will translate it into the pair number, binder number, and the abbreviated form this pair would be written in.

I created this app to assist anyone who works with telecom copper cabling.

If you are not familiar with telecom color codes please read this brief explanation:

In the cabling industry color coding is used to identify a pair of conductors by its unique number, corresponding to the combination of tip and ring colors. Every pair is identified by a combination of 5 tip and 5 ring colors. The conductors of a pair will be close together and one will be marked a solid color and the other with small stripes of the corresponding color (blue stripes on white, white stripes on blue and so on). This way you can identify the conductors as belonging to the same pair even though they may not be closely wrapped together in the loose bundle of wires you get after stripping the outer jacket off. If a cable has more than 25 pairs you will encounter colored pair wrapping. Usually cabling vendors use two flat plastic strips, helically wrapped around each group of 25 pairs. Each strip is colored. First strip uses one of five tip colors. Second strip uses one of five ring colors. So wrap number equals to pair number with the same combination of tip and ring colored conductors. When the cable's pair count exceeds 600, bundles are grouped into super bundles. Every super bundle uses wrapping, colored with one of first three tip colors. It gives color codes for cables with up to 1800 pairs. For real big cables, having more than 1800 pairs, generally vendor-specific color coding is used.

There are some common phases used to help you remember the Tip and Ring colors, here are a few of them:

---- Tip Colors ----
1.White
2.Red
3.Black
4.Yellow
5.Violet

"Why Run Backwards You Varmint"

----- Ring Colors ----
1. Blue
2. Orange
3. Green
4. Brown
5. Slate

"Bell Operators Give Better Service"
"Boy On Girl Brings Satisfaction"
"Be On Guard Boy Scout"
"BOGBRuSh" (Blue, Orange, Green, BRown, Slate). ("bog brush" being a somewhat derogatory British term for a toilet pan cleaning brush.)
"The sky is blue, the sun is orange, the grass is green, the dirt is brown, and the slate is slate."

---- Both Tip & Ring Colors ----
"We Ride Big Yellow Vans, Because Old Guys Break Stuff"

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