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Ask Slashdot: Extreme Cable Management?
An anonymous reader writes "I am not a fan of wireless except for Wi-Fi to a notebook, but have gotten frustrated by the vast amounts of tangled cables around my computers: I have two machines, four monitors, multiple external hard drives, cable modem, network switch, router, USB hubs — everything requires power and connection to the other devices. The tangles and tangles make it almost impossible to move anything without spending twenty or thirty minutes under the desk. I'd rather untie balled-up fishing line than try to snake a monitor cable out from some thirty or so other wires. Anyone have good ways to prevent this?"
I have also been caught using colored CAT-5 cables.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
Buy wire ties, or flex-tubing, or some other sub $20 cable management and stop leaving your loose wires to get tangled?
I cannot ask you to view cableporn as it is very addictive.
When the foot seeks the place of the head, the line is crossed. Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe.
I stole a bunch of large-ish binder clips from work. I binder clip stuff together. Binder clips have loops, so I stuck some screws in the underside of my desk and hung the binder clips with excess cable on them.
It's not super-pretty but it works just fine.
-- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K
Set up your desk so that you can easily go behind. Get several layers of trays running along the back - along with a few larger trays to hold things like power bricks. Get some coloured tape, and match opposite ends with colour, or some other useful scheme.
I've screwed big old rectangular plastic food containers to my desk at home, underneath the main surface, and it works great and keeps my cat from strangling herself. At work, I have three layers of long metal trays as well as power-strips. I also have a pile of colour-coded velcro cable ties.
It wasn't always this way... I just got sick of taking 30 minutes to change simple connections. Now it is much better.
Unplug it and use a new one wherever you're moving to.
If the location you're moving to has an unused spare cable, use it.
>> vast amounts of tangled cables
Really? How many?
>> I have two machines, four monitors, multiple external hard drives, cable modem, network switch, router, USB hubs — everything requires power and connection
Hmmm...something tells me you don't work in IT.
Have you considered a rack cabinet? Something like that should be able to address some of these problems.
Why are you moving things around so often? I have an eight port KVM that's filled up, and cabling is a disaster behind the computers. But that's where they live, and once they're there, I have no reason to move them until I move to a new home.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Specifically, the network switch, modem, router, etc. should be moved to the basement if you have one, or a dedicated area. You should almost never touch them, so get them off your desk.
Ditto for all the removable hard drives. Buy a little server with a crapload of storage (or a NAS) and put it in the basement with the network boxes. Access it remotely.
Get a wireless keyboard and mouse, hook it to a 2-port KVM. Move the computers under or behind the desk.
That way the only thing on the desk is the (wireless) keyboard & mouse, a USB hub and the monitors. Those cables should go right down behind the desk to the monitor and power strip.
If, for some reason, you use optical media frequently, plug a USB-based drive into the hub and leave it on the desk. You should almost never have to touch the computers at that point, so why have them in the way?
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
You could get the cable modem and router (and their cables and AC adapters) off your desk by attaching them to pegboard mounted to a wall or under your desk. Be sure to mount a power strip, too.
If you want something a little more professional looking, you could go all rackmount.
Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
& Lifehacker have got you more than covered: http://lifehacker.com/364054/top-10-ways-to-get-cables-under-control
velcro cable ties
Whoa, dude, are you made of money?!!
You can get 45 feet of Velcro ties for like $3 over in the garden center.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
First off you have a trivial cable set up. You're orders of magnitude from "extreme."
With the setup you mention there's almost an infinite amount of solutions. Tape, twist ties, tubes, velcro, hooks, labels, etc.
Almost anything will work. Basically you have a laziness problem. When you ran the cable you didn't label it, or loop and tie, or use a cable hook, or do anything.
I use hooks for mouse and keyboard. Long net cables are wound and tied. Power cables are velcroed together near the PDU.
Honestly all you have to do is anything but what you're doing is adding cables with no organization.
When you're up to thousands of cables come back and we can talk about extreme solutions.
I find being offended by me offensive.
cover all your cables with this stuff.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Disclaimer - I run installations in a datacentre so I do this for a living.
