Everything You Need to Know Before Your Next Installation Goes Wrong

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Just got done teaching a class today and I love teaching classes . Lots of great questions , so welcome to the class . Oh , hey , what are you drinking ? Chuck is drinking water today , water actually with a peppermint candy in it , so it gives me a little bit of peppermint taste to it . Love that , love that . Tell me in the chat box what are you drinking ?

What are you drinking , shotzi ? Is it a Diet ? Dr Pepper Kaelin ? What are you drinking ? What are you drinking , shotzi ? Is it a Diet Dr Pepper Kalen ? What are you drinking ? Shotzi ? Let me know if it's still not working on the YouTube , according to this , I'm broadcasting on it .

So there you go and acronym challenge , acronym challenge , let's pick one , pick an acronym Pulling it out of the Bigixie ICT field practice guide . Let's pick a good one , one that people aren't going to be able to get . No , I did that one already . What's a good acronym ? Fmc , fmc what does that mean ? What does that acronym mean ? Fmc ?

Tell me in the chat box . What does that mean ? Studio chat ? Let me see . No , that's not there . Do do , do , do , do , do , do , do there . He is there . He is . Yeah , I hit the live on the TikTok first and then first , and then I realized it wasn't broadcasting on LinkedIn . Had to fix that real quick .

That's why the show was technically a minute late today . So , anyways , the acronym challenge for today is FMC and it is not Ford Motor Company . It is not Ford Motor Company , tell me in the chat box . Kalen's drinking water . Shotzi's drinking Diet , dr Pepper , as usual . As usual Yep , and nobody wants to even take a guess at that . Fmc , huh , no , no .

Flexible Metal Conduit Flexible Metal Conduit , that's what that means . Yes , there you go , shotzi got it All righty . So there we go , let's get right . Means yes , there you go , shotzi got it All righty . So there we go , let's get right into the questions . Oh , did you see last week's episode ? Pretty cool , wasn't it ? It had the Light Brigade on .

I'm going to talk about their new certification processes , so it's got some other interesting stuff coming on . Pretty cool too . So next week , so make sure you watch it .

So the first question came to me from instagram and it says chuck , how can I tell if electromagnetic interference , also known as emi , electromagnetic interference , is messing with my install ? What are some real signs that I should watch for ?

And that is a great question , one that every technician really needs to understand to be able to identify , because EMI can be really hard to spot , right , but there are some dead giveaways that's going to tell you that there's a problem with EMI and it's interfering with your system . First off , what kind of a system are we talking about ?

Right Now , if you've got like an AV system or a video system , you might hear weird sounds on the audio gear right , or maybe like , even if you've got like a radio system tied with that right , if you're near power lines or radio speakers , you're going to start hearing , maybe like a humming or a cracking right .

But we actually had this problem at church not too long ago . They had some cables laying on the backside of the stage and they were starting to get some humming on it , and so I explained to them what EMI was and I went over and fixed it in a little bit of time .

Another thing that will show that could be an issue with EMI is damage to gear , damage to your gear . You know those power surges and even lightning strikes . Remember , lightning strike doesn't have to actually hit your house or actually hit the cable , right , you can actually .

Oh , there we go , it's just got to hit the ground nearby and it can really really hurt your ICT components , the cable , the connectors , the equipment that's attached to them , your ICT components , the cable , the connectors , the equipment that's attached to them , and even if it's not a direct hit , you get , you know , the voltage will rise and fall as it hits

the ground , and that is not really good for any kind of equipment . So you may not see that one right away , but it will definitely shorten the lifespan of your equipment . So if you are a service tech and you go to a certain customer and you see equipment keep failing because of that very reason , you might want to take a look at that .

Another way that it can show up is fuzzy or distorted screens , especially if you're around heavy industrial gear . Not too long ago what was it ?

A few years back , I actually got to do the steel tow tour at the Harley factory in Pennsylvania and they had some big industrial gear right , and so you know what drives that is going to be big transformers and stuff like that and that magnetic field is going to wreak havoc . On video terms , you can actually see this .

I did this , not as an experiment , one time I hate to actually admit this , but I put a magnet next to my screen and boy , it messed it up . Another way you can tell if EMI is present is fried components from electrostatic discharge . The old tech guy's in the house . What's happening , mr Ed ? Yes , so ESD shocks .

