Survey for cord shortening device project

[Perfectionistic]

Hi guys and and gals,

I am doing a project for my PLTW Engineering Design and Development course; my project is aimed at designing and creating a cord shortening device for computer applications. I have a brief survey (10 multiple choice questions) that will provide my team with useful feedback for our project. If you would be willing to spend three minutes answering those questions, I would much appreciate it! I will be collecting survey data from now until next Monday at about this time. If you guys are interested in the outcome of this project, I would be happy to share how it turns out when we are done (it will be a couple months from now).

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NYZBN3D

Thank you,
Sam

 

[cliffordcooley]

I'm sorry but if I was to spend money on shortening cords, I'd simply get shorter cords. This product doesn't really sound gimmicky, just unnecessary. Especially when it is cautioned against winding them up because of EMI (aka: crosstalk interference).

http://cablesupply.com/content/46-cat6-cable-avoiding-crosstalk-

If you run multiple cables parallel to each other, there are a few measures you can take to minimize cross talk. When punching down to a patch panel, use shielded patch cords. Staggering cables on the patch panel by punching down only to odd or even can also help reduce interference.

http://www.technologyguide.com/howto/how-to-set-up-a-home-theater-cable-management/

You Gotta Keep them Separated
Cable bundling will also help in segregating the cables in the back of the system according to signal type. While there is a variety of heated debate among home theater geeks (seriously – we have heated debates about this stuff) it is best to bundle the wires into three categories: Power, Signal, and Speaker.

Power cords are the ones that plug into the wall or power strip. Keep these far away from the other two especially if the house or apartment is older. Power cords emit a good amount of EMI (Electro Magnetic Interference) and can even transmit EMI from other electrical sources from elsewhere in the house. This EMI can cause interference in the signal wires, which results in either audio or video static or both.

Signal cables are the ones that move the audio and video signals from component to component such as HDMI, component video, or analog signal wires. The power level of the signal in these cables is so small that they can more susceptible to EMI.

Speaker wires are typically copper cables that run from the amplifier or receiver to the speakers. Here is where most of the heated debate is. Speaker wires do emit EMI, but at a far lesser scale than power cords, but they are also low powered enough to be subjected to the EMI of the Power cords. The safe bet is to still keep them separated.