The Low Voltage Learning Path

Chuck Bowser, RCDD, shares essential knowledge for those transitioning from traditional electrical work to the specialized world of low voltage and ICT installation. His comprehensive guide covers critical resources, industry standards, and career development strategies.

• FOA Reference Guides provide clear explanations with diagrams for fiber optic theory, connectors, and testing
• Electricians should study NEC Articles 725, 760, 726, 770 and Chapter 8 for low voltage applications 
• BICSI manuals like ITSIM and TDMM offer detailed guidelines for installation techniques and design standards
• Hands-on practice with termination kits and tools is essential before working in production environments
• Successful transition requires shifting from code-centric thinking to standards-driven performance mindset
• J-hook installation requires wide bases, under 50 cables per hook, proper spacing, and mounting to structural supports
• RCDD candidates with field experience have a significant advantage when entering the design profession
• New technologies like fault-managed power systems and single-pair Ethernet represent exciting opportunities

Contact me to discuss chapter 10 of the TDMM or other questions about your RCDD preparation. Join me at BICSI Beyond in Las Vegas!

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Let's Talk Cabling
• 3:27 Essential Books for Low Voltage Work
• 8:35 Electrician's Guide to Low Voltage Standards
• 19:24 RCDD Career Path Advice
• 30:00 J-Hook Installation Best Practices

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Wednesday night, 6 pm, eastern Standard Time. That could only mean live one thing live after hours with Chuck Bowser, your favorite RCDD, where I'm going to answer your questions on installation, design, certification, project management, even career path questions. So let's go ahead and do the intros. Welcome to, let's Talk Cabling your gateway to the world of ICT. Get ready to dive deep into knowledge and power. All righty, Welcome to Wednesday Night Live Got some great questions for you. Lots of content to go over tonight. Lots of stuff going on, so let's you know.

Speaker 1: 0:56

First off, let's get the first thing out of the bat. What are you drinking tonight? Go ahead and put it in the chat box. What are you drinking tonight? Go ahead, put it in the chat box. What are you drinking tonight? I am drinking roasted dandelion tea. Roasted dandelion tea with, uh, some honey. That's what I'm drinking tonight. You might be wondering why is chuck drinking tea on a hot summer day? I don't know, just had the craving for it. Peach tea, cold drinking, right.

Speaker 1: 1:24

So, oh, forgot to do the acronym challenge. So let's just pick a random book from my desk, a random book, and we will pick an acronym from it. Just do this live, because I forgot to pick one outside earlier. Uh, about to get you some water. Water is good, water is good, so let's go ahead and pick an acronym. Let's do one. Okay, let's do uh, osha, that's. That should be a good, easy one. Osha o-s-h-a. What does that acronym mean? Osha o-s-h-a. Tell me in the chat box what does that mean? All right, I got 10 000 points. The first person who gets that correct? Oh, let me go ahead and put on my chat so that way I can see when people are chatting with me. There you go. Nobody wants to even take a guess. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. There you go. That's the government organization that makes sure that we stay safe. We stay safe.

Speaker 1: 2:22

Hey, did you catch Monday's show? Did you catch it? I did a show with uh distribution. I had anthony romeo come on. He works for wise components, was a distributor in the northeast and we talked about why you should be getting your cable through distribution and not necessarily going to amazon. Good show, you might want to it. I got other shows coming up too. I got one coming up on how to nurture that relationship with your inside salesperson and distribution, and then I also have another show coming on where I talk to Projects360. Projects360 is a project management, estimating, customer resource management type of program that was written by somebody who comes from the field, from the low voltage field, so it's designed specifically for us, specifically for us.

Speaker 1: 3:16

Hey, did you know? Did you know the podcast is turning five years old in two weeks? It's turning five years old in two weeks. It's turning five years old in two weeks. I've got almost 500 videos on YouTube and I've got 300 audio episodes over that thing. Five years, holy Toledo. Let me ask you this Put your thoughts in the chat box.

Speaker 1: 3:44

How should I celebrate it? How should I celebrate that five-year? Should I do a live show and invite people to come on and talk, or should I do giveaways? What's your thoughts? What are your thoughts right? Do I have any shows based on the TDM chapters?

