In article ,
The Daring Dufas wrote:

Smitty Two wrote:
I plan to buy a homeowner quality wire tracer. I see many available in
the $30 price range. Any particular brands or features to look for or
are they all pretty much the same? Any substantial reason to spend more?

Immediate use will be to trace de-energized AC wiring to see whether I
can restore operation to a few old outdoor lighting fixtures.

Are you familiar with a telecom tone generator and
inductive pickup for tracing wires? Check around
pawn shops and surplus outlets if there are any in
your area. If you can just get a toner, you can use
it along with a small AM radio to trace unshielded
wires inside walls. I've used a small battery powered
AM radio to find Romex inside the walls of homes
during remodel jobs. If the wire is dead, I can hook
one of my toners to it and tune the little radio to
pickup the RF harmonics from the toner. Of course a
live wire causes a 60hz AC hum from the radio. If
you could find a "Tempo 508S Wire Finder" at a pawn
shop, on eBay or craigslist for a reasonable price,
you better grab it because the cheapest I've seen
new is $245.00.

http://www.stayonline.com/detail.aspx?ID=165

http://www.action-electronics.com/tracker.htm

http://www.hometech.com/tools/tone.html

TDD

Thanks for those links. Our telcom service tech at work uses a little
shirt pocket gadget like those, but I don't know what the range is.
Seems like maybe just a few inches.

The Tempo unit looks great; says it can find wire buried up to 3 feet
deep. I just did find one on CL in a nearby city and emailed the guy.