Hi: I am designing a wall unit that, when assembled, will be 12′ wide and 7′ high. I am trying to come up with a slick way to provide access for the customer to hook up all his components once the unit is in place and painted. The small boxes will be on shelves below a large center section that houses an enormous, traditional TV that is very heavy. The shelves will be behind a glass panelled door. Does anybody have a cool way to provide access to the backs of the small components without needing 10′ long wires?
Thanks
Bob K
Replies
What do I know but . . .
Until the cavalry arrives I will say my mentor had access panels on the other side of the wall. These opened into a stair well to the basement. this was a source of cooling air also. Ventilation is something to think about if higher power components.
Nada
Hi Bob,
Don't mean to be a wise guy but...... Thinking about your issue leads me to think, how often do you need access? I mean once the components are in place how often do you have to change the wiring? I've seen all manner of workings, some very expensive, and I wonder how much they are really needed.
Whatever you do I'd suggest avoiding anything that causes you to make compromises in the design.
Guess I'm not much help, eh?
Regards,
"Does anybody have a cool way to provide access to the backs of the small components without needing 10' long wires?"
Put the whole unit on rails (think mining cart here), inlet into the floor, so it can be pulled away from the wall for servicing? ;-)
Seems to me there are different levels of connections:
1. external input - e.g. power, TV cable, Internet, LAN, etc.,
2. inter-component wiring, and
3. external output - e.g. speakers, etc.
Category 1 connections might be centralized and hidden behind an access panel inside one of the unit's "boxes". Category 2 and 3 could be handled either by pre-wired patch panels or by "raceway" channels between the component areas. How much needs to be anticipated depends on what is going into the unit, and what level of future expansion you need to accommodate. At a minimum, you'd probably want to pre-wire (surge-protected) power to each of the component areas. Doing patch panels for all the various types of connectors becomes more complicated.
As noted, ventillation (filtered?) for each of the component areas might also be an issue that should be addressed in design, as well.
There Are Solutions in the A-V Industry
http://www.middleatlantic.com/enclosure/roll/srsr.htm
Is one example of a carrier that pulls out of the cabinet and rotates for access to the back of components. They get larger, and some require support rails that are temporarily set up out the front of the cabinet to support large stacks of components.
However, almost any solution will require longer cables since merely chasing form one section to others will require going up, over, around panels and support walls. Pulling out and rotating also wil require longer cables.
Dave Sochar
Acorn Woodworks
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