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Cable Management To Defeat Clutter?
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."
You will feel more comfortable if you don't see all those cables
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
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...
What doesn't kill you only delays the inevitable
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.
Ikea has something like this called Rabalder (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20097954). I used it for my media center and it looks alot nicer having one thick silver cable going to the Plasma TV on the wall than a mess of smaller cables. The zip ties included are reversible.
Give up, and embrace the Electric Spaghetti.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
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. 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 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 often recommends shopping at the hardware store for many cooking supplies, I might recommend stopping by the garden store to get velcro strips.
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.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Seriously a good idea. I got a bunch of these http://www.belkin.com/surgeprotection/concealed/
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.
Ikea have a whole section of their catalogue dedicated to Cable Managment. I have one of their horizontal SIGNUM cable management thingos attached to the under side of my desk. I've used cable ties to keep everything neatly in place. My workstation runs off a single power strip and has wireless network. It also has castor wheels, so on a nice day I roll it outside and work on the back lawn.
Unexpect the expected!
Ikea have a whole section of their catalogue dedicated to Cable Managment. 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
John