Is there any possible way to make a cable toner just to get by in an extreme emergency?

Same question goes for making a probe.

Thanks

Why not just buy one? Home Depot stocks them.

Almost any audio source could be used in place of a tone but the probe would be difficult to duplicate. Like Jeff says go to a near by HD and get the right tool for the job.

Here's an emergency solution. Go to a big box home improvement store, or order one in advance https://www.google.com/products/cat...eTquFM-W80AHk0NzeAg&ved=0CEYQ8wIwAw#

If you carried the Siemon STM-8, you would have an emergency toner. Your butt set will work as a pickup!

Let's assume for a moment that there has been a major disaster, and a trip to the store is not an option. And that your tools/equipment and backup tools/equipment are not available. Could you build a toner and probe out of coconuts and vines, ala Gilligan's Island? No. A ball point pen and some ketchup packets, ala MacGyver? No. Two junked school buses and a snowmobile, ala "The A-Team?" No.

But, you could try this: Use any audio source for the tone, as Merritt said. Then, if you have a guitar pickup and an audio amplifier, this could be used as an inductive probe.

Would it work? Maybe, but the first issue that comes to mind is that even a small guitar pickup is huge compared to a probe, and would be almost worthless in a tight situation.

Here are some other things that might work as an inductive probe [when connected to an audio amplifier with a high input impedance]:

• The hearing aid coil from the receiver element of a late-model 2500 phone
• The coil assembly from an old magnetic microphone
• a magnetic pickup form a turntable [record player]
• other items of a similar type [hit the junkbox and dig]

Again, emphasis is placed on "might work." Try it and see...

Jim
**************************************************
Speaking from a secure undisclosed location.

Most probes are not inductive. Just stick a nail on a cable on the input of an audio amp. That's all they are.

-Hal

All you need to hear the tone is a speaker.

Yes:

Speaker output from a radio or one of those eye-things that teenagers listen to, put across a pair, or from one side of a pair to ground.

Take your butt set, put it on monitor, ground one clip, and hold the other clip in your hand. Spit on your finger, and run your finger down the terminal, or across the bare ends of the wires, if they aren't terminated yet.

If you are trying to find one wire in an installation, use the above method.

The audio source can also be a 6 volt dry cell and a doorbell buzzer. The old Western Electric gray 81A buzzer was two D cells and an intercom buzzer. We used a cheap AM transistor radio as an exploring coil, when looking for a pair in a building that might have 1,200 house pairs.

OR:

If you are trying to identify a bunch of wires, and trying to terminate them at an MDF, do this:

(assumes 8p8c jacks already terminated, and that you have a continuity device, like a battery and light bulb, or a volt-ohm meter)

At jack #1, short the first pair
At jack #2, short the second pair
etc.

At jack #5, short the two first tips
At jack #6, short the two last tips
At jack #7, short the 1st and 3rd tips
etc.

Then short the various combinations of rings.

Then start over and use the above schemes, but ground them from the center screw of an adjacent receptical.

I needed to ID 42 or so wires, after hours, in a new office, and drove all the way there (25 miles each way) in my wife's car, which uses a lot less gas than my Ford E150. I remembered to bring "everything" that I needed except a toner and a probe. Homie Da Poe was 40 miles the other direction.

So, I used the above method, which wasn't so onerous. I got a couple of data patch cords, cut them in half, stripped the ends, made the various combinations of short circuits, and plugged them in at the jacks. You just need to record the color code and the jack location, and then look for the shorts at the MDF. If done right, you actually save time, because you aren't walking back and forth as much.

The audio source can also be a 6 volt dry cell and a doorbell buzzer. The old Western Electric gray 81A buzzer was two D cells and an intercom buzzer.

Ah, why didn't I say that? A buzzer was the first "toner". Matter of fact many old timers still call a tone generator a "buzzer".

-Hal

Arthur-

I remember the trick with using your finger to run a house count. With the ubiquitousness of wands, those tricks vanished quickly.

When I got my hands on my first electronic toner my 81 buzzer went to the basement, never to be seen again.

Sam

LOL, just bought an 81A on fleabay - surprised the heck out of me when I openend it up to put in batteries and saw how simple it was!

In this situation, I'd hook up a 24vac source to one end of the cable, then go to the remote end and touch each bare cable with the tip of your tongue.

Danny sounds like the best way to go :rofl:

Just hope Danny remembers "safety 1st" and lets his (fill in the blank) hang into a pail of water so he's properly "grounded". :rofl:

Thank you everyone for the the great discussion.

I've done Artur's method a couple of times, but that required the volt meter which I had access to at that time. There was a time when I had to make a loopback adapter to see which port on the switch would light up, doesn't work all the time on gigabit switches though, and can be time consuming. Trying to take a note of which ports are active or inactive before the loopback adapter is plugged in, saves a little headache, but it is still can get challenging to to it with no help on the other end of the cable.


I've noticed when sometimes toning a cable that is connected to the gigabit switch can be a pain, but with my Ideal VDV Multimedia Cable Tester I am able to select which pairs, or individual pins can be toned and that allows me to fairly quickly find the right cable.

You won't get good tone if you're still plugged into the switch, at least in my experience.

I just use a cat 5 module with a pair of wires punched on pins 1 and 8. Then just clip my toner on the wire and a patch cord into the module from the wire being traced. Works fine for me.