I have 15 years of experience in electrical and NEVER knew about the tin foil trick. I just used this in my mom's house to identify a coaxial cable in her living room, and it worked perfectly. Thank you!
Trust me dude I’ve been doing it for about a good three years strong often on and you’re not missing anything. Because that is the longest way to Matt coaxial cable all you need is the toner in touch and go toner where you don’t have to worry about tvOS work of adding for Yulin touching to ins and then going downstairs and check another two wins where the touch and go Turner will automatically detect call Dee Ave home about you just having all the collector cables
The easiest way that I have found is if you get one of those toners from Cline do you attach the receiver on one end and take your wand go downstairs and just tap all the coaxial until you get a beep
Thanks so much! I was just about to buy a coax tester for this purpose, only to probably have it sit on my workbench forever after that! Excellent information!
Straight up saved my sanity dude. Turned out the splitter coming from my otc was no good. I was only able to find this out using your trick. I woulda gone crazy trying trying multiple connections. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
I was a CATV contractor back in the day, late 80's - early 90's. This is what we used when coming to a large prewired facility, home and/or apartment building with zero identification of the cabling. We took a green LED, inserted the positive (+) lead into an F-81 barrel connector and the negative (-) lead shortened and placed it touching the outside of the connector. Then inserted the LED inside of an RG-6 connector where the dielectric typically resides. Lastly, a short piece of coax cable, a 9-volt battery with the braid connected to the neg (-) of a 9V battery harness , and the stinger (center conductor) of the cable to the pos (+) of the battery harness. Tape the battery to the cable neatly with electrical tape and secure the connections and wrap with tape. Finally, terminate a coax connector to the other end. You then take the battery end of your new tool, snap the battery harness connector to the battery, screw into any faceplate. Then go to the head end and start inserting the unmarked cables into the F-81 end of your new tool. When you select the line with the 9V, the LED lights up.
@@therenodummy Yes, may sound complicated but actually very easy and takes about 5 minutes to make one. I still have my original one somewhere, saw it not too long ago. I'll see if I can locate it.
This worked like a charm! I have 9 cables going into a box outside and only need 1 connected, and this helped save me a ton of time. Thank you so much for making this video!!
Wow, how ingenious! Three Years ago we moved into a large two story house. I believe that a coaxial cable runs from where a tv antenna use to be, to our television in our TV Room. Now I know how to test the continuity of the coaxial cable. I will have to go into the attic when colder weather arrives in South Texas. Thank you!
This is so simple yet so smart thank you for this I just got a house and there is so many coaxial cables in here and it’s too hot to go up in the attic this makes it so much easier to see what cables are actually outside for internet
@@therenodummy Hi, I see the orange clip you use to name, lable the cable. What is that? Could you please tell me the product brand or Amazon link? thanks and best wishes
@@huy3148 here is the link but it looks like they're not available right now www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07H26CHGJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
You can also determine the length and integrity of the outlet by using a 75ohm terminator instead of the aluminum foil. A 100’ outlet will read 79ohms as RG6 picks up roughly 1 ohm per 25’ of coaxial cable length.
Nice tip using aluminum foil to cause the short circuit (closed loop) to test for continuity. I'll have to try this on my various cables thru the house...
Wow! I was thinking maybe a AA battery and use multimeter and gauge voltage which maybe wasn’t the best idea and found your video and so glad I did! Makes so much sense, thank you for the video, worked perfect and mapped all 12 coaxial is in my house, saved me $80 from the cable company coming to look at lines in house.
Awesome! I was trying to install a MoCA adapter but none of the six cables worked. I didn't know if it was a problem with the modem, adapter, or cable. Using this trick I found none with continuity and like you mentioned the cable was just sitting in the cable outlet box and not connected. I won't go into who's the dummy responsible for that :) After that it was easy to confirm which cable went to the bedroom.
To make the test more reliable maybe it would be a good idea to check the all ends for short circuits before jumpering the other end, so that you leave zero chance two ends would beep, and then you get confused which is actually which.
I'm going to have to give this a try. Thanks! Although coax won't be too pertinent anymore at my house since I just got fiber installed, I'm still going to map out the coax runs just in case.
