Labelling Cables - an alternative algorithm

["Mark Harrison" <Mark.Harrison@xxxxxxx>]

I guess that many of us who've pulled cables have used the Doxey
algorithm for labelling them. For those who don't remember it, it's
here: http://www.automatedhome.co.uk/wiring/tips.html

I had intended to use this, but, at the suggestion of Paul, used an
alternative as follows:


The disadvantages of the new algorithm are that

1: it's less efficient (ie - uses a lot more tape)
2: You need more different colours of tape

The advantages are that:

1: You don't need to remember which way to count colours (ie - from the
end or the middle)
2: It's easier to see at a glance which cable you're talking about (see
the worked examples below)


The method works as follows, and assumes that you're running cables in
quad runs...

1: Pick a colour to be the "main" colour - we chose RED

2: For each quad run, label the wires with, respectively, 1,2,3 and 4
bands of RED

3: For each room, pick a colour, or colour combination

- Main rooms have single colours: the master bedroom 	is WHITE, the
nursery is GREEN

- Subsidiary rooms have multiple colours: the dining room is WHITE &
GREEN

4: The first quad point in each room is labelled _on_each_cable_ with a
SINGLE band of the "room colour"
4i: Subsequent points in that room are labelled with MULTIPLE BANDS of
that "room colour"
4ii: If you are on a multiple coloured room, then put the same number of
bands of EACH colour

5: Pick your "main rooms" first, as they'll have a single
"room colour".
Subsequent rooms will be multis


Examples:

Second wire of First quad point in the master bedroom: 1 White, 2 Red
- 1 White = point 1 in white room (bedroom)
- 2 Red = second cable within that point

Third wire of Second quad point in the nursery = 2 Green, 3 Red
- 2 Green = point 2 of the green room (nursery)
- 3 Red = third cable within that point

Fourth wire of (only) quad point in the dining room = 1 Green, 1 White,
4 Red
- 1 Green + 1 White = first point of green+white room (dining
room)
- 4 Red = fourth cable within that point


Given that you can get white, black, green, red, and blue tape easily
(and very cheaply), then you have White, Black, Green and Blue to play
with:

- 4 rooms identified by a single colour
- 12 rooms identified by a pair of colours
- 4 rooms identified by three colours
- 1 room identified by all four colour
= 25 rooms - enough for a 5 Bed + 3 reception + 2 circulation +
kitchen + utility + 3 bathroom house with 10 spare!

By looking at the "non-red" wires, you can see "at a
glance" which room
the cable goes to.
By counting the "reds", you can see which cable within the block
is goes
to.

Mark Harrison
Head of Systems, eKingfisher