How a Wiring Rack Should Look

Julie Jacobson writes, "It's so much fun to deride some of the worst home wiring jobs in existence. But once in awhile, we should salute some of the cleanest, most perfectly labeled cabling jobs in U.S. homes. At the recent CEDIA Expo, the association for home-technology integrators handed out awards for the Best Dressed Systems, each featuring miles of cable, hundreds of connectors, tons of steel, and a clean aesthetic that could make the most finicky designer swoon. Show them to your own installer for inspiration."

Comments

nyud mirror

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.talkaboutcedia.com.nyud.net:8090/articl e/10397/ and here's another mirror

Re:Ahh... messy racks...

[crazyjeremy]

The site is down already. http://www.talkaboutcedia.com.nyud.net:8090/articl e/10397/ should get you there until it's back up.

Re:forgive me if this is a dumb question

[spyinnzus]

the principles of faraday cages tell us that you can't send signals out of or into a mathematically closed surface of conductors. The box isn't fully closed and isn't made of a perfect conductor, but it should kill 90+% of the signal I'd guess.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Neat != Usable

[akahige]

What you fail to grasp -- along with everyone else who's posted in the thread so far, if the comments are any judge -- is that these are AV gear racks, NOT computer/network/phone racks.

CEDIA == Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association. These people install home theatres, integrated audio systems, etc.

he mentioned RS232

[vlad_petric]

I honestly don't think that it was much of a problem for RS232 communication (i.e. high-voltage, relatively low frequency).

Re:Cheap does it.

[Pig Hogger]

And then it caused impedance issues which you didn't even know existed!
But it worked as far as you know, right?
I mean, all those equations and stuff don't matter, it's just wires. If they connect then everything is fine. Did you ever wonder though, why does an EE degree take 4 years to get when you can just hammer some nails?

If you have had a EE degree, you would know that RS-232c is +/-12 volts, and at that time (20 years ago), the maximum speed the mainframe could work at was 9600 baud, so that's 104 microseconds per cycle, worst case.

So no, it did not have any impedance issues.

And yes, it worked fine, and did so for the next 15 years.

Broadcast TV

[fishbowl]

Your average network TV station has wiring that puts any telecomm to shame. I've seen patchbays just in control rooms that have far more going on than anything in the photos on the CEDIA website. That stuff *has* to be organized. Just the labelling systems are amazing, let alone the craftsmanship involved in wiring them.

Re:Looks good ONCE, and only once.

[chazwurth]

You'd have to cut 50 different ties...

Indeed. Where I work, we use velcro ties to solve this problem. They can still be a pain in the ass, but it's a lot easier than cutting and re-tying every time you need to move a cable.

Re:forgive me if this is a dumb question

[Cramer]

Only if it's GROUNDED. You can transmit OUT all you want. No signal will be able to get back IN, however. Anyway, it's not even remotely a properly sealed faraday cage... there's holes in it for the cables. And the door doesn't have metal mesh RF shields. Even a very small crack will leak RF -- we had to put them inside the systems we used to sell to pass UL/FCC requirements.

Re:forgive me if this is a dumb question

[Dun Malg]

Polarisation of the radio waves makes it harder for clients to connect to the AP that is sitting at a wierd angle.

The problem with polarization is that you can't say for sure which way the mobile antenna will be pointing, so you can't make any blanket pronouncements about what constitutes "ideal orientation" for all occasions. PCMCIA wireless adapters have the antenna horizontal. Many integrated laptop wireless cards mount the antenna vertical in the LCD housing. The worst polarization for vertical receiver is a horizontal transmitter, and vice-versa. Placing the base station antennas at 45 degree angles from horizontal, and 90 degrees relative to each other gives you the greatest possible coverage of potential polarities of mobile antennas. You're unlikely to exactly match the polarity of the mobile (best), but you're also unlikely to end up with them at 90 degrees to one another (worst).

That's nothing compared to this one.

[antdude]

Check out this crazy yellow one. And it's yellow! :)

From AQFL.

Re:That's nothing compared to this one.

[tygerstripes]

My eyes! The goggles do nothing!

Sadly, this looks a lot like the wiring I've seen at some big LAN-parties.

Very simple solution I have been using for years

[cheros]

What you're after is called control panel trunking. For an example what it looks like, go to http://rswww.com/ and enter "PVC open slot trunking" in the search box (I tend to use mainly black 50x50mm). This is, incidentally, also the trick I have seen on some rack systems to keep it looking tidy. That doesn't mean it IS tidy (matter of definition), but it looks that way :-).

Cut it to size and drop on the floor behind equipment or under your desk, or screw down where required. Best use separate ones for mains power and signal cable, but I've managed with all-in-one as well (not with audio, though).

The idea is to route the cable straight in, route out at exit point and roll up the excess inside the tray. However, if you're thinking of doing that with power cable you better make very sure that you don't go near the rated capacity of the cable (sensible in any case), so a cable powering an electric heater is probably not a good candidate.

After you're done, pop on the lid and it all looks wonderfully tidy. Yet, if you want to change something, all you do is rip the lid off and change. I've once had a workroom where I'd simply run a trunk all the way round the room, just above the skirting board, and my desk has one just under the edge, plus one running down a leg. That was a real hi tech solution, it was fitted using double sided sticky tape :-)

In an office you just use sensible colours, so I guess blue is probably not the best solution . It's basically just following some visual tricks, the eye ignores straight lines and regular patterns.

Caveat: I repeat, this makes it LOOK tidy. It can still become a complete nightmare inside, and I've found that at occasions it's simply better to rip the lot out and start again.

So there. It's not as hard as it looks - you just have to know which tools to use..

Re:Nice wiring is great and all

[CharlieG]

That's why they invented PATCH PANELS - the wiring coming into/out of the rack is bundled, and goes to the patch panel - NEVER to an item in the rack - in fact, even wiring intra rack goes via a panel