I just bought me a Channel Master Antenna w/the Mounting Pole, Mounting Bracket & the Amplifier, so tomorrow I will try to do the cable tracing. Thank You for your Video.
This is an excellent video! Very handy trick. I'm going to send this video to the cable guy who keeps running cables all over the neighborhood outside from the utility box into/across people's yards into their living rooms cause the utility box is a rats nest.
Good job! When the Cable company came over and hooked me up cable service through my router and modem (using smart TVs) I had a cable connection in every room and they all worked. I had just bought the house and the inspectors checked them. I also had a multiple connector amplifier in my attic where all the cables converged and connected. I even had cable out to my pool area. I could have a tv in any room I wanted. The cable guy CUT all of my cables in the attic. He went to the wall jacks and cut the cables and removed the connectors so there were just holes. He took the amplifier with him when he left. I got crappy service with the cable company and they kept raising the prices every few months. So I bought a large digital antenna. I live in an area where you can get about 25 channels for free via antenna. However, all the cable ends will now have to be repaired and I will have to map all of those cables. You just made the job tenable.
@@therenodummy You could, instead of using a piece of foil, get yourself a coaxial splitter and then take your spare small coaxial cable and hook it to both outputs, then put the cable you're trying to find into the input.
@@therenodummy it worked amazingly. Was moving a modem to a different room and didn't want to trace lines. Thought I messed up at first because it worked on the very first cable I tried. But just got lucky I guess. Definitely remembering this little life hack and will pass it along. Thanks again.
I just bought a house that I'm pretty sure has at least 30 coax cables running through it - for TVs I guess? Not sure why some rooms need 2, 3 or 4 connectors but this little trick will help me know how to start pulling them out - thanks!
I am so glad I found this. Now that I know which cables lead where, does anyone have advice on selecting an amplifier? When I tested with an HDHomeRun/antenna instead of using this method, it couldn't find any channels at all. The Mohu amp I had laying around didn't do squat either. Is this a different type of amplifier? $50 Televes Distribution something something? TIA
@@therenodummy my landlord got a old appartement building and and ask me 2 days a go to fix the cable in one of the unit, wen i wen to look for the cable entry point... i saw around 5 different cable in the unit and maybe around 12 going to the dmx tower for the old tv air antena and 4 going to the cable company box. so I will use this hack on a chosen cable in side and go test the 16 different one outside ^^
RG6U 75 ohm TV cable has a steel center conductor that is copper coated it's not solid copper.. Now this trick will help you trace down lines to their destinations but it will not show you if the cable is compromised which will affect things like internet service to a modem. Chances are the cables will be fine thopugh but if you have any issues with signal quality then you may need to replace that run or move your equipment to a different jack
Thank you for this all the issues bought has had four different satellite TV services the correct have been cut and who knows what else😔 I noticed where my heating unit is there is a splitter thingy that has to cables going somewhere but nothing running into it. I’m hoping your Handy dandy video solves The mystery so I can plug in my TV Antenna :)
Hey, thanks for this. The tin foil method didnt work for me, but gave me another idea. I had some crocodile clip leads so attached those to a AA battery on one end, then used my meter to measure voltage on the other end. This worked for me.
The cable shown @ the 3:32 mark was incorrectly prepped. There shouldn't be any shielding sticking out from the connector. Home Depot and Lowes sell tools that can strip the proper amounts of the different layers to make a solid connection. Compression and crimp connectors are preferred over twist-on. 🙂
If the cable doesn't have the cap i can put one connector on the mesh and another on the copper wire ? and if it has signal on it i should get the beep?
Can I use multimeter to see if the ethernet cable on 1 end links to the coaxial on the other end, I think there is a convertor adapter connecting both of them or else it is split to merge them for PoE except to coaxial - it is an old camera system and I fluked it but can't find the ethernet connection. And on old DVR cameras mostly is coaxial and wondering if this trick would work or another idea would work.
Good question. I haven't done any work with Ethernet cables so I don't the answer. Sorry. Let me know if you figure out a way. The only thing I would hope is that the coaxial adapter is right behind one of the wall plates. Then you could unhook it and just test both ends of the coaxial.