They can discharge and kill sensitive electronics . That's where you really should be wearing those wrist straps . Think of it as an invisible death by a thousand shocks , but probably the biggest one that you're going to see is signal glitches or drop packets . Right , your voice or your data just isn't coming through cleanly .

Right , there's a lot it seems to be lagging and stuff like that . Right , jjgg , lots of money . That right , jjgg , lots of money to be made . Jjgg , jjgg . I don't know what that means . Yes , so watch out for that , especially if you're running unshielded cable near power circuits . And you know what . You don't always have to run shielded cabling .

I'm going to say this loud . So , people in the back of your mirror , you don't always need shielded cable . In fact , you rarely need shielded cable . I was talking to a friend of mine not too recently . He's putting in a house , can't house me . He bought shielded cable . Why ?

Why , yeah , so pro tip , always keep your your low voltage cable separated from high voltage . Follow the rules . Right , you know ? 12 inches . If you have to cross electrical , cross it at 90 . That'll suffice for the vast majority of your installs , right ? Jjgg ? Comments saying no money in the low voltage industry . Hmm , hmm , I don't know about that .

I missed that comment . I'm making good money . Hmm , just saying , daryl , the RCD's in the house , the new Tempest regulations prohibit any copper and skiffs all fiber . I understand that 100% . Question number two this one came to me on Facebook . It says Chuck , I've always seen those IP ratings like IP67 on enclosures . What do those numbers actually mean ?

How do I explain this to my apprentice ? Pretty simple IP ingress protection

. It's just a way to measure how you keep water or dust from getting into your equipment . That's what the IP stands for and that's a great question . It's one that every installer really needs to understand . It took me to Hawaii to teach Exactly right , tj . I'm so jealous of you guys . I've never gotten to teach .

That's the one state that I have not been to yet . To teach Exactly right , tj , I'm so jealous of you guys , I've never gotten to teach . That's the one state that I have not been to yet is Hawaii .

So IP , it's basically a scorecard for how close or how well an enclosure or something that can protect against solids like dust or liquids like water , spray or submersion , and the format is basically pretty simple the IP67 . The 6 means something and the 7 means something . Somebody asked me what is an RCDD ?

Hmm , let me finish these questions and I'll get back to you . So the first letter talks about protection from solids . The second letter is protection from water . So look at it this way IP67 . So there's an IP0 , 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , and 6 . Ip0 something means there's no protection at all .

If it's got a 1 , an IP1 , something , something that means it keeps out the big stuff , stuff that's 50 millimeters , okay , like you know , maybe like a hand . Ip2 is medium-sized stuff all the way to 12.5mm . Ip3 is small tools like anything down to 2.5mm . See ya , tj , tell Leah , I said hi , ip4 is wires .

Ip5 is dust protected , like some little bit of dust might get in but not enough to hurt anything . And then IP6 means nothing gets in . So IP6 means it protects against dust . Now the second letter talks about its water protection level . So zero means no water protection . One means vertical water drips all the way up to IP67 .

67 means that can be submerged under one meter of water , which is 3.28 feet , for 30 minutes and still function . That's what IP67 means . Now there's also an IP68 , which even gives you even more protection , more protection . So you know if you're doing something like .

I just had a show on outdoor PoE stuff with PoE Texas a couple of weeks ago and we talked about one of their outdoor rated PoE devices , and we talked about being IP67 rated . So make sure that you match the IP rating to the environment .

Be careful not to overbuild , because that could definitely blow your budget and cause the customer to go a different direction . But you also don't want to under-protect it , either because now you're risking downtime or you're risking damage to the actual cable itself . Next question chuck what is the difference between fixed , variable and zoom and multiple camera lenses

? I keep seeing these terms but I'm not sure when to use each one . That is such a great question . You have to understand all the different types of lens types when designing a surveillance system to make sure that it actually does what it's supposed to do protect and document . Well , it doesn't actually protect , right ? It documents .

Some people say there's a , you have a surveillance system and it kind of deters crimes . I'm sorry , somebody wants to steal something , they're going to steal something . All a surveillance system does is documents the process to help the investigation . But here you go . So here's a couple of different types of lens camera lenses that you'll find .

First one is a fixed lens . Now , a fixed lens only has one focal length and basically what you see is what you get If the view's not right , you got to switch lenses , right , you might have to go to a different type of lens . A variable lens means it is adjustable , but it's adjustable only by hand .

That means that you're going to have to climb the ladder and you're going to have to adjust it . You might want to have a buddy with you so they're watching the screen , right ? Cctv is only to keep honest people honest , exactly , right , galen .

