Tools of the Trade

So all the stuff I do requires a lot of tools.  Did I say a lot?  I should have said a whole lot.  I think I'm going to spend a bit of time discussing tools today.

I have two different cordless screwdrivers.  My favorite is a DeWalt.  I've been using it since I started the job, and it works like a champ.  Depending on how high you crank up the clutch, it can bust knuckles fairly easily.  But with all that torque it goes through cinder block pretty easily.  My only problem with DeWalt is the price. 

I recently added a Ryobi screwdriver and circular saw.  The Ryobi screw gun doesn't have the torque, but I like it anyways.  It's a good alternative to DeWalt if you don't have the money or don't want to spend the money.    A friend of mine said I should have bought the bigger super combo kit, but I didn't.   Truly, it's not my money but there are limitations to what I'll do.  If money hadn't been an issue, I'd have probably gone with this and bought DeWalt.   

For drill bits, I don't have a preference.  I generally use DeWalt because that's what someone bought me when I started the job.  I also have a set of Ryobi and Milwaukee bits.  I use what I have.  I haven't become a convert on any of this as of yet.

 My current set of crimps are a set of Paladin Datashark similar to this set. I go through a set a year.  What can I say?  I've got a grip and I tear through cheap crimps like nothing.  The next time mine break, I'm buying Klein. 

Speaking of Klein, I've also got a Klein Lan Scout, a Klein Compression Crimper , Klein 11 in 1 screwdriver , Klein Scotch lock pliers,  Klein wire cutter/stripper , and a Klein punch down tool.   I would buy everything Klein if it wasn't so darned expensive.  The only thing I wouldn't buy Klein would be fish tape.  Their fish tapes suck.

The electrician we have working for us is a beast.  He's the kind of electrician you want when you want solutions.  He also carries a full electricians' pouch full of nothing but Klein.  The only thing he doesn't use is Klein fish tapes.   Go figure. 

The 11 in 1 screwdriver and punch down tool are great for working on phone systems.  The 11 in 1 has all the tools in one needed to open most phone company demarc boxes.  The punch down tool also has a 66 block punch down device that turns working with 66 blocks from being a pain to being simple.  The right tools make certain jobs easy.

I also use a Commercial Electric wire cutters.  This is my third set.   The first set was lost by some guys we called in to run wire.  The 2nd set was broken trying to cut a fish tape. 

For a test set, I use a Fluke test set.  Once again, having the right tools makes the job easier.  For 2 years, I carried an Ideal toner, but that was a piece of junk.  I got the Fluke toner and that works like a champ. 

I've got an extra set of 6 small screw drivers from Husky.  Those are a recent addition, but I like them.  The Klein 11 in 1 is great, but sometimes I don't want to adjust the tip.   To carry it all, I use a Dead On Electricians pouch.   I've tried many different pouches, and none worked very well.  It's a matter of having the right amount of tools without being weighed down too much.  Considering I usually have all this, plus a label maker, plus a box of screws, and generally a tape measure...  it's not exactly a light pouch.   

I also carry a custom made safe pick.  And for safe repair tools (that aren't listed earlier) I have a couple of socket drivers I got from Harbor Freight.  I have the whole set, but the two I carry are sized to replace bill readers and take of most of the other safe repairs I do frequently.  I still have to pull out my full socket set to take out floor bolts, but that's about it.  

That's not everything I carry on a regular basis, but it's close enough and gives a good idea of what it takes to do my job. 

Construction II

Most training modules are mindlessly boring.  There is a definite need for the training, but do people have to make it so dull?   There's got to be a better way to train people than death by power point or some other CD based variant. 

Enough about that. 

Back to construction.  Now, it's time to add devices and create new wires for each section.  As I've said before, it's all Cat 5e bought from Deep Surplus.  The credit cards in this location have a phone line dial backup, so I check that first to make sure it's working.  Next, install a new external switch and move the ATA (analog telephone adapter) and plug that in.  At the top of the board will be a starting point for all the phone lines in the building.  Well, other than the phone company demarc.  The ATA plugs into the new external switch.  Add a cable from the ATA to the top breakout point.  RJ11 jack on one end, two bare wires on the other end.  We use blue/blue white to designate the VOIP phone line, so that's the pair I use.  I then punch it into the block at the top. 

