Serious question.
Pro tip: you can use the plastic tabs from bread bags as little wire tags
this post was submitted on 31 May 2025
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Additional Pro Tip: Colored Zip Ties
Good tip though π
Zip ties are too small to write on.
Coloured electrical tape works. Make little flags.
Liebherr have little tags you print on that are secured in a plastic sleeve be a zip tie for cable identification
I do lighting design in small theaters & have a fair amount of my own gear. I have a ton of 3-pin, 4-pin, and 5-pin XLR cables, and also some adapters that convert between 3&5 pin. I use colored zip ties on the ends of each cable to not only tell me what type of cable it is but to distinguish my cables from the theaters cables.
I've worked in some big data centers. The network wiring, thank god, is labeled on each end with a unique number. They come from the supplier like that, and are tracked for decom just like anything else.
Otherwise, 20cm diameter bundles, yeah.
Sometimes writing isn't necessary, just gotta distinguish between two different wire harnesses.
By taste.
Fun fact: A skilled linesman can use their tongue to tell the difference between 9V DC and 115kV AC.
The more you know*
You can tell it's 14.4kV by the linemans muscle spasms and sudden loss of consciousness. If he bursts into flames or is immediately vaporized, that's the 115kV.
Although, the way you can tell if the lineman really knows what he's doing is if he gets someone from the right-of-way crew to do the tongue test for him.
115kV AC.
well, they can, once....
A great tip for those who need a little cooling off after the end of a hot day; who would have thought to include AC with power lines! What will they think of next?
That's nothing!
Sorry for the stock imagery; I've seen even more extreme salad but can't find it now.
Fluke makes a bunch of tone generators and circuit finders that you can use to figure out which line you need to work on. I assume linesmen have something similar for their more robust needs.
Power linemen have phasing sticks to determine which phase is which.
Datacom wires are, to start, much lower on the pole than power cables, and have markings on the cable jacket to determine what the cable actually is (fiber, coax, tel, etc). Beyond that, there is usually some tagging at each service point.
When we had our broadband installed the guy doing it took way too long and got very frustrated and made a mess of it, but it worked. Two days later it stopped working.
When the fault engineer came and fixed it, turned out the original engineer had connected us to the wrong cable, so when another engineer came to set up our neighbour's Internet, they disconnected ours.
Cut it and wait for someone to complain.
Ah, the 'ol reliable Scream Test.
If you piss on it and smoke comes out, the line is live, obviously.
Does the smoke come out of your dick, or do you not know how conductivity works?
Yes, the line is live, but the test unit only functions once..
Disclaimer: I've never used my test probe in such a way.
Didn't the Mythbusters do the peeing on the third rail thing? Seems similar enough.
If you think this is bad you should visit Mexico City. I donβt know who has the worst wiring in the world, but itβs like your photo, except 10x more tangled and everywhere you look you will find wires literally dangling in front of you while you walk down a street or cross walk. Who knows which ones are live.
I love weird style transformers.
More than meets the eye?
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