This idea occured to me when I was posting in my teams forum about my new pedals (half of which have arrived today).

What do people do with their wires? I have millions (well, maybe not millions, it could easily be billions) of wires running around everywhere. 5 for speakers, 1 for sub woofer, 4 for digital decoder (optical, sub controller, outputs, power), 4 for monitor (power, video, usb, speaker), 2 for wireless reciever, more mains cables, usb cables, wheel and pedal wires, desk lamp, phone charger.......

The list is seemingly endless (so be thankful I didn't write it all).

I was curious - does anyone have any clever techniques to control their wires, or has anyone worked out how to transfer electricity 'wirelessly'? Oh, and post a pic of your messy wires/beautiful wiring, just for the hell of it.

1) Acquire big-ass tape
2) Tape the wires neatly together (so you have one "stream")
3) ???
4) Profit


PS: There's nothing tape cannot fix

You can get cable wrap tidy things, like a coil of plastic that wraps around a bundle of wires, cheap and easy way to tidy it, a bit easier than tape, which works fine till you need to untape it and all the wires are a big sticky gooey mess.

Dan,

Haven't you heard of cable ties can clean that mess up in a jiffy

I have 3 pc's, network hub, satalite link, (everything networked) pinter, 2 video recorders, a tv and half a dozen plug packs and battery charges for every thing from digital cameras through to cordless drills (all in one room) and my cables dont look anything like that

Quote from danowat :

... till you need to untape it and all the wires are a big sticky gooey mess.

You never ever want to go back down there anyways

Quote from tristancliffe :

This idea occured to me when I was posting in my teams forum about my new pedals (half of which have arrived today).

What do people do with their wires? I have millions (well, maybe not millions, it could easily be billions) of wires running around everywhere. 5 for speakers, 1 for sub woofer, 4 for digital decoder (optical, sub controller, outputs, power), 4 for monitor (power, video, usb, speaker), 2 for wireless reciever, more mains cables, usb cables, wheel and pedal wires, desk lamp, phone charger.......

The list is seemingly endless (so be thankful I didn't write it all).

I was curious - does anyone have any clever techniques to control their wires, or has anyone worked out how to transfer electricity 'wirelessly'? Oh, and post a pic of your messy wires/beautiful wiring, just for the hell of it.

WUSB - Wireless 480 Mb/s USB, should be interesting
Wireless power can be solved by Van De Graaf Balls!

I have a solution for you:

Zip-ties.

I use them everywhere in the back of my pc, I group certain things together (audio, wheel, keyboard & mouse etc) and then I run them under my table. I do the same with power-cords. My floor is 100% free of messy wires and everything is neat and clean under the table

Edit, ah hell, took few pics:
http://nismo.1g.fi/temp/wires/

Tristan, you're not alone. I have 2 PC's, 4 wires for (2) monitors, 2 mice, 2 keyboards, 2 wires for printer, 3 wires for set of main speakers, headphones, digicamera, 2 wires for scanner, fan, heater, Momo wheel and pedals, Thrustmaster wheel and pedals. I can't tie mine all up nice and neat because I am constantly changing where I put the PC. by the time I tied them up neatly, I'd be moving it to the other side of the room or a different room. You think that's bad, you should see behind my TV!

Velcro cable ties.
Brightly coloured, cheap, effective & easily removable / relocatable.

I get mine from Boyes, but I'm pretty sure you could get them from numerous cheapo jack-of-all-trade stores.

They are quite long too, so they have a tail of velcro (the soft side)... so what I've done is put strips of velcro on the back of my desk. The power cables go along the floor, and the more sensitive cables (read network & audio) run above hanging off the velcro on the desk.

I've also colour coded mine so that audio cables are in green ties etc.

My weapon of choice is ignorance. I stick my fingers in my ears, close my eyes and shout "lalalala" until someone stops bitching out the cables.