The block at top is a "telephone expansion module".  It supports up to 4 phone lines to 9 locations.  It's kind of like a 66 block, but less complicated.  Anyways...   Trace the CATV cable on the back of the cable modem and make sure I've got enough slack.  I do, so it's time to move quickly.  The instant I unplug the cable modem, the store internet is going to go down.  With store internet down, the credit cards go down.  That's not a good thing.  It was probably about 3 in the afternoon when I was doing this, and that is a relatively slow time.

As any tech knows, the instant you have to reboot the internet or take a system off line, the location will get mobbed.  A dozen people will show up to a store that second before was a ghost town.  And they will all be mad at you for breaking things.  The second point of interest is the home run cable from the current external switch to the credit card processing device.  Is it long enough to serve my purposes, and run down my wire duct?  I know it is, but it's something to think about.  I know it is because the front of the building is to the right of the wire duct.  If it was to the left, the cable might have to be extended and this entire move couldn't happen until a later date.  As is, I made the move. 

Unplug the cable modem and pull the power cable out of the tangle and mess.  Unscrew the CATV cable from the cable modem.  Move the cable modem onto the board and strap it down.  Plug the power cable in and run it through the path I want.  Connect the pre-created Cat 5 patch cable from the new external switch to the modem.  Grab the credit card processor cable and thread it up through the ceiling and down the wire duct.  Plug it into the external switch.   The main process is finished, and the store is back up and processing credit cards in less than 10 minutes. 

The next contentious issue is getting the store internetwork online.  The Cisco 891W with the antenna (not in this picture) is where that cable goes.  Run a new cable for that, and boot it properly.  It's the orange cable with orange boot in this picture. Also a big issue because we've got an internetwork based proprietary card that processes.  So it's not something you want to go down for a long time.  It also alerts everyone and their dog if it goes offline for too long.  The last thing you want is a bunch of people calling you up asking why you are taking a store down.

This would be a good place to visually talk about our new wiring method.  We use a combination of colored wire with colored boots.  The boot is the same on both ends, so you go looking for a green wire with an orange boot, and you know you found the right cable because the other side is a green cable with an orange boot.  We have around 10 different cable colors and 10 different boot colors.  Wires are exceptionally easy to trace this way, and it doesn't take a toner to do so.  But it does take time and work to do the job right. 

Finally, tap in two biscuit jacks at the top of the board to provide service.  There is always a need for phone service on a board.  Sometimes it's for a dial-in situation.  Others it's just to test the phone lines and troubleshoot.  No matter the situation, we have phones to cover it. 

Once all that is done, attack the place like crazy with a label maker set in flag mode.  We've tried to put the labels on the cable, but those don't stay.  Flags have to be cut off.  Those suckers stay forever. 

Next time?  I don't know.  From here, it's a matter of building the replacement equipment and moving a few more devices into the back room.  But those are night of upgrade tasks. 

Obfuscation

I've heard various complaints about Windows and Linux systems.  I'm a Windows based user as that is what most of my job uses.  The rest is proprietary junk that has limited access.  One of the big complaints about the newer versions of Windows was that the directory system was obfuscated.  Meaning: you used to know where something installed, but now it just kind of shows up and goes somewhere. 

Strangely enough, when comparing Ubuntu 12.04, you have exactly the same thing.  Seriously...   I've been looking for the last 15 minutes through the file system and can't find where TeamViewer installed.  All I want to do is figure that out, and then maybe I can get it to start on boot up like I want so I don't have a fear of updating the computer.  See, if I want to mess with something remotely, I generally use my iPhone to connect to the Ubuntu machine to ping something to determine if the device in question has network connectivity through our corporate VPN to the site router and through the site switch, down to the device.   It's a good "is networking for this device working as expected?" test. 

But I don't dare install updates unless I'm here babysitting the machine because I can't get TeamViewer to start manually.  Because I can't find where the program installed.  And I finally found it.   Now, it could be because I'm using a more Windows style interface that things are complicated.  But that's pretty crazy...   also, why isn't my system auto logging in anymore?  I prefer it that way because I use it for remote access.  

Just as I think I've got one problem solved, here come 10 more.  And all this is stuff I already know how to do in Windows...   Maybe it's time to head home for the day and fight this problem later.

Construction

Construction

I suppose this is a continuation of what I was talking about back in a previous post.  So, Return of the iPhone showed the area I was beginning to work with.  Half of my job is technical, the other half is mechanical. 

