The Great Rewiring

[Inverarity]

I'm sure I'm not the only one here who finds that, despite their best efforts, their home-theater racks devolve into ridiculous tangles over time. This past weekend, with a new TV getting delivered, I decided to just redo all the interconnects, top to bottom, down to snipping off and replacing some of the less pretty lugs on the speaker cables. Breaking down the old rack, sorting the cables, and getting everything put back together nicely took five or six hours, but it was well worth it.

I'm thinking that this should be a semi-annual thing. So: how often do you folks embark on a Great Rewiring? Do you just work around the tangles as necessary until it's lodged into one big mass of cabling, or do you neaten things up every so often?

(For reference, I've got a total of eleven components and six speakers to be managed, so my system may be more complicated than some...)

[Wraith]

I've got four components (PS3, 360, PS2, DVD player) hooked up to my TV and stereo, some through a component switcher. It's mostly just a big mess, and I haven't really bothered with it since I put the Xbox, GameCube and Dreamcast in storage.

[biosc1]

Ah, the Great Rewiring. Such fond memories. I tend to embark on this project once or twice a year, depending on whether "she" has decided it's time to move furniture. I also tend to do it when I install something new into the cabinet.

I'm all about bundling wires together, though that can make it a pain to undo them later, if you just want to remove one wire.

[Inverarity]

You put the Dreamcast in storage? For shame! One of my proudest moments this weekend was seeing how good the DC looked when hooked up to the VGA input of the new TV. *grin*

[Bingley Joe]

I'm currently finishing up some pretty extensive renovations on my loft, and this has been a crucial part of the planning process for me as well, since I'm absolutely sick of the ridiculous mass of cables that has been snaking around the edges of my walls collecting cat hair with the power of a thousand cat-hair-umm.. magnets. Since my space is basically one large, open area, all the cables from all my stuff end up co-mingling, and it gets messy really quickly.

My solution (so far) has been three-fold:

- for the permanent sort of wiring like co-ax cable, ethernet, phone, power, etc., I had the electrician run it across the ceiling in metal conduits, fished through the walls, and actually installed into proper service panels at the locations it would be needed such as the media-centre, etc. (I live in a converted factory, so the conduits really are my only option as my ceiling is solid concrete).

- for everything else, I designed a special baseboard that has a substantial channel routed into the back of it that will allow me to hide a shit-ton of cabling in behind it. The baseboard is built in 3-foot lengths that are easily removable, and can be modified with basically any sort of outlet or pass-through for the cables inside it that I'll need. Best of all is that it's pretty cheap and painless to build, so I can reconfigure it whenever necessary. It's going to work out just beautifully :)

- The last phase will be to collect up any wires that have to run in the open behind desks and cabinets into some channels I've built out of PVC pipe cut down the middle and fastened to the backs to make simple holders (kind of like eaves trough for cables), which will keep them off the floor and make it easy to vacuum, etc. I'm hoping that these and some simple cable-wrap will keep them nice and tidy.

As for how often I engage in something like this: hopefully NEVER AGAIN :p

[LiquidRain]

I use an Ikea Galant wiring thingy. I love it. Keeps all my wires off the floor. (edit: see this (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3227/2722984676_ddfe5a6729_b.jpg))

[Wraith]

You put the Dreamcast in storage? For shame! One of my proudest moments this weekend was seeing how good the DC looked when hooked up to the VGA input of the new TV. *grin*I don't have a VGA input, or DC VGA adapter, and I was running out of space for consoles.

It's not too far away, just in one of those Rubbermaid-type plastic drawers. (Unfortunately, the top of the DC's case has gone beige. I knew it had gotten a little yellow, but I think it's much worse now.)

[Inverarity]

Bingley Joe has more far-reaching plans than I can ever aspire to. (I have to say, though, as another converted-factory dweller, the plans are really good ones.)

One aspect of a Great Rewiring that shouldn't be overlooked is the benefit of using new interconnect technologies. I've just gone over to HDMI for a number of devices, and I'm not sad to see my old component-video cables go away. HDMI (or, in my case, HDMI+optical audio) uses up a lot less space.

[Bingley Joe]

Bingley Joe has more far-reaching plans than I can ever aspire to. (I have to say, though, as another converted-factory dweller, the plans are really good ones.)

