SF Cable Blog - Get Expert Tips & Advice on Cables & AccessoriesIn our blog, we educate customers on the various types of cables, components and accesscories for computer, laptops and mobiles. Find More Blog
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SF Cable Blog - Get Expert Tips & Advice on Cables & AccessoriesIn our blog, we educate customers on the various types of cables, components and accesscories for computer, laptops and mobiles. Find More Blog
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Just bought a new home!?
And, thinking about wiring and cabling, the most cumbersome task? Don't worry, here in this article, I will be covering various types of cables which are useful in our homes and brief about them. Wiring modern homes require a standard quality of work in comparison to the homes from the mid-1960s. Today, any new electrical installations require new wiring that complies with local building codes. Before we begin, let's discuss some of the wiring terminologies. An electrical wire is a conductor that conducts electricity. In the household wiring, the conductor is usually copper or aluminum; it is either a solid metal conductor or a stranded wire. In our homes we use insulated wires, meaning wrapping these wires with a non-conductive plastic coating. Home wiring has a boon in the form of the ground wiring, they are solid copper with insulation of green sheathing. The most common type of wiring in modern homes is in the form of a non-metallic cable, which consists of two or more wires. It has a protective plastic casing. Non-metallic cables usually contain one or more hot wires. Of which, one is a neutral wire and the other a ground wire. Another alternative to non-metallic cables is the individual wire for which the installation happens inside a rigid or flexible metal or a plastic tubing known as conduit. Conduits are typically useful where there are wires that you cannot hide in the walls, ceilings or floors. Our homes have high voltage as well as low voltage current. You need to make sure that you do not touch the high voltage current sockets, especially with wet hands. Whereas, in low voltage wires there is no danger and fewer chances of getting shocked. But, it is better to not touch any wire regardless of their voltage and consider them all as dangerous. Now, let's understand the type of different cables we use in our daily lives:Non-Metallic (NM) Cabling: It is known as "Romex", a name behind a famous brand name. NM cables are useful for interior use in dry locations. Most of them are flat and have a tubular shape and can easily pass through the walls and floors of our homes. Almost all the wiring in the outlets is light and fixes modern homes. Below are some of the most common sizes and their amperage:
Underground feeder is a type of a non-metallic cable which is useful for wet locations and direct burial in the ground. It is useful for supplying outdoor fixtures, such as lampposts. Similar to NM cable, UF contains insulated hot and neutral wires. Additionally, they are also a bare ground wire. UF cable selling happens through the gray outer casing. They are majorly useful for major circuit wiring; it carries very high voltage as long as the circuits are on. Coaxial cable: In today's time, coaxial cables are less useful because of other forms of data wiring such as HDMI for television data transmission. They are round jacketed cables that feature an inner conductor and surround the tubular insulating layer. There are various types of cables found like RCA cable, rg59 coaxial cable and many more. Each of these cables has a purpose to serve like RCA cable is useful in televisions, DVD players or VCD players. Whereas, rg59 coaxial cable is useful in satellite or security purposes. So, before purchasing these cables you need to have an in-depth understanding of them. Most of them have white or black insulation and are in round shape. There are very fewer chances of getting shocked upon touching these cables as they carry less amount of voltage. Phone and data wires: Telephone and data cables are very low voltage wires and are useful for landline and internet connections. They contain four or eight wires. The most common type of wire is Category 5 i.e. Cat 5 cable. This cable contains eight wires wrapped in four pairs. It is useful for both phone and data transmission and offers great capacity and quality in comparison to common phone wires. These types of wires carry very small amounts of voltage and are safe because they are under 30 volts. Final Words: Working with wires can be tiresome. But, isn't it exciting to do it on your own? You get to learn a lot and can change the wiring according to your requirements like hanging up fairy lights or playing with dim lights. Source: https://www.sooperarticles.com/shopping-articles/electronics-articles/understanding-cabling-requirements-average-house-1770758.html
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"Once a year go someplace you've never been before"