So you got to put somebody in there watching the monitor while you're on your ladder adjusting the variable lens and make sure to do it . Now you've got zoom lenses . Now , zoom lenses they're motorized and have remote adjustable so you can actually be in the control room and you can actually zoom in and zoom out , so you can change it .

And this is really good for high security spots , right ? So you really want details . And then you have multiple lenses , aka multifocal , which combines multiple lens all viewing to one . Think of like a 90-degree or 180-degree or even a 360-degree camera , although I don't really know of any 360-degree security cameras .

I don't really know of any 360-degree security cameras . So the approach for that is always use a fixed camera when the scene is never going to change , for example , the one that shoots down my driveway . Right , that scene is never going to change . Right ? You want to use a variable lens for some basic flexibility ?

So , again , I've got a camera out by the chicken . So if I want to be able to be able to zoom or zoom out because I want to see more or less of the chicken coop and zoom for being able to zoom in and out . Question number four this comes

from Reddit . Chuck , I'm planning on a front projection system in a medium-sized conference room . What do I need to think about besides just about mounting the projector ? Well , you're already a step ahead of everybody else , because most people don't think about the actual things you need to do for putting in front-style projections .

First , think about the projector location . The projector location right , because the bigger the screen , the brighter that projector's got to be . And you want to make sure that you aim it right . Right , anything less , no less than 30 degree projection angle , because if you do that , you're going to blind the speaker . Okay , and I've been there .

I've been in conference rooms where the projector shined in my eyes and , boy it just , it wiped me out . Right Now we have AI cameras , which can give cameras new options and summary events and names and license plates . Yes , I've seen those . I've seen those . I don't I've never played with one , but I've seen them . Also , think about getting back to what .

Should I think about the presenter location ? Don't let the presenter block the image . Make sure that you keep their path out of that optimal beam . So don't put the lectern right in the front , maybe put it off to the side and you'll see this a lot . For , like the tiered conference rooms , think about the screen height right .

Keep the bottom edge of that screen about six feet off the floor so that way presenters can walk around without doing shadow puppets on the screen . Again , this is really going to work for the . For that tiered system . You really need to think about aesthetics .

Aesthetics um , motorized list can hide a projector when it's not in use , and that's fancy , but and it keeps the room clean and functional . But my , my experience with that kind of stuff is um , if you add complexity to it , you're adding potential failures to it as well .

Acoustics projectors are loud , lots of noise , so you want to make sure that the people in the room can hear the speaker . So you might need to isolate it from the booth so it doesn't sound like a leaf blower . And then the lens one size doesn't fit all . Larger venues often will need interchangeable lenses based on the throw distance in the screen size .

So think about all those things , right . Also , tension screens I want to touch base on that real quick , right , they can keep a flat image edge to edge , but if the space is tight , look into screen fabrics that hold the tension internally . Would you give advice to a new guy in a rocky job situation ? What ?

Yes , I will , but I need to know a little bit more about the situation though . Chuck , I am continuity testing a Cat6 drop and it passed , but my certifier flagged it as a split pair . What does that mean and what should I be checking ? So , wire map test Wire map test looks for a lot of things . First , it's looking for continuity .

It's looking to make sure that when you put a signal on pin 1 , which is all the way around the left on the port , on the patch panel , it comes out of pin one on the other side , one to one , two to two , three to three , four to four , all the way up to eight .

It's making sure that there's no opens , broke shorts , transposals or reversals , so it's able to be able to success . So you transmit all the way on both sides . One of the things you might find is shorts . A short can happen when two conductors were left too long and are touching each other inside the jack . Same thing at the patch panel .

A short can also happen if a drywaller screwed your cable between a metal stud and the gypsum board . It can also happen if something heavy got set on that cable too . It's looking for transposable pairs . So when you look at APAC , there's eight pins in it .

Pins 1 and 2 is one transmission pair , pins 3 and 6 is another transmission pair , pins 4 and 5 is another , and then 7 and 8 is the fourth right . So transposed pairs means , for example , the conductors that are on . Let's just do the most common thing you'll come across they terminated A on one side and B on the other side .

In that scenario it's going to show that pins 1 and 2 and 3 and 6 are reversed . That means they terminated A on one side and B on the other side . Okay , Then you got reversed pairs . Reversed pairs is when you flip a transmit and receive conductor . So you might flip the white-orange with the orange-white or the white-blue with the blue-white .