Good question. I haven't tried it but I think it'll still work. If one cable is on a splitter with 2 cables then those 2 cables should make your multimeter buzz.
This does work with splitters in between ends. Also I just used a coax end cap with a Male/Male connector on the end instead of foil. That also works and you don't need to take the wall plate off if trying to find the end of a wall outlet.
Help! I have 11 coax to various places over 3 stories and one feed coax from fios ont. all but 3 have tone?! I places 3 foil balls as you showed, one on each floor??? Could my coax network be opposite, where 3 with foil get no tone and all others without do get tone?!?!? Help
@@johngalt156 I don't think I understand what you have going on. What I would do is find the splitter that the main feed connects to. Then I would put one foil ball on one coax at a time until I have mapped all of them.
Could I use a multimeter to find the main coax cable ? We just moved into a new house and we have a ton of disconnected cables and I’m not even sure what the main cable is to connect to the splitter
I would either trace it from where it enters the house or you could use this trick and find all the ones that are not the main line and then you'll know which one is the main...
If you don't have a coaxial connector on one end of coaxial cable can you tape a ball of aluminum foil to that end so that it attempts to touch the center connector and metal mesh?
I have 15 years of experience in electrical and NEVER knew about the tin foil trick. I just used this in my mom's house to identify a coaxial cable in her living room, and it worked perfectly. Thank you!
Thanks! I'm glad it worked for you
Really?!
@Peter_Riis_DK Yes, it works. Try it yourself.
Trust me dude I’ve been doing it for about a good three years strong often on and you’re not missing anything. Because that is the longest way to Matt coaxial cable all you need is the toner in touch and go toner where you don’t have to worry about tvOS work of adding for Yulin touching to ins and then going downstairs and check another two wins where the touch and go Turner will automatically detect call Dee Ave home about you just having all the collector cables
The easiest way that I have found is if you get one of those toners from Cline do you attach the receiver on one end and take your wand go downstairs and just tap all the coaxial until you get a beep
Genius way of keeping it simple! A low-tech solution to a high-tech problem.
Sometimes the least technological method is the easiest and the cheapest. Great job!!
This is an incredible hack. I was just shopping for a coax cable tester when I saw this. Thanks!!!
Thanks so much! I was just about to buy a coax tester for this purpose, only to probably have it sit on my workbench forever after that! Excellent information!
Straight up saved my sanity dude. Turned out the splitter coming from my otc was no good. I was only able to find this out using your trick. I woulda gone crazy trying trying multiple connections. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
I was a CATV contractor back in the day, late 80's - early 90's. This is what we used when coming to a large prewired facility, home and/or apartment building with zero identification of the cabling. We took a green LED, inserted the positive (+) lead into an F-81 barrel connector and the negative (-) lead shortened and placed it touching the outside of the connector. Then inserted the LED inside of an RG-6 connector where the dielectric typically resides. Lastly, a short piece of coax cable, a 9-volt battery with the braid connected to the neg (-) of a 9V battery harness , and the stinger (center conductor) of the cable to the pos (+) of the battery harness. Tape the battery to the cable neatly with electrical tape and secure the connections and wrap with tape. Finally, terminate a coax connector to the other end. You then take the battery end of your new tool, snap the battery harness connector to the battery, screw into any faceplate. Then go to the head end and start inserting the unmarked cables into the F-81 end of your new tool. When you select the line with the 9V, the LED lights up.
Wow. Sounds complicated but I'd like to see it.
@@therenodummy Yes, may sound complicated but actually very easy and takes about 5 minutes to make one. I still have my original one somewhere, saw it not too long ago. I'll see if I can locate it.
This worked like a charm! I have 9 cables going into a box outside and only need 1 connected, and this helped save me a ton of time. Thank you so much for making this video!!
Just used your method and figured out my issues in less than 5 minutes. Four minutes was spent walking up and down my stairs. LOL Thank you!
Wow, how ingenious! Three Years ago we moved into a large two story house. I believe that a coaxial cable runs from where a tv antenna use to be, to our television in our TV Room. Now I know how to test the continuity of the coaxial cable. I will have to go into the attic when colder weather arrives in South Texas. Thank you!
