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Finding The Other End Of A Cable

Greetings all.

This is my first post here, I hope it goes well.

My name is Joe and I have searched Google. and this forum for my answer but have not been able to find a definitive answer to my question. I have seen many replies talking about getting a tone generator or a line tracer but my experience is that tone generators are for Data and phone cables rather than electrical cables and the line tracers I've found online all seem to be about tracing the line back to the breaker panel so without knowing more I'm hesitant to purchase a line tracer in case it cannot do what I want.

My dilemma is very likely very simple to anyone with electrical experience so I hope it's not too trivial for this crowd.

I have recently purchased a house that is over 120 years old and have a motion sensor light on the porch that is supposedly connected to a switch inside but does not turn on. I've opened the wall plate and used a voltage indicating pen to see where the electricity is. In this case there are two light switches, one that has lines that have been spliced and another that supposedly leads to the porch light according to a long time tenant in that unit. It all looks like a bit of a mess and the connections don't make sense. In this scenario the black cables have the electricity and the white cables complete the circuit. The switch to the porch light has a black cable coming from the top of the box going to the switch and a white cable connected to the other screw that comes from splitting the white cable from the other switch. What I would like to do is know which cables in that wall box correspond to the cables to the porch light. Can anyone give me an idea what I should do?

Do I need something like the Amprobe advanced wire tracer (http://www.professionalequipment.com...0/wire-tracer/) and can it do what I need, or is there something simpler I can do?

All help is appreciated.

Thanks

Joe

Ugly Cablevision Phone Cables Everywhere!

I recently switched over from AT&T phone/cable/Internet service to Cablevision.

The problem with both services is the coax cable coming through a hole in the wall from outside and then a phone line from their modem stapled to the floor board and tied into the phone outlet inside. Then there's my phone lines, the coax cable to the TV... It's a disgusting mess.

I'd like to install a combination phone line and cable outlet in the wall and get rid of as much loose wiring as possible. The phone line would come through the same area as the cable and I'd wire it on the other end to the main box outside the house.

I have no experience with this so my question is can I take the phone line from the Cablevision modem and simply plug it into the outlet and get all the phones in the house to work or does it have to be hard wired or piggybacked inside the outlet?

Switches Have Me In Stitches

i have 3 switch sets in my house that are giving me absolute fits.

#1 kitchen switch, controls the light over the outside door

Code:

3 sets of lines coming in,



line from the breaker panel (power)



line to the ceiling lights 



line to the outside porch light.

i cannot get this 3 line to work without tripping the breaker every time i turn the switch off

#2 bathroom switches

Code:

power feed line



line to the light over the medicine cabinet



line to the second switch to control the exhaust fan.

same issue as the first set, flip the switch and trip the breaker (different breaker from the kitchen switch)

#3 living room switch and plug controlled via switch

Code:

 power feed line



outside porch light line



line to wall switch to control the lower wall outlet

flip switch, trip breaker

the switches i have are "1 pole" am i using the wrong switches for this job?

Wiring Cut-off Switch

Hi,

I would like to wire a switch to be able to cut the power to the ceiling mounted outlets that feed our garage door openers. Running new wiring to them will be a bit cumbersome, so I am hoping to avoid that. The ceiling outlets are powered by light fixtures in the garage (one near by each outlet). There is a 3 wire romex cable running from the light switch to the first light and another one between the lights, and then regular 2 wire romex cables from the light fixtures to the outlets. The red wires in the 3 wire cables to the lights are switchable, the black wires are always hot.

I mainly want to be able to cut the power to the doors when we are away on vacation, and the reason for that is that one night both doors somehow opened up - I have no idea why. I'd hate for that to happen when we're away. Unplugging and plugging in the openers is a bit of a hassle due to the high ceiling.

I thought about wiring in a switched outlet so that I could just reach up with a long handle of some sort and switch off the power to the outlet. It would not be ideal, but definitely easier than getting the ladder out and unplugging the door openers. However, there is possibly another option that I'd like some input on if anyone cares to comment. I believe I could wire in a switch on the wall next to the light switch that would allow me to cut the power to the black wires in the 3 wire cables. This would cut the power to the ceiling outlets and anything downstream from there (possibly an outside light, I would need to check on that).

My question is, are there any potential issues with this sort of wiring? Is there perhaps any code violation if both hot wires in a 3 wire cable can be switched off separately?

Thoughts?

Running Cable Along Bottom Of Rafters

Hello,

can cables be run along the side of 2x4s which run along bottom of rafters? Sheetrock will be put up later on - attached to the 2x4s.

These are vaulted ceilings.

