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Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables

blog.jim-nielsen.com

261–270 of 464 posts

Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables

#261
post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A secret I've found is use hair ties instead of rubber bands with cables, they survive long stints in the garage much better

I double the cables over until they're short enough , and then tie them into a loose half knot. No fasteners to wish for, or to fail. Both ends of every cable are always next to each other for identification at a glance. Different cables cannot tangle with each other in a box. There are no axial twists imparted into the cable. (Stage hands hate this technique, but this isn't stagecraft.)

another benefit of the hair tie method is when you go to use the cable, you can take as much length as you need from either end, then bunch/coil 'n wrap the rest with the hair tie. You have given me a lot to think about though, I'm always looking for ways to improve my cable storage techniques

Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables

#262
post #24

Key for me is to "group" cables. For example, I have a bag of USB-C cables, a bag of USB-A cables, etc. Grouping them is key to deduplicating. It's easy to look at a single legacy USB A-to-B "printer" cable in isolation and think "I might need this someday!" Because you really might need it someday. However, if you group them you might see that you have ten of them. And then you can get rid of... maybe 8 of them. I a…

>"Key for me is to "group" cables. For example, I have a bag of USB-C cables, a bag of USB-A cables, etc."

Yeah. I do the same

Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables

#263
post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A secret I've found is use hair ties instead of rubber bands with cables, they survive long stints in the garage much better

I routinely steal my wife's hairbands to tie various cables in my cable stash. You can never have enough USB cables of various types. But as Murphy dictates, the USB cable that I need now is one that I don't have in my stash.

I started with the wife's stash, then bough a few thousand in bulk so i would never have to worry about it again

Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables

#264

I decided years ago to limit myself to just one box of cables... So then I ended up having to keep finding a bigger and bigger box to switch them to. One thing that bothers me though (or an excuse my brain uses to justify it maybe) is that it feels so wasteful to dump so many cables that will probably end up in landfill when I know there's someone out there who could make use of them. If anyone has a suggestion on th…

>I know there's someone out there who could make use of them.

I wouldn't be so sure. I bet there's more cables out there than functioning equipment, especially for older standards like VGA or PS/2.

It's ok to throw out junk.

Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables

#265
post #60
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's what JIT (just-in-time) inventory and offshore manufacturing took away from us. Hold onto your spare parts.

My dad worked at Lockheed and in the 80s they joked they used JIC (just in case) manufacturing. They had so many parts without a clear reason as to why they created so many.

JIC! That's funny. It may sound like inefficiency, but really it is an option on future flexibility. Just like the big box of cables.

Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables

#266
I too live in the firm belief that my collection of DB13W3 cables will at some point prove essential to saving humanity from nanobot goo for which the shutdown codes are only stored in earth's last remaining SGI IRIS 4D Crimson.

This is also a good reason to keep your knowledge of MIPS assembler fresh, lest you have to type lots of it very quickly as the swarm approaches.

Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables

#267
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

God, yeah. I try to label the USB-C cables directly by capability with my label maker, if they are more than basic charging cables.

What marker do you use to mark them? Is the ink durable and easy to read?

I bought a cheap pack of 5 colors of 3m electrical tape. Each cable gets one or two pieces of tape:

Data:

White if usb2

Blue if it supports USB 3 data (because 5Gbps USB 3 ports are mostly blue)

Green if TB/USB4/40Gbps

Power:

None if low/no Power Delivery

Yellow for 45W PD

Red for 65W+ PD

Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables

#268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similarly USB cables that do not carry data lines

I think I disagree. I just (re-)discovered a couple of my cables don't have data lines a few hours ago, prompted by the earlier discussion. My initial instinct was also to throw them away like you said. But then I realized they're actually quite useful for any case where you want to prevent data transmission, whether due to security or other reasons.

agree. i have no issue with charging only cables, they’re often lighter and more flexible, but i do require the 56k ohm resistor to wrangle misbehaving devices that could start a fire.

Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables

#269
post #24

Key for me is to "group" cables. For example, I have a bag of USB-C cables, a bag of USB-A cables, etc. Grouping them is key to deduplicating. It's easy to look at a single legacy USB A-to-B "printer" cable in isolation and think "I might need this someday!" Because you really might need it someday. However, if you group them you might see that you have ten of them. And then you can get rid of... maybe 8 of them. I a…

Post author here. I didn’t get into my organizational techniques, but agree with your take! Ziploc bags + a sharpie is exactly how I do it. https://imgur.com/JMUIcDY

Yes, and I do the same for all DC adapters. Writing voltage etc so it's easy to find

Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables

#270

For evidence that Bluesky is a long-term living facility operating as a social media platform...look no further than how their users employ the word "skeet" to refer to "post".

I almost died from cringe when I hovered over the link and realized what he was talking about.
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