http://www.buzzfeed.com/lukebailey/satisfying-cables

Just had a nice new computer lab built at work, which also has some
really nice cabling like some of these.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

In message , Andrew Gabriel
writes
http://www.buzzfeed.com/lukebailey/satisfying-cables

Just had a nice new computer lab built at work, which also has some
really nice cabling like some of these.

The ones with "tidy" bunched together cables all the same colour are
only fine until you have a fault and need to pull one end to check the
other end is the one you expect to move.
--
Bill

(Andrew Gabriel) wrote in news:n82cuh$kog$1
@dont-email.me:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/lukeba

Very nice - the first one with the mains cables will be ruined when the
painter arrives. With the others, one needs to be sure it is permanant
before using all the tie wraps.

On 24/01/16 11:50, DerbyBorn wrote:
(Andrew Gabriel) wrote in news:n82cuh$kog$1
@dont-email.me:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/lukeba

Very nice - the first one with the mains cables will be ruined when the
painter arrives. With the others, one needs to be sure it is permanant
before using all the tie wraps.

tie wraps are cheaper than the decorator


--
New Socialism consists essentially in being seen to have your heart in
the right place whilst your head is in the clouds and your hand is in
someone else's pocket.

On Sunday, 24 January 2016 11:38:34 UTC, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
Just had a nice new computer lab built at work, which also has some
really nice cabling like some of these.

It's easy to make things look nice if you've got a large budget for pretty coloured cables and cable dump spaces at the sides of the racks to tidy the mess into.

Owain

Bill wrote:

Andrew Gabriel wrote:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/lukebailey/satisfying-cables

The ones with "tidy" bunched together cables all the same colour are
only fine until you have a fault

Yes, IME as soon as you use tie-wraps you've lost, velcro tends to stay
tidier for longer ...

En el artículo ,
escribió:

It's easy to make things look nice if you've got a large budget for pretty
coloured cables and cable dump spaces at the sides of the racks to tidy the mess
into.

IME, the people who buy the racks in forget to allow extra for cable
management - it doesn't come with the rack for free. Then it's "oh
****, what the **** do we do with all those frigging cables"? You need
to look at power distribution and order in a large selection of
different lengths of IEC power and network cables so you can route
appropriate lengths of cable through the cable management neatly without
leaving extra which creates an unholy mess.

At one site we were very short of floor space so we (translation, I)
moved the racks from backs-to-the-wall into the middle of the room,
added two more, threw all the doors out, and used both sides.

One side for all the luser-facing kit with the pretty blinkenlights and
the backside for the messy wiring and boring kit like KVMs. Some
servers (I'm looking at you, HP) were 800mm D and so filled the entire
depth of a standard rack, meaning nothing could be installed in the back
in that U space - I had to intersperse those with the kit in the back.

Those were very *full* racks I've still got all the scars on my
hands and arms from cut-off cable ties while fuddling inside to try and
route a cable through for a new device or reseat a connection.

BTW: übernerd alert:

telnet://towel.blinkenlights.nl

More interesting than the current SW film...

--
(\_/)
(='.'=) Bunny says: Windows 10? Nein danke!
(")_(")

En el artículo , Tim
Streater escribió:

Why didn't you label them properly then?

It's the labelling that's a pain. Really time-consuming and fiddly to
do properly.

--
(\_/)
(='.'=) Bunny says: Windows 10? Nein danke!
(")_(")

On 24/01/16 13:10, Andy Burns wrote:
Bill wrote:

Andrew Gabriel wrote:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/lukebailey/satisfying-cables

The ones with "tidy" bunched together cables all the same colour are
only fine until you have a fault

Yes, IME as soon as you use tie-wraps you've lost, velcro tends to stay
tidier for longer ...


Not if every engineer who goes there has a mandatory box of new tie
wraps and some cutters for the old..


--
A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on
its shoes.

On 24/01/16 13:38, Tim Streater wrote:
In article , Bill
wrote:

In message , Andrew Gabriel
writes
http://www.buzzfeed.com/lukebailey/satisfying-cables

Just had a nice new computer lab built at work, which also has some
really nice cabling like some of these.

The ones with "tidy" bunched together cables all the same colour are
only fine until you have a fault and need to pull one end to check the
other end is the one you expect to move.

Why didn't you label them properly then?

+1.

--
A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on
its shoes.

On 24/01/16 13:43, Mike Tomlinson wrote:
En el artÃ*culo , Tim
Streater escribió:

Why didn't you label them properly then?

It's the labelling that's a pain. Really time-consuming and fiddly to
do properly.


