Patch panel

[ghirst]

hi all - wondering if anyone has any ideas on tidying up a patch panel I`ve recently inherited. It has eighteen rows of eight cables coming straight out of the wall. It is 30 RU high and the cables are 1750mm long. Half of them drap on the ground and the whole lot is a total mess and takes ages to untangle. All the dimmers (6) are on one side and there isn`t enough room to move half of them to the other side. Preferable, I don`t want to have to re-terminate the plugs as they all mould and this would cost a fair bit and take a lot of time.

[Tomo]

A shelf with slots to hang the cables from when not in use?

Nothing you can really do about it when in use.

 

Our patch panel tidy is made up of slots to hang soca plugs/spider sockets from with the spiders plugged into the panel, and a bank of individual cables each of which passes through its own hole to keep them tidy when not in use and supposedly untangled.

 

It sounds like a good idea, but doesn't really work in practise as it limits the range of the individual cables. They've also somehow got tangled under the tidy.

(How do cables fixed at both ends manage that?)

[Dave]

I'm having a bit of difficuly visualling your patch panel (and I've seen a fair few in my time!). Can you give a more detailed description or post a link to a photo?

 

Thanks,

 

Dave.

[Andrew C]

Perhaps some big hooks (ladder hooks or similar) screwed to either the wall or the side of your rack. This helps to keep cables clear of the panel when patching or not in use.

 

It'll all still get tangled I'm afraid, but not quite so quickly.

[gareth]

The only really successful method of keeping a hard-patch like that in a neat and tidy state is a 'honeycomb' type of panel for the patch cords to run through, with an individual holr for each cable. But you say your plugtops are moulded, and to fit something like this you'd have to either snip all the plugs off and re-fit new ones once they're threaded through, or remove the patch cords themselves from their terminations, thread them through and re-fit - neither of which, I get the impression, you're keen to do.

 

So the only other real option is to be fastidious in your patch panel housekeeping! Make sure you keep the patch cords really neat and tidy ; give them a good sorting-out every time you repatch for a new show - don't give them a chance to get tangled (which they will, at the slightest provocation!). On some of my visits to smaller venues, I've come across many patch panels which have been allowed to knit themselves into a more-or-less unusable state, and it makes my heart sink as I know I'm going to have to spend 20 minutes undoing the 'patch-cord knitting' before I even begin plugging anything up.

[Rob]

The only really successful method of keeping a hard-patch like that in a neat and tidy state is a 'honeycomb' type of panel for the patch cords to run through, with an individual holr for each cable. But you say your plugtops are moulded, and to fit something like this you'd have to either snip all the plugs off and re-fit new ones once they're threaded through, or remove the patch cords themselves from their terminations, thread them through and re-fit - neither of which, I get the impression, you're keen to do.

 

You can actually do this with a bit of creative carpentry, without having to remove the plugs. You basically build a shelf, made of two layers of ply or MDF. You cut these into a comb shape with really long prongs. One goes width-ways, and one goes long-ways. You then over lay the two to create a 'laminated' shelf, with a grid of holes. You need to feed the tails into one of the comb pieces before sliding the second comb on top.

 

A bit hard to picture I expect!

[gareth]

You can actually do this with a bit of creative carpentry, without having to remove the plugs. You basically build a shelf, made of two layers of ply or MDF. You cut these into a comb shape with really long prongs. One goes width-ways, and one goes long-ways. You then over lay the two to create a 'laminated' shelf, with a grid of holes. You need to feed the tails into one of the comb pieces before sliding the second comb on top.

 

A bit hard to picture I expect!

Actually, no - I understand exactly what you mean, and it sounds like a very good solution (I wish I'd thought of it myself, but I try not to get involved with wood in any way as it usually ends in tears ... ;) ).

[robloxley]

Or for a really crude solution, you could tie the patchcords up in bundles of say six or eight. When you want a channel, undo that bundle, retrieve the correct cable then tie the rest back up.

Not elegant, but simple.

[Rowan]

Or for a really crude solution, you coulg tie the patchcords up in bundles of say six or eight. When you want a channel, undo that bundle, retrieve the correct cable then tie the rest back up.

Not elegant, but simple.

 

have you worked in the CDC then Rob?

[ghirst]

Thanks everyone. Rob that`s a great idea. It`s what I was originally thinking of, but as Gareth suggested, re-terminating all 144 cords was going to be a fairly long process. Will give it a shot in the new year!