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Tracer wanted

2K views 11 replies 8 participants last post by  Sparky J 
#1 ·
I have a 1000.00 budget . I need to find buried lines that have shorted ,circuits in the walls , buried splices on both energized and deeneegized circuits
 
#2 ·
I don't think you're going to find a blessed thing that will find a buried splice. It looks like wire to any tracer. You might be specifying a tool that doesn't exist, for an unreasonably low budget.
 
#4 ·
MDShunk said:
I don't think you're going to find a blessed thing that will find a buried splice. It looks like wire to any tracer. You might be specifying a tool that doesn't exist, for an unreasonably low budget.
What I need is to be able to follow the wire in the wall to see if it splits indicating a possible splice. I really want to locate broken if cable to eliminate digging up the entire line bit I also want the ability to trace wire in walls to locate shorts
 
#5 ·
Sounds like you need a TDR (Time Domain Refectometer) -
For an explanation, see this link:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...tLCuBA&usg=AFQjCNFCw1IfMSSmG-beo62V8EqytOb5eA

In a previous life, I had several miles of underground communications cable to maintain. A TDR has saved me countless hours tracking down bad splices, damaged cable and such. When used correctly, one can locate faults, splices or other changes in the cable with very high accuracy (I was typically able to get within a foot on a 1000' run.)

I did a quick Google search and found a $400 one that has a digital readout and $3500+ TDRs with a graphing display (more accurate and what I used. The appearance of the waveform on the display could be used to help diagnose the trouble.)

Hope that helps
Randy
 
#10 ·
You can use tdr on live lines if you have a unit that has a blocking filter. Check out units from Riser Bond and Bicotest. They have them. That being said I haven't tried it myself. I don't have them for either of the two units I have. Fault locating for underground isn't always a one unit finds everything deal. TDR is good. Ground contact fault locators such as the pulser 2003 or the one by Armada are good too. Ebay is where I get a lot of my stuff.
 
#11 ·
#12 ·
as another poster said ideal sure test for everything except buried splices unless they are shallow or your real lucky, worth its weight in gold. I'm on my second one (only because my first got stolen). Had am amprobe at-2005 but you had to use one transmitter for live tracing and one for dead tracing the ideal one is universal and good for verifing the power on/off without alot of running back and forth. I was also in the past able to use some of the old fluke wand testers to trace wires bundles or jumbled (for remodel work). But the new wand testers seem to be less sensitive or something.
 
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