Can anyone recommend a good unit for locating buried wires? Seven years ago during construction I left wires in walls for possible use: door switches and motion detector. Condo has changed owners several times; current one wants to get burglar alarm working. NX8 has been monitoring smoke detectors.
Buried wire detection
Sep 01, 2010
3 Replies
Check that the wire you are looking for is not shorted. Must be open or put a 10ohm load in line. Connect a 12vdc battery to a siren driver. Connect the output of the siren driver to your wire. Use your Tone Probe to trace the wire.
Should get a tone at easily 8" - 10" from wire inside the wall. It will be right under the loudest point.
Good Luck
Les
Never heard of that method. Is that better than the tone generator that comes with the inductive probe?
To the OP:
Here is a video on how to use the toner & probe:
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Absolutely........ better that my probe for finding hidden wires in walls. I set this up a number of years ago when I could not find a wire that I knew had to be in this 8' section of wall. I stripped out the siren driver board from a flush mount speaker/siren. Hooked it up and found the wire in about 2 minutes.
I have since made one with alligator clips for the battery and the wire connections and installed a 10ohm resistor to help save it from being damaged by a short. Stuck it in shrink tubing and it hangs on a hook in my van for when it is needed again. Which is not that often.
It really gives a much louder signal to the tone. I use the warble tone as opposed to the steady.
I should have patented the thing but............................... too late now.
Les
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