#160 in Industrial & Scientific
Reddit mentions of Cable Tester, ELEGIANT XQ-350 Wire Tracker Tester RJ45 RJ11 Network Tester Telephone Phone Wire Finder Ethernet LAN Line Finder Cat5 Cat6 with 2 Network Wire Stripper, Headphone, Toolkit
Sentiment score: 6
Reddit mentions: 11
We found 11 Reddit mentions of Cable Tester, ELEGIANT XQ-350 Wire Tracker Tester RJ45 RJ11 Network Tester Telephone Phone Wire Finder Ethernet LAN Line Finder Cat5 Cat6 with 2 Network Wire Stripper, Headphone, Toolkit. Here are the top ones.
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Please Note. Before you use the product to test or track cables, please make sure that the wires are in low-electricity or power-off condition(maximum currents for emitter and receiver are 10mA and 30mA respectively, and the maximum voltage is 24 V ), otherwise the item will get damaged. Besides, you may need two 9V laminated cell, which are NOT included in the packaging of this item.Multifunctional & Easy to Operate. It can trace not only Ethernet LAN wires, but also electrical and speaker wires when connecting to the alligator clip. In this situation, the wires must be in power-off status, otherwise the units will be damaged. There are only 2 buttons on the emmiter,FUNCTION SLECETING & FUNCTION SWTICHING, and 1 INCHING button on the receiver. The indicating words such as "SCAN" and "TEST" are clear and easy to identify.Convenient to Use. Wire Tracking: Connect the wire to the emitter through alligator clips. Select "SCAN". Emitter works properly if the indicator "STATUS" is on. Use the receiver to find target wires. No need of multi-testers. Network Cables Verifying: Plug one side of the cable into the emitter and the other side into the receiver. Select "TEST", the emitter works properly if the indicating light "VERIFY" is on. Determine circuit problems from numerous cables. No need of network tester.Low-Voltage Reminding & Energy Saving. Select "SCAN", the "STATUS" indicator and the "VERIFY" indicator will flash at the same time when the cell voltage is below 6V. It will automatically switch off while not using, which can prolong the service life of the cell to more than 50 hours.Additional Earphone & Equipped Lamp. In a noisy environment, you can put on the earphones to accurately find the target cable through comparing the strength of "beep beep" sound. Adjust the volume knob to make the volume proper and avoid being interfered. At night or in a dark environment, you can turn on the illuminating lamp, which can be helpful during operating.
Specs:
This is the tone-generator/probe I bought:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015EFE3XA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
And yes, I connect it to one side of the wires, and can only trace it through the wall for a foot or two. It gets quieter and quieter and is eventually much too weak to hear, even with headphones. I was wondering if I could, with some modification, plug this thing into a wall to be powered instead of using a 9-volt? And actually, now that I think about it, I probably want to strengthen the probe, the tone generator is probably strong enough.
Also, is there a better sub in which I should ask about this?
Technically this is /r/homenetworking like others have pointed out.
However, /r/homenetworking isn't really suitable for asking questions about anything involving toning out a drop and finding it on a patch panel. If you do a search for it there's basically no useful information for you there. Home networking or not, you're not just asking about "Why is my LANKSIS router so sloooooww".
Don't waste your money on a decent toner and cable tester, if it's just going to be used for a couple of drops around your house the cheapest of the cheap will do just fine. Grab one of these, plug it into the port in the room, and you can tone the cable out through the wall and easily find it on the patch panel. Once you find the port, hook up the cable mapper part of it at the patch panel and set the generator to test and you should get it sequentially going through each wire. If it tests fine on the cable map then you need to look closely at the termination itself and follow one of the many guides on YouTube to re terminate it.
https://www.ebay.com/p/Rj45-Telephone-Phone-Wire-Tracker-Tracer-Ethernet-LAN-Network-Cable-Tester-Toner/1061532813?iid=152635976413
If you need it faster, you can grab that same toner from Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/ELEGIANT-Telephone-Tracker-Ethernet-Upgraded/dp/B015EFE3XA/
That being said, you really want to check behind the wall plate first just to confirm that it's actually hooked up to something and make sure that they didn't wire up those two ports for a phone and ethernet over the same cable. I've seen plenty of wallplates for coax and ethernet that aren't actually terminated behind the wall plate.
If there is a next time a toner like this one (amazon) is very useful. This one is sold elsewhere, I picked one up at a Home Depot some time ago.
Note that I linked an inexpensive one, however it works and is fine for the once every few years use of a home installer. If you want quality get a fluke brand one, but it's 3x the cost.
Thanks. I do know that, but I'm not doing anything permanent, here. Just learning/practicing. If the stranded cable were an issue, I would imagine that the connection would come across weakly or not at all.
Also, yes, I know that MDIX gets handled by most hardware automatically, I'm only testing the cable with this tester. I imagine that this cable would work if I connected it between my router and laptop, but I want to understand why it doesn't test as I would expect.
You can get a decent cable tester for under $20. Here's what I have in my tool bag: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015EFE3XA
Or you can plug a laptop into one end and the router on the other and see what works if you want to do it for free.
I use this cheapo. It has the loudest tone generator I have come across. As long as there is a good connection to the toner it can read through double layer sheetrock.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015EFE3XA/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_apap_MXVIaESDsmVIE
I had a similar situation in the house we moved into several years ago. Original owners had wiring for whole-home audio done before drywall was on. They never got around to installing anything else.
Only clue was - in each room pre-wired for speakers - there was a blank wall plate. The speaker wires ran behind it. This is where the wall volume controls were intended to go.
I was able to locate the wires behind the drywall using a "Tone and Probe kit" similar to this one on Amazon:
Tone and Probe Kit
Basically, you hook up a small battery powered device to the exposed wires and it send a signal down that line. Then you sweep the receiver along the wall/ceiling until it detects the signal.
Can be a bit frustrating if you have no idea where to look, as you need to be very close to the wire for the receiver to hear anything.
A cable tester would work...a toner might be better though, and certainly cheaper.
Cable tester, ELEGIANT XQ-350 Wire Tester Telephone Phone RJ45 RJ11 Wire Tracker Ethernet LAN Line Finder [Upgraded Version] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015EFE3XA/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_jgHFzb2Y1PF6N
Ended up researching into a bag and eventually found one I think will work well.
I will link to everything I've found on amazon. I have found others on our distributors website. Hopefully this will help others put together something as well!
Bag
SATA Adapter
Toolkit
Toner/Fox and Hound
Small LED Flashlight
Velcro Wire Ties - Zip ties are awful
Network Kit
External HDD
Analog Phone - For testing Fax Lines mainly
There's more, such as cables and things, but everyone should be OK with figuring that out for yourselves. Total the kit (with cables and stuff included) is only about $370.91 per technician.
Hope this helps someone!
Get one of these:
Cable Tester, ELEGIANT XQ-350 Wire Tracker Tester RJ45 RJ11 Network Tester Telephone Phone Wire Finder Ethernet LAN Line Finder Cat5 Cat6 with 2 Network Wire Stripper, Headphone, Toolkit https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015EFE3XA/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_S1JrDb10NQ84F
And clip the alligator clips on the low voltage wires and use the reviever to trace the wires through the wall
-With power off-
Cable tester for the drop: https://www.amazon.com/Upgraded-Version-ELEGIANT-Telephone-Ethernet/dp/B015EFE3XA/ref=sr_1_20?ie=UTF8&qid=1485309064&sr=8-20&keywords=cable+tester
Sounds like this product might be a good solution for you (if you are willing to install in the wall) https://www.ubnt.com/unifi/unifi-ap-wall/