Speaker 1: 3:58

Having a hard time truly grasping chapter 10. You and a bunch of other people Chapter 10 is not an easy one by any stretch of the imagination. I don't have a specific video on chapter 10 right now, but I'm currently recording videos for each of the chapters for the TDMems. That's in the progress. And then also, if you joined here before we actually live, if you joined us on chat, you're going to be at Bixie in Vegas, bixie Beyond. Are you going to be at Bixie Beyond in Vegas? Because I'm going to be there. I'm going to be there and if you're going to be there, then make sure that let me fix that camera. Holy Kalita, my logo's not in there. Got to have the logo and it's all about the branding, right, all about the branding. I need to get a new camera. I really do. It's just messing me up big time. So, yeah, I'm going to be there. So DM me and maybe we can meet up or something, right? So that'd be kind of cool. That'd be kind of cool, all right. So let's just get it into this right.

Speaker 1: 5:00

First question I'm a visual guy. When I read, I can't see it. Design it, it's in my head, it's a doozy. Yeah, I get that. Most technicians are like that. That's not. That's not unusual.

Speaker 1: 5:12

So the first question comes from digidome. Diga dome, tiktok, and he says I am an electrician trying to get into low voltage work and ran across your channel. What books should I buy first? An electrician trying to get into low voltage work, what book should I buy first? If you've got suggestions for Digidome, put them in the chat box, put them in the thread here. I've got some ideas, though I've got some ideas and no particular order. Well, they are somewhat of an order. See, there are great electricians out there doing low-voltage work. There's also a lot of electricians out there doing horrible, horrible low-voltage work.

Speaker 1: 5:58

So I do have some references for you. And, by the way, pulling communications cable, communications cable, voice cabling, data cabling, it's not like pulling you know a. It's not. It's not like pulling your, your 12-2 or something like that, for or like, it's just, it's totally different. We have to be careful on how hard we pull in the cable, twist rates, bends, all kinds of stuff. But I have some rates.

Speaker 1: 6:22

First, one I'm going to refer to you is the FOA reference guide. It's written by Jim Hayes of the Fiber Optic Association. The thing I like about it is it's written in plain English and it talks about theory for connectors, for splicing, for testing, and for you, cole, tons of diagrams, tons of diagrams. And for you, cole, tons of diagrams, tons of diagrams, and it's going to save you from guessing, you know, with the different types of connectors and loss budgets. So look that up. Another one from the FOA, the FOA Reference Guide for Premise Cabling, again written by Jim Hayes. Jim Hayes has a lot of knowledge in this industry. I had him on the show once. Has a lot of knowledge in this industry. I had him on the show once.

Speaker 1: 7:04

The interview didn't go very well because we had technology issues and it got kind of really messed up. I'd love to have him back on again but I don't know. I don't know if it's in the books or not. We'll have to see.

Speaker 1: 7:15

And the reason you want to read that book, the FOA Reference Guide to Premise Cabling, is it talks about copper and fiber cabling all under one roof, right, it talks about category cabling behavior, bend radiuses. You know a lot of people, a lot of people will Chuck what's the bend radius Kind of depends on which book you read it out, of, right, you know the most common answer you're going to hear is four times the outside diameter of the cable. But there are other recommendations and some of the other best practices 10 and 20 times EOD. So it kind of really depends. So, band radiuses, pathways Matter of fact, one of the questions tonight is about pathways. It's about J-locks or open-top carriers, bonding and grounding. Bonding and grounding, again, low-voltage. People don't do grounding, we rely on electricians to do that. But that book covers that Also look up Cabling, the Complete Guide to Copper and Fiber Optic Networking by Olivero and Woodward, and it does a deep dive in structured cabling best practices.

Speaker 1: 8:15

Yes, it's a brick, but there is no fluff in that book, right? And it goes through all the usual stuff. You know the layout, the pathways, the testing, the labeling and some real, real gotcha. Actually, I came across some really cool videos, some really cool videos. You know, there's this thing on the Internet and maybe Ed can help you, because I can't remember what it's called but there's this thing on the Internet. It's like a time machine. You can go back and look at web pages that were up like 20 years ago that are no longer there. You can go back and look at web pages that were up like 20 years ago that are no longer there, and so somebody posted some videos that was posted by Cable Instruction Maintenance Magazine about how to pull cabling. It's really cool. It's really cool. It's cool stuff.

