I need to add a phone/extension in one of the rooms in our small
office. It has an existing connection/extension, so it was likely
connected at one time, but is no longer active.

Background: We have a small office, with about 30 phones in 12 rooms,
and a central, small phone room. The phones have been moved around
over the years, so we have some currently non-active jacks, with
possible cables running to our central phone room.

Question: Isn't there an electronic device that I can plug into the
phone jack (connect to one end of the cable) and have it make a signal
(noise) that I can then go to the phone room and find the cable that
the signal is coming from?

Question: What is the name of this electronic device? What is this
piece of test equipment called?

Or can you suggest another way to find the correct cable?

Thank you,
Bill

On Aug

Question: What is the name of this electronic device? What is this
piece of test equipment called?

Or can you suggest another way to find the correct cable?

Thank you,
Bill

Bill

Lots of ways to do this. And several names for each of the devices
used to trace the pairs/wires.

So if you don't have a cabling plan for the office the next best thing
is to connect a buzz set, we called ours, or an audio signal where you
want to connect the phone. Find the pair in your cabling/telephone
closet and go from there. Are you aware for the color coding schemes
for telephones and the like? If not now is a good time to learn.

If all this is greek to you find someone like me who understands what
to do.

Bob AZ

Bill wrote:
I need to add a phone/extension in one of the rooms in our small
office. It has an existing connection/extension, so it was likely
connected at one time, but is no longer active.

Background: We have a small office, with about 30 phones in 12 rooms,
and a central, small phone room. The phones have been moved around
over the years, so we have some currently non-active jacks, with
possible cables running to our central phone room.

Question: Isn't there an electronic device that I can plug into the
phone jack (connect to one end of the cable) and have it make a signal
(noise) that I can then go to the phone room and find the cable that
the signal is coming from?

Question: What is the name of this electronic device? What is this
piece of test equipment called?

Or can you suggest another way to find the correct cable?

Thank you,
Bill


It's called a tone generator. You need some sort of receiver to hear the
tone generated. You can get receivers now that are inductive pickups
(called probes) and speakers all in one. They come as a set.
Google for them.

These things are not cheap. At least $100 for a set. If you have a
friend, and a multimeter, then you can set the multimeter for
continuity, and hook the wires up to the multimeter. Then at the other
end, you short the wires and the gauge will change if that is the wire.

By yourself, if it is on the weekend and the place is quiet enough, most
multimeters have a tone setting in the continuity test settings, so you
could hook up to the wires you wonder about, short the wires on the
other end and listen for the beep.

"vey" wrote in message
...
Bill wrote:
I need to add a phone/extension in one of the rooms in our small
office. It has an existing connection/extension, so it was likely
connected at one time, but is no longer active.

Background: We have a small office, with about 30 phones in 12 rooms,
and a central, small phone room. The phones have been moved around
over the years, so we have some currently non-active jacks, with
possible cables running to our central phone room.

Question: Isn't there an electronic device that I can plug into the
phone jack (connect to one end of the cable) and have it make a signal
(noise) that I can then go to the phone room and find the cable that
the signal is coming from?

Question: What is the name of this electronic device? What is this
piece of test equipment called?

Or can you suggest another way to find the correct cable?

Thank you,
Bill


It's called a tone generator. You need some sort of receiver to hear the
tone generated. You can get receivers now that are inductive pickups
(called probes) and speakers all in one. They come as a set.
Google for them.

These things are not cheap. At least $100 for a set. If you have a friend,
and a multimeter, then you can set the multimeter for continuity, and hook
the wires up to the multimeter. Then at the other end, you short the wires
and the gauge will change if that is the wire.

By yourself, if it is on the weekend and the place is quiet enough, most
multimeters have a tone setting in the continuity test settings, so you
could hook up to the wires you wonder about, short the wires on the other
end and listen for the beep.

This is a good suggestion for finding the extension cheaply. However, it
would be a good idea to check that it is a truly dead socket that you are
hooking to before you do this, as the phone system may not like a short
being placed across an extension that is still connected ...

Arfa

Arfa Daily wrote:
"vey" wrote in message
...
Bill wrote:
I need to add a phone/extension in one of the rooms in our small
office. It has an existing connection/extension, so it was likely
connected at one time, but is no longer active.

Background: We have a small office, with about 30 phones in 12 rooms,
and a central, small phone room. The phones have been moved around
over the years, so we have some currently non-active jacks, with
possible cables running to our central phone room.

Question: Isn't there an electronic device that I can plug into the
phone jack (connect to one end of the cable) and have it make a signal
(noise) that I can then go to the phone room and find the cable that
the signal is coming from?

Question: What is the name of this electronic device? What is this
piece of test equipment called?

Or can you suggest another way to find the correct cable?

Thank you,
Bill

It's called a tone generator. You need some sort of receiver to hear the
tone generated. You can get receivers now that are inductive pickups
(called probes) and speakers all in one. They come as a set.
Google for them.

These things are not cheap. At least $100 for a set. If you have a friend,
and a multimeter, then you can set the multimeter for continuity, and hook
the wires up to the multimeter. Then at the other end, you short the wires
and the gauge will change if that is the wire.

By yourself, if it is on the weekend and the place is quiet enough, most
multimeters have a tone setting in the continuity test settings, so you
could hook up to the wires you wonder about, short the wires on the other
end and listen for the beep.

This is a good suggestion for finding the extension cheaply. However, it
would be a good idea to check that it is a truly dead socket that you are
hooking to before you do this, as the phone system may not like a short
being placed across an extension that is still connected ...