I'm in Alabama. So I feel you on waiting until cold weather!
This is so simple yet so smart thank you for this I just got a house and there is so many coaxial cables in here and it’s too hot to go up in the attic this makes it so much easier to see what cables are actually outside for internet
Thanks! My house was the same way. Tons of unlabeled cables!
@@therenodummy Hi, I see the orange clip you use to name, lable the cable. What is that? Could you please tell me the product brand or Amazon link? thanks and best wishes
@@huy3148 here is the link but it looks like they're not available right now www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07H26CHGJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I have no words man how simple a trick this is and yet my smooth brain could have never imagined it. Thank you so much for sharing this buddy!
You can also determine the length and integrity of the outlet by using a 75ohm terminator instead of the aluminum foil. A 100’ outlet will read 79ohms as RG6 picks up roughly 1 ohm per 25’ of coaxial cable length.
That's a great idea as well. Not everyone has terminators but if you did that'd be a great method. Thanks for the input.
Nice tip using aluminum foil to cause the short circuit (closed loop) to test for continuity. I'll have to try this on my various cables thru the house...
Thank you for saving my day, this made figuring stuff out with my birds nest so much faster.
Worked to identify coax cables from 1970 in my house. Thank you!
The foil trick is what I was looking for. Now I can proceed with the MoCA setup. Thank you!
Thanks awesome info I'm going to use this method in my RV.
Thank you for saving me from purchasing a coaxial tester! You the real MVP!
Wow! I was thinking maybe a AA battery and use multimeter and gauge voltage which maybe wasn’t the best idea and found your video and so glad I did! Makes so much sense, thank you for the video, worked perfect and mapped all 12 coaxial is in my house, saved me $80 from the cable company coming to look at lines in house.
This was a great, clear, concise video that solved my problem. Thank you!
Awesome and simple trick just answered my question! Clear and concise video!! Good job!
Thank you so much!!! This was so simple, and I already own a couple of multimeters.
This was unbelievably helpful. Thank you.
I would first test to see if any are shorted before doing the test.
Bro this is stupid simple. THANK YOU!!
You’re a genius!!! This saved me hours of hassle. Thanks!
Thank you! You saved me so much time!
Yeah, outstanding vid, delivery, job in general.
Awesome! I was trying to install a MoCA adapter but none of the six cables worked. I didn't know if it was a problem with the modem, adapter, or cable. Using this trick I found none with continuity and like you mentioned the cable was just sitting in the cable outlet box and not connected. I won't go into who's the dummy responsible for that :) After that it was easy to confirm which cable went to the bedroom.
Excellent idea, I was dreading having to buy a special tool. Thanks for saving me some $$!
I'm glad it helped
To make the test more reliable maybe it would be a good idea to check the all ends for short circuits before jumpering the other end, so that you leave zero chance two ends would beep, and then you get confused which is actually which.
Brilliant! Glad you posted!
I'm going to have to give this a try. Thanks! Although coax won't be too pertinent anymore at my house since I just got fiber installed, I'm still going to map out the coax runs just in case.
I just bought me a Channel Master Antenna w/the Mounting Pole, Mounting Bracket & the Amplifier, so tomorrow I will try to do the cable tracing. Thank You for your Video.
Great. I'm glad it helped! I hope your install went smoothly.
Thank you bro! Tremendous help
This is an excellent video! Very handy trick. I'm going to send this video to the cable guy who keeps running cables all over the neighborhood outside from the utility box into/across people's yards into their living rooms cause the utility box is a rats nest.
Yesssss!! Never even thought about the ball of aluminum foil..1/2 way thru finding/labeling all of mine!
Awesome. Glad it helped
Dude fantastic! 🔥 Edit, worked like a charm!
Thanks for the info! Appreciate people like you on TH-cam that guide us thru situation like this one!
Just did this and it worked perfectly! Thank you
Worked great! Thanks a lot!
