Cable Management To Defeat Clutter? 323
igny writes "I have just recently cleaned up my home office, reducing the clutter, but I could not come up with a neat solution to my cable problem. I believe my cable usage is even below average for a slashdotter, but still I have three computers with a bunch of ethernet and power cables, two cellphones, video and photo cables, with several proprietary chargers/AC adapters, printer, two NASes with a couple of external drives, phone, audio system, routers/switches, modem ... Everything requires cables of different kinds. I believe that AC adapters still draw some power even with no device hooked to it. So I organized my power cables by usage with several power strips to turn off adapters which I use less frequently. I am asking for advice from experienced slashdotters. How do you cope with your cable problem? Do you use dedicated tables, shelves, armoire for the cables? I am still looking for a neat, efficient, and safe (I have small kids) solution."
idea (Score:4, Informative)
Velcro strips (Score:5, Informative)
Velcro strips to bundle the cables work quite well (IMHO). The desk furniture I use (ikea) has room between the desk frame and the surface to thread the velcro strips through to hold it close under the desk.
I've used velcro in racks too -- very convenient when you are constantly changing cabling.
Re:Do it yourself! (Score:5, Informative)
I've always wanted to try the "pegboard under your desk" arrangement. It sounds like a functional solution to keep the clutter under the desk, not on top of it.
http://lifehacker.com/237789/diy-under+desk-gadget-mount [lifehacker.com]
Of course, I'd have to get off my lazy ass to give it a shot so I'm not holding out hope of it happening any time soon...
Power strip on the desk (Score:3, Informative)
Power: Get a big power strip (like for a lab bench, with lots of space between outlets -- NewEgg sells some), and attach it to your desk. This lets you keep the cables under the desk and (with wire ties and possibly duct tape) off the floor.
Ethernet: Same thing; mount your hubs/routers so a wire always has a straight shot without having to go around or through anything, then wrap up excess cable. You'll just have one cable to your wall plate for power and one for networking.
Cables for portable devices are not as easy to solve but cleaning up power and ethernet makes a big difference.
Hooks under the desk and velcro ties (Score:3, Informative)
One piece of advice that I give to any sysadmin or tech before opening a new office/datacenter: Estimate the amount of cable ties [callcct.com] that you will need -- then triple it. You can never have enough cable ties [callcct.com]. Velcro/hook & loop is very nice because it is reusable, and it won't slice up your arms like cut-off zip ties can (some telcos actually explicitly ban zip-ties for this exact reason - many techs have to use wax string).
Otherwise, all of the best cable management that I've encountered tends to be made for rack-mounting. Get some hooks from your local hardware store, and then develop a system to coil, bundle, and otherwise tie off your excess cable. Hang the excess coils/bundles from the hooks under your desk or otherwise out of sight. That should keep your desk looking pretty enough. Also, if you have a lot of excess USB cable for small devices, try a USB hub and buy shorter USB cables.
ac adapter losses are close to zero (Score:4, Informative)
I believe that AC adapters still draw some power even with no device hooked to it.
yes, they draw some. some devices like televisions can even draw an appreciable amount, like 20 watts.
Your average AC adapter has a transformer to step the voltage down to say 12-18V and then a rectifier to turn it into DC, and probably an inductor after that as a filter to smooth out the left over ripple.
When your AC adapter is plugged in with nothing plugged into the DC side, the transformer will still draw a bit of magnetizing current, but it is fuck all.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformer#Equivalent_circuit [wikipedia.org]
I think magnetizing current might be 1% tops, so for your 60W laptop power pack you are talking .6 watts.
Even adding up all your power packs you are talking tens of watts.
at $0.30 a for 1000 watts for an hour, those power packs being plugged in is costing you next to zero.
The mess is one thing, but don't worry about the power.
pegboard mounted under desk (Score:4, Informative)
They occasionally post clutter-busting suggestions over at www.lifehacker.com. The original links from this one no longer seem to work, but I thought it was brilliant:
http://lifehacker.com/237789/diy-under+desk-gadget-mount [lifehacker.com]
Basically, mount a peg board on hinged stand-offs with hasps to lock it in the 'up' position, and then mount all the small peripherals and cabling to the bottom of the desk. May not be completely child proof, depending on the size of your children and the extent of the cable fasteners you use.
Re:idea (Score:5, Informative)
split loom tubing is what you are talking about. You can buy (albeit more expensive) from automotive supply stores in a variety of colours and sizes, or from telecom suppliers.
Re:idea (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Do it yourself! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Hooks under the desk and velcro ties (Score:4, Informative)
Velcro these days is _necessary_. I've seen far too many "skilled technicians" slice open cables when cutting open Ty-Wraps that have been bundled too tightly, and had fiber-optic fail because similar idiots bent it too firmly Ty-Wrapping it down.
Cable labels are very helpful: 3com makes label dispensers that help, and when you have 3 or 4 network cables on different subnets but all the same color, they're very helpful indeed. They also help sort out old PS/2 cables for mouse or keyboard, number KVM cables, etc.
