mustangcoupe
Senior Member
Watch Ebay, I just got a used Rhino 3000 for 45 bucks.... now the heat shrink is 20 per 6 foot length, I will find out how far it will go once I get it all in about a week or so
Device and Wiring Labeling Systems
- Thread starter felixrosbergen
- Start date
I think documentation is important regardlesss of what technique you use. The fact is there is a limited amount of space for labeling on a wire, so you have to use some sort of shorthand, or labeling convention. No matter how much that convention might make sense to you, it may not make any sense to the next person that looks at it.
So what ever you do, make sure you document it. It might be a drawing showing where the outlets are, or perhaps a key that decodes the naming convention, etc. This documentation should be readily accessible at the terminiation location (the main wiring location - not every outlet).
That should help anyone that has to come in and look at the system in the future.
So what ever you do, make sure you document it. It might be a drawing showing where the outlets are, or perhaps a key that decodes the naming convention, etc. This documentation should be readily accessible at the terminiation location (the main wiring location - not every outlet).
That should help anyone that has to come in and look at the system in the future.
felixrosbergen
Senior Member
On the topic of color coding wires...it's been discussed a few times...
For starters I'm already partially down in the hole. The security guy pre-wiring and the electrician who also did some LV used whatever color they wanted.
Since coax and cat5/6 cables can change function many times over their lifetime (baluns, ir, RCA, UHF, etc) color coding by function seems not a good idea.
Except for hardwired stuff i plan to terminate everything with either F, RCA or RJ45 (cat5/6) keystones in the rooms at what i call the medio oulets and in the wiring room (or chaos end as some call it B) ). If i want IR in a room i will wire it up using a RJ45 plug in the room and a RJ45 plug in the wiring room. If i need serial in a room i will do a RJ45 to serial conversion. Since there;s keystones on either side I can tuse 568A or B and it doesnt matter.
I also plan to group the keystones by room (i.e. if a room has an outlet with F, RJ45 and RCA these will be next to each other on the patch panel)...this shoudl make it more intuitive i think...
Any comments on this approach??
How many characters can fit on a typical label such a a Rhino?
For starters I'm already partially down in the hole. The security guy pre-wiring and the electrician who also did some LV used whatever color they wanted.
Since coax and cat5/6 cables can change function many times over their lifetime (baluns, ir, RCA, UHF, etc) color coding by function seems not a good idea.
Except for hardwired stuff i plan to terminate everything with either F, RCA or RJ45 (cat5/6) keystones in the rooms at what i call the medio oulets and in the wiring room (or chaos end as some call it B) ). If i want IR in a room i will wire it up using a RJ45 plug in the room and a RJ45 plug in the wiring room. If i need serial in a room i will do a RJ45 to serial conversion. Since there;s keystones on either side I can tuse 568A or B and it doesnt matter.
I also plan to group the keystones by room (i.e. if a room has an outlet with F, RJ45 and RCA these will be next to each other on the patch panel)...this shoudl make it more intuitive i think...
Any comments on this approach??
How many characters can fit on a typical label such a a Rhino?
When I terminated my wires at the chaos end (I like that B)), I kept like connections together. But this was really done out of neccessity since I was using dedicated patch panels (ie a cat5e network patch panel, and I made a coaxial patch panel with F connectors, etc). There was no physical way to put the Office #1 connections all together. But I did keep the same relative order on all my patch panels. So the Office is always the first room located on any of the patch panels, etc. That keeps it is relative order.
I have a Rhino 5000 and typically use the 3/4" tape for labeling wires via the wire wrap method. (I use the smaller tapes when labeling the patch panel, etc). It will reduce the size of the print if needed to allow you to use more letters, but I think it still maxes out at about 8 letters. You can generally use two lines while still wraping the wire. So perhaps 16 letters altogether on the two lines. This is just going off memory but I would guess 14-16 letters total.
I have a Rhino 5000 and typically use the 3/4" tape for labeling wires via the wire wrap method. (I use the smaller tapes when labeling the patch panel, etc). It will reduce the size of the print if needed to allow you to use more letters, but I think it still maxes out at about 8 letters. You can generally use two lines while still wraping the wire. So perhaps 16 letters altogether on the two lines. This is just going off memory but I would guess 14-16 letters total.
felixrosbergen
Senior Member
So on the labelling method itself...any suggestions to make it a bit simpler?
Although it is admittedly a bit complex (although i work in engineering and have seen drawing numbering conventions up to 25 characters long)..it does tell you almost everything without a cheatsheet as long as you know the TT codes...which are pretty easy...
I thought about leaving the floor level of and just make sure you don't duplicte room names....but whats the difference between a halfbath in the basement or ground floor? BA1, BA2 woudl work ofcourse...
My ocnvention is up to 14 charactors...guess i could loose the '-'s but that woudl make it harder to read...that woudl cut it to 9 so possibly still wouldn't fit on a single line...
I also like that if i don't terminate the wire and just leave it near the wallplate in the room and at the wiring room i just leave of the port number...which i may be able to add-on with a sharpie later...
A bit off topic...but i realized recently that my wiring room has a drain pipe and a water supply runnign over it... B).... how worried should i be about this? The drainpipe is directly over where i had planned my Elk can...
Although it is admittedly a bit complex (although i work in engineering and have seen drawing numbering conventions up to 25 characters long)..it does tell you almost everything without a cheatsheet as long as you know the TT codes...which are pretty easy...
I thought about leaving the floor level of and just make sure you don't duplicte room names....but whats the difference between a halfbath in the basement or ground floor? BA1, BA2 woudl work ofcourse...
My ocnvention is up to 14 charactors...guess i could loose the '-'s but that woudl make it harder to read...that woudl cut it to 9 so possibly still wouldn't fit on a single line...
