Dominicg Posted October 28, 2008 Share Posted October 28, 2008 Good Afternoon, Over a drunken converstation in a hotel room somewhere in London around half three in the morning we got on talking about labelling cable length by colour and the 'most commonly used way'. Steve the lighting guy said there was a rhyme to remember them along the lines of, "Richard of York Gave Battle in Vane." What I'd like to know, is what was the rhyme, then by colour, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Voilet then the sizes :) I'm sure it follows the resistor colour code but however I remember that a different way which I can't repeat on here :( Cheers in Advance. Dom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Gaffa Posted October 28, 2008 Share Posted October 28, 2008 IIRC the lengths go something like this, all lengths in meters Red = 6, Orange = 18, Yellow = 9, Green = 7.5, Violet = 3, Then Grey = 30m, Blue is not usually used but could be used for 10m ? HTH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biskit Posted October 28, 2008 Share Posted October 28, 2008 Red = 6, Orange = 18, Yellow = 9, Green = 7.5, Violet = 3, Those lengths sound suspiciously like the closest equivalents to old imperial lengths... so violet = 10', Red = 20', green = 25', yellow = 30', orange = 60'. That would explain why there is no colour in that code for 10m, which is a common length these days, but not in imperial times! I don't know how 'standard' that is though. The code I use myself (which has no basis other than that I thought it seemed logical) is: White = 1m, Grey = 2m, Brown = 3m, Red = 5m, Orange = 7.5m, Yellow = 10m, Green = 15m, Blue = 20m, Violet = 25m. This roughly follows the rainbow colours as cables get longer, with the addition of white, grey and brown for very short lenths. Longer lengths than 25m get two bands 'added together'. HTH Ben. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vbm Posted October 28, 2008 Share Posted October 28, 2008 Good Afternoon, Over a drunken converstation in a hotel room somewhere in London around half three in the morning we got on talking about labelling cable length by colour and the 'most commonly used way'. Two observations... 1. Get a life, drunken hotel room conversations at half three in the morning should not be about cable length colour codes!2. Everybody's system is different... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mac.calder Posted October 28, 2008 Share Posted October 28, 2008 "Richard of York Gave Battle in Vane." It is a mnemonic with it origin stemming from the order of the colour spectrum (from lowest frequency, to highest, and hence the most popular use is to remember the order colours appear in a rainbow) ROYGBIV (often pronounced Roy G Biv) - Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet. Since it is a fairly common thing to need to know, resistor colour codes are loosely based around the same system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smalljoshua Posted October 28, 2008 Share Posted October 28, 2008 I just use 3 colours GREY = 1m RED = 5m GREEN = 10m With rings to denote multiples of each. Josh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scjb Posted October 28, 2008 Share Posted October 28, 2008 "Richard of York Gave Battle in Vane." It is a mnemonic with it origin stemming from the order of the colour spectrum (from lowest frequency, to highest, and hence the most popular use is to remember the order colours appear in a rainbow) ROYGBIV (often pronounced Roy G Biv) - Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet. Since it is a fairly common thing to need to know, resistor colour codes are loosely based around the same system.If you wish to remember it the other way round... Virgins In Bed Give You Odd Reactions... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Light Console Posted October 28, 2008 Share Posted October 28, 2008 I just write the length on the socket... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeeStoddart Posted October 28, 2008 Share Posted October 28, 2008 I'm sure we've discussed this before but... There is no international standard of cable length indication (Certainly not an enforced international standard) The standard "we" use is white = 10m, red = 5m, blue = 2m, green = 1m. The codes are additive and multiples of a colour can be used - so a 25m cable will have 2* white plus 1* red. 12m is 1* white plus 1* blue. It's not based on a standard as far as I'm aware but it works for us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Langfeld Posted October 28, 2008 Share Posted October 28, 2008 Does nobody here have black cables? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grahamdking Posted October 28, 2008 Share Posted October 28, 2008 Does nobody here have black cables? I do. And I expect that everyone else here does too.They probably use black cables with either coloured plastic ends, tape or cable ties to mark the lengths. As opposed to the colour of the cable itself identifying the length. The reason people don't use black markings is that you can't easily identify black markings on black cables. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete McCrea Posted October 28, 2008 Share Posted October 28, 2008 Our cables are marked thus:Purple <5mGreen 5mYellow 10mBlue 20mWhite 30m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dB or not dB Posted October 28, 2008 Share Posted October 28, 2008 A simple way of marking the lengths of XLR mic cables is by using a marker pen on the male XLR - black permanent marker on silver XLRs, silver paint pen on black XLRs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted October 28, 2008 Share Posted October 28, 2008 Richard of York GAINED battles in VAIN. SPaG! And of course, Virgins In Bed Get Your Organ Red! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.elsbury Posted October 28, 2008 Share Posted October 28, 2008 *shakes head slowly* :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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