On Thu, 10 Jan 2002, Mike Lee - Team Banana Racing wrote:
> A few years ago, when the alarm guy was over to install some more sensors, he
> had some he called a "warbler" (?) which he used to determine where some of
> the existing lines ran so he could tie into them. He was in a rush, so he
> wasn't able to take the time to explain what it was, or how it worked. Well,
> I'm thinking something similar to that would be the ticket to figuring out
> the cable lines in our house. How does something like that work? Or is there
> another (easier?) way to find out where the lines go, other than knocking down
> drywall?
Sounds like a blithy! (Got that name from a coworker who was a former
telephone lineman.) Typically they are used for ringing out phone lines.
Not sure how well they would work on Coax.
Here is the basic setup. The tone generator (warbler, blithy, what have
you) is connected across the pair of wires you wish to trace. You then
grab the inductive pickup (it looks like a thick pen with a speaker at the
end - maybe similar to the pen Bill Cosby had in Picture Pages). Take the
inductive pickup and put it next to the wire. You should hear the warbling
tone that the tone generator emits. Move the inductive pick along the wire
and follow it wherever it goes to the end point.
Its also really helpful for finding a short in a wire (when you pass
the
short, the tone goes away)
Typically I've used these to follow a specific pair of wires in a bunch,
but not one wire through a wall. I'm not sure how well that will work.
Also, I've only seen them used on twisted pair wires and not coax. Coax
may not work since it should leak very little of the signal out. If I
remember I'll try mine out on some RG-6 tonight and report.
I bought my set at Villagers Hardware (division of Home Depot).
Tim
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Tim Hoerning / hoerni@cooper.edu
'91 Honda VFR 750, '84 Honda VT500 Ascot, '73 Honda CB350G Super Sport
'87 Chevy El Camino, '90 Plymouth Laser
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