Fire Hazard AKA my room :(

[Urzu402]

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/883/setupsystems.jpg

What can I do to make this less fire hazardy? and still keep the systems the way they are.

[Greg2600]

It's blurry, but this is the bulk of my "classic" games/systems. I have the systems in the plastic draws, and the games mostly in those black plastic drawers that were made specifically for each system. I only keep the newer DVD-based systems hooked up all the time. I've found I'd rather spend 2 minutes pulling the hardware from the drawer, or taking the drawer out entirely when wanting to play something, then having a heap of wires and dusty consoles.

http://inlinethumb25.webshots.com/45208/2158881200081719177S425x425Q85.jpg

[buzz_n64]

Ok, well to help clean some of the clutter, you can get an elastic wire management fabric thingy, forgot it's tech. name at the moment. Leave controllers in drawers when not in use, and try to have the wires behind, or to the side of cabinets and devices.

[incubus421]

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/883/setupsystems.jpg

What can I do to make this less fire hazardy? and still keep the systems the way they are.


I would run the cords behind the tv/systems instead of in front. You may also consider zip tieing cords together to keep them tangle-free and neater.
I also try to keep the video cords seperate from the power cords. I run my power cables along the floor and the video cords along the surface of my TV stand and then up towards my TV.
Also, as I mentioned zip tie-ing; I like to zip-tie or rubber band any slack from the cords, that will work wonders in keeping things neat and safe.

[Richter Belmount]

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/883/setupsystems.jpg

What can I do to make this less fire hazardy? and still keep the systems the way they are.

I dont think its a big deal but you should defintely put more systems there and stack some newspapers and magazinesx there for our sake

[skaar]

I think you should avoid stacking so many threads in the forum, they might get all mixed up and set off a logic storm.

Run the cables out the back and get rid of the crap around the systems?

[Urzu402]

There is nothing really around them just electrical cords and stuff, I want them all hooked up.

[skaar]

Decent power bar, keep the cables neat and don't stack crap around... and you're good.

[Urzu402]

One of these days I will unplug everything and start on the mess of untangling everything.

[jcalder8]

Geez, if that's considered a fire hazard then mine must be Hades.

[bartre]

I'd recommend getting a system selector of some kind.
that way you can just route all the cables to that, let the excess hang out the back, and run 1 cable to the TV itself.
except for that toploader, if it's not AV modded.

[Urzu402]

Geez, if that's considered a fire hazard then mine must be Hades.

How is it not a Fire Hazard? you cant see the whole rat's nest of wires to the left of all the systems on the floor in that picture.

[darkslime]

A bit unrelated but still relevant:

Is it safe for me to run multiple power strips from the same outlet, or is there any chance of shorting it out or anything? I have like 25 things plugged into the same outlet with multiple powerstrips. All of them are surge protectors at least.

[Greg2600]

http://www.compliance.gov/forms-pubs/eresources/fastfacts_daisychains.pdf

Uncle Sam's take

[izarate]

A bit unrelated but still relevant:

Is it safe for me to run multiple power strips from the same outlet, or is there any chance of shorting it out or anything? I have like 25 things plugged into the same outlet with multiple powerstrips. All of them are surge protectors at least.

As long as you don't power up everything at the same time I guess it's OK. I personally use 8 powerstrips and 2 regulators but there's only one powerstrip and one regulator powered up at a time.




OP, I wouldn't worry THAT much. My setup is worse and it's been like that for the last 10 years. But yes, a little wire management would make that better looking and safer.

[Andred]

This is actually a question i've been unsure about myself. Can you daisy-chain, for instance, a powerstrip off of every plug of a central powerstrip without running the risk of it all blowing up or transforming into megatron? Is it ok as long as everything is powered down when not in use?

[Emperor Megas]

This is actually a question i've been unsure about myself. Can you daisy-chain, for instance, a powerstrip off of every plug of a central powerstrip without running the risk of it all blowing up or transforming into megatron? Is it ok as long as everything is powered down when not in use?You could, I don't know that should though.

I suppose if you have a really good main power brink with a quality surge protector that the others are connected to, and they're all powered down when not in use, you'll probably be alright. FWIW, I have a lot of things hooked up that way, and I haven't had a meltdown yet, even after a few surges.

If you're paranoid though (and understandably so), you may as well just leave the other strips unplugged, and just plug them in when you want to use them, rather than having everything plugged in at once. Just make labels for all of the plugs to it's easy to identify everything.

[izarate]

This is actually a question i've been unsure about myself. Can you daisy-chain, for instance, a powerstrip off of every plug of a central powerstrip without running the risk of it all blowing up or transforming into megatron? Is it ok as long as everything is powered down when not in use?

What I use is power regulator ---> 4 powerstrips.

I have a regulator with 4 outlets and another one with 6. The one with 6 outlets is always on since that's where my TV and ethernet switch are plugged to.

There are 4 powerstrips connected to each of the remaining outlets and each powerstrip has a group of AC adapters. One strip is used for the Genesis, 32X, Sega CD, another one is for NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, another has the DVD, receiver, etc. There's only one or two powerstrips turned on at any given time.