Also , watch out for the shielding continuity , especially for your shielded cable solutions , because if you don't have it bonded to a ground , you're not going to have a really good performance . So here's the thing , though , right , because if you don't have it bonded to a ground , you're not going to have a really good performance .

So here's the thing , though , right Splute pairs are going to look fine if you're testing with a tone generator or a resistance meter , but it's really going to kill the performance . That's why certifiers

are really worth every single penny . Question number six . Question number six this one came to me on TikTok , chuck , hearing about N , n plus one , 2n , 2n plus one , redundancy and job specifications . Can you break those down and what do they actually mean to us to make it sense in the field ?

And that's a great question , and this is one that I still struggle with , you know , because I can never remember them off top of my head . I have to actually go look in the books , but they're really just talking about redundancy . So when you hear the word N , right , when I say N , they basically mean the minimum you need to get the job done .

You have exactly what you need . There's no backup . If something fails , then the whole entire system goes down . Right , that's what N means . N plus 1 means you have one spare , so if one part fails , the operation will continue . Think of , for example , like an HVAC unit in a data center . Let's say that they've done the calculations .

They calculate they only need two HVAC systems , but they put in a third one . So that's 2N plus 1 . Now if one of those three goes down , it can still work correctly . N plus 2 means you now have two spares .

You can lose up to two components , and now this is really going to help for your uptime and your environments where repairs are going to take time . 2n means you have a second full system . It's like a duplicate . So you've got two MDFs , two MDFs , two data centers , two main cross-connects , two horizontal cross-connects , two backbones .

Everything is doubled so that way , if one of the systems goes down , the other one can keep running . Then you have 2N plus one . That means you got two full systems and each one of those systems has a full spare . Think of , think of like fort knox , redundancy . Okay , this is used where downtime is just simply not an option period .

Think of like a call center for like 9-1-1 . Right , you don't going down Now . Just let me break this down so people can understand . So N means you have one drill , right . N plus one means you have one drill and you have a backup drill in your truck . 2n means you have a second toolbox .

2n plus one means you have a second toolbox plus backup drills in both . So lots and lots of things . So N plus one network , one protect , one protect sleeps until needed . Two working , one protect , one sleeping . So yeah , you see this a lot in data center stuff . Let me get back to this question here . Small company , seven techs and a bad management .

Government work and I love it , but I'm forced to be a hack , okay . So the issue here is it sounds to me like management , is it ? So it sounds like it's a small company . Is it the owner that's bad or is it one of his ? One of his managers it's bad ? If it's the owner , there's not a whole lot you can do .

That owner is going to be there until the day that company goes out of business . One of the things I've learned is , if you have a bad manager , sometimes you can outweigh them . You really can . The question is can you deal with that right ? Have you tried talking to them and saying , look

, here's the correct way to do this . Can we think about doing it that way ? And doing it the right way is going to actually help with all management . All management owners are great guys . So there you go . Is the management a family member to the owner ? That's another question . Is the manager right ? I haven't , but many have had they get shot down Okay .

So the question is the real question is are they paying you enough to not worry about it ? And what is your work ethic ? When I say work ethic , I'm not talking about showing up for it . I'm talking about doing quality work . How much is that worth to you ?

Me , I would probably start job searching right , because I'm not going to do shabby work just because somebody wants to save money . That's just not going to happen , right . Thanks for the time tonight . Any update on the estimator scores have not had the chance to think about it , unfortunately . Finally , get you live , chuck , the greatest RCDD . I appreciate that .

I don't think I'm the greatest RCDD . I'm just the one that knows how to get in front of a camera . There's a lot of RCDDs far better , far superior to this one . Just saying I know lots of them too . Question number seven , chuck , we have a new guy on our crew asking about lockout tagout procedure . What does that really mean ?

Can you break it down simply so we can all get it ? Absolutely Lockout tagout , or you might even see the acronym L-O-T-O . It's all about keeping people safe from getting shocked or crushed or hurt by equipment or cabling , and it happens a lot when somebody's not paying attention . So here's how it works , right ? So it's a safety procedure .

If you take an OSHA 10 , you've heard this lockout tagout procedure They've probably even gone into it in some depth , right ? So what's really going to happen is you need to stop so people don't turn something on while you're working on it , because you can get really , really hurt and it's going to be critical .