Nail velcro to the back of your desk, instant cable guides and tidy. Velcro excess in to loops. Use a lot of velcro. Plan and execute a labelling scheme - either paper that you sellotape over the top of, or a proper brady label for every cable. Use dymo labels for every plug and AC-adapter so you know what each of them hooks up to.
Yes it's a pain. Plan on taking half a day to do it properly. Document it as you go if you can. Remember all you need is to do it properly once.
If it's stuff that you plan on taking with you for travel / work - get a second adapter / set of cables. Keep those in the bag so you only need to move the device. The cost of your time messing around trying to untangle behind your desk is worth a spare usb lead or several.
Labeling helps you if you need to unplug or move one cable, but it's still a mess if you need to remove a cable from the snarl, as when replacing components or swapping out a bad cable. The answer to that is to eliminate all the extra wire that causes the snarl by taking up the slack. There are a bunch of gadgets that can be used for that. My personal preference are the velcro cable ties. I wrap the excess cord around my fingers and then wrap it with the velcro tie to keep it out of the way. I like them because they're reusable, cheap and can be used when storing cables as well.
===== Murphy's Law is recursive. =====
If you have pet rabbits -- or any other critters that chew cables out of instinct -- you need to cover your cables with this stuff. We had one chew through a lamp cord and it dang near cooked the little beast.
===== Murphy's Law is recursive. =====
I found that when I bought a bunch of 3-foot power cords, the power part of the cable tangle became much less of an issue. Using a long power strip (like the ones used in the sides of racks) also helps the snarl. For the rest, judicious use of velcro cable ties helps. Espeically when you have a chewing cat, like I do!
Worst X-games event ever.
Take this opportunity to reorganize and clean up your desk, you're going to start fresh!
1) Disconnect everything and clean up on/around your desk. Dust your monitors, wipe down the surface, move any papers that are piled up. When I dealt with rat nests of wires, I never was able to vacuum/dust. Do it now when it is easiest.
2) Put your desk on sliders. Even the heaviest hardwood desk on carpet becomes easy to move alone when you do this. If you're on hardwood or some other surface, clean around the desk before moving it, or you'll scratch it up.
3) Leave the desk away from the wall so you can get behind it. Set up everything exactly how you want it, but leave the loose cables wherever you put them before and leave the other cables (mouse, keyboard) bundled up next to their owners.
Now you're ready for the fun part!
Think about how you want to route the cables; that means don't let them touch the floor! I love routing them under the desk surface in the back because they're pretty much invisible and the cats don't chew on them. If you have a cheap fiberboard desk like I do, consider using screw-in hooks (use a small nail to make a pilot hole). If you have a metal/glass or an otherwise nice desk, use sticky hooks (3M Command hooks are usually too big - I like cable tie mounts with zip/twist ties set into a loose loop).
Start with the cables for the devices you'll move the least; this probably means your power strip, modem & router, and other network cables (I like to mount these to the side/back of my desk so they're out of the way but close to everything - this is especially important with the power strip). Move on to the monitors & speakers, then the external hard drives & USB hubs. The last things you want to hook up are probably your keyboard & mouse.
1) Once you've connected the device, stop and take a look at the cables; anything that you can group together, wrap it in spiral cable wrap, starting at the device and going back. Two network cables from the router to your towers? Wrap them together. Your monitor's DVI & power cables? Wrap them. Be sure to give yourself enough length of wrapped cable so you can move your devices around as far as you think you'll want to.
2) Now you take up any slack in the cable by bundling it - just be sure to leave a little bit of slack in the cable - just enough so it has a nice bend radius at the computer/router/wall. Hang the bundles together from a hook/anchor in an inconspicuous place. Use N+1 ties so you can get at it later - one for the hook/anchor, and one for each bundle (I especially love using twist ties for this part):
- For small DC cables, wrap the extra length neatly around 4 fingers, flatten the bundle. Secure with a twist / zip / velcro tie.
- For bigger cables, hold it in your palm and keep reversing direction across your palm - leave a reasonable bend radius. Secure it as above.
- For network cables; buy a crimping tool and learn to use it.
Push your desk back into place and you're done! Use weighted cable managers or adhesive to hold USB hubs from falling off your desk and enjoy!
- "Nobody came out that night, not one was ever seen. But Old Man Stauf is waiting there, crazy sick and mean!"