HDMI, USB, Ethernet cable taped together passing in engine room space

About 6 feet of a cable bundle of the above type, of a total of 16 feet must travel the engine room 20 inches in front of an engine. This bundle will be attached to the bulkhead.
I was planning on wire harness tape and wrapping these cables into one.
Some people tell me this is a bad idea, thoughts?

Also will they cause electrical interference with each other?
Someone suggested braiding them into one, lot of work and will shorten the final length.

They are bundled all the time in modern AV systems. Any interference issues will be due to stuff such as alternators already in the ER, but extremely doubtful. We had all these types of cables plus TV and more running in one of our ERs, which in addition to a big engine, included four different kinds of electric pumps, a central vac, Ac and DC lighting and electrical panels and problaly something else I'm missing. But again that was my boat, not yours.

I personally wouldn't bother wrapping them, and if I did it would be the mesh type of tubing.

Thanks for that info.
Idea of taping together is to make them easy to pull as one cable.
I already bought the harness tape. Other idea was use cable ties, but the tape was cheaper I think.

I had run a VGA cable earlier bundled with the USB and it causes herringbone pattern interference on the VGA display when the USB was powered and in use.
HDMI, Ethernet, USB are all digital so I hope they dont cause interference with each other.

So my plan is switch to HDMI and use this converter https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QN796EU/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

and a female to female HDMI coupler to take HDMI out from the PC to the coupler, then the converter, then to the VGA display. Plus this adapter provides sound and is usb or hdmi 5v powered. It has good reviews.

My display is LCD VGA flat monitor, using HDMI is better anyway in case the monitor gets replaced.

Interesting issue with the VGA and USB. That's a new one to me. Think of the millions of PCs where those have been side by side. Curious!

caltexflanc said:

Interesting issue with the VGA and USB. That's a new one to me. Think of the millions of PCs where those have been side by side. Curious!

Click to expand...

Consider that they were taped tightly together for about 15 feet.

I figure VGA being analog, the high frequencies in the USB cable induced the same into the VGA cable. That distortion pattern created was very obvious and went away when I unplugged the USB cable at the PC and reappeared when I plugged in the usb cable. One end of usb cable to PC, other to a usb 3.0 hub. I am using a usb 2.0 cable to a 7 port powered hub.
All this VGA problems made me realize I have an HDMI video output, so how can I use it? Then the HDMI to VGA converter idea, so that seems ideal.

While I don't think you will have an issue, putting the 3 cables together, adding a spiral wrap of aluminum foil, and top with a spiral wrap of electrical tape would make descent shielding.

Ted

Each has its own shield so should present no probs from external sources or each other.

As the loom will be mounted on a bulkhead, have you considered rectangular-section PVC conduit? No/minimal bundling and the cover snaps on/off for access.

sdowney717 said:

........... Also will they cause electrical interference with each other?
Someone suggested braiding them into one, lot of work and will shorten the final length.

Click to expand...

They may cause interference with each other or they may not. The only way to know is to try it.

Best practice would be to not bundle them together but separate them by several inches.

Braiding them together would not serve a useful purpose and I would not take any electric or electronic advice from the person who suggested that.

O C Diver said:

While I don't think you will have an issue, putting the 3 cables together, adding a spiral wrap of aluminum foil, and top with a spiral wrap of electrical tape would make descent shielding.

Ted

Click to expand...

I would think the aluminum would be much more effective if grounded?

MYTraveler said:

I would think the aluminum would be much more effective if grounded?

Click to expand...

It has to be, otherwise, the noise it picks up has no place to go

That said, all the lines are shielded. there won't be an issue bundling them together.

Tom.B said:

It has to be, otherwise, the noise it picks up has no place to go

That said, all the lines are shielded. there won't be an issue bundling them together.

Click to expand...

Shielding is not 100% effective. This is why keeping the cables separated is a good idea.

For one, I know ethernet cable is not shielded, just uses 4 twisted pairs with an inner cross shaped plastic separator, the tighter the twist and thicker the gauge the higher the speeds.

And I dint know about HDMI cords, never cut one open.
Years ago, VGA cords were thicker and shielded, today they quite skinny.

USB just has a ground wire running inside the sheath along with some other wires.

Since they are all digital signals, then that helps them work when other frequencies are induced I suppose as long as the frequencies are not complementary. I guess it will either work or not work.

I will test them all together before pulling them into place.

It is working fine, I taped it into a bundle, just 3 cables, usb, hdmi, ethernet.

Actually I am using the ethernet cable for the remote power switch and LED lights for the PC, not for ethernet.

The Belinda HDMI to VGA converter works great, plug and play. I get sound and VGA out.
Sound goes to the AUX input on the stereo.

On many of the cheaper varieties of cables, the shielding is often not connected to anything on one or both ends. If that's the case, it might as well not be there at all.
Also, Cat5 cables are NOT shielded, relying on the "twisted pair" approach for noise cancellation.
2 signal cables, running parallel to each other, can pick up interference from each other. Twisted, the interference is reduced or eliminated.

Or so I was taught, quite a few moons ago

This cable harness tape was great.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CTUW99Y/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It has a harder slicker surface than regular electrical tape, (my experience).
It is not a gooey soft thin tape.
It wrapped extremely easily, I don't think it is as sticky. Most vinyl tapes I have used I found were hard to take off the roll. This more easily peeled off the roll, in fact I just started at one end and wrapped the roll around the cable all the way to the other end. One roll did about 19 feet wrapping those 3 cables together.