All hardware acts up. How does yours?

I had one of the first dual cpu computers here in Belgium. ($$$)
Plugged in. Stincking smoke.
Seemed US delivery ,back voltage switch set on 110V ,here we have 220V.
Boss understood these things can happen.
 
Alright, here’s a good one.

We had a grounding issue on a forestry machine (a harvester). My colleague and I spent several days testing everything — even ran direct wiring from one end of the machine to the other — nothing showed up.

Then, completely by chance, my colleague put his hand on the ground lug connecting the chassis to the cab and said, “the bolt’s broken.”
Me: “What do you mean broken?”
Him: “It’s broken — the head just came off in my hand.”

So the conclusion was: the ground bolt was broken enough to create a poor contact, but not enough to completely break the connection — otherwise we’d have spotted it straight away.

Now, why am I telling this story?

Because this machine had an onboard computer running Windows with a hard drive, and every 2–3 months we had to reformat and reinstall everything — sometimes even replace the drive entirely. It was the only machine we knew with that issue.

After fixing the ground, the problem completely disappeared. Not a single hard drive failure afterwards. Sure, the power supply should have filtered that kind of thing — but with a bad ground…

Final note: on later models, the manufacturer added a second ground cable between the chassis and the cab.
 
50Hz is a real nuisance that's everywhere, sometimes at truly significant levels. The wave form itself in not a pure sine, plenty of harmonics that radiates all over there
 
Phishfry said:
By the time you smell the white smoke its too late.
Click to expand...
I spliced random barrel wires to 12V Molex for my network stuff; the barrel wires usually have one with white/different paint that I assumed meant that wire was center (iirc something like non-painted wire to black molex, painted to yellow/12V). Out of probably dozens of barrel wires over years, one decided to not follow that pattern before I hooked my best router up (I learned how to use a multi-meter after that so that probably won't happen again :p)

I have 2 routers and modem powered by a paper-clip'd desktop PSU; if internet is being slow or it's been a while I flip the PSU power switch off and back on to power cycle everything (like a quick network-fix button :p)
 
One of my pet peeves: how to straighten out cat 6 ethernet cable that comes rolled up. No matter what I do to try and make it go straight, it always curls back up into loops! Has anyone ever found a good way to straighten it out?
 
OK now someone please tell me how to un-curl cat-6 patch cable.. pretty please? Trying to straighten this stuff out drives me round the bend... 😂

1776368957125.png


1776369165555.png
 
blackbird9 said:
OK now someone please tell me how to un-curl cat-6 cable.. pretty please? Trying to straighten this stuff out drives me round the bend...
Click to expand...

I'm not familiar with this particular cable, but I assume the same applies as for any electrical cable:

- Short storage time; the longer the wire is stored on the reel, the more it retains its shape.
- Unwind in the opposite direction to how it was wound, pulling straight out.
- Secure the end of the cable to prevent it from rewinding back towards the reel.

Some cables unwind better than others; some have more shape memory. It's recommended to use a cable unwinding stand tool.
 
doul said:
I'm not familiar with this particular cable, but I assume the same applies as for any electrical cable:

- Short storage time; the longer the wire is stored on the reel, the more it retains its shape.
- Unwind in the opposite direction to how it was wound, pulling straight out.
- Secure the end of the cable to prevent it from rewinding back towards the reel.

Some cables unwind better than others; some have more shape memory. It's recommended to use a cable unwinding stand tool.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it's probably been wound up in a tight loop like that for a year or so, from when it was first packaged in china, then in a shipping container, then stored in a warehouse here, until it finally ended up at my place. I try all the usual things, unwinding it in the opposite direction, trying to bend it the opposite way while running it through fingers... but it always seems to retain the memory of the curves. Even when you think you've managed to straighten it out... you come back the next morning and it's all curled up again. Perhaps it's just because it's cheap low quality cable, we have good quality network cables at work that run flat for many metres, but this cheap stuff is a PITA to work with, aliexpress's best quality!

I will check out that tool...
 
blackbird9 said:
Perhaps it's just because it's cheap low quality cable, we have good quality network cables at work that run flat for many metres, but this cheap stuff is a PITA to work with, aliexpress's best quality!
Click to expand...
Yes, cheap cables have a PVC sheath that isn't very flexible, has a strong shape memory, and worse, stiffens over time. High-quality cables have sheaths made of more premium materials like rubber or silicone, which are much more flexible, especially over time, even when exposed to chemicals or sunlight.
 
I remember a long time ago we had some IBM branded network cables, they were top quality. Probably ridiculously expensive too. I think they had "made in USA" printed on them, they were shielded twisted pair. I remember they were quite dark grey. That was a long time ago though. I guess you get what you pay for.
 
At a telco company everyone could place his rack with servers but all connections had to be with our cables..
They had a certain transmit rating & where very thick and stiff. Different outer layers. You easily put your foot on it.
All cables went under a false floor.
 
I expect these ATAG cables are pretty good, but I don't think they sell to retail, sadly. They are probably only interested in selling to you if you want to buy a few miles of cable to wire up something like an an oil rig.
atagcables.com

Ethernet and Data Cables- CAT5 CAT6 CRG4191 - ATAG Cables

Ethernet cables or data cables are most commonly categorised as CAT5 and CAT6 cables. ATAG Cables designed CRG4191 a rugged data cable.
atagcables.com atagcables.com

Oh well, I'll see how far I get with the lead weight and hairdryer trick on the chinese ones.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top