Speaker 1: 8:58

Oh, so, getting back to my electrician's answer, so you also should. Well, you're probably already familiar with the NEC, the National Electrical Code, right Either the 2020 or the 2023, hopefully the new 2026 coming along. You're probably already familiar with that. But maybe now you need to do a deep dive into the low voltage parts, right? For example, if you want to look up, you know, class one, class two, class three circuits, go make sure you look at and read Article 725, especially if you're doing PoE when you said low voltage.

Speaker 1: 9:32

Low voltage is not just voice and data cabling, it's also fire alarm and security and AV, like coal does, and a bunch of other stuff. So if you're not doing fire alarm already a lot of electricians do fire alarm but you're not doing already go look at article 760, right? Um, also fault managed power systems, uh, digital electricity that's article 726. Make sure you also do a deep dive in article 770 for fiber opting and all of the articles contained within chapter 8. Okay, contained within Chapter 8. But just remember codes are for safety, minimal quality construction, not for performance.

Speaker 1: 10:10

So it's a good starting point, but you really want to make sure that you get involved in other manuals too, and Bixie has some really good ones. Now, because you're an electrician, I'm assuming you're already in the field, so you want to do a lateral transfer. Start doing more low-volt're already in the field, so you know you want to do a lateral transfer, start doing more low voltage work in the field and then maybe at some point doing design work. So some bixi manuals that you might want to read. For the first one, the it's some manual the information transport systems installations methods manual. The current version is, uh, the eighth version and I heard that they're going to start working on the ninth, ninth edition, starting here soon, and if they're just starting it now, that means in about a year it'll get published.

Speaker 1: 10:55

Why do you want to read the Itsem? The Itsem is the installer's playbook. It tells you how to pull cable, how to address cable, how to terminate cable. I was flipping through it today looking for something I forgot. I don't remember what I was looking for and it actually showed the measurements on how to lay out 66 blocks. Lay out 66 blocks, and that's important information, because I'm putting up my plywood in a new podcast studio this weekend Well, not this week, because I'll be at Bixie Next weekend and I'm going to be putting up 66 blocks, bix blocks, 110 blocks, right, if I can get somebody from actually no, I'm also yeah, bix blocks. And then maybe, if I can find some old Krona blocks, that'd be kind of cool, right, and then I don to put that on the plow. So it actually shows you how to lay that out.

Speaker 1: 11:46

It also talks about how to terminate cables, how to do the fire stopping when. Another great question from today's show for tonight later on, when to use putty versus caulk. That's all addressed in the ITSA manual. Again, going back to the fire alarm thing, nfpa 72, that's going to be the National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code Handbook. It's great for doing fire alarm systems. I don't know much about that book because while I work for companies that have done fire alarm, I've never done it myself.

Speaker 1: 12:19

But then also not everybody does just inside plant low voltage. There are people who do outside plant low voltage. Two manuals for you. One, the Bixi Outside Plant Design Reference Manual, the OPSDRM. That's written by industry professionals who talk about how to do outside plant. I've got a show coming up with two very experienced outside plant fiber people. If you have any outside plant questions not necessarily fiber, but any outside plant questions make sure you send them to me so when I do that recording in about a week or so I can include your questions.

Speaker 1: 13:01

People always say Chuck, how do you do show on cable? Don't you run out of content? No, I don't, I don't. Five years, five years, right. 300 audio episodes, 500 videos. That should tell you something. Chuck's got a lot to say about cabling.

Speaker 1: 13:17

But there's another one too. There's the one created by the FOA, the Fiber Optic Association. Right, they have their guide to Outside Plant Fiber Optics and that talks about trenching and duct and locating splice enclosures, mid-span access and stuff like that, things that aren't necessarily in the ceiling, and that's kind of the good thing about that. One is the Big C Outside Plant Design Reference Manual is more enterprise type of outside plant, where the FOa outside plant guide you're going to have maybe stuff in there talking about you know outside plant for you know, cable tv and mid-span access, a bunch of other stuff. Both of them are highly recommended, right?

