I need to locate a single wire in a rat’s nest of other wires in a console. I know where it starts but I don’t know where it ends. Will a wire or cable tracer work on just a single conductor?

Thanks,
Brad

 

Will a wire or cable tracer work on just a single conductor?

Nope. Is there a shield or ground that you could use?

 

My Fluke 3000 tone and probe set will do it, but depending how tightly packed the wires are, distinguishing the hot one might be hard. If you choose a wire that is not it, and adjective the volume on the probe so it is quiet, you can probably discriminate the hot wire.

 

I've traced wire breaks in test leads using an audio frequency square wave generator (just a 2-transistor multivibrator originally built as a code practice oscillator) and a sensitive audio amplifier. An AM radio with an external antenna connection would probably work too; square waves have harmonics to infinity and beyond.

 

My Fluke 3000 tone and probe set will do it, but depending how tightly packed the wires are, distinguishing the hot one might be hard. If you choose a wire that is not it, and adjective the volume on the probe so it is quiet, you can probably discriminate the hot wire.

The wires are not tight, it is really a mess. Would I be able to connect one lead to the chassie of the console as ground? I was looking at the Fluke Networks pro3000.

Thanks

 

The wires are not tight, it is really a mess. Would I be able to connect one lead to the chassie of the console as ground? I was looking at the Fluke Networks pro3000.

Thanks

Yes, I would expect it to work but would still recomend the procedure I outlined to improve discrimination. Also, if you can afford the extra money for the filtered probe, it's worth it. The normal probe is definitely harder to use with smaller signals due to AC power line hum which is everywhere.