I also like that if i don't terminate the wire and just leave it near the wallplate in the room and at the wiring room i just leave of the port number...which i may be able to add-on with a sharpie later...
A bit off topic...but i realized recently that my wiring room has a drain pipe and a water supply runnign over it... B).... how worried should i be about this? The drainpipe is directly over where i had planned my Elk can...
I don't think this is a good idea. Since each source will be located in a single location, you're going to have patch cables of all different types running all over the place, crossing each other, etc. It can get messy enough just keeping the keystones for a specific use together, i.e. all telephones in one panel, all network in one panel, etc. In my house I have all my cat-5 in one panel, thus mixing phone and network together. Now I wished I hadn't, and I haven't done it on any installations since then.
I wouldn't worry about it. Just make sure the plumber is done with all the plumber work BEFORE you install the elk.
felixrosbergen
Senior Member
They way i plan to run this is that all cables that have terminations on both sides (i.e. keystone/path panel in the wiring room and keystone on the other end) are not predetermined for a certain function. There will be no RJ11 jack in the house whatsoever...i don't see the need since i recently found out on this forum that a RJ11 plug fits nicely into a RJ45 jack. So the jacks are multi functional and it all depends what it's patched into at the wiring room (or 'chaos end' 
).
).felixrosbergen
Senior Member
what size heatshrink should i get for RG6QS and Cat5/6? .25"?? I assume this is the diameter before shrinking..
Neurorad
Senior Member
I recently did some online research to answer this question, if anyone is interested.
Double post from AVS:
So if you want to use labeled heat shrink tubing, to label coax, with a Dymo Rhino labeler, you need to buy the Dymo RhinoPro 5000. 3000 Does not accept 3/4" labels.
mustangcoupe
Senior Member
not sure if I am missing something or not... but..isnt .5 (1/2 inch) larger then the RG59 is ~0.233 in (6 mm), and RG6 ~0.274 in (7 mm)? I'll have to try this later this week...
Neurorad
Senior Member
I should have put in a disclaimer - I don't have firsthand experience, just repeating what the Dymo info sheets say.
Maybe they're trying to sell more of the 5000 labeler?
Dymo says the heat shrink tubing reduces to ~1/3 the original size - that sounds like a maximum amount of shrinkage, but I would think that is, indeed, a maximum.
I'll have to try it, when my 1/2" heat shrink labelled tubing arrives. Will post back then.
Thanks for paying attention, Mustang.
Maybe they're trying to sell more of the 5000 labeler?
Dymo says the heat shrink tubing reduces to ~1/3 the original size - that sounds like a maximum amount of shrinkage, but I would think that is, indeed, a maximum.
I'll have to try it, when my 1/2" heat shrink labelled tubing arrives. Will post back then.
Thanks for paying attention, Mustang.
Monk
Active Member
Just another 2 cents -
My lv alarm-type wire labeling consists of nothing but wire numbers. Starting @ 1 and into the 50's now for this house. I had tried in the past to be logical and use prefix letters etc. but some wires get repurposed, pulled back, possibly extended and go thru multilple floors. Therefore "B" for basement doesn't always end up being especially meaningful to me.
Wires get numbered sequentially with a simple "write-on" wrap around sticker and then recorded on paper and in a spreadsheet.
I use these I think I got from homedepot - "Brady" brand.
My lv alarm-type wire labeling consists of nothing but wire numbers. Starting @ 1 and into the 50's now for this house. I had tried in the past to be logical and use prefix letters etc. but some wires get repurposed, pulled back, possibly extended and go thru multilple floors. Therefore "B" for basement doesn't always end up being especially meaningful to me.
Wires get numbered sequentially with a simple "write-on" wrap around sticker and then recorded on paper and in a spreadsheet.
I use these I think I got from homedepot - "Brady" brand.
Attachments
charliebarns
Active Member
I should have put in a disclaimer - I don't have firsthand experience, just repeating what the Dymo info sheets say.
Maybe they're trying to sell more of the 5000 labeler?
Dymo says the heat shrink tubing reduces to ~1/3 the original size - that sounds like a maximum amount of shrinkage, but I would think that is, indeed, a maximum.
I'll have to try it, when my 1/2" heat shrink labelled tubing arrives. Will post back then.
Thanks for paying attention, Mustang.
I can tell you that 1/2 heat shrink for my Rhino 5000 does not ft RG59 or RG6, I had to go to 3/4.
CB
programmergeek
Active Member
My System is I use a brother p touch the good one it has nice phone, computer electric symbols for wall plates and wires but also you can get 1" flexable tape to wrap around wires and on a thin alarm cable you can get at least 2 full lines of text. So I can spell out what the wire is and where it goes. Sometimes I have to abbriave a little but it is usally I will put BS for basement or LR for living room. I alwas lable at teminations or where the wire is cut if you have junction boxes I figure anywhere else I can just use my tracer on.
I also use some clear shrink wrap around the brother p touch lable comes out nice and will last forever and is cheap. I get the shrink wrap at parts express it is 3/1 and one size does everything from coax rg6 to 2 wire alarm cable. Get the size that just fits the rg6 cable, I don't know it off hand. I just carry my heat gun or cordless butain soddering iron with a heat tip to put it on.
I do like this Rhino 6000 though may have to get one of them.
I also use some clear shrink wrap around the brother p touch lable comes out nice and will last forever and is cheap. I get the shrink wrap at parts express it is 3/1 and one size does everything from coax rg6 to 2 wire alarm cable. Get the size that just fits the rg6 cable, I don't know it off hand. I just carry my heat gun or cordless butain soddering iron with a heat tip to put it on.
I do like this Rhino 6000 though may have to get one of them.
