Damn, thats gross. I don't use rubber bands, I just coil wires around the controller. I know, thats bad for them. Still, I HATE wires everywhere.
Yup, very bad! Wouldn't you rather have a bit more wire showing than dead pads? The best thing to do is get the cable and tie it up neatly into a coil, as it would have been new. You could use one of those velcro ties as suggested earlier to keep them tidy. These aren't quite what I was thinking of, but would do: http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_2378.html
Also, if you collect Japanese toys, the wire ties used to hold them in the boxes are iron core. They will leave rust bands on the plastic even though it's encased in plastic. I found this out with my vintage Kei and Yuri figures (from 88 or so)
How is that any worse than having the wire coiled around nothing at all? So long as there's a fair bit of slack where the cable emerges from the pad so it sticks out like it would normally, I don't see what the issue is.
I always stick two fingers from where the wire comes out of the controller and then wrap it around my two fingers+pad radius all the way. It's efficient and loose, and won't damage the controller in any way.
Alchy, I worked in a game shop. I have seen the results of coiling cables around the pad MANY times, so I can state it as FACT. I was also trained as a sound engineer, and we were told not to coil cables around the elbows. I wish I had time to draw you a diagram. Basically, coiling cables around an object can stretch them, or cause kinks in the actual metal that weakens them and eventually causes them to break. It can also have an effect on the plastic sleeving. Think about a pad. The cable comes out of the back, thusly: | | |----------------------------- | | If you wrap it round, you are putting tension on that joint. That is the place where 99% of cable errors are found - where the cable enters the pad. You're twisting the cable at near enough a right angle, sometimes more, and putting tension on this twist. Coiling loosely "in the air" is much better as there isn't so much tension, there aren't so many bends and the cable remains straight out of the pad.
I do what alchy does, coil them loosely. The fuck else are you suppose to do without velcro? Wires suck.
ray: lol All the controllers i bought separately are kept on their original retail package (so i wont need to use anything to keep the wires together). Even my Wireless controller is kept on the retail package to avoid dust. For the ones that came with consoles... Well the PS2 controller that came with the console is pratically dead (the directional always go to left, no matter what you do). The PS1 non-dual shock controllers i rarelly use, so they are on the console boxes (without coil cables)
God, I hate when people wrap the cable around the pad during storage! And then they think I'm stupid for pointing out it's a dumb idea. Plus it leaves the cable coiled and tense like a telephone cord. I just wrap my cables into a circle 'in the air', think http://studentaffairs.case.edu/living/services/cable/img/coax.jpg
Uh... hello? You're still coiling cables tightly whichever way you do it. Has anyone ever had any repeated problems with pads dying like this, anyway? I know I haven't. Maybe if I had I'd be more inclined to change my ways. Retro, I appreciate your point about the cable coming out of the back of the pad, but As Barc0de says (and I already pointed out), you just need to make sure it's there's enough flex there before winding.
No, there's tension there from a central spindle (the pad) which you cannot achieve with nothing in the middle. Yes, the answer would be to wrap it looser, but you're still creating many more wraps than you would at a sensible size in the air. It isn't so much of an issue with these thinner, shorter cables, but sound engineers would always be taught to roll the cables. This stops the cable from tangling in itself and keeps it shaped as it should be. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUz266TU9JE Uhh, I guess either you didn't listen to me or my opinion as someone who has worked in the profession for 7 years, and my boss' opinion as a retailer of second hand computer and gaming equipment for the past 20 years, counts for nothing with you. YES, I have seen it. NO, it wasn't a one-off. I have seen HUNDREDS of pads destroyed due to people doing this. Oh, and I've seen many of those horrible, permanently knotted cables as a direct result of this, too. But hey, do what you want. It is more than just the issue of wrapping it loosely around the pad, but I guess you'll learn the hard way.
Like 12-18" diameter loops as per your youtube video? We're dealing with game pads which have 1-2 metres of cable. Where exactly do the techniques you're offering make sense in this instance? How would that be practical? As soon as my pads start dying, I'll listen to you. That'd be me "learning the hard way". Odd that I've not come a cropper yet - maybe in the coming months I'll learn the error of my ways. More to the point, I'd like to see someone prove that wrapping cabling around their hand is less damaging than wrapping it around the pad, when both are identical in terms of the way the cable is being bent. Perhaps you could explain this odd phenomenon to me.
This thread would be perfect for that Conservation, preservation and resoration forum. Is that forum new? or am I so oblivious that I did not see it this whole time?
You place more tension on the cable by wrapping it around a controller because the wire is being held in place around and against something. Wrapping "in the air in a circle" still involves bending... but the tension is nowhere near the kind you get going around controller. (It may also have to do with how tight you wrap it around a controller too. So.. perhaps you've been light on your wrapping?) That's why.
