Cable Management

Cable management was mentioned in another thread and I'm always looking to tidy things up so my brain doesn't feel cluttered. Here is my latest attempt at cable management starting with this custom box I made (AKA the mini fridge).

Added a slide shelve to reposition my mixer and make room of the new computer.

Repositioned cables with ties in the back. I have two powered speakers, monitor, HDMI cable, N1X (power, USB, and L/R output cables), MacBook power, mixer power, and ethernet. There is a lot going on back there.

Everything except power goes through the hub (VSL Dongle, mouse/keyboard, ethernet, N1X USB, and HDMI.

As clean as I can get it for now.

God bless,,
David

Where's the beer? 🙂

MacMacMac Where's the beer? 🙂

🍻

Looks terrific! You’ve sort of inspired me to again dive under the piano and try to neaten up. I just need the wherewithal to finish. I get just so far and become discouraged and annoyed.

I remember that you posted the same (or similar) photos some time ago on Piano World. The configuration looked great at that time as I recall. Has anything new been added in these photos?

David B Cable management was mentioned in another thread and I'm always looking to tidy things up so my brain doesn't feel cluttered.

This is great, thanks for sharing. The playing area looks terrific with all the cabling out of the way!

In fact I wanted to ask the two of you, experts of cable management, about some questions I have for my Cybrid, but that will be in due time (a week or two). Meanwhile I'll ask you two questions:

1. In your room, cables are out of the way and out of sight from the pianist point of view, but still exposed. Knowing you are a dust-buff (pun intended), how do you take care of that? In my experience (perhaps partly due to the force air heating we have) dust accumulates on cables so badly that it becomes really annoying and hard to remove. How do you take care of that?
2. I am struggling to find raceways of my liking. When I was in Italy 20 years ago (*) there was a huge range of sizes and kinds of raceways to hide cables. Here in the USA I can find only two kinds: the 500"-long 0.001"-thin ones (just bring your headphone chord to your neighbor, obviously that's hyperbole, but hopefully you get the idea), or the data-center-like which is large for a decent number of cables, and convenient because of the slots -- but often too large and obviously not impervious to dust as I wanted. What is your experience with raceway? Alternatives? IKEA used to have the UPPLEVA cable kit SKU 802.248.93 (and it can be found in small numbers from ebay and other private resellers) but they discontinued 😢

FWIW, for another non-piano-related cable management issue I had, I ordered an A/C split decorative line cover kit, but even if the size was ok, it is something hard to work with and if you need one more elbow you are stuck to buy a whole kit!

(*): I checked again now on amazon.it and that's still the case now: I can find (german-made) raceways there of any size I want (not just tiny-teensy or huge) and of any style, with individually purchasable elbows, end-caps, punch-out option (rather than pre-made holes everywhere) and more. No, most don't ship to the USA and the few the do (which aren't my favorite anyway) it costs prohibitively. I might get it shipped to my parents and pick them up next time I visit them, but still…..

MacMacMac I remember that you posted the same (or similar) photos some time ago on Piano World. The configuration looked great at that time as I recall. Has anything new been added in these photos?

I had different equipment in the fridge back then. Mac mini instead of the MacBook Pro, and things were arranged differently. No sliding shelve or attached hub. The pics in this this thread are the latest iteration of what I'm using.

God Bless,
David

RIP In your room, cables are out of the way and out of sight from the pianist point of view, but still exposed. Knowing you are a dust-buff (pun intended), how do you take care of that? In my experience (perhaps partly due to the force air heating we have) dust accumulates on cables so badly that it becomes really annoying and hard to remove. How do you take care of that?

I haven't really noticed dust on my cables. I'm sure it's there because it's on everything else. Occasionally I will dust the top of my powered speakers and the stand my monitor is on. I dust my N1X daily because I can't tolerate dust accumulating on it, but I have never touched the cables.

RIP What is your experience with raceway?

Obviously I don't use them, but if I ever move and end up putting my N1X in a nice room (not the basement) I might look to conceal the cables in raceways. I'd check out Home Depot/Lowes, Amazon, and the internet to see what's available. Sorry I can't offer more help. It will be interesting to see what you come up with for your project.

God Bless,
David

Not strictly piano-related, but still music-related. A piano related one will come soon perhaps even by the weekend.

This was one of my shelves before I attempted cable management

And this was one after I did it the wrong way

And instead this was the result after I did it right (with the "silly" approach of using A/C decorative line cover, since in the USA that I can not find any properly sized raceways in any brick-and-mortar or online stores)

This is the floor during the installation of the decorative line cover (forgot to shoot "before", but you can guess it pretty easily)

and this is after

Yeah

The first pictures started to give me the jitters, but by the end a wave of peace had washed over me. 😀

Good job! Thanks for sharing.

