Sunday, April 7, 2013
Wire Tracer Receiver
circuit depicted is the receiver device of a transmitter/receiver
combination that will prove extremely handy when tracing the path of
electrical wiring in a building or to locate a break in a wire. The
corresponding transmitter may be found elsewhere in this website. The
transmitter produces a distinctive tone which alternates between 2100 Hz
and 2200 Hz. The matching receiver for the wire tracer is possibly
even simpler than the transmitter, as is shown by the schematic. It
consists of no more than a short wire antenna (a piece of wire, 10 cm
long is adequate), a high-pass filter (C1-R1), an amplifier stage
(IC1), an output stage (T1) and a loudspeaker.
The
prototype used a high impedance loudspeaker from a telephone handset,
and this worked remarkably well. The purpose of P1 is to adjust the
amplification. At the highest amplification, the wire energized by the
transmitter can be traced from several tens of centimeters away. A
direct electrical connection is therefore not required. However, it is
important that you hold the ground connection (earth) in your hand.