Speaker 1: 13:57

If you think at some point in time you're going to start doing data centers, make sure that you, uh, or maybe doing enterprise work, make sure you look up the Bixby TDMM, the Telecommunications Distributions Methods Manual. Yes, it's expensive. Yes, it's expensive, but it's worth it. It's worth it. I've got the last three versions of it, right, and it's going to give you a great map for designing pathways, designing spaces, designing bonding and grounding. That's the difference between the TDMM and the ITSIM. The TDMM tells you how to design the work. The ITSIM manual tells you actually how to install the work. Okay, so those ones I recommend you get pretty much within the first, I would say 60 days, within the first 60 days. Cool, I love that. Knowledge isn't cheap, exactly right. Exactly right. And I've learned that the ANSI TIA booklets are way more expensive than the Bixie prices. They are If you buy a full set, a full set of the ANSI standards and I've got a set here.

Speaker 1: 15:05

Where's my standards? Here they are. If you buy a complete set, not only is it heavy, it's thick, the all the all, the ANZ telecommunication standards. I want to say I spent about fourteen hundred dollars on them. Well, I didn't. The podcast did. That's why the podcast needs money, because I do stuff like that.

Speaker 1: 15:32

So now, because a lot of people say, well, you know the standards, say, well, have you read the standards? No, somebody told me Hold on, I got the standards, let me look it up. So sometime, maybe within the first year, go to Global and purchase the ANSI standards, and there's going to be lots of them. There's going to be the, you know, the 568.1, which is the commercial cabling building standard 568.2, which is the premise building standards. 568.3, which is for copper component standard. You also want to buy the 568 standard, all three of those. The 569 standards for pathways and spaces, 606 for administration, 607 for bonding and grounding. I highly suggest this one, highly suggest this one for you as an electrician, because bonding and grounding to us is a little bit more involved.

Speaker 1: 16:27

Okay, you know, I'm just going to give you one example. I've said this on many occasions, it's probably not new to anybody. If you install a ground rod, per code it's got to be 25 ohms or less. If you put it part of the standards, it's 10 ohms or less. And the reason for that is because we want to protect that very expensive equipment, right? Mind a photocopy and send it to my email. That would be a lot of photocopies, a lot of photocopies, right? And then you know there are some other stuff out there as well too. Matter of fact, a lot of the manufacturers, a lot of them Corning, panduit, leviton, comscope, a lot of those, and Anixter too, anixter, and I think Graybar may do this. They put out little pamphlets which give you, they boil down all the stuff that's in the standards. It helps you do it. Don't forget to check.

Speaker 1: 17:25

Fluke. Fluke has a fantastic, fantastic Q&A database for copper and fiber. Lots of great resources out there. Lots of great resources. But here's some other things. Don't just get the books. Okay, we as technicians get put. You got to put your hands on it, you got to put your hands on it. So go buy a fiber termination kit, go buy some jacks, go buy a, go buy a uh, a punch tool. Go buy a punch tool and terminate some jacks while you're watching TV. Kind of get the feel for them. It's a lot better to make a mistake in a practice or classroom environment than in a production environment. Ask me how I know that one. Yeah, right, and then you also have here's a tip for you as well, and I hope I don't offend anybody with this. Here's a tip for you as well, and I hope I don't offend anybody with this You've got to shift your mindset from being an electrician to being low voltage.

Speaker 1: 18:26

You've got to shift that mindset. Okay, being in the industry for 40-plus years, I can tell you right now there's a lot of electricians who look down on low voltage people. Oh, that's that skinny wire, that's sissy wire. Okay, okay. But and what do? Skinny wire, that sissy wire, okay, okay, but and what do I mean by that? The biggest one. I mentioned it just a few minutes ago codes versus standards versus best practices. Codes versus standards versus best practices Most electricians, they function in the code area. They don't function in standards or best practices. See, code is just for minimum safety. The standards and the best practices are going to help you make sure that you install that cable the way it's going to perform and also you know the way the manufacturer wants it. Okay, so that's a good one.