Arfa



I was looking on Ebay after I posted this. The tone generators are
pretty cheap used, the probes, not so cheap, but still a whole lot
cheaper than new. I've got an old butt set and a banana probe. I just
tried to use it yesterday and realized that the battery in the probe is
dead. Uses a 9 volt odd ball Eveready.

Question: What is the name of this electronic device? What is this
piece of test equipment called?

Or can you suggest another way to find the correct cable?

Thank you,
Bill


Bill

This item on Ebay should do real nice.

http://cgi.ebay.com/SMART-MULTI-NETW...QQcmdZViewItem

Bob AZ

On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 16:59:50 -0700, Bill put
finger to keyboard and composed:

I need to add a phone/extension in one of the rooms in our small
office. It has an existing connection/extension, so it was likely
connected at one time, but is no longer active.

Background: We have a small office, with about 30 phones in 12 rooms,
and a central, small phone room. The phones have been moved around
over the years, so we have some currently non-active jacks, with
possible cables running to our central phone room.

Question: Isn't there an electronic device that I can plug into the
phone jack (connect to one end of the cable) and have it make a signal
(noise) that I can then go to the phone room and find the cable that
the signal is coming from?

Question: What is the name of this electronic device? What is this
piece of test equipment called?

Or can you suggest another way to find the correct cable?

Thank you,
Bill

You could build a 20mA current source like this:

IN OUT
_________
o---| LM317 |---|
|---|---| |
| | red LED
9V |- 62R -| |--||--|
battery | | |
|---||--o Tip o--|--||--|-- 100R --|
green LED green LED |
|
o----------------o Ring o---------------------|
-- 20mA -- 20mA


Connect it to the jacks in your phone room. When you take the phone
off-hook, the LED should light up. Alternatively, just use a LED and
resistor at the other end. To make it easier to solder, you could cut
out the RJ sockets from an old modem card. The red and green LEDs will
indicate the tip/ring polarity (which shouldn't matter anyway).

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

On Aug 20, 7:59 pm, Bill wrote:
I need to add a phone/extension in one of the rooms in our small
office. It has an existing connection/extension, so it was likely
connected at one time, but is no longer active.

Background: We have a small office, with about 30 phones in 12 rooms,
and a central, small phone room. The phones have been moved around
over the years, so we have some currently non-active jacks, with
possible cables running to our central phone room.

Question: Isn't there an electronic device that I can plug into the
phone jack (connect to one end of the cable) and have it make a signal
(noise) that I can then go to the phone room and find the cable that
the signal is coming from?

Question: What is the name of this electronic device? What is this
piece of test equipment called?

Fox and Hound. Can be had from any well stocked electronics store.

Or can you suggest another way to find the correct cable?

Thank you,
Bill

You need what is called a cable signal tracer. It comes with a transmitter
and a receiver. The transmitter is connected at one end, and the receiver at
the other. The receiver will pick up the signal for at least a few feet. You
can then zero in on the single cable set at the opposite end. This tool is
not cheap. They can start from over $100 and go very high in cost, depending
on the type required.

You would be best off to call a telephone installer. This way, you will not
have to buy the tools for this type of job, and the job will be properly.
You may only need them once in a life time, unless you plan to do telephone
installations.

--

JANA
_____


"Bill" wrote in message
oups.com...
I need to add a phone/extension in one of the rooms in our small
office. It has an existing connection/extension, so it was likely
connected at one time, but is no longer active.

Background: We have a small office, with about 30 phones in 12 rooms,
and a central, small phone room. The phones have been moved around
over the years, so we have some currently non-active jacks, with
possible cables running to our central phone room.

Question: Isn't there an electronic device that I can plug into the
phone jack (connect to one end of the cable) and have it make a signal
(noise) that I can then go to the phone room and find the cable that
the signal is coming from?

Question: What is the name of this electronic device? What is this
piece of test equipment called?

Or can you suggest another way to find the correct cable?

Thank you,
Bill

On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 16:59:50 -0700, Bill
wrote:

I need to add a phone/extension in one of the rooms in our small
office. It has an existing connection/extension, so it was likely
connected at one time, but is no longer active.

Background: We have a small office, with about 30 phones in 12 rooms,
and a central, small phone room. The phones have been moved around
over the years, so we have some currently non-active jacks, with
possible cables running to our central phone room.

Question: Isn't there an electronic device that I can plug into the
phone jack (connect to one end of the cable) and have it make a
signal
(noise) that I can then go to the phone room and find the cable that
the signal is coming from?

Question: What is the name of this electronic device? What is this
piece of test equipment called?

Or can you suggest another way to find the correct cable?

Thank you,
Bill


It sounds like you have a real dogs breakfast which needs sorting out.

You seem to infer that your phone cables are terminated on a patch
panel in the phone room. If the cables are cat.5 and the patch panel
connectors are 8P8C (RJ45) but you don't know where all the cables go,
you really need to do a full ident and test each cable in turn. This
can be time consuming and it is easier to accomplish the task by
disconnecting all phones on a Sunday and testing each cable in turn.

There are numerous testers around, some cheap, some expensive eg.
http://www.cablemax.com/show-item.cf....cfm&id=350129
and there should be heaps on Ebay.

Of course, carrying out the job effectively means you have to know
what you are doing, so it might be best to get a tech in...

And don't forget to mark each the jacks at end of the circuits so you
know where the cables go in future.