Yeah, unless you are going to go the route of having the tool calibrated every 6 months, the best you are ever going to get out of any electronic measuring device is "good enough for government work" Don't fall for the "super accurate" snow job from the salesguys at Fluke. The only difference the extra money buys you is that the Fluke CAN be calibrated. At least I assume it can. For sure their expensive stuff can be, don't know about the "cheaper" field stuff.
All of the measuring devices on the market that measure the more advanced stuff also show the simpler stuff. The Pentascanner does the same. It's important to know that you can only measure a miswire if you have plugged the termination device into the other end of the cable, this is true for all of the models on the market Another consideration I have also had when working on this stuff for customers is having the expensive stuff get stolen. I've had toolbags stolen several times and more importantly I've accidentally forgotten tools at a job then remembered later and gone back for them only to find they had disappeared. I learned only to carry the absolute cheapest crap tools that will barely work. (that's an old trick from a lot of tradespeople) That's why I never carried the Pentascanner unless it was on a special job. The Pentascanner when it was new, decades ago, was in the multi-thousand dollar range. They still fetch a lot on Ebay maybe I should sell mine.... Ted Obviously if you have a large wiring -----Original Message----- From: PLUG <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Russell Senior Sent: Monday, January 29, 2024 10:40 AM To: Portland Linux/Unix Group <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [PLUG] Cable tester The fluke ms2 also shows miswiring, whether you are plugged into a transceiver, or your remote, etc. We've been happy with it. I am sure you can find non-fluke for less, but when you are measuring things, it is nice, and an inferential leg up, to know you are probably measuring them correctly. On Mon, Jan 29, 2024 at 10:34 AM Ted Mittelstaedt <[email protected]> wrote: > The problem with a TDR is it's only good if you shorted or opened a > cable. My problem has always been pair reversals on building cables > and a TDR is useless for that. I have a Pentascanner that I used to > use for this kind of thing and the only use I got out of it was > discovering a split pair one time at a customer site that was left > over from years earlier when someone had run voice on that cable. But > keeping the battery packs working on the thing was a nuisance so I > switched over to the $20 chinese pair scanner thing years ago. > > It's also worth noting you can buy a TDR for $100 off Ebay. Chinese > made of course. > > Ted > > -----Original Message----- > From: PLUG <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Russell > Senior > Sent: Monday, January 29, 2024 10:16 AM > To: Portland Linux/Unix Group <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [PLUG] Cable tester > > For years, we got away with a cheapo $20 continuity tester for > checking Ethernet cables. The problem with them was that, yeah, sure, > they would tell you if you had shorts or opens, but they did not tell > you where. Cable itself tends to be pretty reliably connected end to > end, but when you have crimped both ends and you find a short or open > with a continuity tester, you have almost no idea which end you > screwed up. You look very closely at the crimped ends, decide which > one looks sketchier, cut it off and try again more carefully, then rinse and > repeat. > > A few years ago, after suffering this problem for over a decade, we > finally invested in a fluke microscanner2. It does time domain > reflectometry, and can tell you, pair-by-pair, whether it has > continuity and crucially, if it does not, how far down the wire the fault > occurs. > Suddenly, we know which end has the fault! If we stabbed the cable to > death with hoop staples and there is a mid span fault, we know that. > It cost us $500. It wasn't their fanciest model, but it has been such > an improvement in reliability and visibility. > > -- > Russell Senior > [email protected] > > On Mon, Jan 29, 2024, 09:21 mo <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Hi. I need to buy a cat5 cable tester aka tone detector. There are > > so > many! > > How should I choose one? What features, brands, etc do you recommend? > > > > My bldg has up to 100' of cat5e I think. I'd like one I keep for > > future use with different wiring (RJ11, cat6 7, etc). Idk what other > > features to look for in such an item. I want to test for cable > > quality, connectivity, speed, etc as well as locating which cable > > terminates where (if all that's possible). 🙏🏾 > > > >
