Unusual Ethernet Connection - Trouble Sniffing Data

[Raddude]

Hello!

 

I have a bit of an unusual situation. I have a little toy jazz band where there are a bunch of individual "musicians" that all connect to a central hub with either RJ45 or RJ11.

 

Here's an example of the band playing if you're curious:

 

I'm trying to sniff the data being sent through the one RJ45 port (to the drummer) by plugging the central unit into my computer with an ethernet cable. Wireshark is unfortunately unable to read anything. Here's my question: could the cable connecting the drummer to the central unit be sending data in purely analog form? Is it possible that there are no packets to sniff?

 

Follow up question: is it possible that the data being sent is in a protocol that isn't being detected by Wireshark (in promiscuous mode)? Also, is it possible for me to read the raw voltage data being put on my computer's own RJ45 port in case the data being sent is not digital?

 

Thank you for any and all help!

[Electronics Wizardy]

23 minutes ago, Raddude said:

 

I'm trying to sniff the data being sent through the one RJ45 port (to the drummer) by plugging the central unit into my computer with an ethernet cable. Wireshark is unfortunately unable to read anything. Here's my question: could the cable connecting the drummer to the central unit be sending data in purely analog form? Is it possible that there are no packets to sniff?

Id guess there just using the rj 45 cable and its not ethernet at all, and some other protocol. Your network jack probably has no way to talk to that device.

 

If you want to sniff the signal you probably need to take it apart if you can't see a wiring diagram. I can't seem to find any info about it online, so taking it apart will give you a lot of clues. Oterwise Id get a scope and multimeter and try to see what each pin does. 

[Needfuldoer]

It's probably something much simpler than Ethernet, like RS-232 serial or i2c.

 

You might need a tool like a Bus Pirate to sniff the data.