Not if you gear up with honeymoon pliers and numbered rubber sleeves...




--
"What do you think about Gay Marriage?"
"I don't."
"Don't what?"
"Think about Gay Marriage."

On Sun, 24 Jan 2016 13:38:14 +0000
Tim Streater wrote:

In article , Bill
wrote:

In message , Andrew Gabriel
writes
http://www.buzzfeed.com/lukebailey/satisfying-cables

Just had a nice new computer lab built at work, which also has some
really nice cabling like some of these.

The ones with "tidy" bunched together cables all the same colour are
only fine until you have a fault and need to pull one end to check
the other end is the one you expect to move.

Why didn't you label them properly then?


Somebody else installed them, and this is later troubleshooting?

I once saw a control panel where, when all the internal cable tray
covers were removed, spelled out 'HELP' in yellow wires against the
rest, which were red. This was in a US Car Assembly Plant.

--
Davey.

In article ,
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 24/01/16 13:43, Mike Tomlinson wrote:
En el artículo , Tim
Streater escribió:

Why didn't you label them properly then?

It's the labelling that's a pain. Really time-consuming and fiddly to
do properly.


Not if you gear up with honeymoon pliers and numbered rubber sleeves...


Only if use if you number them before terminating. And get it right, too.

--
*What do you call a dinosaur with an extensive vocabulary? A thesaurus.*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 24/01/2016 13:43, Tim Streater wrote:
In article ,
wrote:

On Sunday, 24 January 2016 11:38:34 UTC, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
Just had a nice new computer lab built at work, which also has some
really nice cabling like some of these.

It's easy to make things look nice if you've got a large budget for
pretty
coloured cables and cable dump spaces at the sides of the racks to
tidy the
mess into.

That's just a question of buying the proper racks - ones, IOW, that do
have space for cable management.

I've seen - and had to deal with - enough **** cabling in the past that
I have strong views on the topic. The trouble is it's easy for amateurs
to buy cheap fixed-length cables and plug them all in. Ooh look, it
works! Not taken into account are the problems that ensue when there is
a problem - somewhere - in the spaghetti. And no ****er bothered to
record what is connected to what.


Surely it's not *that* tricky, especially for amateur, say 20 cable,
installations - just use a cable tester, or disconnect and look at the
activity lights?

I've done just as you predict in my smallish home - got it up and
running without labelling. But the combination of colour-by-floor and
pretty simple diagnostics doesn't fill me with dread.


--
Cheers, Rob

In article ,
Mike Tomlinson wrote:
En el artículo , Tim
Streater escribió:

Why didn't you label them properly then?

It's the labelling that's a pain. Really time-consuming and fiddly to
do properly.

what's wrong with clip over numbers?

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England

The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

as soon as you use tie-wraps you've lost, velcro tends to stay
tidier for longer ...

Not if every engineer who goes there has a mandatory box of new tie
wraps and some cutters for the old..

And nobody is every tempted (or asked) to "just make it work for now,
then make it neat again later" ...

In article ,
charles wrote:
In article ,
Mike Tomlinson wrote:
En el artículo , Tim
Streater escribió:

Why didn't you label them properly then?

It's the labelling that's a pain. Really time-consuming and fiddly to
do properly.

what's wrong with clip over numbers?


Quite. They can be altered after installation too. Unlike the sleeve type.

--
*A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Sun, 24 Jan 2016 11:50:11 +0000, Bill wrote:

The ones with "tidy" bunched together cables all the same colour are
only fine until you have a fault and need to pull one end to check the
other end is the one you expect to move.

And how do you do that from a "faulty" network socket 2 floors away?
Lift all the floor duct covers, clamber up and down the vertical
cable shafts, etc etc. I don't think so.

Labeling is essential and has been said a database that says what
should be connected to what via which cable. Some form of sensible
"what" scheme helps a lot as well "F2R101P15" is on the second floor
in room 101 port 15 (clockwise from the door (assuming only one
door...)). Not sure of a sensible way to locate floor boxes, X and Y
is obvious but how do you set the origin?

--
Cheers
Dave.

Dave Liquorice wrote:
Not sure of a sensible way to locate floor boxes, X and Y is obvious
but how do you set the origin?

The server room?

All this shows the superiority of bus networks over radials

jgh

On Sunday, 24 January 2016 17:08:53 UTC, wrote:
All this shows the superiority of bus networks over radials

The world is not going back to Econet however nicely you ask ...

Owain

On 24/01/16 15:05, RJH wrote:
Surely it's not *that* tricky, especially for amateur, say 20 cable,
installations - just use a cable tester, or disconnect and look at the
activity lights?

