I did my first job with mostly Cat7 wiring, and locating wires at the head end during termination was a bear given how hard they are to tone out.

How do you manage/sort wires at the head-end to help with locating them during termination? I'm curious to know even for non-shielded wiring jobs because this is an area I'd like to improve.

We're told to put the two leads of a toner onto a twisted pair, but think about it: since a twisted pair is very good at rejecting interference, it's also very poor at transmitting tone.

Instead, put one lead onto a wire of one pair and put the other lead onto a wire of the diagonally opposite pair. This way you might be able to find the wire from some short distance away.

For even more range, connect one lead to any wire of the cable and connect the other lead to a good power ground! A toning wand will find such wires from at least a foot away. THEN the problem is distinguishing the actual signal you're looking for from stray radiation nearby. If this isn't clear I can explain more.

Wow, I had been clear on not toning through one pair of twisted wire, but the concept of using a power ground is totally new to me.

What's an example of a good power ground? The ground of a 120V outlet comes to mind, but that doesn't sound quite like a good idea!

That is exactly where you stick the other lead. Most tone generator lead clips fit perfectly in an outlets ground pin port.

Using something like this fluke digital toner also yields much better results than standard analog toners.

[Link: testequipmentdepot.com]

Regarding the toner connected to a power ground.

Be prepared for a MASSIVE amount of signal splatter.

You will hear it through walls and sometimes a few feet away from the actual location of the cable. The gain/amplification in signal is in factors of 10s.

It's saved me many times, but at the same time, once you've narrowed it down to a couple of cables, it may pay to go back to the normal way, just to make sure you're definitely on the right pair.

I like my Fluke. I once volunteered to help a friend move into an office building. The rooms were sort of prewired with phone jacks, but in one case I needed to bridge two jacks that were home runs to the basement. No big deal, I thought, until I got to the basement facing a densely packed 7'x9' array of 66 blocks. It turned out not to be a big deal because I found each pair in about a minute.

With the Fluke tool, you can positively identify a pair by using the wire map feature because it only responds to conduction.

The signal level from the toner will definitely be lower on Category cable than simple twin/quad wire (or anything else that isn't twisted pairs or coaxial shielded, but it will be audible. The tip about grounding one lead is definitely going to give you all of the signal you need (and more), but you can always reduce the volume on the inductive probe to make isolation easier. You can also clip the second lead to other metal and it will help- what you're doing by using only one of the conductors is eliminating the common mode noise rejection characteristic of the cable. If my ladder is nearby, I use one of the hinged steel braces and it works great.

Specifically, why did you use Cat7?

If you did the job, why the need to tone? Shouldn't every wire have been labeled?

If not, god I hate to say this but, Ernie is right. Never use a set pair like blue/blue white. I always use solid blue and solid orange for some reason. I don't like using the ground as like others have said, it gets very hard to distinguish as it picks up everything.

The wires were labeled and even grouped by end point. It’s still a bear to rumaga through so many wires looking for the right one.

That’s why my original post was really about the best way to sort and manage wires at the head end so that they are east to locate and work with them when time to terminate.

You don't label your wires when you pull them? I have never had to tone a wire at a headend that I originally pulled.

??? I still don't get it.. The wires are labeled but you still have to tone them?

My process is:
1. Color code by use. Blue=Data, White=Phone, Green=Control, Yellow= Video, Black = Camera. Coax is black for sat feeds, white for rooms.

2. Label twice. Once somewhere near the end of the cable, a second time roughly where the cable will be in the rack at eye level.

3. End/length trim everything when you are done so you don't have some wires that are 10' longer then others

4. Wrap the entire trunk in pallet wrap when finished so it doesn't get drywall mud, paint, spray foam etc all over it.

Use multiple rolls of colored electrical tape to color code your wires.

For instance, all outdoor wires get a green band, bedrooms yellow, family media type rooms red, etc.
Then from even 10' away you can narrow 50 cables down to probably 3 and check their printed labels.

Even after trim and connection, looking at the back of a switch, you'll have maybe 4 with red bands to check closer, rather than reviewing 24.

I like this, wish I had thought of it.

I personally don't like using multiple colors of Cat cable in my racks. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it, I just don't like the look. I find it hard to make the racks look really good. (high end homes, they have to look good)

I use blue Cat, white speaker cable and black coax, that's it. Using the colored tape will make it so much easier in some cases to identify groups.

I use the color code tape method. Ive ended labeling, by the time it comes time to trim it out painters have painted them, tar, gooey stuff you name it is on the end of the cables. I have found it much quicker to trim the rooms, use the fluke and tone them out (color code by floors/rooms) then to try and read a label.

Ive tried the bags/shrinkwrap etc etc....doesnt ever work