How do you store test leads in your workshop?

[CambridgeWorks]

If you do coil them, try putting start and finish together first.
Rob

[mickm3for]

Hi i thought i was the only one to throw them in a box Mick

[Hartley118]

Originally Posted by mickm3for

Hi i thought i was the only one to throw them in a box Mick

No you're not Mick. Somehow, I can never find the wall space for a tidy hanging arrangement. I can though claim slightly greater sophistication by having different boxes for different categories of leads: mains, audio, specific test leads, BNC, plus other odd leads that don't have a category.

At least that's how they started out.......

Martin

[G6Tanuki]

I use a 4-position 'coat hook' thing [cheap from Screwfix] screwed to the back of the office-door.

It's robust enough to support a bunch of N-to-N, PL259-to-PL259 and 'hybrid' RF patch-leads made from 10mm coax.

I have a similar coat-hook-thing mounted lower down ro house the inevitable proliferation of thin-coax BNC/TNC patch-leads and things like 4mm-banana-plug-to-spade-tags and spades-or-bananas-to-Anderson=powerpole=connectors.

[Diabolical Artificer]

I'm sure there's a physics law not yet discovered for leads, there's some power or force there that twists and entwines a group of leads no matter how tidy and separated they started out. There also seems to some inverse principle whereby the more effort you put into organisation and proper separation, the quicker they tangle and the more complex the tangle. The same inverse principle seems to be involved in right lead,right job, IE the more leads one has, the less chance you can find a lead that'll do the job.

Of coarse it could be some local sprite or daemon or maybe there's a God we have to propitiate? Whichever, some good ideas here but the force is strong, be vigilant

Andy.

[mark_in_manc]

I like it I don't suppose this is new news to anyone here, but in my job we had many, many different 'ends' on things we needed to connect together from time to time. It was AF, not RF, so the things weren't very fussy. We settled on making leads with 'weird thing to BNC', and then two strange things could be connected together just with a BNC barrel (or 3, with a T piece). It's handy to hang them with weird-thing uppermost, so you can see what you have and take the BNC on the other end as read. I use some ancient versions of those expensive RS racks, which I was lucky enough to score from an abandoned building.

[cmjones01]

I store different types of cables in different boxes, categorised roughly according to function. I used to have huge problems with them getting tangled, but then I learned a trick. A while ago I got given an attache case full of cables which had belonged to someone who worked in the music industry and whose livelihood depended on having the right cables. All his cables were coiled up like the USB cable in the attached photo. Fold the cable in half, then half again until it's about a foot or so long, then tie it in a loose knot. Now it won't come untied and it won't tangle with other cables, and it's really quick to un-knot.

I now habitually do this with cables and it saves me loads of time and stress untangling things!

Chris

[mole42uk]

Mine are a little less organised:

[emeritus]

Councidentally, two days ago (Thursday) I discovered a new-to-me steel conduit fitting called a "dome cover", essentially a domed steel base the same size as a round conduit box cover plate with a 20mm dcrewed conduit coupler securely fixed to it. It cost 98p from my local branch of CEF. I think that this, fitted with a short length of conduit with a rubber foot pushed on the end, and screwed to the wall, would be good for draping cables over.

[G6Tanuki]

You can get similar 'dome cover' style things intended to support tubular clothes-rails in wardrobes/closets. i guess they could be used either fixed to a wall with short lengths of tube, or used to support sa longer horizontal tube over which you could loop your test-leads.

[emeritus]

The wardrobe rail fittings I have seen have all had a loose fit, making them unable to provide a cantilever. A quick trial with a short conduit offcut screwed firmly home established that the dome cover can provide a rigid horizontal cantelever that does not sag.

[broadgage]

The most commonly used leads hang from hooks over the work bench.
Less commonly used types are stored in colour coded boxes.

Red=mains power.
Green=ELV power.
Blue = signal or data.

In a locked filing cabinet are leads that have rare legitimate uses but that could be dangerous in unskilled hands.

[Herald1360]

Originally Posted by broadgage

...

In a locked filing cabinet are leads that have rare legitimate uses but that could be dangerous in unskilled hands.

Mains plug - mains plug, earth loop breaker.... sort of things?

[broadgage]

Originally Posted by Herald1360

Mains plug - mains plug, earth loop breaker.... sort of things?

Yes, and also a short extension lead with "straight through" live and earth connections, but a 100 turn coil of single core 1mm wire in the neutral. Used to measure low mains currents with a standard clamp meter. Divide meter indication by 100.

Two pin 12 volt plugs to 13 amp trailing sockets, and the reverse of a 13 amp plug to a twin 12 volt trailing plug. Used to facilitate use of an already existing mains extension lead to extend a 12 volt circuit.

And an industrial HRC fuse carrier with a length of twin flex connected in place of the fuse, and a twin trailing 13 amp socket connected to the flex. Used to locate faults in control circuits in industrial control panels. Connect a fan heater and a lamp to the socket. Insert modified fuse carrier in place of control circuit fuse. Try each section of the panel until the lamp lights. Quicker and cheaper than blowing dozens of fuses.