Reminds me of the 'rewiring the discotheque lights' episode. Boss
horrified when I grabbed a hacksaw and cut through all the lighting
cables...went around seeing which one represented pairs with a load
between them, and then simply applied mains to them all in turn before
terminating in a numbered junction box and filling out a sheet I
prepared earlier with what each number was.

Got a bit stymied by a pair of 4 way cables all of which seemed to be
interconnected, till a bit of mains made a couple of coloured lights in
a cluster glow. Realised it was in fact 6 lights with a common neutral
and one spare...


Only took a couple of hourse to end up with a fully documented junction
box, and another couple to attach new switches and flashers to it all.

With CAT 5, there are end to end testers. You stick one on the far end
one on the near end and the idiot lights should light up.



--
Truth welcomes investigation because truth knows investigation will lead
to converts. It is deception that uses all the other techniques.

On 24/01/16 17:36, Tim Streater wrote:
In article o.uk,
Dave Liquorice wrote:

On Sun, 24 Jan 2016 11:50:11 +0000, Bill wrote:

The ones with "tidy" bunched together cables all the same colour are
only fine until you have a fault and need to pull one end to check
the other end is the one you expect to move.

And how do you do that from a "faulty" network socket 2 floors away?
Lift all the floor duct covers, clamber up and down the vertical
cable shafts, etc etc. I don't think so.

Labeling is essential and has been said a database that says what
should be connected to what via which cable. Some form of sensible
"what" scheme helps a lot as well "F2R101P15" is on the second floor
in room 101 port 15 (clockwise from the door (assuming only one
door...)). Not sure of a sensible way to locate floor boxes, X and Y
is obvious but how do you set the origin?

We just had a cable type followed by 5 digits. Such as FIB-12345. The
database then told me which ports on which two devices were connected
together.

Yup. That sort of thing, even if the 'database' is a sheet of
handwritten paper glued inside the rack...


--
You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with a
kind word alone.

Al Capone

On Sunday, 24 January 2016 14:12:52 UTC, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 24/01/16 13:43, Mike Tomlinson wrote:
En el artículo , Tim
Streater escribió:

Why didn't you label them properly then?

It's the labelling that's a pain. Really time-consuming and fiddly to
do properly.


Not if you gear up with honeymoon pliers and numbered rubber sleeves...

For cables that aren't moved too much & aren't black I just use a waterproof pen. Works fine as long as you're willing to redo the numbers if you see faded out ones. Write it on 3 times at each end.


NT

On 24/01/16 18:09, wrote:
On Sunday, 24 January 2016 14:12:52 UTC, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 24/01/16 13:43, Mike Tomlinson wrote:
En el artÃ*culo , Tim
Streater escribió:

Why didn't you label them properly then?

It's the labelling that's a pain. Really time-consuming and fiddly to
do properly.


Not if you gear up with honeymoon pliers and numbered rubber sleeves...

For cables that aren't moved too much & aren't black I just use a waterproof pen. Works fine as long as you're willing to redo the numbers if you see faded out ones. Write it on 3 times at each end.


NT

That's OK for home, but customers tend to think its amateurish.



--
Bureaucracy defends the status quo long past the time the quo has lost
its status.

Laurence Peter

On 24/01/2016 12:50, wrote:
On Sunday, 24 January 2016 11:38:34 UTC, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
Just had a nice new computer lab built at work, which also has
some really nice cabling like some of these.

It's easy to make things look nice if you've got a large budget for
pretty coloured cables and cable dump spaces at the sides of the
racks to tidy the mess into.

I was about to comment, that what you can't see is the rat's nest of
extra wire that must be bundled up somewhere, since I doubt all those
cables were terminated on site to be the exact length required (ignoring
the ones to the back of the patch panels)


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On 24/01/2016 13:42, Mike Tomlinson wrote:
En el artículo ,
escribió:

It's easy to make things look nice if you've got a large budget for pretty
coloured cables and cable dump spaces at the sides of the racks to tidy the mess
into.

IME, the people who buy the racks in forget to allow extra for cable
management - it doesn't come with the rack for free. Then it's "oh
****, what the **** do we do with all those frigging cables"? You need
to look at power distribution and order in a large selection of
different lengths of IEC power and network cables so you can route
appropriate lengths of cable through the cable management neatly without
leaving extra which creates an unholy mess.

I was trying to follow a wire through a small 12 or 16 U wall cabinet
the other day. It all looked quite neat until you realise they had used
over long patch leads and then "lost" the extra length by doubling back
a forth a few times in the cable management combs. Hence they were all
stuffed full, but with several layers of the same cable.

