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

blog.jim-nielsen.com

461–465 of 465 posts

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

#461
Do you get those nightmares where you're trying to solve some problem but you don't have the right cables, and then the dream evolves into searching for the cables, but they're all wrong, and what was it you were trying to fix in the first place? Maybe this is why every drawer is now overflowing with cables.

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

#462

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

You don't need to be merging multiple source pins into fewer output pins; it's very normal for multiple ground pins to appear on an output connector, and for the 12V GPU and motherboard pins you see multiple output pins at 12V as well.

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

#463
post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks the same? Should be fine.

uh oh

Then after realizing my mistake and connecting the correct EPS connector I lost an additional 3 drives trying to test if the backplane was still ok.

Double uh oh.

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

#465

Earlier 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 should have clarified: I use a 1" piece of maybe 5mm wide good quality 3M tape that wraps over itself.

This follows (at least my local) electrical code--it's quite robust. I have 40 year old electrical conduit that has tape applied like this and there's no movement, no fraying, no stickiness.

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