Circuit Breaker finders

[ronaldrc]

Tip on troubleshooting with a circuit breaker finder.

Most that have one already know this. The little low priced breaker finder made by most
Electric tester makers will also locate the romex route through the sheetrocked wall of
a home. Just plug in your locator transmitter to a hot recpt. and take your receiver and search around the sheetrock and it will beep when close to the romex.

Just a little something I wanted to pass on to those that didn't know.

http://images1.toolup.com/imdir/product/sperry/large/cs550a.jpg

The locators look like this. Click the above link

 

[glene77is]

Tip on troubleshooting with a circuit breaker finder.

Ron,

Very Good Info.
More electricians should 'play' with their tools
to see what more they can do.

These little injector/receiver testers are very handy.

In the same vein of hopefully helpful info
here are my comments on 'ticker' / 'tracer' tools.

Have that Yellow one like yours,
which seems well filtered for its own audio signal.

Have a red one by G&B (with a detachable mag head pickup)
which will pick up almost any other injected audio signal,
including computer power supply noise.

Have the usual 'ticker' stick in my pouch. A life saver.

Have a ExTech 'ticker' with both a Voltage (capacitive) head and a Magnetic (inductive) head, adjustable sensitivity, will work through a wall,
sometimes at one foot from the wall. Responds primarily to the 60Hz ac, but will respond to higher frequency signals also.

Have an AT4001, 32KHz, signal tracer, which is a dream tool. From Addisson Electric at Licensed Electrician.com. This works through the wall, at a distance of 20' max. Of course it has both injected signal level control and receiver gain control, and both capacitive/inductive sense.

Good tip.

 

[ronaldrc]

Thanks for taking the time to post Glene

Looks like the manufacturers would mention little things like that.

You can also find any recpt. that is on that circuit.

Not familiar with that tester with the detachible head.



Ronald

 

[glene77is]

Thanks
...with the detachible head.

Ron,

The G&B was dis-continued,
I suspect because of the possibility of damaging the detachable head.

Common Tickers with Hall-effect electrostatic pickups are cheaper;
these have the little 'tab' sticking out on the sensor end.
Get one that 'self-tests' like the newest Greenlee, or the Klien.

The Ex-Tech ($35) is handy, Capacitive / Inductive,
but susceptible to humidity.
It has gain control and certainly needs it.

The Amprobe AT4001 is a dream tool,
but using it is an 'art form'.
No magic cure for tracing circuits,
but really effective if you can play the game.

Tracing circuits is an 'art form'
which must be experienced and practiced.

 

[ronaldrc]

Glene

Circuit tracing really is a art. and a little know how.

I've been retired now for 3 years and the only things I miss are the extra money and troubleshooting. Don't really care if I ever look at another code book again.

Ron

 

[LarryFine]

More electricians should 'play' with their tools to see what more they can do.

Al may have something to say about that.

 

[hurk27]

I have the GreenLee 2011 circuit tracer, and I can't do without it,
GreenLee 2011

I also have the Sperry breaker finder and a telco wire identifier that picks up audio ,which is great for picking up the greenlee 2011 or sperry signal also, sometimes using a cross of tracers can improve zeroing in on the location of a break or short in a wire, and I find using the 2011 transmitter with the telco receiver will let me follow a wire through a house without having to be next to the wall, or ceiling, I also have some home made audio oscillators I use to pair out wires each at a different tone frequency to tell them apart, I can do up to 32 pairs /64 wires.

 

[ronaldrc]

Hurk

Back before the fancy electronic testers came out I used a radio and a mini audio amplifier with a pickup to do my tracing. Its also a great tool to locate a spot to drill
up from a basement and not drill into something you shouldn't. Just use a pickup on the radio output and place the pickup at the baseboard where you need to drill up stairs.Turn the radio on a strong station and turn up.

Then go to the basement and use your mini audio amplifier with a pickup plugged into the input and get close to where you think it is you can narrow the location down to a 1/4" inch or less just don't forget to set back a few inches to get under the wall before drilling.

Ronald

 

[hurk27]

Hurk

Back before the fancy electronic testers came out I used a radio and a mini audio amplifier with a pickup to do my tracing. Its also a great tool to locate a spot to drill
up from a basement and not drill into something you shouldn't. Just use a pickup on the radio output and place the pickup at the baseboard where you need to drill up stairs.Turn the radio on a strong station and turn up.

Then go to the basement and use your mini audio amplifier with a pickup plugged into the input and get close to where you think it is you can narrow the location down to a 1/4" inch or less just don't forget to set back a few inches to get under the wall before drilling.

Ronald

Your starting to sound like me, If I would only have patented them things I made back then

I wouldn't need to work so hard now

 

[glene77is]

Ron and Hurk,

Those are interesting methods.
Thanks for the tips.

In '58, when I first started, I worked with an Italian named Tony,
a great whiz with a knife. So, Tony liked 50's Country, and I brought along
a 6 transistor radio I had repaired for entertainment. I put the radio in a lunch box, with a 9 V lantern battery, and a speaker. Then I mounted a set of alligator clips/cables in the speaker line. This little setup worked much better at ringing out a long line in buildings. The little bell/buzzer ringers we had would fizzle out on low voltage across a long line, but the Radio/Speaker setup would always come through. I can still hear Patsy Cline crooning faintly from the speaker.
Simple setup, but worked good.

 

[glene77is]

Glene

Circuit tracing really is a art. and a little know how.

I've been retired now for 3 years

Ron

Ron,

I thought the last three years of being employed were rough.
But, these last two years of learning to be semi-retired
have been the most difficult of my life.
Having my instruments, and seven code books (back to 1969), reference manuals, etc,
have been a great aid in keeping my sanity.

One tip, don't get rid of your instruments.
You can start free-lancing as an electrical expert.

Part-time may have never looked so good for your ego.

 

[ronaldrc]

Glene

Sounds like we got started about the same time, I started before I finished school
helping wire houses.

Those where the days. A man with an average job could work and support a family, wife could stay home with children and tend house. Couldn't afford a TV for every room like now
but we could afford what we needed without handouts.


Yes Patsy Cline loved that gale really tragic she died so young.

Good night all:Ronald