--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On 24/01/16 18:33, John Rumm wrote:
On 24/01/2016 12:50, wrote:
On Sunday, 24 January 2016 11:38:34 UTC, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
Just had a nice new computer lab built at work, which also has
some really nice cabling like some of these.

It's easy to make things look nice if you've got a large budget for
pretty coloured cables and cable dump spaces at the sides of the
racks to tidy the mess into.

I was about to comment, that what you can't see is the rat's nest of
extra wire that must be bundled up somewhere, since I doubt all those
cables were terminated on site to be the exact length required (ignoring
the ones to the back of the patch panels)



Yep

http://oi64.tinypic.com/2nq8ity.jpg

is one of mine (I wired that in 2011). It's not as impeccable as the
examples, but it was done buy buying a sample set of cables in 50cm
increments (just ordinary ProConnect IIRC cables from Onecall) and
seeing what worked where. Then ordering the right set.

And yes, every cable is labelled with a sharpie - mains with fly tags.

Took a while, but I am a jack of trades, not a hard core wireman.

On 24/01/16 18:33, John Rumm wrote:
On 24/01/2016 12:50, wrote:
On Sunday, 24 January 2016 11:38:34 UTC, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
Just had a nice new computer lab built at work, which also has
some really nice cabling like some of these.

It's easy to make things look nice if you've got a large budget for
pretty coloured cables and cable dump spaces at the sides of the
racks to tidy the mess into.

I was about to comment, that what you can't see is the rat's nest of
extra wire that must be bundled up somewhere, since I doubt all those
cables were terminated on site to be the exact length required (ignoring
the ones to the back of the patch panels)



Oh - and that piccy with the glass floor tile: Canon had a demo room in
London with one of those. I bet the cables were not so neat elsewhere!

Tim Watts wrote:

http://oi64.tinypic.com/2nq8ity.jpg

is one of mine

Not bad, but I bet exhaust heat has made 1/2 of those dymo labels fall
fall off by now, the nylon dymo tapes are better, but the
self-laminating wrap around laser printed ones are even better, e.g.

http://www.silverfox.co.uk/store/labelling-solutions/cable-labels/wrap-around-cable-labels/laser.aspx

En el artículo , John
Rumm escribió:

e I doubt all those
cables were terminated on site to be the exact length required (ignoring
the ones to the back of the patch panels)

Simple. You order in a ****load of different lengths and use the
closest fit. Same for the IEC-IEC mains cables. Also use different
coloured patch leads for different services - VOIP, POTS, ISDN,
Ethernet, fibre, serial, etc. etc. etc.

At one site I tidied up, I used grey for the unidentifiable cables that
were live but had no obvious destination. Probably the uplink to CGHQ.

--
(\_/)
(='.'=) Bunny says: Windows 10? Nein danke!
(")_(")

En el artículo , Tim Watts
escribió:

http://oi64.tinypic.com/2nq8ity.jpg

Nicely done.

--
(\_/)
(='.'=) Bunny says: Windows 10? Nein danke!
(")_(")

En el artículo , Andy
Burns escribió:

Not bad, but I bet exhaust heat has made 1/2 of those dymo labels fall
fall off by now, the nylon dymo tapes are better, but the
self-laminating wrap around laser printed ones are even better, e.g.

I used a professional Brady cable label printer at work. It was a pain
in the arse.

--
(\_/)
(='.'=) Bunny says: Windows 10? Nein danke!
(")_(")

On 24/01/2016 21:43, Mike Tomlinson wrote:
En el artículo , Andy
Burns escribió:

Not bad, but I bet exhaust heat has made 1/2 of those dymo labels fall
fall off by now, the nylon dymo tapes are better, but the
self-laminating wrap around laser printed ones are even better, e.g.

I used a professional Brady cable label printer at work. It was a pain
in the arse.

I often use an aerospace pen for things like cables - at home.

http://www.cultpens.com/i/q/ED03899/...ace-marker-pen

Not perfect, it can wear, but adequate for numerous purposes.

--
Rod

On Sun, 24 Jan 2016 21:13:23 +0000, Andy Burns wrote:

Not bad, ...

I was wondering if there was enough slack in the cables to enable the
kit to be removed from the rack still connected for fault finding.

... but I bet exhaust heat ...

As the outlets from the three PSUs(?) just below half way down appear
to be fairly obscured by cables particulary the two end ones.

... has made 1/2 of those dymo labels fall fall off by now, ...

Are they Dymo or Brother P-touch?