God Bless,
David

David B by the end a wave of peace had washed over me

😎

And now a request for some suggestions. As I posted in the other thread https://pianoclack.com/forum/d/170-build-your-own-hybrid-piano-step-two-the-cabinet/7 here is the computer on top of my DIY hybrid:

That cable is really ugly, take a closer look:

And that's just the power. Double it with USB (for MIDI) and perhaps triple it (for audio, either in an audio cable or in a separate USB cable -- even though I might get away with just a single USB connection for both traffic)

I know how to get rid of the 💩 in the bottom left, and I have the following ideas for the cables on top. Not sure which one would work best:

• go "back" instead of "left" -- however the piano can really touch the wall and having cables there will mean I have to pull it ahead a bit, leaving a gap where pencils and paper could fall.

• go "back" and then "left" probably in a raceway, or making the cables "stick" to the wall in some other way

• go "back" and then "inside" the wall -- I don't really want to do drywall work, but I guess I can -- perhaps installing a box inside the wall from which the cables will get out -- or simply routing them down parallel to the studs, and hence avoid the "pull the piano a bit away from the wall"

• search for a nicer-looking single cable (without those ugly bends) that incorporates power and USB as one thing and leave it going as it is -- assuming such a cable exists or can be custom made at a reasonable price

• use something like the following to consolidate three cables into one, make them nicer-looking, while still leaving going "to the left" as it is now:

  https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07NVG25D1/

  
  
  What do you all think will work better and/or do you have any other suggestion? Particularly @David B and @PiRround ?

RIP Me being always a bit lazy, I would go back and then left, attaching to the cables to the back of the piano (which you don't have right now!), even if that means pulling the piano a bit away from the wall, which you may want to do anyway for an improved sound?

Drilling an opening on the top (behind where computer or music desk would be) and running the cables inside the cabinet, is that an option?

vagfilm Drilling an opening on the top (behind where computer or music desk would be) and running the cables inside the cabinet, is that an option?

Yes, that was an option, and initially my preferred one. I wanted to mention it on my list, but I forgot. I discarded it because the hole needs to be much bigger than the cables, since the ends are much bigger. Or I need to cut the cables and reattach them, neither of which was very appealing. And it would leave a hole there in case I later decide I don't want that computer there anymore.

I am still considering it, but is it the last option, now -- thanks for bringing it up for discussion.

From the side picture of your Delvybrid, it looks possible to open a slit (rather than a circular hole) that can be hidden by the monitor base or a music desk.
In any case, I am a bit less OCD and would not mind running the cables to the back and open a notch in the back of the cover.

vagfilm open a notch in the back of the cover.

Ah, that can be an option, especially since I have not installed the hinge yet. Thanks! Let me think about it and will certainly report here.

Kind of an old thread, but I thought I would share my "best attempt" at a clean "headless VST + tablet sheet music reader" on the NV-10. It's got the DP, Mac Mini, Chromebook tablet and line conditioner just about as clean as I can get (without introducing a lot of inconvenience if I have to access/unplug anything to clean/fix). What I like best is that very little is needed to fully control the Mac--the tablet VNCs into the Mac (think Cybergene and some others recommended this solution) with a free app and nearly everything can be done at the bench.

Overview - only the headphone cable and wall extension cord are easily visible.

From the back (shot into the mirror). Extension cord to wall, DP power cable, tablet power cable and Mac power cable all feed into a cable management box.

The inside of the cable management box. The large block is a line conditioner (since the DP turned itself on on blared loudly once during a brown out!)

Shot of the bottom of the cabinet while lying on the floor. The front of the DP is at the top, and the 3 pedal rods are visible at the bottom right. The shot shows the 10ft headphone cable, a 3.5mm audio switch box going from the Mac, to the Line In on the DP, the Roland UM-ONE Midi adapter going to the Mac, and the Mac Mini velcro/bolted to the bottom. The Mini just happens to be arranged such that the cables can be routed nicely , the power button is accessible without feeling around, and the power LED can be seen in the mirror when looking at the back of the DP.

Gombessa Very, very, nice! That cable management box is a neat trick.

It's also my goal for my Novus to look like nothing but a classy piano. Tech should be heard but not seen.

Dang, Holmes. That's a nice rig. When family visits they probably think that's a regular acoustic piano. There's not a wire in sight.