Old school toner vs new digital tracer, got a surprise

I been doing this job for 12 years now and always used a standard toner and probe for tracing lines. Last week I finally gave in and bought one of those new digital tracers from Klein, the one with the screen. Figured it would make life easier on a big commercial job over on 5th street. First line I tried to trace on a bundle of 20 cat6 cables, the thing kept picking up signal from three different cables. Took me 20 minutes to verify which one was actually live. My old analog probe gave me a clear tone on the right one in 30 seconds flat. I learned that sometimes the old dumb tools work better than the fancy smart ones in tight spots. Has anyone else had a digital tool just confuse things more than help?

3 comments

3 Comments

haydenbutler17d ago

Man that's exactly what happened to me. Picked up a fancy Klein tracer and spent way too long chasing ghosts in a bundle while my beat up old probe found the right line in like 20 seconds.

miamitchell17d ago

My first job with my new digital tracer was a nightmare in a tight patch panel. I spent like 15 minutes chasing a ghost signal on a bundle of 12 cat5e cables, kept showing two different cables as active. Turned out the digital one was picking up cross talk from a live PoE line next to it. Went back to my old school Fluke toner and nailed the right wire in maybe 45 seconds. These smart tools are great for big open runs but they just get confused when things are crammed together. I ended up keeping both in my bag now, old one for crowded closets and the digital for long pulls.

johnson.daniel17d ago

Buddy of mine who does low voltage work for a hospital system tried out one of those fancy digital tracers on a big cable tray with 30+ lines. He said the thing kept showing signal on like half the cables in the bundle, just bouncing all over the place. After swearing at it for a solid 10 minutes he dug his old cheap toner out of the truck and got his line on the first try. He told me those digital ones are basically useless when you got PoE gear running nearby.

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