Power supplies are a problem. Far too many companies use power bricks that plug directly into the socket, and block everything else. For such foolish designes, one-foot power extenders are very useful. Short extenders also useful for USB devices that are supposed to fit directly into the slot, but block other defices. (Wireless USB devices are particularly bad about this.)
Other issues include _not_ stringing power strip onto power strip to provide enough outlets: get strips with longer cables, probably of heavier gauge, and be sure to tie them directly to the wall socket to avoid adventures.
EM fields. (Score:4, Informative)
Power running through a wire creates a EM field. Run power and signal cables separïately.
Someone once told me of a car audio installer who kept running the cables in parallel next to each other. He kept wondering why every time he would rev the engine his speakers would make noise.
Cross power and signal cables at right angles and put some distance between them if you're running in parallel.
Besides that I find grouping the cables with electrical tape every couple of feet works well. Electrical tape has no electrical significance I just like using it.
Re:Velcro strips (Score:1, Informative)
It is also difficult to over tighten velco and damage the cable like you can do with zip ties.
Re:EM fields. (Score:1, Informative)
Yeah, repeat it as much as you like, but you won't be able to make an noticeable effects. Running cat6 parallel with power across a house results in zero packets dropped, or corruption.
Re:Velcro strips (Score:5, Informative)
I use velcro strips in our house, too. Very handy for cable neatness!
One thing I'll mention here: my wife is an avid gardener, so one day when I ran out of velcro strips (brazenly taken from work years ago, when we retired a bunch of servers) my wife gave me her velcro spool that she uses to tie back the roses.
It's cheap: only $4 from most garden centers. [4hydroponics.com] Just cut the length you need, depending on the size of the cable bundle, or what you're attaching it to. Compare that $4 for 45 feet [wikipedia.org] of green velcro to buying "custom" pre-cut velcro strips from most PC suppliers, which would run about $20 for the equivalent length.
Just as Alton Brown [wikipedia.org] often recommends shopping at the hardware store for many cooking supplies, I might recommend stopping by the garden store to get velcro strips.
velcro, grrommets, custom cable lengths (Score:5, Informative)
1. http://cableorganizer.com/ [cableorganizer.com] This site is good for hours of fun.
2. Velcro cable ties are great.
3. Build your own custom-length Ethernet cables.
4. Label all your cables and transformers. See http://www.brother-usa.com/Ptouch/Ptouch_HandHeld/ [brother-usa.com]
Carabiner clips (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Don't make coils (Score:5, Informative)
I was going to parcel out some mod points in this thread, but I can't let this go unchallenged.
Don't make coils (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Wed Jul 22, '09 06:41 PM (#28789059)
Don't make coils out of excess cable. Loops of cable act as an inductance. When you switch on a device which is connected via a long power cable in loops, the extra load from the inductance can be enough to blow the fuse of the circuit.
Electrical load goes up as resistance and/or reactance goes down. Coiling a wire increases inductance. This increases inductive reactance. This delays direct current from reaching maximum and reduces alternating current. In other words, less load, not more.
That doesn't mean that I'm recommending loops in long power cords, just that the loops will not increase current draw.
Re:Do it yourself! (Score:3, Informative)
For those who do NOT want to build their own desk...
As far as arranging items, I got a bunch of cheap $3.00 stacking paper trays from my local office supply store. I then cut/drilled/dremmeled holes in the back to run cables. I now have four paper trays that hold: NAS box (biggest, on bottom), small KVM switch, 8-port ethernet hub, 4-port MIDI interface, router, audio mixer, and a cable modem. An extra 5th tray on the top even holds paper. It is a pain to get to the cables if you have to re-arrange something, but it makes my desk look a LOT neater.
The plastic can be brittle, so work slowly, and the plastic "dust" can be messy, so mark inside your house, but cut outside.
As for the cables, Velcro ties are your friend. You can put them on and off easily, which is key if you ever need to rearrange things.
As for my synthesizer (keyboard), that has a power cable, two MIDI cables, and two audio cables. For that, I used spiral wrap (available at Radio Shack) to keep the cables bundled (D.I.Y. snake). I cannot imagine having to replace any of those cables any time so, so spiral wrap is perfect. It works with ANY size cable. The only down side is that spiral wrap is a pain to put on, but the results are worth it.
Belink Conceal or the like (Score:5, Informative)
Seriously a good idea. I got a bunch of these http://www.belkin.com/surgeprotection/concealed/ [belkin.com]
They are great, I have just one box on the floor under my desk, easy to sweep around, doesn't collect dust and looks tidy.
Dinosaur Duct ftw! (Score:3, Informative)
It's available in shorter seqments from Markertek [markertek.com].
Re:Hooks under the desk and velcro ties (Score:5, Informative)
Power supplies are a problem. Far too many companies use power bricks that plug directly into the socket, and block everything else. For such foolish designes, one-foot power extenders are very useful. Short extenders also useful for USB devices that are supposed to fit directly into the slot, but block other devices. (Wireless USB devices are particularly bad about this.)
