The recent evolution of industry test equipment has made a spectacular change. In the past, technicians had a choice between inexpensive, basic individual equipment such as digital multimeters (DMM) or cable toner/tracers, and expensive high end, almost scientific, devices such as network certifiers. At the same time the demand for more thorough testing equipment could not be greater as system cabling has become more complex, and the demand for accurate and faster digital communications has increased substantially.

One class of new testers that has risen to meet today’s high tech challenges is what I like to call the enhanced multimeter (EMM). High end processing and modern displays have allowed manufacturers to roll many important test functions into one reasonably priced tester. In many cases, getting additional testing options, or apps, is a matter of a simple download from the manufacturer’s Web site.

I have been very impressed with the per-formance of this new class of testers. So this month I have decided to take a closer look at the LVPro3 from ByteBrothers (bytebrothers.com). We will hear some feedback from the manufacturer and take a look at the many test features supplied, and why they are important to today’s technician. We will also try to clear up some of the misconceptions of testing certification. Let’s get started.

Talk With the Vendor

In investigating this product I thought it was important to hear some comments from ByteBrothers. The replies to my questions were supplied by the company’s marketing manager, Darrell Igelmund.

What motivated your company to design and build this product?

Igelmund: We were doing some work with the U.S. Army, helping them a bit with PoE testing on their tent radio systems, when it dawned on us that testing cables and devices would be a powerful mix.

The product has been out in the field for a while. What feedback from the techs are you getting?

Igelmund: Pure enthusiasm coupled with lots of ideas to expand the test app library. An example: Wal-Mart field service liked the CCTV video signal testing but they wanted CCTV power testing also. We modified our PoE app to take into account 24VAC and 12VDC on their balun setups. They downloaded the new firmware from the Web and were good to go.

From your experience, what additional comments do you feel should be emphasized to our Tech Talk readers?

Igelmund: Making sure the work you did is accurate. A technician’s understanding of the equipment is of utmost importance. And this must be built in by the manufacturer. The tests that are conducted must be as intuitive as possible … and our single screen approach really aids in this. Further, our Low Voltage Pro “video wall” that has a 3-5 minute movie on each test app has become a test supervisor’s dream. 

A Multitude of Multimeter Features

As promised, let’s take a look at the testing features that can now be provided in LVPro3:

Cable ID Test and Mapping — For RJ-45/coax; locates multiple wall jacks for Cat-5/6 and coax; requires remote ID kits; choice of tone patterns injected on cables and works with existing tone probes to trace cable locations.

Dolby 5.1/7.1 Speaker Test — Front right, etc. identification for proper cable labeling.

Cable Length Testing — Use of velocity of propagation (VOP) technology; can also identify cable’s VOP rating with known cable length.

Battery Tester — Tested performance with a 100ma load.

Speaker Pop Test — Allows for the audible location of speakers in a facility.

CCTV / VPP Test — Quick test of CCTV camera systems requires about 1V VPP camera output via coax to properly drive DVR; video signal testing; over 1V testing.

PoE Testing — Detect PoE voltage and display its amplitude and location on the cable (midspan, endspan or both) 48V on cable; identify pairs 1236 for PoE endspan, 4578 for PoE midspan, new high powered PoE standard would use all pairs.

Port Blink Test — Works with Cat-5/6 cable; uniquely identified slow blink pulses to identify network switch port.

Cable Test — Voice, video (coax), speaker, data (shielded/unshielded); tone generation testing to find location in patch panel; can select which pair on a RJ-45. How many feet down the cable is the fault. Wiremap (open, short, cross), reversal, splits, pass/fail, delay, skew, ohms. RJ-45, 100-ohms cable, can test ohms and should be +/-20%; proper impedance (ohms) is an important measure for maximum data transfer on all cable types.

Management Software / Reports — Nothing beats a good report for installation accountability; store up to 250 reports; can add notes and printed timestamps, always keep a copy for your records.

Return Loss Quality (RLQ) Tests — One of the best quality tests to run on a cable; test the impedance flatness of a cable, if cable is not flat the signal can be reflected back and slow down the transmission speed of the cable; RLQ ratings are 0 unacceptable, 1 acceptable, 2 best (cable should be at least 20 feet).

10/100/1,000 Detection Display — Test of active network port (computer, switch, VoIP, access point); will display the ports capabilities, what pairs it is transmitting on and anybody talking to it.

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