Any tricks or tips on making circuit map/list for old victorian type house, mostly K&T, some new kitchen circuits, but has three sub-panels that supply main areas of house, difficult to hunt and peck out circuits, anyone familiar with a Extech ct-40 tracer, it has 16 leads and common then test unit that will say which breaker lead at the recept.s? tried the walkie talkie route but too confusing with homeowner
I don’t have any experience with the Extech CT40, but for the price, I don’t think you could go wrong.
I’ve had my eye on one of the Tasco CMT42S circuit mappers for a few years now, but that kind of price for something I’ve never used before just seems to always stop me cold.
Tasco Circuit Mapper
i use bunch of night lights and lot of back & forth from panel to the house.
i have seen the TASCO mapper in action. it is amazing.
You can use a radio plugged into the tested outlet (use an edison to 1-15 adapter in lighting outlets) if the customer can stand the noise.
Sometimes I will just shut off all but one circuit and do a walkthrough of the house with a receptacle tester and a notepad making notations as to what lights and receptacles are on that circuit. This is pretty time consuming for one person though, especially with a building like in the OP’s case. That’s one reason I would like to try out one of those circuit mappers next time this type of situation comes up.
I have one of those TestUm Lanscaper network cable mappers with 8-remotes and a bunch of different adapter cords, but I never actually thought about trying it on deenergized line voltage circuits before.
I know if I unplug lamps and small appliances from the receptacles and turn off all the wall switches for ceiling lights, I can use a toner/probe to trace a deenergized circuit through the building this way, so maybe I’ll try the network mapper around my house and see how it works out.
I've long owned a TASCO 42S...
I got the convention discount when it was first introduced.
If you have to rebuild panel schedules in a hurry it's the way to go.
It also permits you to figure things out while a business is on going.
A reduced circuit count device is also sold for residential situations.
If you can find one of those 'button' type bulb flashers, they work great in edison base light fixtures....
Unscrew bulb, insert button in socket base, re-install bulb.
Use a 100 watt bulb, and amp clamp for a close to 1 amp pulse...that's the circuit.
Ringing out a new house, use a 'temp' socket at the lighting locations.
Dig around and find an old adaptor socket that plugs into a receptacle.....proceed as above.
Also, used the radio. In comm jobs, I had a 120 volt claxon horn! Not reccomended for an occupied resi job though.
I use to have a Paser tracer. ( I believe that was how it was spelled.) Then Amprobe bought them out. There were 2 types of tracers. 1 for live circuits and 1 for dead circuits. We used them all the time.
I’ve heard about the flasher trick for years, but have never actually tried it myself. I noticed that Cooper says their BP1008 flasher button has a 65-85 per minute flash rate. Is that something that would work with a digital amp clamp or is it better suited to an analog type clamp?
My thinking is that it might be too fast for a digital clamp meter display to stabilize, but might be easier to see the needle bounce on an analog meter, although maybe not.
well is that ^ the best convenient way to trace them? or to tool is the way to go