700+ cables in this small closet. Doing the best I can with what I got. Small space with lots of electrical/access control/fire alarm/HVAC in the way. Almost done with this one and have 3 more closests identical to this with more cables. Any suggestions or feedback would be great.
Looking amazing!
Thankyou!
Looks good so far! How are you keeping track of what’s what prior to termination? Do you label every drop during pulling and dress into predetermined patch panel ports?
Yes everything is labeled before pulling since we have to make as-builts before even starting to pull any cable.
As an outsider with no knowledge on this topic, how long does a project like that take? Just labeling I mean.
The labelling usually only takes up to 30s per pull of anywhere from 2 to 24 cables. What we did when I was still a tech was to label each cable and the box it's coming out of with the letter and number for the patch panels in a closet. Think A1-A48 for the topmost panel in a rack, and continuing on with B, C, D, etc for however many panels were in the closet. Once each run was completed, we'd pull out the slack we'd need to make it to the drops plus a bit for a service loop, cut and label the device end, pull them into the boxes in the walls or wherever, and move on. By the time everything was pulled, the other trades were usually done in the closets, so we'd move in, plan everything out, then pull, sort, and hang the cables. After that, the 3 guys usually doing the work would split off, with a pair going around and terminating all the device ends, and 1 guy doing the closet build out with all the racks and such. If we had a really good team working together we could all get done with our tasks at about the same time, and we'd go back with a tone generator to make sure that all the cables are still correctly labeled before the closet guy would start dressing out the closet and punching everything down, and the other 2 would further split up into 1 terminating and 1 building out the next closet. Repeat until everything is terminated at both ends and labelled in the final format the customer wants, and at that point we go back and certify all the cables and do one final triple check that the plans and the patch panel labels all match like they should.
All that to say, if we doubled or tripled up on a team, we could rip out and completely redo a school for a summer remodel in 2 months while still only working 5 days most of the time.
As builts before you build anything seems asinine.
Looking for work in Texas?
Cable dress/Bundle management A+ 100%, ladder rack layout not so much, at the cable entrance i get you had HVAC to avoid but you could have mounted a horizontal piece of ladder tray 3-4ft long with either a water fall or an angled piece of ladder tray running into your existing tray. Then i would suggest an outside radial bend piece of ladder tray for the first corner. Just my observations over all i wouldnt have an issue whatsoever handing this off to a client
Thankyou and I appreciate the suggestions. I will definitely use that advice for the next few closets I have to do in this building.
That is a lot of cableage.
whats it look like on the other side of those sleeves?
Haha not picture worthy.
Oh, good, this is way too satisfying
This is art.
I think I need clean trousers... Seriously KUDOS!!!!
Looks great!
As a power cable guy, this is something I can only dream of.
DAMN SON! Looks like you have done this once or twice!!!!! Way to mic drop.
Yeah just a few times lol I appreciate it!
Testing for alien cross talk ?
Any PoE and concern of bundle heating?
No PoE in my bundles of 48. Plus its cat6a so its to code. Only thing that is PoE is the APs which is only 24 in a bundle.
Do you manually terminate each one? I cant imagine having to do it by hand like that. Is there a tool that makes it easier than having to strip everything individually?
Yours looks great, can't say the same about the guys that ran the yellow cables
Serious question, how can you tell which cable goes to what?
Every cable is labeled at both ends.
Ah gotcha, that what what I figured but I didn't know if there was some other fancy high tech method.
All that work will be undone in a few weeks when they try to find that one dead ETH cable.
Your doing really well, I see no divers .
Is there a junction box or something before they go into the sleeves that enter the closet? I'm asking cuz I can't imagine how you don't have cables that belong in other bundles coming out of different sleeves based off the pics your bundles look very neat and no crossing.
Outside is a cable tray and the sleeves are labeled A-N, two patch panels per sleeve. All the cables are separated by patch panel before going into the closet.