Speaker 1: 19:07

So next one, this one comes from Cole on TikTok. Cole on TikTok, wait, but A-card electricians are always calling C-card low voltage prima donnas. Yeah, that's exactly what I was talking about, ed. So this question came from Ed, from Cole on TikTok, and he asked me what advice do you have for a youngin, 25 years old, a youngin? I got shirts that are 25 years old. I do. I got a shirt from when I was 18. It doesn't fit me anymore. My wife wears it now 18, so I'm 60. So that's what that's, an old shirt. So Cole says he's a young, at 25 years old, with seven years of ICT field experience, and they're about to test for the RCDD in a month and they want to gain connections and learn everything they can while also getting into a good company to work for with zero experience as an RCDD. Fantastic question, fantastic Wise components in the house. Wise components.

Speaker 1: 20:05

I need to talk to you about the mentoring committee. I forgot to sign those documents and I want to know if it's too late to do that or not. I don't know why I put it off. I procrastinate. It's one of my downfalls. It is, it truly is so, cole. Congratulations, actually, cole's in TikTok tonight.

Speaker 1: 20:25

Congratulations on making the decision for studying for your RCDD. I wish I'd done mine earlier and the fact that you're doing yours with seven years of experience which, by the way, you qualify for. There's three different ways you can qualify. Right, you can qualify for two years design experience and two years education, like you know, maybe like electrical design, something like that Two years field experience, or two years STEM experience or military training, or five years of design experience, and it sounds to me like you already have all those wrapped up experience. Or two years STEM experience or military training or five years of design experience, and it sounds to me like you already have all those wrapped up and I didn't do mine until I had like 20 years experience, so you're already ahead of me. You're already ahead of me, so good for you for doing that right. So, number one, you're probably already doing this Read through the TDMM.

Speaker 1: 21:11

I know you're doing this because you're asking me some questions about chapter 10. I'll put this out there for you. Cole, I think we're already friends on LinkedIn. If we're not, send me a friend request. If you have questions about chapter 10, send them to me and I will help clarify them for you. Okay, I'll do that for you, but you need to do that TDM inside out, forwards and backwards. So you know, a lot of technicians are going to tell you, but, chuck, most of the chapter is on project management and execution.

Speaker 1: 21:46

Okay, okay, but don't rule out the other. See, don't fall into the trap that you just want to study to pass the test. You want to study so you can be the best RCDD out there, so you can be a competent RCDD. Don't just study to pass the test. That's the biggest flaw, and I see this happen in every study group that I do, every study group. So, for example, when I do my study groups, they usually start off with about 20, 25 students okay, 20, 25 students. They usually start off with about 20, 25 students Okay, 20, 25 students. And by the end of the program I'm usually down to about seven to eight students, because a lot of them realize there's a lot of information in there, a lot of information. So you know.

Speaker 1: 22:31

And you said within the month so I don't know if it's one day or 30 days create a study group, you can create your own. And if you want to create your own study group and you want help to find people for it, again DM me. I will put out a, I'll put out the messages to my 17,000 followers and say hey look, I got somebody who wants to create a study group for fellow RCDs people and I'll help you get that lined up right. Um, and also, don't be afraid, I've already offered you my services on linkedin, but don't don't be afraid to go to linkedin and and and leverage other rcdds. There are people out there who, if you ask them, they're willing to help you get.

Speaker 1: 23:16

Get onto LinkedIn type in RCDD and go find one, especially one that's in an area that you really want to work in, so, for example, like AV or something. Then reach them out and say hey look, I'm studying from RCDD and I was wondering, maybe if I can bounce some questions off you about AV. The vast majority of people on LinkedIn are going to say yes, the vast majority, the vast majority and then also attend. So Bixie has different regions, right? You get the southeast region, the northeast region and a bunch of other regions and each one of those regions, like once a year, twice a year sometimes, they will do these events and so they'll bring people in and they'll do these things and go there and learn stuff, go there and meet people Again, maybe even ask to help volunteer, set up stuff like that. That's hard.

