Once or twice a year, I regret throwing out my box of cables and doodads. The rest of the year I'm very happy I did it. If I were to assign price tag to that happiness it'd be ~$20.
Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables
431–440 of 464 posts
Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables
#432You are NEVER going to need that Centronics printer cable again!
(That said, I probably still have two of them in my stuff ha.)
Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables
#433[dead]
Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables
#434Key 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…
..., a bag of thick SCSI cables, a bag of Firewire 400 cables, a bag of AppleTalk cables, a bag of PS 2 cables, a bag of RS232 cables, a bag of Firewire 800 cables, a bag of ADB cables, ...
(Unfortunately, not kidding.)
Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables
#435Earlier quoted context omitted.
A PSU cable tester is valuable for this. They're much cheaper than a replacement PSU, and you can plug in cables wherever they fit on a PSU, and test whether the output is correct for the CPU/PCI/motherboard/SATA connector you want to plug it into. The PSU and cable might be a black box, but the output is always testable.
Couldn't you still fry a PSU if the cable assumed multiple common pins to the PSU, but the PSU had different voltages across those connectors?
I guess, but that seems unusual. Pins are split all the time, for instance to turn a 6pin PCI connector into a substandard 8pin one, but the reverse? Merging multiple source pins into fewer output pins by shorting them together?
Visual inspection would normally catch situations like that, and then you might be able to figure out if it's okay with continuity checks and voltage checks with a multimeter on the relevant pints of the psu to see if those pins are different voltages... as long as the PSU powers the connector in the absence of load or sense pin signalling.
Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables
#436Key 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…
Transparent ziplock bags changed my cable organization significantly. I also put a lot of accessories into them. Preferably together with a small note about what it is for, or with the manual of the device it belongs to. Storing stuff in individual boxes takes up too much space. The transparent bags can just go into a box and it's easy to just browse through. Nothing gets entangled.
They make giant ones too for bigger stuff. I think Adam Savage has a video about them for grouping unfinished project parts together.
Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables
#437How about obsolete cables? IDE, RG59 coax, Cat 5, Composite video, etc...
Just went/still going through a vicious residential downsizing. In multiple boxes of cables, only IEEE488 and Centronics plug types didn't give me nightmares to toss. Oh, and the remaining spool of 300-ohm TV antenna cable. Kept some RG59 and associated tools, don't really know why.
Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables
#438Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you are worried about 5 Volt electric shocks (!), I presume 'electromagnetic hypersensitivity' is also something you worry about?
Fire is more worrying. You can also make small sparks with 5 volts under certain conditions, which may frighten someone about as much as a small shock.
There were no loose energized cable ends in this story, fyi. The light strip was your standard white LED tape cut in the middle of the copper pads [0]. I soldered the USB cable's power leads to the copper pads [1] and then covered the solder joint with heat shrink tubing filled with liquid electrical tape [2]. Then on the strip I connected to, it was the same procedure but with a female USB-A connector. There were no conductors with exposed ends to move apart and make a spark.
[0] e.g. https://www.homedepot.com/p/32-8-ft-LED-Tape-Light-120-LEDs-...
[1] https://www.homedepot.com/p/Star-brite-4-oz-Liquid-Electrica...
[2] hero image from https://us.govee.com/blogs/led-strip-lights/how-to-solder-le...
Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables
#439Earlier quoted context omitted.
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
I suggest finding something else, electrical tape starts coming off after a few years, leaving behind sticky residue that's impossible to remove without some kind of solvent. Same goes for masking tape.
I've yet to find instances where electrical tape comes off of its own accord when wrapped. Even the electrical tape submerged 24x7 on my well pump had to be unwrapped.
Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables
#440Key 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…
>And then you can get rid of... maybe 8 of them.
Negative. I might need them all some day.