Thank you for this very super useful video
Good job! When the Cable company came over and hooked me up cable service through my router and modem (using smart TVs) I had a cable connection in every room and they all worked. I had just bought the house and the inspectors checked them. I also had a multiple connector amplifier in my attic where all the cables converged and connected. I even had cable out to my pool area. I could have a tv in any room I wanted. The cable guy CUT all of my cables in the attic. He went to the wall jacks and cut the cables and removed the connectors so there were just holes. He took the amplifier with him when he left. I got crappy service with the cable company and they kept raising the prices every few months. So I bought a large digital antenna. I live in an area where you can get about 25 channels for free via antenna. However, all the cable ends will now have to be repaired and I will have to map all of those cables. You just made the job tenable.
Wow. That'd make me so mad. Well I'm glad this helped a little
@@therenodummy You could, instead of using a piece of foil, get yourself a coaxial splitter and then take your spare small coaxial cable and hook it to both outputs, then put the cable you're trying to find into the input.
Wow! I didn't know ANYTHING about cable let alone how 2 do this!!
Thank you for 5 sharing this video
Great. I'm glad it helped!
Thank you great video. Been trying to figure this out for a long time 👍
You're welcome!
Yes, tx. Will use this to sort all these cables that era giving a crazy headache !
This really helped me, thank you!👌
Perfect! Didn't want to buy a tool I would only use once.
Great. Glad it helped.
@@therenodummy it worked amazingly. Was moving a modem to a different room and didn't want to trace lines. Thought I messed up at first because it worked on the very first cable I tried. But just got lucky I guess. Definitely remembering this little life hack and will pass it along. Thanks again.
Thank you! Great video! Saved my butt trying to map RG6 cable in my motorcoach
That's awesome!
This is awesome I had no idea .
Brilliant! You saved me big time. Thanks!!
Thanks you just saved me 50 bucks....I was all set to buy an ADM
That's great!
You the Man, thanks for the tip!
This is the genius hack I've been looking for. Thank you 👍👍👍
Great. Glad it was helpful!
this is exactly what I was looking for! thanks!
This is clutch. Thank you!
0:57 I freaked out I was alone at home and thought this was coming from inside the house😂😂😂
Dude. Great job. Thank you so much for something so easy.
I'm glad it helped. Please subscribe
I just bought a house that I'm pretty sure has at least 30 coax cables running through it - for TVs I guess? Not sure why some rooms need 2, 3 or 4 connectors but this little trick will help me know how to start pulling them out - thanks!
Don’t pull them out. Leave them for future use. I can use coax for many things.
True.
@@brianholz9882 What are some things you can use them for?
@@adamwberanek voice, data, cable, and even run Ethernet through it with a MoCA adapter
@@brianholz9882 okay that's pretty cool, thanks for sharing!
Brilliantly made video helped me so much, thank you.👍
Awesome. Thanks for the kind words.
Thanks I was going to use a jumper wire with alligator clips but I think the aluminum ball will be a lot easier
I am so glad I found this. Now that I know which cables lead where, does anyone have advice on selecting an amplifier? When I tested with an HDHomeRun/antenna instead of using this method, it couldn't find any channels at all. The Mohu amp I had laying around didn't do squat either. Is this a different type of amplifier? $50 Televes Distribution something something? TIA
Smart idea... worked slick!
Thanks, this method was super helpful
Glad it helped!
Great video...this should solve my problem
I'm going to try this tomorrow. Thanks!
Let me know if it worked for you
Great video - exact info i needed.
I'm glad it helped.
👏👏👏You *just won yourself a new subscriber👏👏👏👍
Ha. I'm glad it helped
@@therenodummy my landlord got a old appartement building and and ask me 2 days a go to fix the cable in one of the unit, wen i wen to look for the cable entry point... i saw around 5 different cable in the unit and maybe around 12 going to the dmx tower for the old tv air antena and 4 going to the cable company box. so I will use this hack on a chosen cable in side and go test the 16 different one outside ^^
Very simple and helpful. Thankyou
Good to hear. Thanks!
Very smart trick 😅
I’m wondering if a barrel connector could be a substitute for the foil?
I would think metal coax caps could work but the barrel connector won't complete the circuit by itself.
Brilliant 😮
Great video Sir.
very helpful, thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
Brilliant! I have some work to do. Thanks.
Hope it works for you!
Incredible!
