Labeling Extension Cords?

[Linda McDonald]

Does anyone label their extension cords? If so, how do you label them and what do you use to make the labels?

I want to make it easier to set up the display every year and not have to hunt through tubs of extension cords to find the right cord.

Some of my thoughts were to label them by their length, or maybe label the cords based on what they are plugged into and keeping them with the display instead of putting them all into plastic tubs.

[George Simmons]

I label my custom-made cords by length AND by what they go to. With over 8000' of them now, I've also begun keeping an inventory sheet. I use either a white paint pen, silver Sharpie or black Sharpie for labeling.

[JoelSturman]

Labels:

I really did a lot of hard work the first year putting stickers and labeling cables by length. I covered the labels with clear tape and zip tied the ends to seal out moisture. Alas, this did not work. Moisture got in and the ink on the stickers smeared. Next I used a cheap labeler. They won't stay on the cables without the clear tape on the outside. Plus it takes time to type the number, etc into the labeler, and remove the backing. Then, this summer I was in the electrical section of Home Depot and saw a booklet with pages of pre-numbered labels. They are a little stretchy, and seem to stay on the cable. I think they are made for CAT5 cable. I cannot seem to find them around the house right now, or I would tell you who makes them. They repeat the number(so you can wrap/overlap the cable), and have 1 sticker that is separate from the strip. What I found most useful, was I could use these for the units themselves (I buy the DIY kits). So I use the single label on the smooth side of the clip, and the others for the ends coming out of the box. I will probably want to wrap these will clear wide tape, just to make sure they stay.

Numbering schemes:
My biggest pet peeve is not knowing how long a cable is. Now that I have a labeling scheme and have gone through all my cables, I can tell by just looking at them. Figures, doesn't it? However, every once in a while, one confuses me, so the length is somewhat handy. The most important aspect is to just have a unique ID at the end of both cables. Where this can bite you, is if you use more than one extension cord to make a run. Then you may want to consider a special set of labels. I am in the process of expanding and relabeling my cables. I may just use a number combination with the premade stickers (something like 1-1, 1-2...1-45...2-1). I would have to put on all stickers the same direction, or avoid reverse possibilities (create a 1-2, but not a 2-1).
If I could find similar stickers with letters on them, I would be set. I would like to letter the controllers, and number the channel within each controller. Then label the same way with the extension cords. Assuming I do not change my display too much, that may work.

Here is where I start to do too much thinking for my own good. I also do a display at Halloween, which means the cables move around. I seem to pop a GFCI every once in a while. I suspect one or more of my extension cords may be the cause. If I kept a spreadsheet of my cable connections by cable ID to the controller/channel, then maybe I could narrow down which cables cause the problem. But that is overkill, and just too complicated...Yep, I am probably going to do it :-)

I would be curious to know how others have labeled too. Also, if others use standard extension cables, zipline, or something else.

[wallleyes]

I use colored electrical tape.Then i put the controller id and the circut on it with permanent marker.

[gizmomkr]

I use the brady ID-pal Its a wiremarker, so it prints long ways onto a label that is MADE to stick to wire. Its a bit expensive, but I use it for work also...

http://www.cables.com/Products/ID-PAL-Labeling-Tool__IDPAL.aspx

[mmais68569]

I use a Sharpie marker & mark the cords with the channel number that it plugs into on the controller. They have all colors of these markres now but I use black on all light color cords & silver on the dark colors.

Mike

[Bob Wingert]

wallleyes wrote:

I use colored electrical tape.Then i put the controller id and the circut on it with permanent marker.

What he said! It works

[Scott T]

I keep it real simple. I use a silver paint pen (not a sharpie) I bought at Wal-Mart. My forty foots are label 40A, 40B, 40C and after I hit 40Z, I started with 41A, 41B and so on.

You can see in the picture that it is still readable after 3 years.

Attached files

[Terry Hurrle]

I just typed the controller channels on paper and laminated it and cut them out and zip tied them to the controllers. If you don't have one of the cheap machines office supply stores can laminate for you cheaply. I numbered them like:
1-1
1-2
and so on. worked for me. I put about three spaces between each line so the lables would be easy to cut out.
Terry

[jjdurrant]

I use a sharpie

[-klb-]

So far, I think sequencing is easier than figuring out a cable labeling scheme that I actually like...

Especially if you have elements that still move around from year to year, or large changes in your display.. I find that much of my personal cords changed in the first three years. I think that many of them are finally pretty stable now..

One labeling method I am trying is using some laser printable tyvek paper, printing in white text on black background, and sticking that in a flag of packing tape around the cord. As others have said, this does not seal perfectly, and water intrusion will happen. With the Tyvek paper and laser print, I should not have any issues. But, it is time consuming. One thing I consider key if you have the space is for which year's layout the label is correct. That way, you can tell if you have an old label, on a cord that sat out for a year.

