This video demonstrates that your re-wired has nothing on what they had to fix.

I am a loss of words for the original installers. I mean, why the heck will you use a 110 switch, 3-way mind you, to switch the computer wires in a CAT5 cable on/off?



KOT

I working on a refit right now where the previous installers ran 120 VAC for the Auton lift through the relays on an AMX NI. Guess they were having a special on RF only lifts back in the day!

The guy's right but it's sure tiring to hear him say "this is a disaster" over and over. It would have been more effective just to show each thing without comment. "This is a short circuit caused by bare wires just left hanging." Et cetera.

You guys are dense. Obviously the client asked the original installer for a network switch, and that's exactly what they gave them.

That's exactly what I thought, it's obvious an electrician did this

I thought it was more annoying hearing him say "Again, we did not do this install. We're here to replace this disaster."

KOT

I'd like to find a video like this from a residential install so that I don't have to make my own. Though, I should have taken video at the house I recently did a service call to that was obviously wired by a Sparky. 2 coax and a single Cat5 for phone to each room, no outlet in the structured wiring panel, surround system in the living room using round, in ceiling speakers placed in the wall for the surrounds (they were connected to the rears, and no speakers connected to the surrounds), mismatched bookshelves for the fronts, and a single HDMI from the equipment cabinet to the TV, which was damaged. But they did, somehow, manage to use a 2 zone receiver and set it to use the powered zone 2 for the porch speakers.

Yeah, this was actually tame compared to a lot of take over stuff I have seen. I just updated an audio system in a dentist's office. The old system was wired from the headend to the first volume control, and run in series from one volume control to the next. All with 8 ohm gear, old box speakers, some hanging on the wall, some placed on top of ceiling tiles. 7 exam rooms, reception area, waiting room, office, and a lab. All run in series off lamp cord.

Series? Not parallel?

Just what I want to drop into my mouth... ceiling tile debris as the bass hits.

KOT

Best way to connect McIntosh Gear...

[Link: facebook.com]

$500,000 for that install, huh? The installer was laughing all the way to the bank with that $50,000 payment he received on the cable setup alone.

KOT

It was actually a mix. Half the office was wired parallel with the other half was in series. When you turned the volume controls up, it would get static and cutout.

Also, forgot to mention that they notched the beam at every single VC location. All they had to do was nice over an inch or two and it would clear. They literally had a whole 16" bay to fit them but decided to cut the studs.

I know some trade out there has been taught to wrap every splice with electrical tape, perhaps wire nuts plus electrical tape, but this, to me, says "sleaze amateur."

I can beat this one, though.

A client once brought a turntable into the chain I worked at. He wasn't getting any sound out of it. I noted that the signal wires had been extended.

I swear the following is true.

About a foot and a half from the turntable, the audio cables and ground disappeared under electrical tape. I carefully removed the tape and found the hot left, ground left, hot right, ground right, and chassis wires were stripped back about and inch and carefully wrapped around a single solid #12 wire. There was something about it that made it not just look like THHN, but I don't remember exactly what that was.

Some three or four feet further on, the other end of the #12 solid wire had the hot left, ground left, hot right, ground right, and chassis wires stripped back about an inch and carefully wrapped around it.

When I stopped laughing, I told them I bet they didn't have any rumble or hum. And I was right!