Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Rack wiring

my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

»	Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE » Operations » Film Handlers' Forum » Rack wiring (Page 1)

This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2

Author

Topic: Rack wiring

Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 01-23-2003 09:49 PM

I saw this in another thread and thought some of the members may have missed this pic. Has anyone EVER seen anything this bad before? I mean I've seen some pretty bad racks, some by people who could come in as a close second, but THIS ONE???

Paul, I feel for you the day comes you have to service Spiderman's web. [Eek!]

| IP: Logged

Paul G. Thompson
The Weenie Man

Posts: 4718
From: Mount Vernon WA USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 01-23-2003 09:53 PM

Hell,Brad....I already am! [Roll Eyes]

| IP: Logged

Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 01-23-2003 09:56 PM

I think you should nuke the side from orbit. It's the only way to be sure. [Wink]

| IP: Logged

Daryl C. W. O'Shea
Film God

Posts: 3977
From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from)
Registered: Jun 2002

posted 01-23-2003 10:22 PM

There was one place I remember that the sound rack wiring was all intertwined with all of the stage light wiring. They couldn't figure out why the sound system buzzed whenever they did so much as breath on the lighting board.

I've also seen a few 'last minute' live theatre setups that looked something like Paul's bundle of fun. Glad I only had to mix for those ones and never had to pack up.

| IP: Logged

Paul G. Thompson
The Weenie Man

Posts: 4718
From: Mount Vernon WA USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 01-23-2003 10:30 PM

I have to admit I get a little angry when I find out than a shield of a hunk of audio cable (not used as an audio cable) is tied to 115VAC! I don't like those 60HZ beebee shots going through my fingers... [Mad]

There are times I ask myself why I am so stupid to service some of these nightmares....but at least it keeps me off the streets and out of the bars.

Brad, I showed that picture to my boss at the radio station. He laughed his ass off. [Smile]

But all in all, I have to do lots of wiring updates and clean it up. Nobody in their right mind would want to work on stuff like this. I guess I am nuts after all for even tackling this project I have to contend with. For the last 5 years, I tried to avoid it like the plague....but now that it has died, I have no choice.

I have to point out like I did in the orginal thread that this is not my setup. Mine has a little less wiring, but looks 10 times worse. At least in the picture of whoever did it, it looks like it has a _little_ organization....mine does not have any at all! That makes it worse!

| IP: Logged

Daryl C. W. O'Shea
Film God

Posts: 3977
From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from)
Registered: Jun 2002

posted 01-23-2003 10:38 PM

I still like the sign the best. It kind of reads: 'You unplug one wire, we ain't got a chance in hell in figurin' out where it goes!'

| IP: Logged

Paul G. Thompson
The Weenie Man

Posts: 4718
From: Mount Vernon WA USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 01-23-2003 10:42 PM

And, Daryl, that is the feeling I have when one falls off a terminal.

Edit: Nothing like spending 6 hours trying to figure out where the wire goes on a home made box with 14 relays that got caught in a tornado with no schematic documentation of even what the hell is in it and why.

| IP: Logged

Tim Reed
Better Projection Pays

Posts: 5246
From: Northampton, PA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 01-23-2003 10:52 PM

That can't be real! What IS it? There's no excuse for something like that.

Although, I would enjoy the challenge of rewiring it, and making it neat. For the sake of keeping my sanity, if anything.

| IP: Logged

Jon Bartow
Master Film Handler

Posts: 287
From: Massachusetts
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 01-23-2003 10:54 PM

Something I said in another thread

quote:
Paul's comment about electronic things that should never happen reminded me of something that happened to me years ago:

It was a church sound system using a self-contained 6-channel mixer/100w amp combo with all of the mic and speaker lines permanent in the walls. Somewhere along the line someone had spliced into the right speaker channel line and put another speaker in the nursery. (don't get me started about changing the ohm load etc, that was the least of their problems) Well, they used 24awg thermostat wire for this add-on speaker... Someone later on (presumably an HVAC guy) took a bunch of thermostat wires from the old heating system that were all under the stage and spliced them all together. (it was ugly, I think I counted 10 different pairs. Why he was splicing them together ) And you guessed it, the add-on speaker wire was spliced into this rats nest.
The end result: No sound in the nursery unless the heat was set at 62deg or higher and no heat unless the master fader was set to at least -15dB. Go figure. Needless to say this one took me quite a while to figure out.
Jonathan

We've all seen the really bad installs, but good grief Paul, this one takes the cake

| IP: Logged

Aaron Sisemore
Flaming Ribs beat Reeses Peanut Butter Cups any day!

Posts: 3061
From: Rockwall TX USA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 01-24-2003 02:07 AM

I have had the unfortunate task of having to service racks that look very similar to that one. Usually I start by removing all the wiring and rewiring the whole damn thing. [Smile]

-Aaron

| IP: Logged

John Anastasio
Master Film Handler

Posts: 325
From: Trenton, NJ, USA
Registered: Sep 2000

posted 01-24-2003 06:31 AM

I rebuilt a small cable TV installation that looked exactly like that picture a few years ago. Hmm...for some strange reason they couldn't get rid of the hum bars on all their video. Every time they had changed out or added a new piece of equipment, the cables had simply been hung in the breeze and left loose so that they could trace them by hand instead of labelling them. There were no cabling diagrams. Some things were grounded, some were not. Some runs were terminated, some were unterminated. Video Levels were all over the place becasue they weren't even using a waveform monitor. Then some brilliant technician decided to clean it up by bundling things together just to get stuff off the floor, which only made it worse, since you couldn't even yank on a cable to see what moved. I just trashed the whole thing. It took me 1,000 feet of new cable and a case of connectors to get four racks cleaned up.

| IP: Logged

William T. Parr
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 823
From: Cedar Park, TX
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 01-24-2003 08:04 AM

Tim,
Unfortunatley is can be real. As one who works for the State maintaning some of thier IDF and MDF closets I have run across some that bear a resemblence to that picture. All that do are in LAB situations though where cables are constaly being moved areound between Token Ring and variously configured switches routers and hub's. Neatness is the last thing in those guy's mind. Sad but True. [Roll Eyes]

| IP: Logged

Mark J. Marshall
Film God

Posts: 3188
From: New Castle, DE, USA
Registered: Aug 2002

posted 01-24-2003 09:03 AM

That looks like the old data closet at a company I used to work for! I'm going to have nightmares tonight. Thanks Brad!

| IP: Logged

Daryl C. W. O'Shea
Film God

Posts: 3977
From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from)
Registered: Jun 2002

posted 01-24-2003 12:03 PM

Just so you don't have nightmares, here's something better to dream of. I like to wire stuff nice and neat.

10/100 Cisco Managed Switches with Gigabit Fibre

Drop Patches to Switches with Plexiglass shield to prevent 'intruders' from seeking revenge by ripping out all the wiring.

| IP: Logged

Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 01-24-2003 12:50 PM

William: Token Ring????

| IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2

Printer-friendly view of this topic

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.