Tracing mains cables.

[snapster]

I finally decided to label up our ( house) mains consumer unit properly. ( it’s mostly in French but most labels are missing)
I managed to do all but one circuit, which doesn’t seem to power anything inside or outside the house.
The cable goes into the floor but I have no idea where it goes after that, so want to trace it.
Years ago, I worked for BT and used a device ( oscillator) for tracing cables. I have seen similar devices online but wondered if anyone can suggest or recommend one that would do the job. Not too expensive, I probably won’t use it again.
Any suggestions?
( there is nowhere locally to hire such a device from)

 

[TJBi]

I can't give any recommendations, as I have a very old device that I seldom use. If purchasing in France, it looks as though you may be paying from €23 (Cdiscount) upwards. (Amazon.fr has a Black and Decker at €24, but you can be looking at over €200.)

 

[Nosmo king]

As a retired electrician when the cables come out of the consumer unit they generally bunched together for a metre or so, that makes it very hard to trace with any form of signal generator/tracer. So if you can manually trace for the metre or so and see what direction it takes, it gives you a better chance of tracing it. Over the years I’ve found so many cables just chopped off and insulated under floorboards, good luck

 

[Alf]

I finally decided to label up our ( house) mains consumer unit properly. ( it’s mostly in French but most labels are missing)
I managed to do all but one circuit, which doesn’t seem to power anything inside or outside the house.
The cable goes into the floor but I have no idea where it goes after that, so want to trace it.
Years ago, I worked for BT and used a device ( oscillator) for tracing cables. I have seen similar devices online but wondered if anyone can suggest or recommend one that would do the job. Not too expensive, I probably won’t use it again.
Any suggestions?
( there is nowhere locally to hire such a device from)

leave disconnected .Just wait and see what does not work.

 

[snapster]

leave disconnected .Just wait and see what does not work.

It’s been disconnected for a week and everything works!
Anyway, I looked on line for recommendations ( YouTube) and found something similar to what someone in the USA was using. I bought it from Amazon and it worked perfectly. I traced to cable to a blanked off socket in a bedroom wall. It’s all tested, reconnected and working now. View attachment 58803

 

[St3v3]

It’s been disconnected for a week and everything works!
Anyway, I looked on line for recommendations ( YouTube) and found something similar to what someone in the USA was using. I bought it from Amazon and it worked perfectly. I traced to cable to a blanked off socket in a bedroom wall. It’s all tested, reconnected and working now. View attachment 58803

Your attachment doesn't work, would be interested in what you bought.

 

[trevskoda]

Maybe one of these in the cellar.

 

[Nosmo king]

Why !! It’s old sparky

 

[snapster]

Your attachment doesn't work, would be interested in what you bought.

Don’t know what happened there, but here they are again.

 

[snapster]

As a retired electrician when the cables come out of the consumer unit they generally bunched together for a metre or so, that makes it very hard to trace with any form of signal generator/tracer. So if you can manually trace for the metre or so and see what direction it takes, it gives you a better chance of tracing it. Over the years I’ve found so many cables just chopped off and insulated under floorboards, good luck

Unfortunately, the cables come out of the top of the consumer unit and straight into the concrete floor above. ( all cables and pipe work originate in the basement)