June 15, 2005

Curious George: tracking wires through walls. How can I track a coaxial cable or telephone wires that do not complete a circuit?

I've moved into a house with a number of unfinished cable TV outlets and telephone jacks and would like to hook some of them up. There are fewer unconnected wires in basement than outlets scattered throughout the house. Visual tracking is not an option as the cables and wires disappear from the basement into the floor above and are hidden inside the walls. Adding to the problem, I have a number of unused telephone wires strung about as part of an old security system. I tried using a 9 volt battery and a flashlight bulb to test if a circuit is complete, but did not have success with a cable that I know both end points, (battery is too weak, I guess, as I made sure the bulb worked). Does anybody with experience stringing cable / wire have any suggestions?

posted by WPDK 19 years ago
  • You could use a cable toner, something like this perhaps. I'm sure you can find something similar for less $$ if needed.
  • Hah! "Great for calming psychotic office workers." That tool is a start, thanks.
  • Depends on what you have for tools. Personally I use a toner as suggested above. Before I could afford that I would have used a good 9v or one of those low voltage wallworts transformer things and a voltmeter. Connect to one basement wire (center coax wire not jacket) then test all outlets for that voltage, drawing a map as you go.(be sure to disconnect all cable devices before doing this, and stay below 12 volts) Next in low budget testing: Take a coaxial cord put on TV, in basement connect one unknown cable to a signal source (The cable box or a vcr/dvd with a tape/disk playing) then drag your TV or the long cable around(with volume turned up) and connect to each outlet in turn, mapping as you go. Be thorough and take notes, bet you could do it in under an hour. Bonus points if you tag each cable and outlet as you go. Enjoy
  • monkeyfilter: cables and wires disappear from the basement into the floor above and are hidden inside the walls
  • monkeyfilter: Great for calming psychotic office workers
  • As for phone wires try this:Diy from :here Monkeyfilter:where they all disappear in a gaggle of old, dusty wires.