Electrical cables - which tool needed

loumoo

Hi,
We recently built a house, in the "hub" where all the future proofing wires went there are loads of wires, they are not all crimped or labelled. What tool would an electrician use to see where they come out of the wall. What I mean by that is I have one in our bedroom and I want to see which one it is in the hub, both are just cut at the end so how do know which one it is. Is there a tool or piece of equipment for this. Maybe something with a battery one end and a bulb or something the other?!

Thanks

muffler

The guys in the electrical forum will probably be best suited to answer this so I'll move it there.

dtfo

Presuming theyre not connected to the mains strip the cables at both ends. Then at one end, short them individually by twisting together two of the wires then at the other end use a meter to see which one matches and then label. Repeat for all cables.

For example at the cable in your bedroom, making sure the cables are not live, twist the brown and blue together. Then down in the hub using your meter to check if theres continuity, check between all the browns and blues until it "bells"

Hope this makes sense

Cerco

Since you mention a hub I assume you are looking at network cabling. You could use a multimeter to buzz out the cables but it would be very time consuming if you have a lot.
See: Link

for an example of professional cable testers. They are not cheap !

Check Ebay etc.

M cebee

tone and probe tester kit

paddy147

A sonic testers for 20-30 euro in any decent leccy wholesalers will do the job of sonicing out any un-labeled/un-numbered cables.

Its what network technicians/telecoms engineers use to find cables at each end.

M cebee

you connect the tone generator to the bedroom wire and use the probe to identify it in the bunch

paddy147

M cebee wrote: »

you connect the tone generator to the bedroom wire and use the probe to identify it in the bunch
http://www.google.com/shopping/product/8127668127789938962?hl=en&gl=GB&ie=UTF-8&q=tone%20probe%20kit&sa=X&ei=YXqWUO7DIcyXhQfD74HwAQ&ved=0CDYQ8wIwAQ

I posted pics of it recently and how it works,trying to find them.;):D

M cebee

i was trying to paste in a link
it came up on your post anyhow

ted1

easiest thing is to bell them out.
strip off the end, twist a pair together.
go to other cables, strip of end, put a multilmeter on noise.
touch of bards ends of the core that are twisted, when it beeps thats your cable. label, untwist and move on to next cable.

if they are network cables, crimp them all over with a RJ45
then use one of these, http://dx.com/p/rj45-rj11-network-and-telephone-cable-tester-21241?item=4

get one of these: http://dx.com/p/multi-function-rj11-telephone-and-rj45-network-cable-crimping-tool-with-cable-stripper-18870?item=5

and you can crimp them off youself.

paddy147

Pic of how it works.

You clip the remote end onto the cable end and switch it onto tone.

When you detect/find the other end of the cable at the "probe" you will hear a high pitched siren type noise and also the red lash will flash on too.

This means that you have found the cable you are looking for.

Use a "sharpie" marker to number both ends of the cable.

Simples.:)

paddy147

ted1 wrote: »

easiest thing is to bell them out.
strip off the end, twist a pair together.
go to other cables, strip of end, put a multilmeter on noise.
touch of bards ends of the core that are twisted, when it beeps thats your cable. label, untwist and move on to next cable.

if they are network cables, crimp them all over with a RJ45
then use one of these, http://dx.com/p/rj45-rj11-network-and-telephone-cable-tester-21241?item=4

get one of these: http://dx.com/p/multi-function-rj11-telephone-and-rj45-network-cable-crimping-tool-with-cable-stripper-18870?item=5

and you can crimp them off youself.

You dont even need to use a crimper,RJ45 or RJ11 crimps to sonic them....(time consuming and extra work just for the sake of finding some unmarked cables)

See pics above and below.;)

You also need to know the colour code for crimping RJ45 plugs in standard format ...(different if crossover format).


Standard.....


White Orange
Orange
White Green
Blue
White Blue
Green
White Brown
Brown.

M cebee

ted1 wrote: »

easiest thing is to bell them out.
strip off the end, twist a pair together.
go to other cables, strip of end, put a multilmeter on noise.
touch of bards ends of the core that are twisted, when it beeps thats your cable. label, untwist and move on to next cable.

if they are network cables, crimp them all over with a RJ45
then use one of these, http://dx.com/p/rj45-rj11-network-and-telephone-cable-tester-21241?item=4

get one of these: http://dx.com/p/multi-function-rj11-telephone-and-rj45-network-cable-crimping-tool-with-cable-stripper-18870?item=5

and you can crimp them off youself.

they're not really the easiest ways
you're creating extra work there with the multimeter or crimping

ted1

M cebee wrote: »

they're not really the easiest ways
you're creating extra work there with the multimeter or crimping

If there network cables they might aswell be crimped. That's my logic.

paddy147

ted1 wrote: »

If there network cables they might aswell be crimped. That's my logic.

Fcuk all use if they have to be punched down onto a patch panel,or hard wired onto a Krone/110 frame or block.;)

Fcuk all use aswell if its power cables and not cat5e/cat6 cables.

Also the OP would not be experienced to do this (crimping/testing),as it takes some skill to get it right.



Keep things simple for the OP so that he/she can "find" the cables at each end.