You might have read this quote multiple times. Most of us wait for summers, so we can go to different destinations and have life-changing experiences. This summer too you might have been traveling if we were not facing this pandemic. But, let's not lose our hope. Maybe we will be planning our next trip soon. If you are planning an international trip of course after this pandemic comes under control, you will need to make sure that you are packing all necessary things. But, in the middle of all these, there are chances of you forgetting one necessary thing i.e. power adapters. While purchasing international power cords, you need to make sure that it matches the destination's plug standard. You need to have the right adapter so you don't end up frying your hairdryer. There are various types of plugs and adapters like iec c7 power cable, USA 3 pin NEMA, and many others. Before purchasing any cables, you need to make sure that you check the labels to avoid the risk of purchasing the wrong adapters. There are some important variations in the standards among countries, in some cases even the states or cities of countries. These differences include:Current Voltage Frequency Outlet and plug shape Let's see each of them in brief:Current: There are two standards of current i.e. Alternating Current and Direct Current. I hope you must remember the famous war of Tesla and Edison during which the US standard came to existence. Edison was supporting DC whereas Tesla was supporting AC. Both of them had some advantages over the other. The benefit of AC is that it is capable of traveling farther distances among power stations and because of that, AC standard got accepted only in the US. Of course, not all countries accept AC nor do all our devices. There are batteries and other internal devices of many electronics that require DC power. For example, laptops use DC power but have a brick that converts AC power to DC power. Voltage: Voltage is the force using which electricity travels. There are different standards of these international power cords. But, the common standards for travelers are 110/120V in the US and 220/240V in most parts of Europe. Before purchasing any type of International Power Cords make sure that you understand the capacity of your devices. Frequency: AC power means how often the current alternates each second. Mostly, the standards are 60 hertz in the US and 50 hertz in other parts of the world. In most cases, hertz doesn't make a difference in performance, occasionally it can cause problems with the devices that use the timers. Different plug: There are various types of plug shapes available in the market. Most of the travelers choose from the four common types of adapters. The International Trade Administration divides them in four different alphabetical shapes i.e. A, B, C, D and so on. You can always go online and check which one of these four is right for your trip. Going further, you must be thinking, is it sufficient to have a power plug adapter? Instead of carrying different adapters. Then my answer is No. You can purchase USB adapters and use your USB-C cord with a USB-A plug. But, for other devices, you need to look at the back of your device where you will see the UL listing and other information. For laptops, the information is on the power adapter. The UL listing will provide you information about current, frequency and voltage your device can handle. If you are traveling to the country which is perfect for the specific standards then you will need only one right plug shape. Usually, there are three types of devices:
Now, comes the real question: Do you need an adapter or a converter? I would say, what to use and where to use completely depends on the place you are traveling to. Let's say you are traveling with a single voltage device to a country that has a different voltage, then here you need a voltage converter. If you travel from a place that has low voltage standards to the place which has high voltage standards then you need a step-up converter. If it's the other way around then you need a step-down converter. Note: Do not use the converter with your laptop or else you will end up damaging it. If working with a laptop then in the rarest of the scenarios you will need to have a converter for AC to DC conversions. But, in most cases, your laptop already has the brick which takes care of power conversions. If the need arises for you to purchase it, then you can always pick them from your destination country. Final Words: While planning your next trip and thinking about IEC c7 power cable, converters, or cables don't forget about packing other important stuff. By the time you are still planning your next trip make sure to stay home and stay safe. Source: https://www.sooperarticles.com/shopping-articles/electronics-articles/international-power-cord-things-consider-while-purchasing-one-1770594.html Electricity is one of the most important parts of our lives. In today's constant and rapidly changing world we cannot imagine our life without it.
