View Full Version : Color coding PoE
Ok, so does anybody have a particular source of high-quality color coding stickers and tape? Google found me some really awesome tape (survives dishwashing, 290 F, can be used in airplane wiring harnesses etc.) but so far haven't found any great stickers. I don't want stickers that will come off in 6 months.
I'm getting kind of tired of people plugging their PoE cabling in backwards and I'm hoping pretty colors will assist, I just want to do it with good materials.
I want a sheet of red stickers for the hot side of the PoE injector itself and a sheet of orange stickers for the LAN side of the PoE injector. Then the cat5 cable coming from the outdoor unit gets the red tape and the cat5 going to their LAN gets the orange tape.
go.fast
07-13-2007, 03:43 PM
You should super glue the cables into the poe and tell them to just unplug the 120 volt cord....
Why are they unlugging ethernets?
Well this one that I'm going to go visit in a little while had some carpeting installers unplug all their cabling for them... plenty of people move stuff around and then re-plug the cabling in backwards. This one happens to be a good ol' boys sailing club and I'm visiting after dinner so I get free drinks and stuff.
Feasibly one could superglue the PoE cable in so long as the power connector and LAN cable were still detachable, but then I'm down a PoE injector for no particularly good reason if I ever recable or need to inspect the pins on the PoE injector or check the PoE injector for water or whatever other reason you can think of that you might want to remove the cable from the PoE injector.
I think I will stop short of superglue and just color-code :)
go.fast
07-13-2007, 06:20 PM
I was only kidding.
kbldawg
07-13-2007, 08:09 PM
why not just use some sharpies?
c.davis
07-13-2007, 08:24 PM
Might be worth looking at something as simple as the high-vis stickers that transport trucks use (the red/white reflective stickers you see on commercial vehicles). That stuff sticks to anything and stays stuck. Should only cost about $2/ft at pretty much any industrial supply store. You'd have to cut the squares or whatever yourself, but you should also be able to sticker about 20 or 30 POEs with a foot of it.
Just a thought.
rbolduc
07-13-2007, 09:05 PM
I just use colored cables or rj45 "booties?" and a little dab of paint on the POE to match
"booties"=http://www.computercablestore.com/searchresult.aspx?CategoryID=76
I was only kidding.
It wasn't really an idea worth throwing away immediately. I considered it seriously!
why not just use some sharpies?
Rubs off, not high enough visibility.
I just use colored cables or rj45 "booties?" and a little dab of paint on the POE to match
Not bad. Model paint would be a good idea, that stuff seems pretty serious and unlikely to come off. I can just model paint the PoEs in big batches so we're not doing it on-site during the install. I like that even better than stickers.
rbolduc
07-14-2007, 07:48 AM
Not bad. Model paint would be a good idea, that stuff seems pretty serious and unlikely to come off. I can just model paint the PoEs in big batches so we're not doing it on-site during the install. I like that even better than stickers.
Back in the day when I was making my own POE's I would use a 2 port surface mount box with orange and blue rj45 jacks, the color is so different that even if the customer was color blind they could see the difference.
If you clean the plastic with a little dab of paint thinner before the paint it is almost impossible to rub the paint off, it does work quite good. I just spray paint into the cap then use a small brush or a q-tip to dab it on.
Just make sure you paint them in a airtight room, adds to the fun ;) j/k
Reed
Beebe
07-14-2007, 09:33 AM
Have some POEs made that send power out both directions :)
Actually, I'm not sure if that might damage gigabit nics since they use all 4 pairs?..
rbolduc
07-14-2007, 10:49 AM
Have some POEs made that send power out both directions :)
Actually, I'm not sure if that might damage gigabit nics since they use all 4 pairs?..
Yes and some Nic's ground all the unused pins, could be a problem.
Reed
What are your opinions of grounded POE's? I noticed that they aren't part of the Wartenna bundle but they seem to work better for me. I don't seem to lose anywhere near the radios/routers since we started using the ones made by another company. I buy them in bulk @~$15 each and use them on all the new installs.
I was rather afraid that a grounded PoE would make for a more attractive path to ground via my ethernet cable which doesn't seem preferable.
Any other more wisened opinions than mine?
therealboss
07-19-2007, 02:29 AM
The POE I use the cables go in side by side like so:-
Power | POE | LAN
The Lan cable (Patch) is always RED and I print off on my dymo a sticker, like so:-
DANGER!!!
RED TO RIGHT
Never had a problem since.
Oh, almost forgot, we also cable tie the power lead & the CAT 5 from the CPE together.
gooeyllama
07-20-2007, 08:04 AM
I use cheap zip ties (red) to identify crossover cables.
I thought about zip ties but they seem too well-known as useful for a different purpose besides labeling. If I just have a little red zip tie around a single cable I think I would mostly get from the end users: "Huh, I wonder why there is a zip tie there around this single cable by itself?"
A piece of colored tape around the cable just screams "this is a label of some sort"
kbldawg
07-20-2007, 08:53 AM
I've used this stuff a lot, it's easy to apply and will last forever. You can either label them or color code them either way in case you change your mind later.
The sticker is long enough so that it wraps over the tap of the white part that you write on, so scuffing isn't an issue.
I get mine from Graybar.
http://lists.tcworks.net/~chalsted/Work%20Pics/marking%20tape2.JPG
big file here (http://lists.tcworks.net/~chalsted/Work%20Pics/marking%20tape1.JPG)
Stratolinks
07-20-2007, 02:25 PM
Keep a bunch of short pieces of bright coloured heat shrink tubing on hand. Put it over the wire before it is crimped on, then heat it up and it's there forever. Again a strage stripe on the end of the wire that screams "hey this one's different". Then you put a similar coloured dot on the POE injector so all they have to do is match the colours.