HACKER Q&A
📣 fefferkorn

Cablefinder to find telephone cables in the wall


I have the need to find a certain cable in a pack of cables (harness) (i would say about 200). they have not been marked. so i only know the start and the end, but i need to find where it goes in the walls. Is there a device where i can bring on a modulated signal (to eliminate noise from other data cables) and track it through thick walls? but also directly? i know some (expensive) FLUKE devices, but they only allow to trakc half a meter i think. Im not an expert when it comes to electricity and antennas. Is it possible to build such a device myself with a raspberry maybe? Has someone done this? Thanks for advice!

  👤 theGeatZhopa Accepted Answer ✓
As I understand you have a bunch of cables and you know the start and end... Then .. you know where it's going to :)

This trackers for electricity in the walls track magnetic fields caused by the current in cables. They mostly differ between Metal/electric/nothing and have three signals. If it possible to disconnect all of the cables in the bunch of current and just connect to supply current on the one cable in question, then it would be possible to track it. Other cables would be recognized as metal and showing a different signal.. may be like this?

👤 tssva
Search for “wire toner”.