"Don Y" wrote in message
...
On 9/4/2015 2:50 AM, Robert Green wrote:
I ran RG6, CAT3 and CAT5 to each of ~25 "drops" around the house.
In hindsight, should have run two lengths of CAT5 as the CAT3
is effectively useless -- just for *wired* phones -- but, then again,
where it terminates wouldn't be of any use for networking kit! OTOH,
even 100BaseTX is fast enough for anything distributed in the house
(you can push *video* down it)

Yes, I've run a lot of relay control wires and sensor wires using CAT5 and
6. So easy because they all use the same connectors, boots, tools, etc.

[outlet strips]

The advantage of modifying something COTS is not having to do any
fabrication work!

Definitely.

OTOH, if you can't *buy* what you want/need, then the make/buy decision
is easy!

I've found if you can't find what you need, you haven't looked hard enough.
Look at how many NEMA/IEC connectors people discovered. You can essentially
pay a little over a buck each or six dollars each if you don't look hard
enough.

I figured out, quite accidentally, how to open up solvent welded cases
in
one feld swoop. While trying to blow water out of one that had gotten
wet I
drilled a tiny hole in the case and pressed the conical rubber nozzle of
my
air compressor against it, expecting water to blow out of openings
around
the plug blades and power cord. BANG!!!! Split right in half. (-:

That may work for some; it may do nothing for others; and may turn
some into balls of shrapnel!

Hence the smiley face. I don't recommend it without a protective casing of
some kind. I also agree that it could come apart in a number of different
ways of increasing risk. But it did surprise me to see it split quite
nicely at the weld line. The big bang suprised me, too. (-:

If I need to cut a brick/wall wart apart, I use a heated Xacto knife and
a bit of patience. But, usually, I can find a replacement device with
the same output ratings and just replace the defective unit.

I still have wall-warts from the sale the Lafayette Electronics when closing
out their stores. All wall-warts were 50 cents each. The molded connectors
on them were worth more.

Very dumb but I see more and more engineering "What were they thinking?"
moments all the time.

IBM used to have bricks with wrap-around cords. But, they designed the
strain reliefs to support this, not hinder it.

I assume Mickey's are the figure 8 cords used to power things like
laptops
with a ground wire that give a head to the two ears. I see very few
of
those - mostly laptops. I do see a lot more of them in both polarized
and
unpolarized format.

No. Mickey as in "Mickey Mouse" -- three circles (his head and two
ears).

Read again! That's what I said. The added ground wire (which I assume
is
the center) gives Mickey his head. (Sounds obscene)

Argh! Yes, sorry. I was distracted by your figure 8 reference as those
cords are mechanically different sizes/shapes. So, couldn't make sense
of your later comment.

Note that the figure-of-eight cords can also be found with one end
of the '8' flattened. So, instead of OO, it's more like DO.

Polarized v. unpolarized. I said that too!

I keep boxes of cords, sorted by style. So, when I need a new one,
I can save myself the $1 and just pull one out of the box.

It's clear that tech weenies all behave the same way. I even segregate
the
D cords by color since I have so damn many of them.

I have 10.5x5x18" boxes labeled:
- cord (modular power cords)
- extend (male modular to female modular; sometimes called HP cords)
- odd (right angle modulars, 220V, mickeys, 8's, etc.)
- extension (traditional, short, extension cords)
- medusa (think: octopus)
- reel (small retractable cord reels)
- RJ45 short (i.e., patch cords)
- RJ45 long (like 30 - 100 ft)
- coax (RG58)
- coax long
- Printer
- DB9
- DB25
- DB25 long (typ. 25' extensions)
- KVM (2 x PS2 w/ HD15 "VGA")
- KVM long
- KVM extension
- Video (VGA, DVI, 3/4/5BNC, etc.)
- HDMI
- SCSI-1
- SCSI-2
- SCSI-3
- SCSI-V
- Morph-1 (SCSI-1 to some other form of SCSI)
- Morph-2 (SCSI-2 to some other form of SCSI)
- Morph-3 (SCSI-3 to some other form of SCSI)
- Morph-V (SCSI-V to some other form of SCSI)
- SUN (misc SUN cables)
- SUN-O (Old style Sun SCSI)
- SUN-N (New style Sun SCSI)
- SUN-W (Wide Sun SCSI)
- USB (A-B cables)
- USB Odd (e.g., not A-B cables)
etc.


Yep. Got boxes for all those except for SUN stuff but make up for it with a
plethora of DiskPacks and other forms of removable hard drives.

I learned a long time ago to horde cables as you *always* need one
for SOMETHING! And, they're expensive! Cheaper and more convenient
to just find a place to store them (they don't get upset with the
high temperatures in the garage!) than to have to run out and *buy*
one (or borrow one from some other piece of equipment!)

Yes, long ago I realized my time was too valuable to be jack-assing over a
six dollar cable. I may have overdone it because I used to buy from
Computergate whose volume pricing made buying lots of extras relatively
cheap.

When I retired the desktops I realized how deep in spares I was. But in the
days before same day shipping at Amazon, you could lose some serious time on
a project waiting for a cable to shift.

Tonight I have to order a bunch of new 15' USB cables. They seem to fail
prematurely and worse, this last run had an outer casing that was too long
and prevented complete insertion. Devices would power up but complain they
were not connected because the power "fingers" reached but the data
conductors did not. I chased that bad cable for a while because the thumb
drive LED lit up, but Windoze would not see the drive. I rebooted,
re-everything'ed and finally moved the cable elsewhere and discovered the
issue.

I am going to introduce the bad cable to a sheet of sandpaper to see if I
can't make it connect more firmly. USB connectors tend to fall out from
vibration - I don't find them a particularly good design. But I was
impressed how they could retrofit more lines in a compatible 4 wire
connector for USB3.

--
Bobby G.