How can a trace a terminated, hidden wire?
How can a trace a terminated, hidden wire?
(OP)
Is there any sort of fox-and-hound type wire tracing device I can use to find the other end of a 2-core, terminated, potential-free cable?
I have a series of sensors that join at a junction box somewhere (this is on a small ship) but I don't know where the junction box is and I need to find it.
Can anyone recommend a reliable, high quality product?
Thanks
Tony
I have a series of sensors that join at a junction box somewhere (this is on a small ship) but I don't know where the junction box is and I need to find it.
Can anyone recommend a reliable, high quality product?
Thanks
Tony





RE: How can a trace a terminated, hidden wire?
Tip. You can follow an unshielded cable. If you can isolate the shield from ground, you can put the signal on the shield and follow the cable. Otherwise you must get close to the open end to get a tone.
Bill
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"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter
RE: How can a trace a terminated, hidden wire?
I had to hunt down a broken PA system cable for a huge tannery once. I finally found the cable guitar-string-tight descending at a 45 degree angle into the bottom of a 30 foot high pile of leather scraps in 32 gallon plastic garbage bags. The cable symmetrically ascended out the other side of the pile. It was pulled in two at the center.
Keith Cress
kcress - http://www.flaminsystems.com
RE: How can a trace a terminated, hidden wire?
Of course if you don't so it much and don't have the tooling, depending on where you are it may just be better to have a contractor who does a lot of network wiring spend an hour and do it for you, then you can see what he uses and how he did it.
Hope that helps, Mike L.
RE: How can a trace a terminated, hidden wire?
I had a friend who bought a used RV that had an AC circuit that was shorted. Not having access to a TDR, he adapted a TDR type fluid-level sensor to get the distance to the short and locate a nail used to hang a cabinet when the RV was made that was driven into the AC cable.
Actually, some large ships use TDR fluid-level sensors to check the level of bunker fuel and water in tanks.
RE: How can a trace a terminated, hidden wire?
itsmoked - this small ship (200') is a private yacht so all the cable runs are in deckheads and behind walls that are very high quality woodwork, marble, etc. Stuff that isn't designed to be taken apart easily.
catserveng - the fluke sounds like a useful device to have on board since we have this problem often on yachts.
RE: How can a trace a terminated, hidden wire?
Keith Cress
kcress - http://www.flaminsystems.com
RE: How can a trace a terminated, hidden wire?
Here ya go... Fluke Networks Pro3000
http:/
A mere $38.24 w/free shipping :)
Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com
RE: How can a trace a terminated, hidden wire?
http://ww
Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com
RE: How can a trace a terminated, hidden wire?
Gunnar Englund
www.gke.org
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Half full - Half empty? I don't mind. It's what in it that counts.
RE: How can a trace a terminated, hidden wire?
RE: How can a trace a terminated, hidden wire?
RE: How can a trace a terminated, hidden wire?
If you look at picture 2 in my link above, you will see a negative-going echo at 280 ns. That is caused by a shunt termination and can be readily seen. The cable's end is not terminated and causes the big echo at 1100 ns.
A tone generator will not work well if you do not have a sensitive search coil plus amplifier to pick the field up.
Gunnar Englund
www.gke.org
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Half full - Half empty? I don't mind. It's what in it that counts.
RE: How can a trace a terminated, hidden wire?
Or, you could overdrive the loop until the terminator or the wire overheats, seek the smoke/smell, and then repair the collateral damage. Yeah, I hate that one too.
Or, you could open everything that opens, and if you still don't find the j/b, call the yachtbuilder and ask to speak with someone who installed that system on that boat.
Yacht plans usually don't go into the level of detail that you need, even for the few that are really mass produced. But you might be able to deduce some clues from this observation: Whichever crew gets to the boat first, gets to put their stuff where they want it. Subsequent crews have to work around whatever was already done when they arrived. So many of the junction boxes will be where the electricians thought the carpenters would put the access panels, before any of the panels or substrate were installed.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: How can a trace a terminated, hidden wire?
RE: How can a trace a terminated, hidden wire?
RE: How can a trace a terminated, hidden wire?
The good old shipyard olympics. Bane of many ship's engineers life!
Tony - I've had luck trawling through old build/refit photos to locate things before.
Lighting transformers/controllers were always an issue on one of the yachts I was on, found them in the weirdest of places.