The first part started with finding a 2" conduit from the back room to the front room.  There were a few wires in the conduit, so I chased them down and pulled out everything that wasn't in use.  There are still some wires in use, but those can get wiped out later when the equipment moves to the back room. 

Part 2 is to identify what devices need what kind of cables to ensure everything has its own separate wire.  Phone is the only exception, and I run those as one single CAT 5e cable.  We buy cables in all sorts of colors from Deep Surplus.  I pretty sure that's where we bought the boots that will make an appearance later.  We always go with solid core wire, though you can get stranded core wire.  I like working with solid core better. 

We run a lot of plenum cable as well.  Plenum cable is made of different outer material that doesn't create toxic smoke when it burns.  All of our buildings are one story, so to me whether you have toxic smoke in the building is a pointless argument for buying cable that's easily twice as expensive.  But code requires it, so we run it.  I'm not going to fight semantics with a building inspector.  Those guys don't give a damn. 

For this location, we needed 10 different wires, but I only brought 7 boxes of wire to the site.  So that means two pulls through the conduit.  I haven't run that second set of wires through as of writing this, and that's probably going to be part of Monday's work.  After the wires are ran, it's time to mount the cable duct.  I always get a 1GUV1 from Grainger as it is the best width for what we do.  The wire duct is screwed in using Tapcon screws as this wall was cinder block.  Otherwise, I just use course thread drywall screws. 

Up above the drop ceiling, there is piece of 1" wood that rings the outside of the building.  I screwed some zip ties into that to create a path for all my wires.  I hate moving ceiling tiles and finding some lazy jerk just left the wires on the roof.  That's sloppy work and hard to work on later. 

For the board, I used a 2'x4' piece of pre-cut wood.  So I wouldn't have to put every screw through cinder block, I took a 2"x4" and cut it into the width of the board and mounted three of them to the cinder block using Tapcon screws.  The board is then mounted to the 2x4's with wood screws.  Did I mention I painted the board white using some quick dry ceiling paint? 

Anyways.  

Lining the board up on the 2x4 shows me I'm not a carpenter and I need a better eye.  Or the right wood working tools. 

Moving on.  Mounting each device requires an angle bracket, found over in the wood framing section of the hardware store.  I prefer SimpsonStrong-Tie Framing Angles.  They are cheap, easy, and work like a champ to mount things under 20 pounds or so.  To hold the device to the wall requires a strap.  Academy has them for about $3 a piece.   For smaller devices, I use 1/2" velcro.  

 Oh...  and another picture for an out of date update.  

This one shows most of that I've been talking about to this point...  The devices are all placeholder devices at the moment, just to hold the space until the real equipment is built and moves onto the board.  

Return of the iPhone

So, it's been a bit since I've had my iPhone.  What do I think now?

1) I'm not sure if I talked about this before, but I like the camera.  The built in panorama feature is excellent when trying to document rooms.  People don't see in what equates to one camera.  They look around in panorama.  The dual camera system makes for easy aiming of pictures in the back seat.  The picture was resampled from 9MB to 471 kb.  So it's not near as good quality as the original.  

2) Facetime.  Facetime allows you to call someone and see them.  Or, if you are a tech, you can swap the camera around and aim it at what you are looking at so they can see what you are looking at.  That's what I like it for.  Verbal directions always suck.  People have a picture in their mind of what you are trying to tell them, and it either works or it doesn't.  With Facetime, you can show them exactly what you are looking at and they can draw their own conclusions.

3) Bluetooth sucks.  Flat out.  Nothing good can be said about the Bluetooth on an iPhone 5.  My Plantronics M50 that never disconnected on my Android.  But randomly during the day, my iPhone will quit playing audio through the headset.  My wife has a BodyMedia Fit.  If you want to use the iPhone as a display, then you have to re-sync every single time you want to view what you've done through the day.  Functional Bluetooth is sucky Bluetooth. 

4) Battery life sucks.  Nothing good can be said about the battery life on an iPhone 5.  If you have any services turned on, the battery will fail before 6 PM if you unplug it at 8 AM.  That's unacceptable to me.  That's not even talking about using the thing a lot.  That's a quiet day.  I had to charge my phone back up twice today while I was in the office just to make it to 6 PM.  I have to plug my phone into a wall charger at lunch if I expect it to make it through the day.