Seth, This is certainly not a silly question. It is often asked and maybe
the most often asked question. By far the most popular way cables are
ordered is color coded by length. And, there are a variety of opinions.
Some follow resistor code using the translucent black for 1 foot (it is
brownish), red for 2 foot, orange for 3 foot and so on. Other use the
"light wavelength concept with violet being the shortest and red being
longest. By far, I suggest that 2 and 3 footers will be the most commonly
used cables in most systems. So, maybe you want your colors of choice to be
in these lengths. BTW, Magenta and red are different colors. But, they are
not a lot different. Most people don't get both, they tend to get one or
the other.
One of the schools of thought on heat shrink is to make them all different.
I am in this school and like the effect. I can easily find the remote end
of a cable in a jungle since even though I might have 6 or 7 green cables in
a patch maze, each of them has a different color heat shrink at the end.
Yet some people order everything with the same heatshrink. So, there is no
wrong answer.
Hope this helps.
Larry
PS, there are .... possible combinations for each length
MOTM logo translucent cables:
9 colors x 8 heat shrinks = 72
Heat shrink inside barrel or outside, so that is 144
Wise Guy solid color cables:
10 colors x 8 heat shrink = 80
Total 224 combinations
And that does not consider all the end choices. :-)
Yes, I am stupid crazy giving you so many options.
----- Original Message -----
From: Seth Elgart <selgart@...>
To: <motm@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, October 18, 2004 11:00 PM
Subject: [motm] patch cord colors
This may seem like a silly question, but as there are nine cable
colors and eight heat shrink colors I'm rather at a loss as to which
of the 72 color combinations to order. As I expect these cables to
last more or less a lifetime, I don't want to get 14 two-footers that
are, say, orange cable and blue heat shrink only to regret that
choice after a few weeks. I would have been perfectly happy with
three cable colors to choose from and black heat shrink. Does
everyone get cables color coded by length, or maybe you all pick one
color and stick with it, or maybe most people do a random mix and
match. Picking modules for my first order was easy compared to this!
<g>
I went to the synthtech web site for some photos to help me decide
but they're all in black and white! Except for Roger Powell, that is,
but he's got a mish-mash of different colors so it's hard to find an
underlying theme (and besides, it looks like he got cheap ones
anyway<another grin>). Since I live in New York City I could be cool
and get all black for that "you can't see my patch cords" look, or I
could go the other way and get magenta and green for that fluorescent
look. Most likely I'll be somewhere in between, but I just wanted to
get some opinions from experienced users before I put in my order.
Thanks,
Seth
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