Underground Cable Locator: Ensure Electrical Connections are Functioning Properly

What’s an underground cable locator? It’s a hand-held device used to make sure electrical connections are working properly. To use one, the cable locator is connected to a cable and then while using the user interface buttons on the locator, tests are being initiated. The cable locator provides straightforward feedback acknowledging whether or not a cable is in a healthy working condition.

Being able to determine whether everything is working properly when setting up an electric guitar, computer network, telephone line or anything that needs a wired connection, an underground cable locator equipment is a must-have set of tools that is much needed during the setup, installation and maintenance processes.

The most basic use of the cable locator is to check whether a cable is working or not. Usually, when electricians check for problems, they look for two types of connections – intended and unintended. Cable locators can verify that intended connections exist, and if there’s an intended connection that cannot be found, it’s said that there’s an open circuit connection. On the other hand, if there is an unintended connection found, it’s called a short circuit. In both cases, whether there is an unintended connection to be found or an intended connection missing, the cable won’t work properly and both can cause fires and other problems.

There are a few types of underground cable locator equipment tools that can be found on the market – audio and network locators. The network cable locators refer to locators for telephone, computer or other type of cables related to communications. Besides making sure the electric currents are running through the cable as they should, some of these locators have the ability to verify data that can flow. Network cable locators are categorized in three basic categories: qualification, verification and certification.

• The verification type is the most basic one and it provides verification (just as its name explains) that the cable wires are connected accordingly. However, it cannot provide info about data communication. In other words, these cables only check for problems.

• Qualification locators are mostly used by network technicians who need to repair and maintain existing wires, as opposed to installing brand new ones. These testers have the same features as the verification locators with the added feature of providing information about the type of data transfers the cable can support.
• The last type of locators is the certification type. It is the most sophisticated network locator on the market and it certifies that the cable meets the standards for the specific building. It can also create schematics of the entire network. This type of locators is only used by maintenance and network professionals.