[sdiy] ot: tracing power cables in a house

[J. Larry Hendry]

I have been there, done that many times. I drew up a schematic of my house
when I installed my emergency generator and transfer switch.  I have two
inexpensive tools I use.  One is a circuit tracer that does just what you
suggested.  It injects a signal on the wire.  One end plugs into an outlet
of the circuit you are trying to trace.  If you are tracing a light fixture,
you need to get a screw in adapter.  The receiver is hand held battery
operated and had a sensitivity control.  You can wave it in front of the
other outlets in the circuit and it will tell you if they are on that same
line.

You get back to the breaker box and it will point out the breaker.  You have
to play with the sensitivity as the signal does try to go back out the
adjacent lines.  But, I usually find if it beeps over 3 breakers, it is the
one in the middle.

I bought this for $29.95 from one of the mail order mags.  I'll try to find
out which one.

I also have from a surplus mag a EMF detector circuit with about 10 LEDs in
a semicircle pattern that is powered from a 9 volt battery 9 volts.  It does
not even have a case. I got it from Marlin Jones or another one of those
surplus type electronic mags.  While it is not so much useful for tracing
circuits, it is great for tracing the path of a wire inside a wall you
cannot see.  Plug something into the outlet and turn it on.  Then, use the
EMF detector to traced the wire away from the box.  I think I paid $4 for
it.

Larry Hendry


----- Original Message -----
From: Dean Stiglitz <deknow at deknow.com>
To: <synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl>
Sent: Thursday, March 21, 2002 12:54 PM
Subject: [sdiy] ot: tracing power cables in a house


hi all,

my gf's father has a house half gutted, and half wired...the electricians
have not come back to finish the job (because they didn't label anything
when they laid the wires...they have no idea what wire goes where), and for
the same reason, he has been unable to get someone to finish the job.

i was hoping to be able to help him out by at least identifing/labeling the
wires in the basement, and where they go.

i've seen some tools ($100+) that do this, but was thinking perhaps instead
to do a little diy approach.

anyone done this (or something similar) and have any suggestions???

it seems i could (at the non-basement end) inject a sound source (radio
headphone out) into the wires (hot to one wire, and ground to another) and
use alagator clips or test probles connected to a speaker to find the
terminating end in the basement.

another option seems to be to do a similar thing with a 9v battery and an
led.

again, if anyone has any brilliant ideas that would save me
time/money/frustration, i'd love to hear them.

deknow