Question : Problem: Difference between Tyco/AMP and WE/SS modular connectors/diesets?

    I'm looking into buying my first crimper tool and really like the Paladin CrimpALL 8000. You can buy just the tool itself, or as a package that comes with one or more diesets. Looking around at various dies that you can obtain for this tool, for the life of me can't seem to discern the difference between Tyco/AMP and WE/SS.

     It looks like you can buy bags of either Tyco/AMP connectors or WE/SS connectors, so I imagine you'd need the correct crimp dieset to work with each. They are both 8 position 8 conductor (8P8C) connectors, and both just look like your everyday RJ45 or RJ11 to me.

     I read somewhere that the Tyco/AMP is used for standard category cable, and the WE/SS is used for stranded round cable. I don't even know what that means! You can buy 8 conductor twisted pair cable in either stranded core or solid core (I understand solid core should be used in cables that will not be moved like in walls, and stranded core is more resilient to wear) but I'm not sure if this even plays into the differences between Tyco/AMP and WE/SS.

     And insight into the differences would be more than appreciated.

Answer : Problem: Difference between Tyco/AMP and WE/SS modular connectors/diesets?

WE/SS (Western Electric/Stewart Stamping) is the standard or more common 8P8C (inncorrectly known as RJ45) termination plug. The Tyco/AMP 8P8C termination plug has smaller pin spacing, so a WE/SS dieset with crush a Tyco/AMP plug, and vice versa. It is important to know both what type of connectors you are using and the type of dieset being used to crimp. WE/SS and Tyco/AMP are exclusive of one another, and cannot be interchanged. Doing so will damage the connector, and not properly terminate the plug.