Electrical question

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electricalist

Senior Member
Location
dallas tx
If to ring them out is to have continuity through all 11 then 5 pairs of 2 on the first floor leaving 1 open wire. Go up stairs. Take 1 of a pair that has continuity and connect to 1 of another pair that has continuity 5 time. Check for continuity from remaining wire to all connections. Go down stairs and do the same with the remaining wire.
Then call the office and ask for a raise
 

Smart $

Esteemed Member
Location
Ohio
Following $S's lead, try this:
One has to pull and replace the downstairs a bunch of times

ice
You mean pull and replace the downstairs wirenuts a bunch of times, right?

You do not have to. Gave continuity method a little more thought....

Downstairs mark #1. Mark wire of each pair with tape so they are not randomized again. For example first pair [Aa] [Ab], second pair [Ba] [Bb], third pair [Ca] [Cb], etc. Then isolate all wires.

Find #2 by continuity to #1 and lack of to #2's mate (once verified, it's #3). Mark #2 and #3 (remove pair labeling). Then find #4 by continuity to #3 and lack of to #4's mate (once verified, it's #5). Mark #4 and #5 (remove pair labeling). Wash, rinse, repeat.
 

electricalist

Senior Member
Location
dallas tx
If this is one of those " there are no wrong answers, you're all correct because you tried" questions, I'm officially asking that the op not be allowed to do this again.
 

Carultch

Senior Member
Location
Massachusetts
And then there's an off chance that two or more are the same or close enough to make you wonder. You can use pairing and ohmmeter to ascertain.

If there are 100 fixed width characters in the print legend, and there is the "white space" equivalent of 100 characters between sequential print legends, what is the probability that any two wires in this 11 wire situation will end up with exactly the same part of the print legend occurring where the wire emerges from the conduit bushing?
 

Little Bill

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Tennessee NEC:2017
Occupation
Semi-Retired Electrician
Following $S's lead, try this:
One has to pull and replace the downstairs a bunch of times

ice

You left out having to re-connect the wire nuts after identifying/labeling the wires in the pairs off your drawing. If you don't re-connect them you won't have any continuity to check with.
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
If there are 100 fixed width characters in the print legend, and there is the "white space" equivalent of 100 characters between sequential print legends, what is the probability that any two wires in this 11 wire situation will end up with exactly the same part of the print legend occurring where the wire emerges from the conduit bushing?
I can't recall ever seeing length markers on individual conductors but have seen it on many different cable types, but was going to suggest this task may not be all that hard to do if the conductors were measured off the same reel and you just look at length markers printed on the insulation.
 

Smart $

Esteemed Member
Location
Ohio
If there are 100 fixed width characters in the print legend, and there is the "white space" equivalent of 100 characters between sequential print legends, what is the probability that any two wires in this 11 wire situation will end up with exactly the same part of the print legend occurring where the wire emerges from the conduit bushing?
I never really checked and I don't believe it matters, but are you certain printing uses fixed width characters?

And what if there are fluctuations in the spacing as a result of the printing process?

I'm not saying your method isn't viable... just saying I'd prefer verification by another method.
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
I never really checked and I don't believe it matters, but are you certain printing uses fixed width characters?

And what if there are fluctuations in the spacing as a result of the printing process?
Wouldn't such printing be at equally spaced increments? An error in this spacing is likely in the thousandths of inches range as the printing process is probably fairly precision controlled whether need be or not. Character width only would effect total length of what gets printed in one step, but would be same for every step but each step would likely start at fairly accurate intervals.
 

Smart $

Esteemed Member
Location
Ohio
Wouldn't such printing be at equally spaced increments? An error in this spacing is likely in the thousandths of inches range as the printing process is probably fairly precision controlled whether need be or not. Character width only would effect total length of what gets printed in one step, but would be same for every step but each step would likely start at fairly accurate intervals.
Let's just settle on a string of characters printed at regular intervals. ;)

I am only reluctant to being used as a reasonably foolproof method (no method is truly foolproof). In my adolescent years I worked at a plastics extrusion factory. Suffice it to say I have seen many faults in the printing process. :happyyes:
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
Let's just settle on a string of characters printed at regular intervals. ;)

I am only reluctant to being used as a reasonably foolproof method (no method is truly foolproof). In my adolescent years I worked at a plastics extrusion factory. Suffice it to say I have seen many faults in the printing process. :happyyes:
I guess I have also, not while in factory but in products that maybe got by QC and were still shipped out:happyyes:

Seen wire/cables with mirror image print several times, but probably still at regular intervals;)
 

Canton

Senior Member
Location
Virginia
Occupation
Electrician
Ok.....question for the thinkers. You have a plastic conduit run from the 1st floor to the 3rd floor of a building. You have (11) wires already in the conduit, all the same color and size. You can use an ohm meter, marker and tape. How can you ring out the wires making only one trip upstairs??

#1, find original installer....fire him. #2, find the helper that worked with original installer and fire him also.
 

GoldDigger

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Placerville, CA, USA
Occupation
Retired PV System Designer
Ok.....question for the thinkers. You have a plastic conduit run from the 1st floor to the 3rd floor of a building. You have (11) wires already in the conduit, all the same color and size. You can use an ohm meter, marker and tape. How can you ring out the wires making only one trip upstairs??

That is perfectly easy: Send your apprentice upstairs as many times as necessary. That way you do not have to go upstairs even once yourself.
 

under8ed

Senior Member
I have not worked this out completely, and I can't stay up any longer.. but I thought I'd put this out here. I believe there is a way the OP is thinking of that uses paired wires, numbered on the bottom and a grounded end. One left unpaired would be easy to identify.. You should then be able to go upstairs once and deduce all the conductors using total resistance eliminating one at a time with the reduced ohms as each is identified. It may take a bit of un-connecting & re-connecting to get it, & I haven't figured yet where to ground one to deduce the last 2 conductors, but I believe the solution is there.
 

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kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
I have not worked this out completely, and I can't stay up any longer.. but I thought I'd put this out here. I believe there is a way the OP is thinking of that uses paired wires, numbered on the bottom and a grounded end. One left unpaired would be easy to identify.. You should then be able to go upstairs once and deduce all the conductors using total resistance eliminating one at a time with the reduced ohms as each is identified. It may take a bit of un-connecting & re-connecting to get it, & I haven't figured yet where to ground one to deduce the last 2 conductors, but I believe the solution is there.
I think you are on right track and some have given processes that should work doing just what you have started on - but there is a return trip to the first level - but in the OP it only says to do this by going up the stairs once - nothing about having to come back down before you have it all figured out.
 
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