Cable tidiness and control

[gregbradley]

I need to neaten my cabling, it's a bit of a mess that sometimes can cause unreliability.

What solutions/products do you recommend for tidying up the cable mess?

Greg.

[Bart]

Hi Greg.

One thing that really helped tidy mine up was the removal of a large PC. I bought one of these from Amazon and I was able to buy shorter cables for the hub but also reduced some connections to the hub by going straight to the computer. Little thing has not missed a beat. I put the operating system on an M dot drive(hard drive) instead of the onboard one.

https://store.mele.cn/collections/mini-pc/products/mele-quieter-3c-fanless-mini-pc-n5105-small-computer-portable-ddr4-windows11-hdmi-4k-wi-fi-6-gigabit-ethernet-bt-5-2-usb-3-2-3-type-c-dp-sd-card-ssd-support-vesa-mount

[Leo.G]

Wow Bart those things are tiny and very cheap.


Greg for cables alone if you have a mass of them have you seen the velcro cable tie type things?
We use them all of the time with network cables and associated mess of cabling, quick and easy to use.


https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fgd.image-gmkt.com%2Fai%2F693%2F840%2F8788406 93_01.g_0-w-st_g.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=711512ceece4688aed6db3656dc1491 e5cd171c4d309241f0329784108d99acd&ipo=images


They come in various colours and sizes I believe.

[Joshua Bunn]

Hi Greg,

Cable ties like this, or I have seen drag chains secured to the backplate and had the cables run inside this.

[Paul Haese]

Hi Greg,

we use Mele computers on all our systems at Swan Reach. They are powerful and cheap. We choose the ones with a 256 gig drive and 8gig or RAM. Ensure you get ones with Windows pro installed too.

As to cable management we use 19mm self closing braided cable management. It's available from outlets like Jaycar or online for very large rolls of 25m and above.

[The_bluester]

It is a little more difficult to thread the cables through, but rather than the self-closing braid I prefer the expandable sleeve, very similar product but for me it just ends up looking tidier.

[joshman]

I've tried split sleeve, spiral wrap, braid, and gave them all up.



Instead I went to bunnings and bought these velcro straps, and just slap a few along the length to keep it neat: https://www.bunnings.com.au/velcro-brand-one-wrap-13mm-x-200mm-grey-and-black-ties-50-pack_p0388964


I've since rethought my cable management, and could probably go back to braid or spiral, but this works, so there's no drive to do that.

[gregbradley]

Some great suggestions here. I'll look into it some more.

I was also thinking of using my ASIAIR and mount it on the telescope so the short leads will reach.

Or get a similar power and USB hub and mount it on the scope.

Greg.

[joshman]

mounting the miniPC or ASIair on the OTA is my preferred method. that way I only have a single power and Ethernet cable going up to the DEC head, (and maybe a USB for mount control, depending on the mount) I have a 3d printed jig to hold an ethernet coupler and DC power jack on the side of the DEC head. Then i can swap out my OTA just be unplugging directly at the DEC head. it's a poor-man's answer to through-mount cabling.

[Startrek]

Greg,
I use a Startech Industrial 4 port USB3 powered hub mounted to the underside of my Losmandy dovetail plate on my EQ6-R pro and EQ8-R pro mounts. This alleviates multiple cables to mount
The EQ8-R has through mount cabling which is fantastic ( the EQ6-R obviously doesn’t)
All On Mount cabling from hub to devices are bundled and loomed with 100mm x 2.5mm UV black cable ties
Any cabling restraint points or bundles are supported with Velcro tie wraps


Cheers
Martin

[TrevorW]

As no ones looking I haven't bothered and mine all just hang loose as nature intended :)

[Startrek]

Hi Leo,
Yeh I’ve been using Startech hubs and USB cables for years after throwing away so many cheaper branded hubs and USB cables in frustration due to intermittent connectivity and so on ….
Yes Startech gear does work and I haven’t had a single failure in 5 years so far using 2 rigs 220km apart ( Sydney and South Coast NSW )
By the way Startech is a Chinese company ( so there products are “Good” Chinese Junk )

Cheers
Martin

[gregbradley]

I checked it out. It's $251 and I assume plus shipping. Still it may be worth it but that doesn't supply power. Ideally power and USB.

ASI AIR may be the go seeing as I already have one.

Greg.