Jackpot! Found some wires. What to do with them?

[signal15]

I pulled off a coax faceplate for painting, and found a huge bundle of wires inside. I pulled them out, and there is about 20 feet of extra wire.

There are 3 coax, 3 4-wire speaker cables, a cat5, and a 4 wire alarm wire.

Should I shove all 20 feet back into the wall, trim them down to 6 feet and shove them back in, or terminate them? It's going to be a pain to shove all 20 feet back into the wall.

 

[signal15]

Ok, I taped all the wires every foot to make a nice bundle.  It had tape on it, but it was kinda coming off.  I was able to shove it all back in the wall.  
 
Two of the speaker cables are labeled "surround speakers".  But, there are no speakers or jacks in the room.  I've got a nice toner, but, it seems that the other wires in a bundle soak up the RF and the toner needs to be right at the end of the wire for it to register.  Is there any other way to figure out where the other end of these wires are hanging in the walls or ceiling?

 

[drvnbysound]

Are there any blank covers in the ceiling of the room?

 

[pct88]

Try connecting the toner between different conductors or to just one conductor-  if the far end is shorted toning doesn't work as well...  I have been known to coil wires at "known" locations in ceilings and walls for future use.  Remembering those locations can be a challenge though without a box or hole at the far end.

 

[tmbrown97]

I vaguely remember an old trick where you could ground one lead of the toner and connect the other to a single wire and trace - I'm sure someone can correct my vague recollection - I did it one time and it lets the toner work at a much greater distance - good for tracing wires through the house.  Sounds like someone did an awesome prewire but only terminated what they needed at the time - likely the cable company just pulling out what was needed to turn on TV service.  There will likely be some amount of logic to where the speaker wires go.
 
What's at the other end - a wiring closet?  Hopefully there's a bunch of wires in there that say where they go - likely there's a bunch of wall plates like that around the house with wires buried.

 

[signal15]

Are there any blank covers in the ceiling of the room?

 
 
Nope.  I just realized I can see down some of the ceiling joists from the utility room though.  The problem is, where I think the wires are likely sitting, there's no way for me to see down those joists.
 

What's at the other end - a wiring closet?  Hopefully there's a bunch of wires in there that say where they go - likely there's a bunch of wall plates like that around the house with wires buried.

 
 
There is a wiring closet.  I ripped out a lot of legacy equipment and put in new stuff, and also started using some wires that hadn't been in use at all anymore.  The only wires that were labeled in there were the speaker wires.  Cat5, coax, 4-wire, and fiber are not labeled.  So far, I've been able to tone out everything, but I always had access to both ends of the wire.  I'll get out the toner again later and see if I can hear anything through the walls.

 

[Del91574]

Assuming the cables aren't shorted, grounding one end and then toning a single unit out of the pair will work, same with toning a single pair only. If you really want to pick up the signal, grab an old used siren driver and use that to generate the signal. You don't need to have access to both ends of the cable assuming there's no HV or noisy ballasts in close proximity and/or you have a general vicinity the cables may be...and a good ear.
 
Sounds like they might have pulled for data and Telco, the old "dish" or TiVo prewires.

 

[signal15]

Assuming the cables aren't shorted, grounding one end and then toning a single unit out of the pair will work, same with toning a single pair only. If you really want to pick up the signal, grab an old used siren driver and use that to generate the signal. You don't need to have access to both ends of the cable assuming there's no HV or noisy ballasts in close proximity and/or you have a general vicinity the cables may be...and a good ear.
 
Sounds like they might have pulled for data and Telco, the old "dish" or TiVo prewires.

 
Maybe.  All of this wiring was done in either 1992 or 1994.  Even the fiber.  I don't know if they had a clear picture of how they were going to use it all, they just ran a bunch of it.
 
As for the locating, I contacted the manufacturer of my toner (now Greenlee), and they said that the one I have isn't designed for locating wire inside walls.  So I bought a cheap wire locater off Amazon.  However, I think it's messed up.  When I move the volume control, I get a lot of static and it's inconsistent as to what I hear.  I'm going to exchange it for another one.  However, with it working the way it does now, I can find the wires in the ceiling.  It's just tough to pinpoint them because of the noise and inconsistency.

 

[Del91574]

The old Tempo/progressive electronics 66HP's are the industry standard. Greenlee makes knock-off versions (at a lesser quality) of them. With a good enough probe you can find almost any wire as long as it's not shorted in the wall. Just need a good enough ear.

 

[signal15]

The old Tempo/progressive electronics 66HP's are the industry standard. Greenlee makes knock-off versions (at a lesser quality) of them. With a good enough probe you can find almost any wire as long as it's not shorted in the wall. Just need a good enough ear.

 
This is what I have.  But, I bought it before Greenlee bought them.  Mine is an original one.  Should I be using the metal or the composite tip?  Should I ground the black wire, or connect it to another wire in the cable I'm toning out?

 

[Del91574]

Connect both to the cable you're attempting to tone, plastic tip on wand.

Do you hear tone when you connect to the cable? Can you read the tone with the wand away from the end of the toner?
 
There is a markedly different quality in construction between Greenlee and Tempo. I have multiple Tempo units and a coworker has Greenlee.

 

[Mr Spock]

I've not tried this, but I think it would work.  If you have an old audio power amplifier or receiver you can use it to amplify the tone generator to your wires.  This will amplify the tone generation to a very high level that the probe can find.  Just connect the amplifiers output to any pair of wires and only set the volumne control to a moderate level.    Best to confirm your wires are not shorted first using an ohm meter/DMM. Also best to not leave the amplifier on for a long time since its driving an open circuit.  Make sure it does not get too hot.
 
If you try this let us know how it works.