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Author Topic: Kinks in Audio Snake?  (Read 6228 times)

Andrew Firman

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Kinks in Audio Snake?
« on: January 01, 2012, 08:07:47 PM »

My church has a 100' 32 channel audio snake. Last year, we opened up the bag to find a few kinks in the snake. It has since gotten worse, to where about 30' has some pretty bad kinks. We can't seem to work them out. We are in Colorado so it may have something to do with temperature extremes, but we are sure.

Has anyone had any luck getting kinks out of a snake? We have tried multiple methods to no avail. Any tips would help. Would it just be better to get it professionally serviced? Or buy a new one?
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NickStone

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Re: Kinks in Audio Snake?
« Reply #1 on: January 02, 2012, 11:19:44 AM »

What brand/model of snake ?
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George Dougherty

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Re: Kinks in Audio Snake?
« Reply #2 on: January 02, 2012, 12:22:54 PM »

My church has a 100' 32 channel audio snake. Last year, we opened up the bag to find a few kinks in the snake. It has since gotten worse, to where about 30' has some pretty bad kinks. We can't seem to work them out. We are in Colorado so it may have something to do with temperature extremes, but we are sure.

Has anyone had any luck getting kinks out of a snake? We have tried multiple methods to no avail. Any tips would help. Would it just be better to get it professionally serviced? Or buy a new one?

Its a pain, but I always wrap my snakes over/under. People who cant manage it dont touch the snakes.  My 10year old snakes look new except for road wear on the box end. Ones that just get coiled often end up with kinks. You'll have to wait till a nice spring day but stretching it out in the sun and twisting some of the kink out may do some good. Don't expect it to ever look quite right though.

Until it develops channel issues I wouldn't bother replacing it. It's just cosmetic.
Where at in CO?  I'm up in Westminster/ North Denver.
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Jonathan Johnson

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Re: Kinks in Audio Snake?
« Reply #3 on: January 02, 2012, 01:32:10 PM »

You'll have to wait till a nice spring day but stretching it out in the sun and twisting some of the kink out may do some good.
With the snake warm, do the following.

There is usually printed or embossed text along the snake. Untwist the snake so that the text does not spiral around, but rather continues straight along the same side.

With a helper holding tightly to one end (holding onto the jacket, not the box or the fan), grab tightly on the jacket at the other end and stretch the cable. This will help to remove the kinks.

It may want to twist a bit afterwards (especially if the cores are twisted inside the jacket); let it twist just enough so that it lays straight and flat. Then coil it neatly using the over-under method.

(Others may disagree, and their points may be valid, so consider all the advice you get and do what seems best to you.)
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George Dougherty

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Re: Kinks in Audio Snake?
« Reply #4 on: January 03, 2012, 11:50:04 AM »

With the snake warm, do the following.

There is usually printed or embossed text along the snake. Untwist the snake so that the text does not spiral around, but rather continues straight along the same side.

With a helper holding tightly to one end (holding onto the jacket, not the box or the fan), grab tightly on the jacket at the other end and stretch the cable. This will help to remove the kinks.

It may want to twist a bit afterwards (especially if the cores are twisted inside the jacket); let it twist just enough so that it lays straight and flat. Then coil it neatly using the over-under method.

(Others may disagree, and their points may be valid, so consider all the advice you get and do what seems best to you.)

Have seen plenty of different cable that seems to spiral the printing around the jacketing from the factory but in theory certainly makes sense that doing as you suggest would be a good reference point.
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Andrew Firman

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Re: Kinks in Audio Snake?
« Reply #5 on: January 03, 2012, 01:03:45 PM »

Thanks for all the help so far. One of the odd things is that some of the kinks seem as though they could be uncoiled going a certain way, but neither way (i.e. clockwise or counter) seem to get them out. Would this be more of an internal problem? Being as there are 32 different wires inside I was thinking it may be that they themselves are tangled.
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Jordan Wolf

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Re: Kinks in Audio Snake?
« Reply #6 on: January 03, 2012, 09:26:32 PM »

Andrew,

Here's what we did at my university: 

1. Safely rig the similar-length cables to a batten.
2. Tie a small weight to the free-hanging end (maybe 1 pound or so).
3. Fly out the batten so that the weight are floating about 2"-3" off the deck.
4. If there are really bad kinks, you can use a heat gun on the low setting to help relax the outer sheathing in those areas.
5. If all else fails, maybe consider splitting the cable at the problem spot and make it into 2 shorter cables.  Depending on what you're using it for, that may be a viable option.

I know one of the snakes at my job seems to have been run over by a very heavy, wheeled cart (probably a dance floor cart); it is kinked quite badly, but works just fine.  Other than that one area, it coils fine.

Be aware that, though your cables should be able to take some abuse, it should not be as intense as that...cable ramps are actually useful sometimes.
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Jordan Wolf
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"We want our sound to go into the soul of the audience, and see if it can awaken some little thing in their minds... Cause there are so many sleeping people." - Jimi Hendrix

eric lenasbunt

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Re: Kinks in Audio Snake?
« Reply #7 on: January 15, 2012, 02:09:23 PM »

Bear in mind that I am in Florida, but what I do is lay kinked cables out in the parking lot on a hot sunny day (of which we have a lot) and wait until it gets warm and flexible. We do this with heavy guage power, mic cables, snakes, anything that has been wrapped poorly after a long night. They always 'listen' after that.

And yes, in my personal experience the extreme temp changes either cause this or exacerbate it.
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ProSoundWeb Community

Re: Kinks in Audio Snake?
« Reply #7 on: January 15, 2012, 02:09:23 PM »


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