I've had good luck with the folks from Amtex [amtex.com.au]. They make a range of modular power supplies. Australian firm, but they can do 100VAC@60 inputs if you need them. If your phone chargers etc. are mostly the same power in / similar power out, a modular power supply with multiple output leads would be safer than a rank of bricks on a power strip. In one contract I worked we experienced some issues with individual power bricks at a large grocery chain. The bricks can be a problem at the retail lane where space is crowded and occupational safety is a concern.
Oh, and all the grocers use velcro ties at the POS too. They're magic. Use cable ties inside a box when you're manufacturing a consumer gizmo, but velcro if you ever intend to move things around. Spiral nylon cable organisers are good, reusable ways to gather cables in groups too.
Re:Get a drill... (Score:3, Informative)
Can you put the cables through the desk, then under the carpet?
Don't put 110V power cables under the carpet. They do emit heat, and if the heat can't escape, it builds up. I know somebody who set their house on fire that way. If the cable gets damaged by walking on it, that exacerbates the problem. And while it isn't dangerous, I don't think I'd want to be walking on my ethernet/USB/parallel/serial cables, either.
Re:Phantom power draw isn't worth worrying about (Score:4, Informative)
No, that's 3 watts. The watt is a unit of power, not energy, and is equivalent to joules/second. Power is energy per unit time. kWh is kind of a strange unit; it seems to only serve to confuse people, when it's really just expressing an amount of energy in Joules (1 kWh = 3,600,000 Joules). It'd probably make more sense to just use megajoules, but because of the insistence on referencing energy usage to hours, you'd have to divide by 3600 instead of an even 1000.
Re:Phantom power draw isn't worth worrying about (Score:3, Informative)
HTH.
Re:idea (Score:5, Informative)
Instead, consider cable raceways [cableorganizer.com]. I find it's the easiest to add or subtract cable to, many come with an adhesive side, and they run in nice straight lines unlike loom.
Stick to single sided power strips where adapters run perpendicular to the stip and things will stay neat. With respect to adapters, don't worry about their power draw, it's quite negligible. The only things that you should worry about draw, are devices that have a "sleep mode" like TVs, DVD players, and receivers, but they probably should have their own surge protected strip anyway.
Re:idea (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Do it yourself! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Don't make coils (Score:3, Informative)
And... since we're talking about low-frequency AC here, with two conductors (and a ground, but that's not important), and with each of these conductors having exactly equal and opposite current flowing through them:
The inductance cancels itself out.
Therefore, all you have is the usual resistive heating that happens in any wire with current flow, which isn't generally a problem for stuff folks are likely to find in their home office even with the cord all bunched up somehow.
A counterintuitive understanding (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Don't make coils (Score:2, Informative)
Don't make coils (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Wed Jul 22, '09 06:41 PM (#28789059)
Don't make coils out of excess cable. Loops of cable act as an inductance. When you switch on a device which is connected via a long power cable in loops, the extra load from the inductance can be enough to blow the fuse of the circuit.
Electrical load goes up as resistance and/or reactance goes down. Coiling a wire increases inductance. This increases inductive reactance. This delays direct current from reaching maximum and reduces alternating current. In other words, less load, not more.
That doesn't mean that I'm recommending loops in long power cords, just that the loops will not increase current draw.
Ok I just HAVE to challenge this.
IF(AND ONLY IF!) you are talking MILES of cable and THOUSANDS of loops it will be significant at 60hz, otherwise forget it!
Do the arithmetic: a single turn loop has about 0.1ohm impedance at 100khz!
At 60hz that will be about 0.00001 ohms!!!
The rest is Ohm's law ...
Re:idea (Score:4, Informative)
Although rabbits are lagomorphs, they are also huge party animals, and when their humans are out of the house they think nothing of having a few mice, rats, lemmings, jerboa, chinchillas, squirrels and porcupines over to "just chill" which invariably turns into a giant house party with a muskrat DJ.
Re:Hide them all (Score:3, Informative)
And thats a great idea to be able to turn off stuff you don't use all the time with diff power strips, I do that myself.
You may want to use a mounting head cable tie and screw stuff you your actual desk. This is the kind of tie http://www.cabletiesplus.com/Products/5-Mounted-Head-Cable-Ties-(40-lb)-(Natural)__CP-5-40MH-N.aspx [cabletiesplus.com] and you can use very small screws.
BUT if you don't want harm your desk at all. Just leave it hang and lay on the floor and make it look at nice as you can. Don't use tape, or sticky strips, or sticky cable mounts, because NONE OF THEM WORK. About two days after you anchor something it will come off, trust me... Basic rule of thumb for cable work, if it seems like its going to be way too much work and a big pain in the ass, then your doing it right and it will look great in the end. And just remember I have done this with 20+ devices in a 72u rack (over 6 feet of eq...) and you could NOT see any power cable when I was done and all the network, KVM etc... were ladder wrapped and the rest of the ties were about 1ft apart... Took 2 days to do one rack, but it looked great when it was finished.
Duke