How do you indicate that something is broken?

[Bobbsy]

I'd hate that too but for an additional reason besides all the obviousl ones.

 

At the TV facilities where I've worked, a knot in a cable was always used to indicate the cable was faulty and needed attention later.

 

Out of curiousity, does anyone else use a knot to indicate this?

 

Bob

[IRW]

I'd hate that too but for an additional reason besides all the obviousl ones.

 

At the TV facilities where I've worked, a knot in a cable was always used to indicate the cable was faulty and needed attention later.

 

Out of curiousity, does anyone else use a knot to indicate this?

 

Bob

 

Yes, but only with our GPO patch leads in the sound control room. If I get one down and plug it in, and it turns out to be faulty, it gets knotted and dropped onto the floor at the base of the rack for later!

[Rob_Beech]

Generally I put RED lx tape around them after coiling them. But several things have made me think about knotting them again the next time a fault occurs.

 

One of these is the fact that cables that go out on dry hire often come back with red tape around them as that's the colour the people had. This got very confusing.

Secondly, 90% of my cable stock has velcro ties now, so tape isn't carried as much*

 

That all said, I can't remember the last time I had a faulty cable. And I do have several** cables.

 

*for use for cables

**thousand

[dbuckley]

Yep, a knot in the cable by the plug, the offending plug if known, both plugs if not. Or knot.

 

I tend to "coil" short cheap unbalanced leads like the one in the photo. But not proper leads, oh no...

[peternewman]

I always tape over the connector(s) if a lead isn't working. It makes pretty sure people can't plug it in, and its a fairly deliberate thing, whereas there is a bit of a chance a knot could just develop.

[Yorkie]

If there's a chunk missing out of the side of the cable I tie a knot at the chunk so the fault is obvious when it comes out of the dodgy box for a fix. If the fault can't be found, I put red tape around one of the connectors so you couldn't connect it up without realising.

[obsoperator]

Because I always carry a cutter, and because I'm high enough on the totem pole to not be worried about adverse reactions, when I see that the termination is beyond saving, I cut off the connector and throw it away. Naturally, I would not do this if the connector (for example) had replaceable pins and just one is broken, for example. I feel this guarantees that a failed/failing connection will not be accidentally re-used.

 

Otherwise I cover the connector with 2-inch white cloth tape and write something on the tape.

[charlyfarly]

If it's an XLR mic cable I coil it up as normal and join the connectors together and seal with PVC tape.

[Stuart91]

We coil and tape the cable as normal, then put tape round the connectors. This is obvious to whoever is emptying the trunks, and it's highly unlikely that any sane person would tape a working cable in this manner.

 

I'm generally not too bothered about indicating which end of a cable needs attention, our policy is that the other end gets a full check anyway. (Especialy with mains cables)

[Ynot]

Depending on the cable/situation I'll usually tape the end(s) or chop off the connector (particularly with older cables).

 

Sometimes I'll scribble a fault diagnosis on white LX tape, or even just "faulty".

[J Pearce]

Obviously if I'm working with hired kit or with someone elses kit, I'll check first but this is my policy on my kit.

 

Dangerous broken gets chopped or made unusable.

Annoying broken gets tape over the connector, so as to make it obvious.

[birt]

because broken cables at school ALWAYS ended up with the rest of the cables everybody got annoyed. so whenever I have a power cable with a crack or a broken shucko connector I just cut it off. needs to be done anyway for the repair. if it's just the shucko (broken pin or something like that) I sometimes pull it off of the cable. I only cut audio cable when the problem is definatly IN the cable. if it's a broken solder connection in the plug or so I tape the plug so it can't be used anymore.

[paulears]

I go with the knot - never seem to have tape in pocket at the right time. When it's critical, rather than just annoying if a duff one is plugged in, I always put red tape over the pins.

[lightsource]

If it's a cable, then the connector's are taped over, with a 3 letter fault code (where possible) such as INT, for intermittent.....etc.

 

If it's mains or dangerous, the connectors are cut off, so the product or cable can't be used until serviced.

[Ike]

For 13A stuff unless the plug needs cutting off to repair I usually just pass the flex between its pins and cable tie it in place with a 'DO NOT USE' label. I figure if anyone was stupid enough to try and use it they're probably already dead.