Electrical appliances are an integral part of our lives today. And various types of appliances surround us. All these appliances make it easy for us to live our daily lives. Just imagine how difficult would it be to get rid of this heat, get in touch with our loved ones or collaboratively work in a huge enterprise if we didn't have electric appliances like fans, charges, phones, laptops, etc. Each of these appliances has a purpose to serve. Today, in this article I am going to talk about one such appliance which holds a lot of importance i.e. power strips; different ways it is useful to us and its hazards. What is a power strip? It is a collection of electrical sockets which are put together to give us some flexibility. Using this, we can attach multiple appliances in a single strip without restricting us to walls and single sockets. It is highly useful at the places where there is a high demand for more than one wall socket. Many times electricians can find these power strip in the old houses as there are chances of them not having permanent sockets. But, it is necessary to make people aware of the proper use of these electric appliances to avoid electrical hazards. Power strips are plastic-coated and are encased in large metal boxes. They come with the LED switches that indicate when the units are on. Some of them have a push button which automatically trips if the power strip becomes very hot. It helps to avoid any big hazards. You can use premium quality power stips like PDU power stips to avoid any such accidents as well. The electricians often come to check that all appliances are working properly or not. Here, I will be listing the things these electricians check for different defective conditions: Daisy Chaining: Here the power strip plugging is into the other strips and/or extension cords. The supply of these electrical outlets is insufficient in some old buildings. This encourages some of the homeowners to interconnect these extension cords. In such scenarios, it is very likely for these inspectors to guide you. Such type of arrangement is not acceptable by the National Electric Code (NEC) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations. These regulation boards do not allow it because the strip or the wall socket will overload and this, in turn, results in the fire or the failure of the power strip. Structuring of power strips: They are permanently secure to build structures, tables, workbenches or other similar structures. You cannot route the strips through walls, ceilings, floors or any other opening structure. Overloading: If your usage of extension cords is overloading it then there are chances of you paying a fine in terms of a hazardous event. The overloading of these power strips can cause many dangerous situations and heavy damage. Let's see some of the unsafe conditions which can cause some bad events:
While you are using the extension cord, there are chances of it getting hot. It can be because of overloading. But, you need to make sure that it is not getting hot. In such scenarios, you need to make sure that you are not touching the extension cord with your hands. Another reason for overheating is if it is in a place where air circulation is low like behind any furniture or beneath the carpet. So, make sure that your extension cord is in the proper air-conditioned room or place while you are using it. Final Words: Power strips are a very useful part of our lives that helps us to connect multiple appliances to power so we can use them. These various types of strips like PDU power strip or even the normal power strips you need to make sure that you are using them with proper responsibility and not just as a replacement to the wall socket. If the inspectors are advising you to use them properly then make sure you are following the instructions. Because their guidance will help you to avoid potential accidents and fire hazards. Source: https://www.sooperarticles.com/home-improvement-articles/energy-efficiency-articles/power-strip-your-rescue-case-electrical-emergency-1770600.html Casting your favorite movie to your TV is simple. You can even do it just by speaking to your phone or digital assistant. But for that, you’d need a whole bunch of smarts in your TV, and a digital assistant device and whatnot.
Before all of this came along, there was, and in many homes and offices, still is, a simple cable to connect something to a display. It was the HDMI cable. But it was also the HDMI to DVI cable. While casting may seem like the simpler option, these cables didn’t require an internet connection, nor a power plug. It is just the connection cable that works with the connected devices themselves. These cables were the only way to display anything to the big screen. Not only can you connect your computer to your TV, but also a projector very easily. Let’s explore where you’d use the different cables: The Main Television Setup:TVs generally have one or maybe 2 HDMI ports. This is not always sufficient. You need one to connect to a cable box, if you have cable. So for the other one, you can plug in your DVD player via a simple HDMI cable. These are two devices that you are less likely to unplug very frequently. Instead of the DVD player, you can also have a gaming console, which is also something that is a part of your permanent setup. The struggle of ports comes when you want all three of these things. But there is quite a simple solution to that. Use the DVI port on your TV to connect to the HDMI port on the DVD player or console with the HDMI to DVI cable. This way both of your HDMI ports remain available for the cable box and the third device. Sometimes you may also want to connect your laptop to the TV. Depending on the ports you have on it, you can pick the cable that connects the devices. Apart from HDMI and DVI, it may be a DisplayPort. In all of the above cases, if you want to plug in an external speaker, which you should because TVs don’t have good speakers, then see if your TV has the HDMI ARC port. If not, the RCA ports will do the trick. Home Theatre Setup:You might say that this is pretty much the same as a TV setup. But it really isn’t. You go to your TV to watch the news, watch reality TV, shows and movies. but