This is the second post about LAN in a Box, the plan to have a completely self contained unit for a 30-40 person LAN in one single container for easy carriage, storage and deployment.
The lest post finished with the cable shelf being reinforced as it was sagging down into the switch space. So here is the shelf installed. Neat.
Underneath there's plenty of room for the switch and the power strips to distribute to everything (sounds fancy, it's a pair of 4 ways). Above this there'll be a box with a patch panel from all the switch ports. Seems excessive but inevitably someone will kick or trip on a cable and it'll tug at the ports, rather than damage the cwitch, this may only damage the panel, or the cable itself. Either way, better than the shiny 4900.
About this time I was wondering how to make the bundles of cables pack into the box neatly, they've always been a bit of a pain to put away and to lay out and they inevitably become twisted and snag or don't sit flat.
After a while I decided to try and make some reels as there are only two bundles it's not going to be a huge task to start on and they will hopefully keep everything together.
Cutting a circle is a pain at times and after getting about half way round with a jigsaw I realised how stupid I was being. Behind me was a perfectly good bandsaw PERFECT for this. The system worked...
... and in about 5 minutes I'd made all four sides to the reels.
The reel centers are more 18mm plywood, with one side trimmed so as not to cut into the cables if they're tight. Screw in from each side and they're done!
They hold a full bundle perfectly and sit side by side, after a quick test roll out they seem to work pretty well, we'll see how well in November.
Once again, more to come ready for the weekends test.
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