NOYAFA NF-826 Underground Cable Locator, Breakpoint Locator Tracker

I don't have a locator wire on my galvanized water pipes, and unfortunately, a pipe sheared off in an area that would cost thousands of dollars to open up and fix. So I wanted to trace the pipe with this locator. I pushed the included ground rod into the moist sand near the pipe, clamped the black clamp to the ground and the red clamp to the pipe itself (used sandpaper to ensure a good connection). I turned on the transmitter, pressed the transmit button, then walked around using the receiver to try to find where the pipe went. Nope—didn't work at all. I was disappointed and considered returning it. I then looked over the settings of the transmitter itself and noticed it had a code set button. What are these mysterious codes, you ask? I searched the manual and was still dumbfounded because I didn't find a single reference to what that code set button did. I suspect it sends out a different type of signal—different frequency, different waveform, etc.—because once I changed the code from A to E, Bob's your uncle, the receiver started beeping like a Star Wars robot, telling me where the pipe was. I found that when the pipe is over 3 ft deep, the number displayed will be something like 59, and moving to the left or right, this number will drop, and there is a change in tone. It was well worth the price to me; I just wish they had a better manual.

Took a few minutes to read through instructions and then watch a couple videos. But then the magic happened and we could find every line in the wall we were looking for. Tomorrow we will easily tackle the low voltage wiring for the sprinkler. Makes the task so much easier and very reasonably priced.

This system does work quite well, and worth it for repairing our dog fence. A few things I figured out helped me a lot to use it. 1. Read the manual. I do have some experience with electronics, but I did find the diagrams to be a little small to see clearly. The text we pretty good, however. 2. The quity of the electrical connection to the buried wire is critical to its operation. Can't say this enough. Sloppy or loose connections won't do! The alligator clips supplied are suprisingly good quality, but even so, just wiggling the clip connection produced a wide range of signal quality. My fix was to eliminate the supplied alligator clips and cables, and just make short adapter wires with banana plugs to plug directly into the source device and the system ground and the two fence wires where they connect to the control box. So much better!! You can buy banna plugs for a few $ on Amazon, Parts Express, etc. I had a few false starts until I did this. 3. I plugged the transmitter into a charger to be sure I always had a strong signal. Set the output to its maximum, and start the transmitter (there are two actions, one to turn on power, and one to transmit!) 4. Tape the receiver to a piece of wood, broomstick, etc. so you can walk with it and keep the antenna very close to the ground. The Antenna 'snout' seems to most sensitive in the direction its pointed, so point it at the ground, don't waive it in the air. For precisse location, point it vertically at the ground. The signal strength meter and audio DOES work well, and it reads highest when nearerst the wire underground. 5. Keep the sensitivity on the receiver just high enough to receive the signal reliably. This is the most accurate. If you are searching for something when you have no idea where to start, then increase the sensitivity. 6. First, check that the pair of wires leading from the control box to the perimter re intact. To do this,connect the source to one of the wires leaving the control box (and the ground of course), and trace the wire to the fence perimeter looking for breaks. If none are found, THEN connect the device to the OTHER wire and check that. For me, these wires were intact and I could see that one went right, and one went left around the yard. Start nearest the source - If you can see the wire exit the house, start there. The receiver would be responding strongly there, if it isn't, stop and check the connections and that the transmitter is transmitting. 7. I decided to keep them both connected, and traced the wire's path around the yard. If there was only one break, I would not have detected it, as I have the transmitter conncted to both ends of the loop (so both sides of the break would have had a signal). If that happened, I would have just connected the transmitter to one of the loop wires and started again. I know we had or yard aerated twice, so I guessed there might have been more than one break so I just made my way around the loop. 8. I detected and located one break with this setup (both wires powered), which meant thatere must be another! So I apprached the area from the other side where I had signal and found another dead spot, indicating a break. The two breaks were about 20 ft apart and under our garden (hmmm..). We decided to re-route the wire in this area, as we put in a larger garden, so the repair was straightforward using some new 14 gage stranded wire and waterproof wire nuts. Total detection time was about an hour including making come test cables. Next project is figuring our where some wires go in our house...

Worked great to find both a live circuit and broken wires in the ground. ***Place red lead on one side of the outlet and the metal ground rod into the dirt with negative lead on it for best results.*** Both conduits were 18” deep under gravel and asphalt. Traced it over 50’ with no problems. Was exactly where it alerted to. Best results are to mute the device and look for the highest numerical reading and start digging.

Found what I was looking for. Traced underground irrigation cable and located valves. Replaced a valve system working. Recommend but most applications will require broadcasting minimum signal strength to locate.

This device has great advertising but does not live up to its hype. I tried everything to trace a buried irrigation signal line that is less than 1 foot deep. Disconnected all other wires from the controller end ran the signal wire outside of the house, put the ground wire in very damp ground and there was nothing that would trace the wire I needed. It mostly picked up extraneous signals from who knows where. Finally I ran a 50 foot 16ga extension cord on top of the ground, hooked it up according to directions for signal & grounding and it barely found the cord only a few inches from the receiver. This unit was not at all worth the money and is going back.

This locator works like a dream. I have traced irrigation valve wires to find the breaks in the wiring and traced electrical wiring in my home with this locator. Makes tracking wiring a breeze.

Please be aware of what you are considering here. I purchased this product in hopes it could be used to locate a broken sprinkler valve cable after the fiber provider broke it during installation in my gravel driveway. I am an engineer and I use electronic equipment all the time. Upon using this unit I quickly found it was not going to do the job. But I tried anyways. I followed the instructions to the letter. Essentially this is a very unsophisticated noise maker that follows some of the principles of a transmitter/locator set, but it takes you on a wild goose chase with its very poor accuracy and limited indicators on the LCD screen. IMHO they started off with the wrong frequency and it bleeds into anything nearby. Better locators have different and/or more frequencies and they have more indicators that help you determine if you are even making headway. In the end I wanted this to work so bad I spent four hours tracing things down and several times it took me in the wrong direction. Lots of digging for no reason. I finally rented a real locator from the local rental store and found the break in 15 minutes. Ten minutes of that time was watching the instructional video for the rental unit. Four hours and no conclusion vs 5 minutes with a real solution and no more additional wasted digging, what would you choose if you knew ahead of time what you were buying. Please note, I watched several of the videos that people put out on this unit and now I know why they either showed the wire above ground only, or when they showed that there was a signal for an underground cable they never showed the results, just that there was a signal that there was a cable buried somewhere. I am giving two stars because it could possibly be used as a circuit breaker finder as indicated in the literature. Not tested, but it is so simple, i have to assume it can at least do this.

Si vous êtes le propriétaire d’un robot tondeuse avec des fils enfouis, cette appareil est un must have. Nous avons brisé un fil en mettant les piquets pour la clôture à neige et, je ne réussissais pas à localiser les bris. Vous devrez ajuster l’intensité du signal pour détecter les bris. J’ai réussis à trouver le fil cassé à 4po de distance. J’adore ce localisateur de câble!!!

Not working in underground cable

Does what it claims. I located an important TV Trunk cable in no time at all. Clamped on to the outer shield of the Trunk and earthed the other with earth stake and was able to trace cable thru 2 completely covered pits a total of about 600 meters. Add TV cable locating to its list of uses!

Livraison parfait ! Matériel efficace et facile d utilisation

This item was delivered promptly and worked very well.