... the nylon dymo tapes are better, but the
self-laminating wrap around laser printed ones are even better, e.g.

I've been pretty impressed by P-touch labels, not had them fail on
me, that includes around flow/retrun pipes on the CH system, wrapped
flag wise around cables etc.

The annoyance is the machine and a dot matrix character display not a
proper graphics one so you don't get to see the label layout until
you print it. I wonder how hard it would be to hack the print head?

--
Cheers
Dave.

On 24/01/16 21:13, Andy Burns wrote:
Tim Watts wrote:

http://oi64.tinypic.com/2nq8ity.jpg

is one of mine

Not bad, but I bet exhaust heat has made 1/2 of those dymo labels fall
fall off by now, the nylon dymo tapes are better, but the
self-laminating wrap around laser printed ones are even better, e.g.

http://www.silverfox.co.uk/store/labelling-solutions/cable-labels/wrap-around-cable-labels/laser.aspx



It is true that the dymo does lose stickiness - but they are still there
(I tweak the odd one back together if I'm there changing a disk).

Thanks for the tip on the laser labels.

On 24/01/16 21:48, polygonum wrote:
On 24/01/2016 21:43, Mike Tomlinson wrote:
En el artículo , Andy
Burns escribió:

Not bad, but I bet exhaust heat has made 1/2 of those dymo labels fall
fall off by now, the nylon dymo tapes are better, but the
self-laminating wrap around laser printed ones are even better, e.g.

I used a professional Brady cable label printer at work. It was a pain
in the arse.

I often use an aerospace pen for things like cables - at home.

http://www.cultpens.com/i/q/ED03899/...ace-marker-pen

Not perfect, it can wear, but adequate for numerous purposes.


As mentioned, I use a fine tip Sharpie to similar effect. Marked all the
mains cables in my roof the same way - and the marks are still bold some
years later.

On Sun, 24 Jan 2016 09:08:48 -0800 (PST), wrote:

Not sure of a sensible way to locate floor boxes, X and Y is
obvious
but how do you set the origin?

The server room?

How does that relate to the 6 x 4 matrix of floor boxes in the second
floor office space?

--
Cheers
Dave.

Tim Streater wrote:

Dave Liquorice wrote:

I was wondering if there was enough slack in the cables to enable the
kit to be removed from the rack still connected for fault finding.

Install the cable management arm that comes with your 1u high server

HP seem to have given up with the arms at least on the 1U models, not
fitted dell for years so don't know about them.

"Tim Watts" wrote in message
...
On 24/01/16 18:33, John Rumm wrote:
On 24/01/2016 12:50, wrote:
On Sunday, 24 January 2016 11:38:34 UTC, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
Just had a nice new computer lab built at work, which also has
some really nice cabling like some of these.

It's easy to make things look nice if you've got a large budget for
pretty coloured cables and cable dump spaces at the sides of the
racks to tidy the mess into.

I was about to comment, that what you can't see is the rat's nest of
extra wire that must be bundled up somewhere, since I doubt all those
cables were terminated on site to be the exact length required (ignoring
the ones to the back of the patch panels)



Yep

http://oi64.tinypic.com/2nq8ity.jpg

is one of mine (I wired that in 2011). It's not as impeccable as the
examples, but it was done buy buying a sample set of cables in 50cm
increments (just ordinary ProConnect IIRC cables from Onecall) and seeing
what worked where. Then ordering the right set.

And yes, every cable is labelled with a sharpie - mains with fly tags.

Took a while, but I am a jack of trades, not a hard core wireman.

It's a decent job. Reminds me of my wireman days. We used something called
"plex" and "plex studs" to bind the looms. A kind of plastic tape with holes
maybe every 7 or 8 mm (i'm talking 50 years back). Where a cable left the
loom we'd lose it underneath and bring another one up to replace it so it
looked like you could follow the same cable pretty much up to the end. This
was using 1/.044, great for holding its shape.

On 24/01/16 22:21, Tim Streater wrote:
In article o.uk,
Dave Liquorice wrote:

On Sun, 24 Jan 2016 21:13:23 +0000, Andy Burns wrote:

Not bad, ...

I was wondering if there was enough slack in the cables to enable the
kit to be removed from the rack still connected for fault finding.

Install the cable management arm that comes with your 1u high server


I deliberately did not use the arms on my 1U servers - 2 mains cables
and 11 network cables[1] - that would not have worked well!

[1] This is VMWare - so we spread the load over a number of aggregated
gig links (iSCSI, VMWare Management, vMotion, Core uplinks).

This would be nicer with 10gig but that was expensive at the time (still
is, but less so).