the TV is also something that is on while you cook your meals, for children to watch cartoons on and everything in between. A home theatre setup is a serious entertainment space. You specially created a space for entertainment apart from your TV. So this should most certainly have the right equipment. This does not mean the equipment has to be expensive. The two main things you need in this setup are a projector and the device you will use to project things from. The projector you get will depend on how you are going to place it. You can set it up permanently on the ceiling or if you don’t want to make such changes to your house, you can simply put it on the table. The placement will depend on how clear a picture it can project from what distance. If you have an old laptop lying around that you can simply leave plugged in to the projector, it would be the easiest setup. Use this laptop to run DVDs or even stream from the internet. To connect the laptop and the projector you can use an HDMI cable and you can connect speakers via an AUX wire. This makes for a relatively affordable setup and gives you the most bang for your buck. While technology is moving forward, if your products are running well, then you can make the most out of them simply by using cables correctly. Moreover, you can mix old and new technology by using adapter cables. Wrapping Up…Don’t right off your gadgets because you think they are old and can’t do much for you because new tech is all you see around you. With the right variation of cables, you can save on your setup and still get a nifty outcome. SF Cable has them all, old, new, adapters, whatever your setup requires. Browse the store and reach out to us for queries! Source: https://www.sfcable.com/blog/wired-affordable-entertainment-setups/ Apple has given us incredible machines. From the first ever ‘Hello world’ to their latest beast of a machine, the Mac Pro, the technology has been magnificent. With the evolution in computers, there has been a tremendous change in the connectors that come with it.
The cables for Mac have often been ones that only Apple uses because of their need to control the ecosystem. Back in 1984, the first ever Macintosh computer came with DB-9 ports for modem and mouse with a coiled phone cord for the keyboard. Two years later, when the then latest Mac Plus arrived, it brought with it the mini Din-8 serial port for connecting the modem and printer. The caveat here, as with most Apple products, was that it didn’t work with printers not made by Apple. (Yes, Apple made printers too, at the time, it was the ImageWriter.) This connector was on the beige PowerMac G3. These are just a couple of examples of how Apple has always seen it fit to use the connectors it deems fit and locking users into their ecosystem. After these connectors, we have seen plenty of connectors from Apple, like ADB, which was for keyboard and mice and designed by Steve Wozniak. There was the Apple Attachment Unit Interface, which was an Ethernet cable, etc. Some of the more recent cables for Mac have been their MagSafe power cable for Mac laptops. It is one of the best power cables to have ever existed. Now that it is gone, the market has adapters. And thank god for third party manufacturers, like us, for making adapters and cables that you can connect with your Apple devices, new and old. The latest connector that you will find on MacBooks, iMacs and even the iPad is the USB C port! In Apple’s hunt for ‘one port to rule them all’, they have finally found the perfect connector. All the way from old Macs to the new ones, the cables and connectors they use, from the mini Din-8 or the USB Type C cables, the connection standards have been changing, all to culminate in this one port. USB Type C cables are everywhere right now. And slowly Apple has embraced those. But even with them embracing USB C, there are its own problems. Not everything that you would want to connect to your laptop has switched to USB C. So you will need to connect an adapter if you want to connect an external device to it. For instance, if you want to plug in an Ethernet cable into a new MacBook, then you’d have to use a USB C adapter or a hub that has an Ethernet port. This does make it slightly more cumbersome, because you will always need to make sure that you have the hub with you. Apple’s USB C port is Thunderbolt 3, which combines the functionality of DisplayPort, as well as USB, and carries power. So if you have a monitor that has a thunderbolt port as well, you can use it as an external monitor with your MacBook and the computer will even power it! And if you want to connect it to your TV, just use a USB C to HDMI cable. Proprietary, and unique, Apple has always had its own take on connectivity. Own take and complete control. There are of course drawbacks of this complete control, but if you are a part of the ecosystem, then these issues are much less troublesome for you. SF Cable values all the products you have, whether they are the latest Macbooks or the old PowerMac G3. We have cables to help you use all of these devices. Apart from that, we also have the answer to all of your ‘just one USB C’ port problems. You can choose from a few nifty adapters and hubs, and we have a guide to help make that decision. If your devices are very old, sometimes it can be difficult to find the cable or adapter. But if it is functional, there is no harm in getting extra cables if you think they might become unavailable in the near future. Whatever your cable issues are, we have a number of solutions. Browse the store for your Mac cables, or USB cables. You may even stumble upon speaker cables for that complete home theatre setup. We have you covered. And if you don’t know which cable you need, contact us for a consultation. Source: https://www.sfcable.com/blog/apple-tale-special-cables/ Everyone who goes to an office to work has, up until now, taken reliable internet for granted. In a lot of offices, computers connect via Ethernet cables, while in a number of them; there is high-speed wireless internet. Either way, the connectivity is seamless and high quality. Similarly, you are used to experiencing decent connectivity at home as well because you use it much less.
