[sdiy] ot: tracing power cables in a house

[Dean Stiglitz]

hi all,

my gf's father has a house half gutted, and half wired...the electricians have not come back to finish the job (because they didn't label anything when they laid the wires...they have no idea what wire goes where), and for the same reason, he has been unable to get someone to finish the job.

i was hoping to be able to help him out by at least identifing/labeling the wires in the basement, and where they go.

i've seen some tools ($100+) that do this, but was thinking perhaps instead to do a little diy approach.

anyone done this (or something similar) and have any suggestions???

it seems i could (at the non-basement end) inject a sound source (radio headphone out) into the wires (hot to one wire, and ground to another) and use alagator clips or test probles connected to a speaker to find the terminating end in the basement.

another option seems to be to do a similar thing with a 9v battery and an led.

again, if anyone has any brilliant ideas that would save me time/money/frustration, i'd love to hear them.

deknow