Anyone have any recommendations for an inexpensive, reliable cable length tester?

Test-um brand works well

Tape measure.

I always lay it out on the ground and pace the distance off.....That works great, unless my feet are swelled up.....

Perhaps you want to add a little detail to your question? Tape measure and non-swollen feet seem to have you covered.

voltmeter?

It’s called a Time Delay reflectometer or TDR, they are expensive and they are also really cool. Pull all your home runs, go down to the panel touch the contacts of the reflectometer to each cable and simply write down the length of each wire in feet, total up everything send bill to client.

I bought mine used on e-bay and it still cost me over $200.00 bucks but it was worth it.

The TDR will work fine with multi-conductor cable, but what I have been getting at, apparently too subtly, is that his question is too vague for anyone to know if they are answering it. That's why I suggested a tape measure: he did not specify a thing about where the cable might be when measured. For that matter, a weighing scale can be used. You can even read the label on the box!

A TDR won't work with cable that is just one wire, and yes, if you are an electrician, some single wires are called cables. It requires something that acts at least a little bit like a transmission line. Again, I am tweaking for details.

Ernie is being argumentive, even if technically he's correct. I bought my first TDR from ADI for 250 dollars. We used it to measure how much wire we actually pulled for jobs that were time and materials or for figuring how many feet were left on a roll of wire.

However, it is even better than a multi meter for performing continuity tests. Not only will it tell you how many feet from the tester the short is located but if you have a partial break in a data wire it will find that as well. I think the company was JDC but I'll edit this later today when I get into my truck and look at the manufacturer. I also have the Test-um tool but the JDC(?) is smaller and costs less so I keep it in the truck full time but only place the test-um when I want to certify or analyze a data network.

Alan

As Fred said...Test-Um.

Most of the less expensive cable-length testers are based on capacitance-per-foot not TDR(Time-Domain Reflectometry), which is based on velocity of propagation of the cable.

I have the Shortstop from Jovial Test Equipment. It is a TDR but instead of the 4 sets of tones on a CAT5 tester it has but one. You do need to know the volocity of propegation specificiation on the wire for it to be accurate. Then again it is only 250 not 1k or 7k for a CAT5 tester.

Alan

Been using a Microscanner Pro. Does TDR for wire length, CAT5 wire mapping, three different tones for tracing wires, flashes the light on a network card. Also does wire identification for CAT5 or CATV using numbered jacks that plug into the outlets, A little pricey but has paid for itself many times.

Harris TS90 Cable Fault Finder TDR
[Link: cgi.ebay.com]

Anritsu?

[Link: us.anritsu.com]