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Comments: 323 +- Ask Slashdot: Cable Management To Defeat Clutter? on Wednesday July 22 2009, @05:26PM
Posted
by
timothy
on Wednesday July 22 2009, @05:26PM
from the why-not-just-use-wireless-versions dept.
from the why-not-just-use-wireless-versions dept.
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networking
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."
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Hide them all (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Hide them all (Score:5, Funny)
I keep them in full view. Deliberately disorganizing them in such a manner that any other mortal would be speechless with confusion if he tried to find his way around my home office.
unfortunately for me, my 3 year old is no ordinary mortal. He can always find exactly the correct cable to unplug to create the maximum possible chaos. So now I am hiding them behind a closed door.
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Re:Hide them all (Score:5, Funny)
I wrap all mine up around the iron table leg.
Next to the box of backup tapes.
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Re:Hide them all (Score:4, Funny)
Interesting solution - I hide my 3 year old instead.
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Re:Hide them all (Score:5, Funny)
I keep my 3 year olds nice and tidy, tying them together with cable-ties and wrapping them in duct tape.
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Re:Hide them all (Score:4, Funny)
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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.
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Re:Belink Conceal or the like (Score:5, Funny)
Ah yes, I read really great reviews about that Belkin product on Amazon... hey... wait a second...
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Re:Belink Conceal or the like (Score:5, Insightful)
Whether something from Belkin is good or bad seems to depend a lot on what it is and who makes it for them.
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Re:Learn to Braid (Score:4, Insightful)
If you have a kid playing with scissors near live power cables, you have a bigger problem than cable management. Like Junior Flambé. Go take a parenting course or something.
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idea (Score:4, Informative)
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.
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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.
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Re:idea (Score:5, Funny)
Split loom sucks, especially for ethernet wires, you still need to tie it down to make things look nice and it doesn't deal with extra wire very well. I only use it to protect against rodent chewing (I have pet rabbits) when I have a single wire running to the wall.
Yeah--they totally suck. That's why I installed Jeffries Tubes around my office. They make cable management a snap--you simply grab some futuristic plug-looking glowing thing and use it to patch around any outage. The down-side is that I often run into unknown mysterious organisms that cause frequent network outages and power problems. But one side benefit is that if you call in some sort of engineer to help solve the problem, you can often solve what appear to be complex personal and professional problems during the idle chit-chat while working in said Jeffries Tubes...
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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.
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Re:idea (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:idea (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:idea (Score:5, Funny)
Ikea have a whole section of their catalogue dedicated to Cable Managment [ikea.com]. I have one of their horizontal SIGNUM cable management thingos attached to the under side of my desk.
I didn't have such good luck with their stuff. I bought their vertical cabling system called SIGHUP
NO CARRIER
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great place! (Score:5, Funny)
There is an easy place to get all of the declutter stuff you need. It's called Home Depot.
I agree; my house is cluttered with items I got at Home Depot!
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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: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.
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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.
one word (Score:4, Funny)
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.
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.
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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.
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Velcro or Ties (Score:4, Funny)
But if you want it to look better velcro would look best
I do not recommend my current method of just having the wires running about, they seem to like getting in knots just sitting there somehow.
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.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Well. From my experience, they still get hot. And the low-power connector still can "electrocute your floor" (or cat). Not big, but both things it can draw power.
Also, I don't know why, but on some adapters, there is a warning, that prolonged use without the device connected, could damage the adapter.
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.
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.
Give up (Score:5, Funny)
Give up, and embrace the Electric Spaghetti.
What are you trying to accomplish? (Score:4, Insightful)
What are you trying to accomplish? If you want neat and pretty, that needs one type of thing. If you are trying to organize the cables behind the computer, that needs another type of thing. If you are only trying to neaten the cables between computers, that needs another. You building a rack-room or want something professional? My only concern was getting in-between device cables off of the floor and above doors. Went to home depot, bought 1.5 inch PVC Pipe mounting clasps (used to hold pipes to walls), and suspended them 8 inches from the ceiling. Then ran the cables through the clasp. To manage power-cables behind desk, I strap-tied the power cables to the desk, leaving other ethernet/keyboard cables which will move around loose. If you want something to impress girls, don't think having neat cables counts. Most women that have seen the cables dangling from my walls are more than a little worried.... Keep meaning to string LED lights along them to make them look less disturbing.
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)
Flexibility vs neatness (Score:4, Insightful)
Dinosaur Duct ftw! (Score:3, Informative)
It's available in shorter seqments from Markertek [markertek.com].
Wax string (Score:4, Interesting)
Do it the old school way.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_lacing [wikipedia.org]
Re:Wax string (Score:4, Insightful)
I did that when I worked at comcast, well actually in my last 2 weeks of employment as a present to my replacement. All the server room looked fabulous.
I still get hate emails from the guys there from that.
"I had to replace the backup SQL server, spent 30 minutes cutting your DAMNED waxed string."
Makes me smile every month or two :-) What's better is that before I left one of the suits saw it and mentioned "that's how a server room should look!"
Ahh the perfect evil prank to pull before you leave :)
Parent
I have a few suggestions! Wait... (Score:5, Funny)
and safe (I have small kids) solution.
Well there goes all my ideas!
Dust bunnies (Score:5, Funny)
Quit vacuuming and pretty soon all your cables will be nicely concealed.
Fuck Zipties (Score:3, Funny)
Anyone who suggests zipties should be shot, kicked, beaten, stabbed, sodomoized, then forced to install vista over ME on an Acer PC with a cyrix processor.
You can't tell what you're going to do with those cables in a year, or what cable will mysteriously go bad. Velcro straps > pretty much anything else.
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...
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Re:Do it yourself! (Score:4, Informative)
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Re: (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 some
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.
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Re: (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.
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Re: (Score:3, Informative)
HTH.
Re:Plastic or Velcro zip ties (Score:4, Interesting)
Avoid protrusions and the bulk and waste of a bag of hundreds of cable wrap zip ties.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_lacing [wikipedia.org]
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