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Found out the hard way why those cheap toner probes lie to you
I was tracking down a dead pair in a 400-pair bundle outside Detroit last Tuesday. My $30 toner said it was on pair 217, so I spent 40 minutes tracing and re-testing. Turns out the probe was picking up bleed from the adjacent 216 pair. A senior guy showed me the trick of shorting the far end first, then the toner only lights up on the actual pair. Has anyone else had their test gear flat out lie like that, or is it just me? What do you trust for pair identification in tight bundles?
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nancy47517d ago
That 40 minutes is brutal, man. Been there with cheap gear and it makes you want to throw the whole tester in the river. The bleed from adjacent pairs is exactly the kind of thing they don't warn you about in the manual, and it's always on the worst possible day when you're already soaked and tired. Shorting the far end first is a solid trick, I've seen guys do it but never got taught it proper myself until a 300-pair nightmare last fall. For tight bundles, I trust a good inductive amp with a solid probe, but even that can get fooled if the pairs are wrapped too tight. You're not alone on this one, bad toners cost everyone time and patience sooner or later.
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