What you need is this stuff fitted on the back of your desk - slotted cable trunking. Easy to add and remove cables, and I got this cut-off from work
Need some for behind the telly now!
(sorry about the crappy camera-phone pictures)

I use velcro tiewraps that I got with a Tagan PSU, and sticky tape. Those which I can I tiewrap in place, those I can't I sticky tape. The underside of my desk has lines of duct taped wires. I also hide most of them out of sight in a mess using duct tape, so they look cleaner then what they really are

Quote from the_angry_angel :

My weapon of choice is ignorance. I stick my fingers in my ears, close my eyes and shout "lalalala" until someone stops bitching out the cables.

Weird, I love organising my cables. So much freedom of erxpression in the process. I have a stupid amount of electronics (if I plug it all in at once), so it's like the impossible challenge. It looks nice when it's done. Plus when cables all get entangled it really hacks me of. I dunno, I think I've got a bit of an organising fetish. Like when Kryten loves being put in a filthy room with a mop and bucket, stick me when cables need tidying. I'll come around and do it for you for free but you'll have to pay my travel expenses.

I used to use cable ties but having moved house every 9 months for the past couple of years I've run out and yet to buy more.

Next time your near West London Bob, give me a ring, and I can soothe your (wire) fetish!

Quote from Bob Smith :

Weird, I love organising my cables. So much freedom of erxpression in the process.

Don't get me wrong, I think theres an absolute beauty in certain types of cable - 126 Cat6 cables, all perfectly tied up, with tension relief; like one beautifully huge organic being draping itself over the edge of the rack. Sorry, I think I got carried away... Unfortunately that all goes out the window when it comes to my stuff.

Quote from Bob Smith :

I used to use cable ties but having moved house every 9 months for the past couple of years I've run out and yet to buy more.

Like Anarchi says, the key is velcro straps. You can cut them down to size, rip them off, reuse them, store them. Usually they come with certain rack mount kits, but I'm sure theres plenty of other places to get ahold of them dead cheap. Tiewraps are great, but a pain in the arse if you need to move the buggers.

Problem with cable ties is they're bloody annoying when you have to cut them, then let them get in a mess before then retieing them to remove one wire. I just choose to ignore them and make sure they're away from the pedals (have got my feet stuck before ).

Quote from P1lot :

What you need is this stuff fitted on the back of your desk - slotted cable trunking. Easy to add and remove cables, and I got this cut-off from work
Need some for behind the telly now!
(sorry about the crappy camera-phone pictures)

Thats good stuff....hmm, may have to invest in some

Places like Ikea sell foam tubing, just like the sorta stuff that used to be wrapped around BMX handlebars when I was a kid sometime back in the 19th century. Cut down the length of it vertically, open it up flat, place the cables inside and its natural tension will make it roll back into a tub shape again, no tape, ties, string or garden wire necessary.

We used to use it to keep the cables out of sight in the computer shop I worked in for a while, and trust me you ain't seen cabling problems until you've got 10 full pc systems with squillions of peripherals all set up on one gondola. Of all the methods we tried it was the neatest and did the least damage to the cables.

Something tells me he was exxaggerating

Quote from tristancliffe :

Next time your near West London Bob, give me a ring, and I can soothe your (wire) fetish!

I'm there 5 days a week when I go to work. Not near Uxbridge though.

34....it's just that I'm at uni with a load of kids who are about 20 odd and always ripping me about my age, so I've kinda had to get used to joking about it....:weeping:

I had my first BMX sometime around 1981, when I was 10, which you are no doubt going to tell me was long before you were born.....

Quote from Smax :

34....it's just that I'm at uni with a load of kids who are about 20 odd and always ripping me about my age, so I've kinda had to get used to joking about it....:weeping:

I had my first BMX sometime around 1981, when I was 10, which you are no doubt going to tell me was long before you were born.....

Oh my, you are really old! I was like, 9 in 1981! And had my first BMX bike around then as well . No such thing as mountain bikes back then.

I was born in 1981, but my brother had a Grifter which I later inherited - it was great, although the dodgy gears took a bit of maintenance. Learnt a lot trying to keep that damn contraption going.

Screw you guys I'm going home.... :cartman:

Quote :

You're all old!

And I can tell you, after the last couple of 15-16 hour days and working on the PC after playing most of the evening with very energetic 2 and 5 yr olds, I REALLY FEEL old!