Cable testing devices wanted

I'm not looking to break the bank. I don't do this as a career but as a hobby and I'm learning something new every day. I have about 3/4 mile of cat5e and cat6 in my house for my whole house audio, networking, and cameras. I also work at my friend's house doing his networking, out at his shop with cameras and networking, and at his bin site networking and cameras. I also just got done doing another friend's cameras and networking, along with the same at my brother-in-law's place. All in all, I'm sure there are 5 miles or more of different cat5e and cat6 cable runs. Plus at these places, there is cable internet.

I'm looking for something that will test all the cables periodically as mice in some of those areas can cause damage, plus age, etc. 

What do you use to test cables? I would like to keep it under $150 and under $100 would be the best for no more than I would use it. Does anyone have any advice? Thanks.

Good cables, bad cables? Why is a camera intermittently going on and off. Why is there hum after a period in my whole house audio? Is the cable causing it? And multiple other things I guess.

https://www.techguy.org/threads/cable-testing-devices-wanted.1291715/

90% of the time, hum on home audio systems is caused by either improper grounding, or ground differentials.

If it's whole home audio, what type of equipment are you using/cabling are you using? Ground differential can happen if speaker cables are situated too close to AC wiring. You can also get interference from fluorescent lights or other devices such as fridges, freezers, A/C units, furnaces, humidifiers and more.

Does it sound like 60 Hz ground hum? If you're not sure what that sounds like, just Google it or go to Youtube and type 60 Hz ground hum to get a feel for what it sounds like.

Another test you could perform would be to disconnect all audio equipment from all wiring, and test each set of speaker terminals at each end using the AC function on a Multimeter. If it sees any voltage, that's likely your problem.

There are workarounds to grounding issues, but they generally aren't good. And for sure you at least want all your AC outlets grounded for safety reasons.

Perhaps something like this low-end, basic cable tester will serve your needs?

https://www.newegg.com/p/1W9-00AV-00002?Item=9SIAFY67M23620

No frills but an adequate feature set, as in no fancy LCD screen with an extensive display but rather just LED indicators that light up.

A nice aspect to cable testers that have two, dependent on each other, parts to when you're on-sight working on installed cables you can the powered-part on one end of a cable and even when the other end of that same cable is in a different room or remote location you just plug in the indicator-part. With single unit cable testers, you need to have both ends of a cable on hand in front of you.

Another option that sounds like it fits your posting is this also low-end, basic cable crimper/tester/connectors package:

https://www.newegg.com/p/1YU-02D0-000F3?Item=9SIB7VEKA51665

Interesting.

As an extreme example of the low end, I know some Asus motherboards have an Ethernet cable testing system baked right into the firmware. I tried it once, and it worked. Again, I'm not claiming this will have the same accuracy or precision or flexibility dedicated device(s) will, but you can't beat the price. Might be useful if you already own one of those motherboards. 

90% of the time, hum on home audio systems is caused by either improper grounding, or ground differentials.

 

If it's whole home audio, what type of equipment are you using/cabling are you using? Ground differential can happen if speaker cables are situated too close to AC wiring. You can also get interference from fluorescent lights or other devices such as fridges, freezers, A/C units, furnaces, humidifiers and more.

 

Does it sound like 60 Hz ground hum? If you're not sure what that sounds like, just Google it or go to Youtube and type 60 Hz ground hum to get a feel for what it sounds like.

 

Another test you could perform would be to disconnect all audio equipment from all wiring, and test each set of speaker terminals at each end using the AC function on a Multimeter. If it sees any voltage, that's likely your problem.

 

There are workarounds to grounding issues, but they generally aren't good. And for sure you at least want all your AC outlets grounded for safety reasons.

It doesn't happen all the time. It seems to build up with time and what we do is go to the Russound Cav6.6 and just shut it off and turn it back on. The hum goes away until it starts up again. I have not tried to figure out how long that is but I would venture to guess several days or so before we need to power cycle.

And the hum is no where near as bad as the ones on YouTube. I couldn't listen if it were.

Have you checked all the things I've listed above, starting with each AC outlet being properly grounded?

Are you talking about the outlet the system is plugged in to? The Russound Cav6.6 is plugged into 1 outlet. Outlet checked. All the rest of the speakers are powered by cat5e cable running all through the house. I'm sure that with all the cable running all sorts of ways, it's bound to be near electrical lines some place or another. I'm going to have to get at least a better tester than what I have to help with this problem.

Well, you could swap out the Russound amp for another amp and see what happens. That would soon tell you whether it was the Russound or something else that was the problem.

Who checked the AC outlet and what tests were performed, exactly to check for grounding?

Use TDR Time Domain Reflectometer

Use TDR Time Domain Reflectometer

IIRC, those are rather expensive.

This one will test and reveal issues with cabling
Its quite a bit more expensive than what the OP had as budget though

https://www.fluke.com/en-us/product/network-cable-testers/copper/dsx2-5-ie-k1

All other kinds are just some variation of a pair verifier, length measurer and will be limited to such fault finding

Perhaps check if you can rent a similar instrument somewhere.
Here in Norway it will cost you approx 150$ for a day

Eg: https://elma-instruments.no/service-kalibrering-utleie/utleie-leasing

Hth

tfn