GB instrument, circuit breaker finder question

[claude]

Has anyone here ever used a an Electronic Circuit Breaker finder? More specifically a GB instruments CB locator. This is a gizmo where you plug a small signal generator into a live plug and with a receiver probe you can find the associated Circuit Breaker at the panel.

Here is the question. How is it possible to get 2 different Circuit breakers reacting with the same audio and visual ( LED) intensity? Does this mean I have spaghetti wiring? Or is this common in or around the same wiring areas? Or an induction effect? Perhaps a related problem here is that I have wireless house intercoms, they use the house wiring to send signals around. I can call the first floor from the basement or the first floor to the second but I can never get a signal from the basement to the second floor?

I guess that we don't need fancy electronic circuits to get mysterious effects!

Claude Charbonneau Montreal Canada

[Doug Miller]

Yep, got one.

It means the device isn't perfect, that's all.

I've found that if I remove the cover of the panel, and run the wand over the wires, instead of the breakers, that the difference in the audible signal when it's over the right one is unmistakeable.

[RBM]

[John Grabowski]

I've used the cheap ones and the expensive ones and you still get that crossover to multiple breakers occasionally. Like Doug said you can better results putting the receiver against the wires in the panel.

Before we had these high tech devices to confuse us a common way to find a circuit was with a flasher button, pigtail socket, 100 watt light bulb, and an analog ammeter. Connect the pigtail socket with the flasher button and bulb inside to the wire or outlet you want to trace. Then go to the inside of the panel and clamp the amprobe onto each wire until you see the needle bounce up and down. You can find the neutral this way also.

[LayPerson Tom]

Had a Commercial electric version of the GB. I thought it was ok, but wasn't exact. I was hunting all over for a breaker supplying a circuit, and found that many subpanels set off the device. I'm looking for a better tool myself.

tom @