So what does it do If it goes wrong or if the lockout tagout procedure is skipped right ? What potential things ? Equipment may not fully stop . The power wasn't completely cut . If it goes wrong or if the lockout tag-up procedure is skipped right , what potential things ? Equipment may not fully stop .

The power wasn't completely cut off and that could hurt you , right ? Leftover energy wasn't drained . Somebody restarts it accidentally , or the area just wasn't clear when it was restarted .

Now , what could that result in Injuries , injuries , and trust me as a person who has a broken finger from something stupid , I swear it seems like I'm always hurting myself that I'm talking about this , because it wasn't too long ago that I almost injured my eye mowing the lawn right . Think about lockout tagout procedures for fiber optic cabling .

When you're working on fiber optic cabling , if you look at a live fiber with your unprotected eye , you can damage the retina in your eye . So what do you do to protect yourself against that ? You know you don't have to go out and buy a fancy lockout tagout thing . You can literally go to Walmart and buy a $5 Plano tackle box .

Just make sure it has the ability to have like a lock on it . Buy that , get a Dremel , do a little notch on the side of it , run your fiber in , do a couple loops with it , velcro it together and then lock it . Take your labeling machine Say lockout tagout procedure . Call this phone number before plugging it back in .

Okay , then you made yourself a lockout tagout box for fiber for literally like $6.25 . Thank you for the advice . They do pay me . Okay , but management is trying to buy out the owner . You're in a tough situation there with that . Really truly are um . Best idea , best thing for you , is keep your options open .

If you like working here , stay working here , but keep your options open , if you know what I mean . So lockout , tagout procedures what are some of the benefits of them ? Number one you can prevent injuries .

That's always a good thing , downtime , people getting hurt and stuff . You can also avoid OSHA fines and lawsuits , which is going to save you money on the insurance side or save the company money on the insurance side .

It's going to keep those critical systems up and running and it's going to save you money on the insurance side or save the company money on the insurance side . It's going to keep those critical systems up and running and it's going to maximize the uptime . So there's lots of advantages to it If it's done right .

Lockout , tag-out procedures you need to be able to identify the issue right . You need to make sure to isolate it , lock it and make sure that nobody can put it back on you lockout , tag out procedures . Okay , question number eight holy cow , is it 628 already ? It sure is 628 . Question number eight chuck , I've seen people use regular grout for fire . Stop .

What is the big deal ? Is it basically the same stuff ? No , it's not . It's cementuous material . It's mortar like-like , mortar-like . Okay , most low-voltage contractors do not install cementuous material . That's usually done by the big fire-stopping companies that do fire-stopping for everything .

There's a lot of things you've got to worry about when it comes to doing fire-stopping . Now let's talk about fire-stop . Comes in a dry powder or sometimes pre-mix , and you can mix it with water on site . It's typically going to be used for your larger penetrations , right ? Because what happens with cut with putty or caulk is it tends to sag .

Cement material won't do that . Once you put it in and it sets up , it is rock solid . But you better make sure that you leave yourself room for thermal expansion or movement , because cementious material , cementious , cement , cementious . In case you've never done concrete , I've poured some concrete here on the farm .

When you mix it with water , it heats up and it expands . That is not good for cabling , not good for cabling , not good for cabling . You're talking about crushing the cabling now and you're talking about heat on your cabling . So , cementious material , you've got to be super careful . I would leave it up to the professionals to do that .

Never use standard grout or plaster instead of a real fire stop . You really need to get some fire stop training . There's lots of free Firestop training out there . I've got a Firestop training course that I'm going to be recording here soon .

I know I've been saying that for two years , but I'm putting up a wall in the new podcast studio Thursday night and doing that recording hopefully next week or so and put that up so people can start taking that . So make sure that you take that class . It's not fire stopping , it's done right .

You can literally not just fail inspection , but you can also go to jail . Who wants to go to jail ? I don't want to go to jail . I don't know about you , but I don't want to go to jail . I just don't . Okay , it is 630 . I still have two more questions , two more questions , but I really don't have the time

tonight because I've got a study group tonight and Mama is making dinner in the other room and boy does it smell good . Boy does it smell good . So let's go ahead and sign off for tonight . I'll put those two questions in next week and we'll see everybody next Wednesday night at 6 pm .

Stay connected , stay informed and always aim for excellence . Until next time , keep those cables clean , your standards high and your future bright . Let's Talk Cabling , empowering the industry , one connection at a time .