Difference Between Telco Tone Generator and Automotive Short/Open Finder like ETC2000

[thehackmechanic]

Hey, folks, do any of you know what the technical and practical differences are between the automotive short/open circuit detectors like the Power Probe ETC2000 and the FF310 versus the tone generators used for telco and network applications?

Tone generators will help you trace wires, and thus may help you find a break where the tone vanishes, but they don't have a direct short-locating capability, correct?

Am I correct that tone generators are using magnetic induction to detect the injected signal, whereas the Power Probe ETC2000 is using radio? And it sounds like from the FF310's user's manual that it is using both (radio to detect open circuits and magnetic induction to detect shorts), correct?

Am I correct that the FF310 has airbag and light bulb removal warnings, whereas the ETC2000 does not?

Thanks.

--Rob Siegel

 

[BFBOB]

I'm not familiar with the automotive tool, but a Telco TG will find a short - sort of. Clip one lead to the wire, the other to ground. If there's a short to ground, the signal will essentially vanish, right up to the TG itself. That won't tell you WHERE the short is, but if you then disconnect the ground clip, you can often find the short by running the probe right along the wire . The signal strength will drop as you get closer to the point at which the wire is grounded.
This is pretty inexact, but it can help get you in the ball park.
A similar process can help locate a short between two wires.
Automotive stuff is harder than real communications because the distances are so short and there are so many low resistance elements. A light bulb, for instance, looks pretty much like a dead short to a signal tracer.
Sometimes the only way is to unwrap and visually/'tactilely inspect an inch at a time.

I wish you luck; it can be a major PITA.