Testing Audio Wall Jacks (smart wired home)

Mar 14, 2005 3 Replies
R

I just bought a "smart wired" home which has wall plates with binding posts for the speaker connections in various rooms, a bank of push on/push off buttons to control which rooms have the sound turned on and a wall plate with 3 pairs of binding posts for input. I also have several places where wiring which appears to be speaker wiring is just hanging out of the walls. Is there a way I can test which jacks are on with which switches using just a multimeter or do I need to drag my speaker around the house to test each one?



Thanks, Riffraff


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N

If you don't have any speakers or other equipment attached yet, hook them up to a bell transformer and use a multimeter.

N
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S

NSM: Get a small speaker and "drag" it around the house to test the jacks with a real signal and a real LOAD.... this certainly can't be any harder than wiring up a battery or bell transformer and using your multi-meter. Furthermore, a meter could give you a "false positive" because the meter is very sensitive, offers very little load, and can give you a just about full voltage indication even with a bad connection or bad switch with a fair amount of contact resistance that would render speakers just about unoperational. Use a speaker and a real signal.

-- Best Regards, Daniel Sofie Electronics Supply & Repair

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