However, currently, we are living through a pandemic. That means we have more or less stopped going to the office. We are working from home or we are studying from home. And this has changed a lot of things. We are suddenly realizing the huge amount of internet we use every day both for office stuff and home. Not only that, there is an additional use of video conferencing, which has also increased drastically due to remote work. It has led to some difficulty in reliability. Sometimes the VPN takes time to connect, or the smart speaker takes time to respond. Netflix and YouTube both lowered streaming bitrates in Europe, and YouTube changed its default resolution to SD in the US, though you can manually change that. This is so that there is less strain on the internet infrastructure. Our regular usage of the internet in the house included streaming a little bit, some research, smart home things, maybe a security camera or two etc. All of these things were not even in use throughout the day. Now however, we use some or the other service that can only happen on the internet. We play games online with friends, we watch Netflix while video conferencing with our friends, we have video meetings, online classes and more. From the minute we wake up, we are on the internet. Since we don’t go outside anymore, we are constantly meeting everyone inside. For 2020, we had dreamed of a wonderful wireless, connected smart home. But reality is far from it. Instead, we have to streamline, and sometimes reduce our internet consumption so that we can take care of necessary use over entertainment needs. And everyone knows that Wi-Fi is slower than straight up plugging in an Ethernet cable. If nothing before has taught us this, now we know for sure that the type of cables you use for the internet make all the difference in the world. So what can you do now to make this situation better? Switch up your cables. A number of us don’t pay attention to what cables we use. Specifically what versions of cables we use. In simpler words, we need to update our Ethernet cables. Where Does It Go?You can connect an Ethernet cable to almost anything that you use with a Wi-Fi connection. Here’s a list:
Which Ones To Buy?The speed of the data that passes through is important. But the device you connect it to is equally important in terms of whether it is going to be able to harness that speed. Because the Cat6 cable or the Cat7 shielded Ethernet cable can transfer data fast but the cables that run in your house also need to be able to transfer that data with equal or better speed and reliability. How Will This Help?With the Cat6 cable or Cat7 shielded Ethernet cable plugged into your routers, TV, computers and gaming consoles, you are bound to see much smoother data transfer. It helps make video conferences frictionless and makes it easier to run multiple things like video tutorials for education, team meetings and stream entertainment content simultaneously. If you plug in the compatible Ethernet cable into your TV, streaming content becomes that much faster and there is no hassle of losing connection with the Wi-Fi network. Ethernet cables come in particularly useful when you want a mesh network setup in your house because it eliminates the dead zones and blankets your entire house with connectivity. Higher versions of Ethernet cables, both in the walls and otherwise are the way to go. In a normal condition, they may seem a bit overkill but when you are stuck at home using the internet all day, they can give that necessary headroom. Wrapping Up…SF Cable sells a wide range of Ethernet cables and if you are using an old one right now, we highly recommend that you upgrade. Browse our store for each type. You will also get those in varying lengths. Get in touch with us for any internet cable related query you may have. Source: https://www.sfcable.com/blog/right-setup-work-from-home/ |
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