I recently embarked on a cable management mission for my desk. Nothing crazy just to cleanse the area and tidy up some of the trailing wires.
The desk setup is pretty simple –
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1 x 32” HP Monitor – on a Bamboo riser
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1 x Apple MacMini
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1 x Apple TV – (Gen 3 I think)
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Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse
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1 x HomePod Mini
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1 x iPad stand with 2 cables – 1 x USB-C (iPad Pro) and 1 x Lightning (iPhone, AirPods, MagicMouse 🙄).
Once I took everything apart and off the desk there was clearly too many cables, power cables not being used, rogue network cables and a life time supply of Lightning cables fallen down the back.
First step was to get power mounted under the desk; in the middle, to power the Screen, MacMini, HomePod and Apple TV.
Followed by moving the power for charging the devices from the MacMini to free up some ports. With a 6 way extension strip mounted under the desk I could then plug in the power supplies, tidy the cables and installed some Meross smart plugs.
(With some custom automation and homekit/homebridge, when a device reaches 100% change it can turn the plug off, saving the battery from over charging and prolonging its life)
The Meross plugs are too chunky to run along side each other and a HomePod plug… – but an extension lead/power strip with the following set up, fits perfectly.
Apple USB Plug (iPad) | Apple USB Plug (iPhone) | Apple TV Cable | MacMini Cable | HomePod | Screen
With all the plugs and items on the desk now have power, the iPad and IPhone also now have power all the time. We need to bring in the smart element and I had heard about these USB A smart plugs on a podcast, Amazon searched them and they arrived….