One aspect of a Great Rewiring that shouldn't be overlooked is the benefit of using new interconnect technologies. I've just gone over to HDMI for a number of devices, and I'm not sad to see my old component-video cables go away. HDMI (or, in my case, HDMI+optical audio) uses up a lot less space.

Well, I figured if I was going to go to the expense and effort of renovating my space, I might as well try to cover as many bases as possible... I'll let you know what crucial detail I managed to forget once everything is back in place ;)

As far as HDMI goes, I agree for the most part; as long as your runs are fairly short, and you're not trying to gang up too many devices, you're golden.. But those bastards can get pretty beefy and hard to manage once you get up over say 25 feet. Throw two or three of those together, and you've got some seriously fat-ass cable to route all of a sudden. :(

Whoever designed the actual connector on the HDMI spec really should have put a bit more thought into securing it, too, because the heavy cables can make them slip out of the sockets really easily.. A simple pressure lock like on ethernet cables would have been fine.

Still.. in general, the convenience of having just one connection to manage once you do get things where you need them is just great.

[Inverarity]

Are you running a projector, I take it? I can't think of too many other setups that would necessitate HDMI runs of more than a few meters. Projectors cause a whole extra set of potential problems in a Great Rewiring...

[Drayven]

I always tell myself I'm going to find a way to sort out my wiring mess, I have yet to do it. I think one of the key first steps is that I need to try some of those furniture pad things that you can put under furniture and have it slide across the carpet. Getting behind my TV stand is the biggest issue really.

[Cactaur]

I bought a giant pack of velcro ties. It pays to spend effort to get it right the first time.

[Jackel]

I sadly have a mess of wires hidden behind a bunch of cabinets. I would do more to clean them up but I'm not going to be living here for much longer, and the last time I cleaned them up I realized that they were more accessible for my 1 year old.

[Shieldmaiden]

I just have a cable tangle hidden behind furniture. I don't have a complex setup and nothing needs moving, so it's not a problem.

However my grandfather, a fire safety inspector after leaving the army, is probably spinning in his grave.

[biosc1]

Whoever designed the actual connector on the HDMI spec really should have put a bit more thought into securing it, too, because the heavy cables can make them slip out of the sockets really easily.. A simple pressure lock like on ethernet cables would have been fine.

Actually, I just read an article on Electric House about HDMI cables with a locking mechanism or it may have been an attachment for HDMI cables...let me dig...

Edit:

Here you go. http://www.blueechosolutions.com/

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/572/hdezlock41ri2.jpg

[Bingley Joe]

Are you running a projector, I take it? I can't think of too many other setups that would necessitate HDMI runs of more than a few meters. Projectors cause a whole extra set of potential problems in a Great Rewiring...

Yeah, a projector and two displays, all about as far from each other as possible, and all will be routed through an AVR for switching/multi-zone output. Luckily the AVR has two HDMI outputs to help simplify things, but it still means a lot of wacky cable routing because some of the inputs are also kinda spread out. Plus I want to add a third display some day :eek:

It'll be worth it in the end though :)



Here you go. http://www.blueechosolutions.com/



OOOOh! That is a great find -- looks like about as clever a solution to the problem as one could imagine for a retrofit like that. Thanks for digging!

[Sandman]

It's been so long since I've looked into my wires that I'm afraid to even look back there...might be something living among them.

[Raen]

How to wires even get so tangled? I'm sure that I always put them in seperately and carefully and then the next time I look it's a great mass of them all intertwined! How?!

EDIT: Also Bingley Joe's solution is awesome. If I ever get a place that's really mine I'll be very tempted to go the same way.

[Inverarity]

To a certain extent, it's just gravity. Things can get amazingly tangled just from drooping on top of each other, counterintuitive as it might seem. (Actually, they only look tangled, right up until the moment you decide to move something around to resolve the apparent tangle. Then they'll lock together for good and will have to be separated with a crowbar...)

My tangle of wiring is already starting to grow again - first I had to move a few things out of place as I slid the whole assembly back to the wall, and then I had to wait for a SPDIF copper-to-optical coupler to arrive. Now that that little component and both its cables are on top of the rest of the slightly displaced wiring, the rat's-nest-to-be has officially been kicked off.

[mightbe]

The wiring mess on/behind my desk includes my home theater system.

It's not pretty and moving anything invariably knocks over my switch and winds up loosening one of my audio jacks.

[Jackel]

I should take a picture of my HTPC area....its a mess, all my audio wires from my receiver, computer cables, dvd cables, wii cables...ugh.