Speaker 1: 24:14

I looked at the Bixie Registry and not a single person has an RCD in my state, north Dakota, north Dakota. Okay, here's what I'm going to do for you Call, tell me yes or no. Are we friends on LinkedIn now? Yes or no? Are we friends on LinkedIn now? Because here's what I'm going to do If you, if you are, if you are on LinkedIn, I'm going to go to LinkedIn right after this live stream and I'm going to put out a. I'm going to do If you are on LinkedIn I'm going to go to LinkedIn right after this live stream and I'm going to put out a message. I'm going to say, hey, I am looking for some RCDDs in North Dakota to help mentor a friend of mine and let's see if we can't find you somebody. I've done that in the past for other people and I found them people. So let me know, let me know that right. So now let's talk about you said, about finding the right company.

Speaker 1: 25:02

With zero experience as an RCDD, do not, do not forget about the seven years of field experience. Okay, that is a value. That is a value. There's a lot of companies out there that hire RCDDs who they basically just are college students. There's nothing wrong with college students. They're college students and they're good at taking reading material and passing tests, and then they become an RCDD. I'm telling you right now, if you go in with seven years field experience, there's a lot of companies out there that's going to help you with that. Wise Component says yes, the Bixie Mentorship Program, absolutely. But I don't think they're accepting applications right now, though, if I remember right, I don't think they're. I think we're in a midstream, are we not? But yes, bixie Mentorship is a great program, absolutely great program, right so? Yeah, mentorship is a great program, absolutely great program, right? So, yeah, don't forget about that field experience. Okay, that's going to give you.

Speaker 1: 26:09

If I'm doing a project and I've got two rcdds and one of them has seven years field experience and six months rcdd experience and the other rcdd has, um, the other rcd has, you know, five or six years rcd experience but no field experience, do you know who I'm gonna pick? I'm gonna pick the person with field experience. And you know why? Because the person with the field experience knows both sides of that equation. They have done the work and now they've just went through the program and now they know the correct way or the better way to do it. So there you go go.

Speaker 1: 26:39

I thought saying the word engineer with an RCD is a no-no. Daryl the RCDD, yeah, you do got to be careful that word engineer in contractual documents. In contractual documents, you got to be careful with that word engineer. But a lot of times we will call people field engineers, computer engineers, but when you get into contractual documents there's a specific requirement for somebody to actually be considered an engineer. So there you go.

Speaker 1: 27:10

So don't be afraid to do that, don't be afraid of your seven years' experience, and then start picking out companies, potential companies that you might want to work for and they may not necessarily be in North Dakota. You know there's a lot of remote opportunities as project managers, as designers, as estimators, as quality, so sometimes they're not going to care that you live in North Dakota. So start putting out those kinds of feelers and maybe use a site like Glassdoor. So start putting out those kinds of feelers and maybe use a site like Glassdoor. Glassdoor is a site where you can put in a company's name and you can find what the actual employees say about that company. And then, if you find a company that you want to pick, make sure that when you do the interview, you're not doing the interview to get a job. You're not doing the interview to get a job. You're not doing the interview to get a paycheck. You do the interview for a fit. It's a relationship between you and that company. And if there's not a good fit, move on, move on.

Speaker 1: 28:14

And then probably the best thing I can say for you, cole, is keep learning and stay humble. Keep learning and stay humble, because I'm telling you right now, there's a lot of things in our industry that changes all the time and, with that being said, don't burn your bridges. It's a small world. It's not only a small world, it's even smaller now with the Internet. And it's even smaller when you look at the low-voltage industry. And the beautiful thing, cole, is we are on the cusp of an exciting leap. The cusp of an exciting leap and what do I mean by that? Fault managed power systems, right, a single pair of Ethernet Edge architecture. Lots of great stuff coming down the pike. New exciting stuff, outside of the box thinking stuff for a lot of us old low voltage people.

