• atmur@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11·
    6 days ago

    I finally went through my box of cables and Goodwill’d or threw away stuff that I’m absolutely never going to use. Gotta say, the feeling of going to The Box™ and not having to dig through a million cables to find what you need is pretty nice.

    The hardest thing to throw away was the mystery power cables/bricks. Even though everything I own has its power cable with it and labeled with no exceptions, and even though I haven’t touched the mystery power cable for 10 years, I still felt like I’d discover its purpose the moment I got rid of it. Hasn’t happened yet, but I’m still anxious.

    • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
      7·
      6 days ago

      The hardest thing to throw away was the mystery power cables/bricks. Even though everything I own has its power cable with it and labeled with no exceptions, and even though I haven’t touched the mystery power cable for 10 years, I still felt like I’d discover its purpose the moment I got rid of it. Hasn’t happened yet, but I’m still anxious.

      I keep those but convert their use to replace disposable battery powered devices.

      All those spare USB wall warts you have are 5 volt and at least 1 amp DC power supplies. Anything you have that takes 3 AA or AAA batteries is a 4.5v supply. Almost all of them can tolerate the extra .5 volt. Clip the mini-USB/micro-USB/classic iPod/lightening connector off the cable and run those (I usually solder them) to your device. Now you can plug it into the wall and never have to worry about batteries again.

      6 volt DC wall warts can be used to replace things that take 4 AA or AAA batteries.

    • thawed_caveman@lemmy.world
      2·
      5 days ago

      My solution is to have two boxes: one for things i might actually use (USB-C, HDMI, standard power cables), and one for things i’ll never use (micro USB power bricks). Keep both obviously

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    5·
    5 days ago

    My wife made fun of me for having one of these.

    And I told her that I just hadn’t thrown them out yet.

    I don’t think anyone will ever need my spare Firewire cables.

  • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
    4·
    5 days ago

    My cable box of doom – boxes, I have eight of them – are categorized by overall type of cable and everything is bagged for tangle-free storage.

    I know what I have and I know approximately where I have it. And often enough, I do indeed need to produce a specific able on demand, albeit usually just to give away to other people who are in a bind with some damn fool device or another.

    Retro video game cables in one crate, “modern” (like, PS3 and up) in another, legacy and modern computer data cables in two more crates, video cables in one crate, audio cables in one crate, AC power cables in one crate, and assorted DC power supplies and wall warts in the last crate.

    When it comes to old junk cables, I am not fucking around.

    • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      5 days ago

      Same here, although I’ve got to admit that needing parallel ATA ribbon cables seems unlikely at this point.

      • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
        2·
        5 days ago

        You fuck with enough industrial automation equipment and you absolutely will find yourself needing those 40 pin IDE cables, not to mention 25 pin (ugh) serial cables, and BNC.

        Still.

        Technology in some sectors changes very slowly.

  • helpImTrappedOnline@lemmy.world
    2·
    5 days ago

    LPT: label the unique power bricks/cords when you get them.

    Use a piece of white tape, a silver marker or get a cheap $20 label printer at Walmart.

  • BigDaddySlim@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    5 days ago

    The Box ^TM just came in handy for me to find a VGA cable to change a BIOS setting on an old PC to output through PCI on boot. Had to reset the BIOS after installing a new CPU and it reverted that setting.

    The Box ^TM will stay with me until death.

    (Most of these old cables are organized, I haven’t gotten to this box yet)