I know about the issue with nailing into cables in the walls and the requirement to install nail plates but how does this apply to the ceiling in this case (shown on attached picture)?

I'd like not to drill holes into the rafters to run the cables.

Will inspectors be ok with this?

Thanks

Popped Breaker After Mis-wiring A Fan.

Hi, I recently moved into a 1954 house with a 20amp electrical system, not the old fuse type, but there are no ground wires.

I removed an old light and replaced it with a light fan combo. As I removed the old light (after turning off the breaker) I noticed from the ceiling that there were 2 white wires tied together with a wire nut and 2 black wires, one attached to the white wire in the light and the other attached to the black one from the light. Feeling this was wrong and should be black to black, white to white, (even knowing full well the light was working fine before I disconnected it) I wired the fan the way I've always wired fan lights, white to white, blue and black to black. (again, knowing full well the light was working the other way). Turned breaker on then powered on switch. POP at the switch, breaker switched off. I reworked it back to the way it was before with whites tied off, black to white, black and blue to black, turned it back on and viola, things worked fine. (I know, duh... Right???)

2 questions from this experience...

1. Why would the 2 whites be tied off with only black wires used?

And 2. It seems that one of the light switches in the same circuit as the blown one is now working soft. In other words, it used to make the normal click noise when turned on/off but now it just moves softly up and down without the click. Could I have damaged something when I mis-wired?

Wire Tracer

I'm not sure this is the best place for this post but it certainly applies here. I'm looking to purchase a wire tracer. I'd like it to have these options, which I'm pretty sure they all do from what I've seen so far. Obviously, energized the wire and then trace its whereabouts; some type of decent sized pencil (item used to trace the wires itself) so you can get into smaller places; be able to do A/C, D/C and maybe phones lines too? I've seen the small cheesey one at the big box stores (I think it was made by GB) and wasn't really impressed. I'm leaning towards the Textron unit for phone lines only because the use and somewhat reasonable price. I know the high speed ones are what I'm looking for but I'm not willing to spend $500 on it- I don't think I'd use it enough to justify it. Are there any others ideas/items that I've missed? Any information will be appreciated. Thanks.

Hdmi Cables

I have a 50 foot hdmi cable that is hooked to my TV, run through my wall to my basement then over and upto a closet where the cable is hooked to my surround sound. Unfortunately my basement ceiling is finished in drywall and there is no access to replace the cord. To make a long story short a cable TV provider came to my house to change out a box and broke the prongs on the hdmi cable. My question is, can HDMI ends be spliced or replaced somehow without replacing the whole cable.

Light Only Works When Lead Is Wired To Ground?

I have an outdoor light fixture that I am trying to replace. The house was built ten years ago.

When I removed the original lamp, I noticed one of the two leads was wired to the ground, and one was wired to the black wire, which is hot per my current sensor. There are three wires in the box - black, ground (bare copper), and white or neutral, all from a single romex cable. Unfortunately, I do not recall where the white was when I removed the original.

I wired the new lamp per the instructions, something I have done many times before - black to black, white to white, and bare copper ground to ground. Nothing. The lamp and bulbs are brand new, and I have tried four separate bulbs. I checked the black and neutral with my current sensor and with the switch on and the lamp installed this way, both show as hot. With the lamp not installed, the switch on, and the wires disconnected only the black shows as hot. The switch is single pole, and appears to be wired correctly with a black to each screw on one side and a copper ground on the other.

Assuming the new fixture was bad, I reinstalled the old fixture correctly - black to black, white to white, and bare copper ground to ground. Still nothing. No light, and I confirmed the bulb is good by putting it in another lamp. The only way to get it to light is to connect the neutral in the lamp to the bare copper ground.

I capped the wires, turned the circuit back on, and identified all the outlets, switches and fixtures on the same circuit. I opened every one of them up (four lights and eight outlets) and found three (one switch and two fixtures in another room) where multiple commons connect. All were properly connected. My outlet tester shows all outlets as "correct". I found no instances of grounds connected to commons or vice-versa.

Any ideas? Is it proper to wire this thing the way I found it?

Thanks for any and all advice!

Please Help Me Understand Something

I am trying to understand how to wire a certain situation. I have found how to wire 1 light coming from the service line and into the switch (white connected to light, black spliced into switch with white returning to light marked as hot) but I would have 2 lights before the switch. How do you wire that appropriately?

Drilling Studs And Plates

What is the typical sized hole for running NM cable through a stud or top plate? And how many NM cables can go through that single hole? Also, how many cables are allowed per panel connector? I will be running all 12/2 NM.