At the house, I am also trying to get at least one label per bundle of cords, and get the labeled ones back on the spools that originally held 2,500 feet of cable. You don't get that much back, with the cable ends and all, but it really seems to work well for storage.

Then the cords that were not a good enough fit to get labeled, and put in the spools, or went to elements that are likely different next year, or otherwise not most likely going to be used the same way last year will all get pulled into the back yard, all lined up, with all the male ends on the same line. Then I'll get out the 300 foot tape, and stretch it out beside the cords. Any cords that are labeled with the length, and are within a foot or so of what they measure get coiled up. Any that are not labeled with length will get the length written on both ends with sharpie, then coiled and added to the stack. I try to keep that stack in order by length, and usually wind up with enough to fill one 12 gallon tote. Those cords usually fill the needs for Halloween.

This year, I actually had nearly all those cords in use, and left out at least 8 items from the Halloween show. I think I locked down at least another 32 cords into the Christmas show set last year, so the number to choose from for Halloween went down. Next year, I will just add some more cords for Halloween. I expect I will eventually have a separate set for Halloween.

One reason that I no longer leave the cords on the ground from Halloween, to be used for Christmas, is that my controllers spread out over 10 feet of wall, and much of the halloween stuff is on the first 4 controllers. So a cord that reaches the Christmas element in the yard likely won't reach the right controller in the side yard.

The other thing is that what is manageable on a scale of around 200 channels may not be so manageable on a scale of 900 channels. We are not doing nearly as well at labeling cords for the park and firehouse, and there is more changes in where exactly some elements are, what will reach, and even where the controllers are. Though this year we may be getting closer. But the big thing is that for this time intensive labeling practice, there just isn't the time to get all 900 cords labelled.

[HowardShank]

I label my cords by writing on them with a black sharpie/silver paint pen on each end.

Because I move elements around I want to be able to use extensions anywhere I have something, so I number my cords seperate from my channels.

Channels are like 1-1, 1-2, 1-2... 12-1, 12-2, etc.

Extension cords are numberd 001, 002, 003, 004... 100, 101... 200, 201... etc.

Then as I place elements and run a cord, I have a clipboard with my channels printed out from excel and I just map a cord to a channel and when I hook them up at the controller I just go down the printed list and plug a cord into the correct channel where it belongs.

[Linda McDonald]

Thanks everyone for sharing. I'm a spreadsheet junkie. I already have all of my light elements listed in an Excel spreadsheet that provides the channel, number of lights, and total watts, so I really liked the idea of the clipboard and the spreadsheet printout.

I'll label my extension cords sequentially and then color code them by length (since I think I only have 7 or 8 different lengths), then just add a column to my existing spreadsheet, print out the list and update as we plug things in.

Forget the clipboard! I just downloaded the spreadsheet onto my Samsung Epic. I'll be able to update the spreadsheet on my phone in real time as we plug things in.

I think if I program this spreadsheet right, I should be able to create a tab that will give me a list of extension cords that I have available (no need to run back to the garage and look for something that isn't there!!!).

Linda

[cmoore60]

I have all my cords labeled with numbers within their length group. I use Rick William's Controller spreadsheet. When I set up. I simply record the number of the cord on the spreadsheet. The spreadsheet print out is kept for that year. The next year I print it out again and do the same thing.

Linda

I would be interested in getting a copy of your spreadsheet. Maybe I can incorporate into the controller spreadsheet.



Chuck

[friskybri]

I found just laying them out on the ground all next to each other works. Then just pic the one that is about the length I need. keep it simple stupid. KISS.

[-klb-]

I will add that what people need in labeling may depend heavily if they have most of their controllers in the yard, with the elements, or if they are in the garage, or around the side of the house, out of sight of the display.

It will also vary if they tend to try to change things up every year, or if they try to keep the basics the same, and just add more each year.

[Brian Mitchell]

Labeling cords wouldnt work well for me since I can only get about half the cords out during teardown. The rest are all frozen in till spring and who knows what tote they will end up in. I do have some snakes labeled though.

[PaulXmas]

I did label some of my home made cables this year with the comtroller and channel number 6-1 6-2 and so on. These will be used for the same thing every year.

Last Halloween I drew which part of the display that cord controlled and zipped tied it to the cord, needless to say most of the pieces had fallen off.

I try to change things every year so marking the cords wouldn't make sence "to me".

[shfr26]

What?? You don't just plug all your cords in wherever they reach and hope for the best? You have to have them go to the right thing?

[Guest Don Gillespie]

shfr26 wrote:

What?? You don't just plug all your cords in wherever they reach and hope for the best? You have to have them go to the right thing?

Thats what I do and sometimes they don't go to the right thing LOL