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PostPosted: Wed Jul 07, 2004 3:20 pm
by Madhadder
I've searched Google for the last 2.5 hrs, and I still can't find a company
that makes those cable guns. I know I've seen them, so I know I'm not
crazy or something. The last one I saw was yellow/black and could shoot
the weight/string something like 150ft..

If anybody know who make these things, please point me towards their
web site, as I need to get another one... Big Thanks

PostPosted: Wed Jul 07, 2004 3:33 pm
by peekitty
I recall seeing them in a catalog from either Rexall Datacom or Grabar. They also had a slingshot/fishing reel combo that was less risky (and less fun) than the crossbow pistol. I haven't seen them marketed lately, I wonder if some cubicle dweller got accidentally skewered with a piece of high-velocity cable?

PostPosted: Wed Jul 07, 2004 5:18 pm
by Barry
We (actually I just watched) used a crossbow type thingy once. Then we had to explain to the electricians why they were replaceing the flourescent light that we killed from the top. Some of our schools only have five inches of clearance above the cable trays, not enough room to fire an arrow there. Might have to look into building something....

PostPosted: Thu Jul 08, 2004 12:43 am
by Madhadder
OK, Here's one I finally found.. It's made by Greenlee.. And can be bought
at Grabar. The range is only 50ft, but I'm sure there are others that go
farther. If not Some "Mods" are needed :D

How about an RC cable dragger with POV video?

PostPosted: Wed Jul 14, 2004 4:41 pm
by Novilio
Ahh, me. About ten years ago we were about to network the entire Coriolis office, which at that time was a former designer toilet showroom. It had a weird dropped ceiling that must have cost the former tenants a fortune, as it went up and down at weird angles and was a dazzling shade of black. I had this idea of using an RC car to drag either the cable (which was Thin-net back then and pretty heavy) or a string to pull the cable proper, but there was such poor line of sight above the ceiling that I didn't think I could drive the car effectively with just my head stuck up above the dropped ceiling, watching. I wanted to put video on the car and pondered using ATV (amateur television; basically ham radio video) but it was expensive and everybody else thought it was just an excuse to screw around. (It was, basically.) We eventually pulled the cable tile-by-tile, even though it took all day. (God spare us from ring topologies!)

Today you could simply put a network video camera on top of the RC car and pipe the video back through the cable it was dragging, or take the high road and use a Wi-Fi video camera.

If anybody ever actually does that to pull cables above a ceiling, I'd love to hear how it goes. You could write an article on it and I'll bet it'd be Slashdotted!

--73--

--Novilio