Consolidation Problem

[chadmiller]

I need a bit of advice on how to do this. From what i've sorta read about in the standards I think some would call this a consolidation point and wonder if it would even work for what i want to do?

I have an existing location where cables have been run to for years before I started working for this company. We now want to clean up this location abit. Right now all the cables come through a hole in the ceiling and then down into an open frame rack with no neatness to the way they are ran. We want to move the location about 10 feet away from where it is now and into a rack cabinet out of the open frame rack. No slack was left in any of the cables. I was wondering if I can cut and reterminate my exitings cables to a perminate mounted 110 or 210 block and then use the 25 pair cables to go into my new cabinent with new patch panels that have the 25 pair connectors on the back also. esentially taking my 600 some individual wires and make them go to a single point and use a much smaller number of 25 pair wires to go into my cabinet.
If this doesnt make since I can post a link to a picture of what I currently have.

 

[bwtc]

I understand what you're saying, but a picture is worth 1000 words...

I find it very difficult to believe that none of the cables have any slack in them. That is just plain poor design for cables that are run through a ceiling.

Good luck...

 

[strmwalker]

chadmiller...what bwtc said.....but years ago and i mean
years ago people put copper in to stay but some did not care what it looked like.i on the other side did i have major hospitals with the same cabling i did over 15 years ago with no troubles what so ever,to get to what you are
trying to accomplish if was me i do a type of bic splice
you can do this with every thing up and running and not put a
phone out of service no overtime what so ever and when you
get the cable where you want it take off the half tap.


strmwalker hope this helps

 

[chadmiller]

is there somewhere i can find out more about a bic splice. this is cat 5 cabling for data. as for the no splice part there is absolutly no slack. The company that was hired to put the cabling in (way before my time) was a lowest bidder type project. we actually already moved the cabling once since then, they had everything running to 2 10unit open frame wall mounted racks right at ceiling level. 1 held the patch panels and the other held the switches they were about a foot apart and they were using like 10foot patch cords between the two racks it was a huge mess. what we have is a 42 unit two post rack. all the older cables come straight down out of the ceiling and directly to the back of there patch panel. most of the cables in the ceiling are even improperly run without cable support unfortuantly working in a school enviroment there isn't any money to redo over 500 drops to correct the problem so drops only get redo when they stop working. I'll try and get a picture posted sometime monday.

 

[mikeydidit]

It has been brought up here several times in the past, splicing your cables is not the best idea. The best prctice would be a jack to patch cable setup and that is only as a must. From the sounds of it your best bet would be to dress the cabling you have (even if you have to reterminte some of the cables) and run patch cables into the newer equipment racks. This will keep an type of splice out of your cables and let you use the new equipment.

You may even (if their is money in your budget) terminte these old cables on newer updated (Cat5E) or better patch panels.

"You don't stop playing because you get old. You get old because you stopped playing."

 

[buitenhek]

Lucent had the zone wiring method and Amp had the consolidation point. Basically your best bet is new cable but the consolidation point and 25-pair CAT5 cable you described should work. Test with one cable and see if it passes the tester.

You could always check ebay for a cable stretcher!

Regards
Peter Buitenhek
ProfitDeveloper.com

 

[chadmiller]

I had not even thought about lucent or amp for products. Been using Siemons or Hubbell for so long now there kinda the two I always go to. I'll look into those sites this afternoon.

This link talks about the standard of using a consolidation point. I'm just wondering if my consolidation point can be in the same closet as my rack and use 25 pair cables to interconnect my consolidation point and rack.

http://www.hubbell-premise.com/FTP/2005Catalog/Pages/T6-T7_568-B1.pdf

Funny story about cable stretchers. We had a contractor onsite about a year ago doing some video and data intergration for us. One of the seasoned guys sent a rookie out to the van to get the cable stretcher. After about an hour or so they were wondering where he was so one of the guys went out to the parking lot to find the guy and the van were gone. He went all the way back to there warehouse looking for a cable stretcher cause he couldn't find it in the van with the other tools. It was over an hour one way to the office.

 

[skip555]

allen tel has some cat 6 splices that might work out for you , take a look at them .

http://www.allentel.com/page35.html

 

[chadmiller]

That would probabbly work but would be a nightmare to do. were not looking for 1 or 2 lines. the total size is closer to 500. Even using the 25 pair cables it will still be a decent number of them.

 

[buitenhek]

Sorry off topic but I asked the old Lucent rep, John..., back in 1994, if he could help me with fiber. It seems I always break them when I punched them down on a 66 block.
His facial expression cannot be described!

Regards
Peter Buitenhek
ProfitDeveloper.com

 

[aarenot]

is it too late to say, if the cables are too short, just cut a little off.

seriously, there is no good solution that may not cause you more head aches than you get from looking at the ugly cabling job. run new cable is the only good solution.

You do not always get what you pay for, but you never get what you do not pay for.