Subscriber Discussion

The Dumbest Thing I Ever Did...

U
Undisclosed #1
Nov 10, 2016
IPVMU Certified

Reminded of an incident that happened several years ago by this thread: Do You Use Wire Crimp Beanies?

Problem was that one day some critter chewed thru a category cable that ran from my garage to the upstairs and ultimately to the NVR. The cable already existed when I bought the house, and I had little idea how it got through the ceiling and wall space. 

I was lucky enough to find where it was chewed, it was at the bottom of a closet, and there was about a foot exposed. Pulling it yielded about 6 inches slack, but no more.

My first thought, not really knowing any best practices, was to crimp a plug on each side and connect them with a gender bender.  Regardless of what standards this would have broken, it would have worked and was far superior to what I actually did.

Unable to quickly locate a gender changer, instead a 'brilliant' and fully formed idea came to me.

I would simply use my new EZ crimp tool to crimp a single shell on to both ends of the cable!

For anyone not familiar, EZ shells have holes at the end of the wire guides which are meant to let you push the conductors all the way out the front of the plug.  Which makes it easier to get in and verify before crimping.

My great idea was to feed wires from both cables into both sides.  Here is a reenactment of the cables, after prepping but before crimping, to illustrate:

Here is it after I crimped them together in one shot:

 

Cable worked, the camera was up.

Everything was great except for one thing.

Can anybody figure out what it was?

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #2
Nov 11, 2016

Not a field guy here, so my question is likely as dumb. Doesn't the EZ-crimp cut the ends off when crimping?

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U
Undisclosed #1
Nov 11, 2016
IPVMU Certified

Yes, it does, good point!

I forgot the fact that I had to remove the blade, its got a little set screw and then the whole assembly comes off.

Avatar
Campbell Chang
Nov 11, 2016

Mate, if that ends up being the dumbest thing you ever do in this job, then you're going to have a really good career.

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U
Undisclosed #1
Nov 11, 2016
IPVMU Certified

But wait, I haven't told you the dumb part yet. Though I am somewhat heartened that its not that obvious...:)

U
Undisclosed #1
Nov 11, 2016
IPVMU Certified

Meaning that I did remember to remove the blade when i did it, I just forgot to mention it now when telling the story.

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #2
Nov 11, 2016

I guess the fact that you said it worked implied you removed it. I'm at a loss for what it could be.

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #2
Nov 11, 2016

I can assure you it's not.

JR
Jeff Russo
Nov 11, 2016
IPVMU Certified

the crimp tool was stuck with the wire running through it?

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #2
Nov 11, 2016

That has to be it!

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U
Undisclosed #1
Nov 11, 2016
IPVMU Certified

Correct!

Ok, so I realized when I put the shell in that I was screwed, but still...

Still I think EZ should make something like this, that does a two sided crimp, maybe somebody does...

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U
Undisclosed #1
Nov 11, 2016
IPVMU Certified

And of course has some way to get out of itself after.

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #2
Nov 11, 2016

What would make this dumb rather than humorous would be if there is a rusty EZ-RJ45 crimper with a cable in the middle of it somewhere in your home. Camera works though and you did save a trip to buy a gender changer!

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #3
Nov 11, 2016

my dumbest thing was leaving a colleague on a remote site after finishing the job. in that time mobile phones were not as common as today, and it was about 30 minutes until I found out that there were two of us going to the customer and I'm alone in the car way back. he wasnt't too happy with that.

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UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #4
Nov 11, 2016

I was visiting a prison and I was told the following story. Did not happen to me, but I was at this site.

A technician was working in a telephone/server closet. They put his wallet, keys, phone, license, etc. into a lock box or cubby with the guards. There was no phone, etc. in the room.

There was a guard shift change shortly after the tech arrived. The next morning, the guard who escorted the tech in asked why his personal effects were still in the cubby.

They forgot about the tech for many hours, including overnight. He was in a very air conditioned room, with no coat, no food, etc. I believe he did find a bucket....

Needless to say, they had to change their procedures. When I was there, a guard personally escorted me and stayed with me the entire time, as well as holding the door open/propped.

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U
Undisclosed #1
Nov 11, 2016
IPVMU Certified

lol.

Personally, as long as I'm billing top rate, its ok you can lock me in a room ;)

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #5
Nov 14, 2016

Not related to the dumbest stuff everyone is mentioning, to me the dumbest things I did was; "TRUSTING BOSCH"

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #2
Nov 14, 2016

The power tools or the surveillance division?

RD
Rob Dunham
Oct 09, 2017
Tailored IT Solutions

The fact that it overfills the connector which violates code or the fact that it interrupts the internal twisting and results in degraded signal?

Rather than terminating each cable, they make a junction box for around $5 that allows you to punch down both cables and attach a box cover for a little more professional solution. I carry a few in my tech bag for the rare occasion that something like this comes up.

U
Undisclosed #1
Oct 09, 2017
IPVMU Certified

The fact that it overfills the connector which violates code or the fact that it interrupts the internal twisting and results in degraded signal?

I think both of those prudent observations are dwarfed in scale by "tool cannot be removed from splice" :)

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RD
Rob Dunham
Oct 09, 2017
Tailored IT Solutions

That completely escaped me! I never actually imagined trying it. Oh, man. Those are the fun moments.

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