Quick question. Aside from buying a cable tester, is there anyway I can determine what unmarked telephone wires are in a 4 conductor line? I'm assuming trial and error is the only way?
With out using an ohm meter Id say hooking one up and checking until you get the right one is the only way
What am I looking for with an Ohm meter? I have a multimeter, but I didn't think it would do me any good in testing anything other than continuity.
That should work. Take your meter and set it to test continuity. Touch the two meter leads together.........That is the same you will get when you find the corect 2 wires. If your meter Beeps just listen for the beep and those are the 2 wires. Twist two wires together at one end. Go to other end and test continuity between wires until you find the 2 twisted together. .
I should have specified a little more clearly. What I'm looking for is what wire corresponds to the R/B/G/Y hookups.
Most phones use only 2 wires. Can you see the other end of this cable? Is it terminated on your punch down block? For testing I use a butt phone, a phone with 2 leads. Try different combinations of 2 wires until the phone works. Or PM Rob/Pa, he works with phone lines etc.
It's a new line I'm running, but I didn't know the conductors weren't color coded (sheathing is solid, so I couldn't tell until I stripped it off. I'm planning to connect it to a surface mount on one end, and to another surface mount where the main line comes into the house. I suppose trial and error or getting a line with colored conductors would be the only option.
I don't believe that I've ever seen a cable whose conductors weren't color coded. I just used some cat-6 cable and used 1 twisted pair for my lines. Small, flexible and easy to work with.
I'm with Greg on this one. I run a decent amount of phone/data cabling and I've never seen cable whose conductors were all the same color. WTH type of cable did you buy? :D
Use a battery and mult-meter if they aren't colored... Cross the battery over a pair and use a meter to see which pairs have voltage. Gonna be hit or miss, but at least you can trace the pair. Like others said however, never heard of wires all having the same color. In a 4 pair it should be Red and Green, in a 12 or 16 pair, should be Orange/White and Blue/White I think.
Evidently garbage cable:D All four conductors are white Going to pick up some better cable here in a bit.