RG6U 75 ohm TV cable has a steel center conductor that is copper coated it's not solid copper.. Now this trick will help you trace down lines to their destinations but it will not show you if the cable is compromised which will affect things like internet service to a modem. Chances are the cables will be fine thopugh but if you have any issues with signal quality then you may need to replace that run or move your equipment to a different jack
Awesome, thums up!
Brah you saved me $20 🤙
Thank you for this all the issues bought has had four different satellite TV services the correct have been cut and who knows what else😔 I noticed where my heating unit is there is a splitter thingy that has to cables going somewhere but nothing running into it. I’m hoping your Handy dandy video solves The mystery so I can plug in my TV Antenna :)
Great. I'm glad it helped!
It is one of the best Wey Thank you
You're welcome!
Great video
Thanks!
Hey, thanks for this. The tin foil method didnt work for me, but gave me another idea. I had some crocodile clip leads so attached those to a AA battery on one end, then used my meter to measure voltage on the other end. This worked for me.
That's a great idea!
How did you clip it to the double A batteries especially the neg side?
Great idea
Amazing. Worked!
Great. I'm glad it helped!
The cable shown @ the 3:32 mark was incorrectly prepped. There shouldn't be any shielding sticking out from the connector. Home Depot and Lowes sell tools that can strip the proper amounts of the different layers to make a solid connection. Compression and crimp connectors are preferred over twist-on. 🙂
Compression and crimp connectors are better no doubt.
Thank you, very useful
Great. I'm glad it helped!
Super helpful. Ty
If the cable doesn't have the cap i can put one connector on the mesh and another on the copper wire ? and if it has signal on it i should get the beep?
Yea that should work the same way. The cap just makes it easier.
Thank you!
You're welcome!
What if you only have a wire no that would go directly into a tv? There’s no coax plate on the wall or anything??
If it's just the bare copper sticking out of the cable then you'll need to put a connector on.
Smart👍
Can I use multimeter to see if the ethernet cable on 1 end links to the coaxial on the other end, I think there is a convertor adapter connecting both of them or else it is split to merge them for PoE except to coaxial - it is an old camera system and I fluked it but can't find the ethernet connection. And on old DVR cameras mostly is coaxial and wondering if this trick would work or another idea would work.
Good question. I haven't done any work with Ethernet cables so I don't the answer. Sorry. Let me know if you figure out a way. The only thing I would hope is that the coaxial adapter is right behind one of the wall plates. Then you could unhook it and just test both ends of the coaxial.
Will this method work if there is a splitter between the two ends?
Good question. I haven't tried it but I think it'll still work. If one cable is on a splitter with 2 cables then those 2 cables should make your multimeter buzz.
Okay. I will let you know. I will be giving it a try later today. Thanks for the video.
This does work with splitters in between ends. Also I just used a coax end cap with a Male/Male connector on the end instead of foil. That also works and you don't need to take the wall plate off if trying to find the end of a wall outlet.
Very good. I knew the end caps worked but I didn't show that. I assumed most people don't have any. Thanks for sharing.
Sweet thanks!
Anyone have any other tricks to substitute tin foil? Just curious
Help! I have 11 coax to various places over 3 stories and one feed coax from fios ont. all but 3 have tone?!
I places 3 foil balls as you showed, one on each floor???
Could my coax network be opposite, where 3 with foil get no tone and all others without do get tone?!?!? Help
If 3 of the coax have tone and you're only using one tin foil ball on one coax then I would think those 3 are connected to a splitter somewhere
@@therenodummy each of the 3 had the foil? Strange
@@johngalt156 I don't think I understand what you have going on. What I would do is find the splitter that the main feed connects to. Then I would put one foil ball on one coax at a time until I have mapped all of them.
Could I use a multimeter to find the main coax cable ? We just moved into a new house and we have a ton of disconnected cables and I’m not even sure what the main cable is to connect to the splitter
I would either trace it from where it enters the house or you could use this trick and find all the ones that are not the main line and then you'll know which one is the main...
If you don't have a coaxial connector on one end of coaxial cable can you tape a ball of aluminum foil to that end so that it attempts to touch the center connector and metal mesh?
Yea in theory that should work too.