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Wire Locator

Posted: Thu Jan 06, 2005 1:34 am
by Doug_F
Hi, I work as a network technician at a consulting firm in NJ and I've been thinking about something lately. At our place, and i'm guessing many others, we have hudreds of cat5e/ethernet/rj45 cables all running under the floorboards in our network room. When we have to make changes, or check one of our lines, it is a ridiculously tedious process, and mistakes can be very bad.

What I think we could do, is develop something that we attach to an individual cable which would make it light up, glow or become apparent all the way through the line. If we could maybe make something like an end that you put the cable into which sends a signal through the length of the wire, or something else.

I am pretty new to this whole process of coming up with ideas and working them out, but I think this would have a very practical use. Picture some sort of handheld device we would attach to an individual cable and press a button, after that the entire cable would light up or become clearly visible from the tangle of other wires, we could then go to the other end and instantly find the exact wire we were looking for.

Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2005 8:27 am
by Rishi
It is normal practice to put cable markers at intervals along the wire, which uniquely identify the cable. Very cheap, no electronics, and sure.

Rishi