Speaker 1: 29:05

And here's the problem when you get my age, I'll be first to tell you I'm 60 years old. When you get my age, you don't like change as much as you did when you were 20. I don't like change. Sometimes Ask you did when you were 20. I don't like change. Sometimes Ask my wife, she'll tell you. She'll tell you I don't like change. But you are at the, you're at 25 and you embrace change, so you'll learn it quicker. So there's a lot of cool stuff coming down. Class 4 up to 450 volts with this new voltage monitoring system is going to be amazing, absolutely. I just did an episode with I can't remember the gentleman's name, but he works for Panduit talking about fault-managed power systems, and I got another episode coming up talking about fault-managed power systems with Luke Ghetto. I keep missing the appointment, though, dang it man. I hate when that happens. So lots of good stuff coming out. Lots of good stuff coming out. Lots of good stuff coming out. Alrighty, so let me see here Bob Voss is a good person as well too. Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 30:02

This question comes from big block 69 Camaro Chuck. What are some tips for installing J hooks? I got you covered. I got you covered. So first, always try to pick a j hook with a wide base. Okay, a wide base. Now they do make like the broader ring with the plastic inserts, but they have. They're wider than the metal ring, but they're still not that wide. You want a broad base because what happens is there's another rule. You really want to respect capacity.

Speaker 1: 30:33

So try to always put no more than 50 cables in a J-hook system. I know they make J-hooks that can handle more than 50. But the problem is, if you put 50 or more, the weight of all that bundle crushes the ones on the bottom and that changes the performance of the cable, right. So try to stay away from those and then, yes, try to stay less than 50. But I'm telling you right now, don't go exactly up to 50. In fact, the standard tells us that when we design the cable support system we need to design for a minimum of three cables per faceplate, but the actual install design tells us only two cables per. So you've got a 30% growth. So, never fill the J hooks to 50 cables, only do them to about 50% or 60%. So that's going to be 25 cables, 30 cables, and here's why I say that that cable plant is going to be there for 7, 10, 15 years, 20 years. You don't know how many cables are going to be put in that J hook.

Speaker 1: 31:37

After you leave, okay, after you leave. And don't try to cheat that 50 cable rule by, you know, using tie wraps and zipping down them to kind of crush them. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Also, make sure you mount to structure that's designed for structural support, okay, like, maybe attached to building structure.

Speaker 1: 31:58

Do not attach to ceiling grid wires, do not attach to light wires. In fact, you've got to put in your own independent wire. And make sure that those J-hooks have four to five feet of separation. Random separation, okay, random separation. Some of the manufacturers will tell you when you get into the Cat 6A, those separations got to be closer, three to four feet apart, because of the extra weight for Category 6A cable. Also, when putting in them J hooks, make sure that you are at least three inches above the ceiling tile. That's code. By the way, that's code. Now the standard says six. So if you follow the standards, you're thus exceeding code, and the reason for that is you know, again, you got to be able to get in that ceiling so people can get in there to do their work. The inspector has to be able to get up into the ceiling to inspect your work. Check with Chad GPT. That's funny, wise Components. Yeah, no, don't do that. Don't do that. Don't do that.

Speaker 1: 32:56

Chat gpt is a good resource, but you gotta verify it. I, I think I did this. I told you guys on the last live stream last week. Somebody did a search on chat gpt how many cables can you put in a one inch conduit? And chat gpt said 40. 40. That's obviously not right, obviously not right. That's all I'm going to say, as Tom Hanks would say in that movie. That's all I got to say about that, right, yes?

Speaker 1: 33:30

Also, make sure that you don't paint the J-hooks. You don't paint them, because the best thing to do is leave them unpainted Because, number one, paint coatings can change the surface friction as you're pulling the cable through and it might change the listing of the component If you want a J-hook that's color-coded as a matter of fact. Thank you, invent. I got a box of green J-looks that I'm going to be putting in the podcast studio. They're powder-coated, so they're done that way, they're manufactured that way and there are listed products, so only use them as the way that they are listed for Upgrade from powder rings. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's exactly good to go.

Speaker 1: 34:14

So any other questions? Muhammad Ibrahim yes, that's exactly Tim. Thank you, tim. That's exactly who that was. It was Muhammad. Yes, I don't know why. I got a bad thing about remembering people's names. I truly do. I truly do. All right, it is 635. I'm five minutes past. Let's talk, let's talk, let's cable. With pride In the world of ICT, let's ride this tide. Thank you for joining us on let's Talk Cable and stay tuned for more episodes filled with innovation. Keep investing, keep achieving Until next time.