TEMPOCommunications 501 Tracker II Underground Wire Locator, Buried Wire Locator, Underground Wire Tracer, Locate Wires 7 Ft Deep

This device was very helpful with locating an underground pipe in my backyard. The provided manual summarized how to use it and provided useful diagrams. I was pleased to find out it can determine the depth of a pipe as well. I believe the money spent was worthwhile as it saved me time and energy with respect to this project.

I'm a geek with many acres of property and lots of buried power and data cables. This works so well in tracing both live and disconnected cables of many types. You can direct-clip the transmitter onto a disconnected cable, or use the clamp around live cables (including the conduit they are in). I traced a buried cat6 cable 1000' through a field with no issue, and a buried live powerline about 400'.I tried a bunch of other cheaper options previously and none even came close to this. It's pricey, but worth it if you need to make sure you don't mess up and accidentally dig a trench through a cable -- which could be far more costly to repair than this unit.

Looks cheap, feels cheap, works great. Seemed a little cheapish for the money. Electrician said I needed to buy some $3k machine to find a knicked wire 4’ down and somewhere in a 600’ run under 7 other bundles. I did some research and this one had better specs than the 3k one. After a 20 minute crash course I had to disconnect the wires from my breaker. Had some weird back feed going on. After they were disconnected I found my knicked wire on the first pass. 10 minutes with the back hoe, came right down on the split. Had it located and dug up in a half hour. Saved me a whole lot of time and money. Only thing I noticed is the transducer box will eat batteries in 30 minutes if turned up all the way and they were Amazon batteries.

The build quality and engineering is poor. I would be disappointed paying $50 for this even if it did work. It is made of very thin metal and low quality plastic. There are no seals to prevent moisture or dirt from entering the electronics. I would not expect this to last long even if it did work.Testing it, I could hear a tone but the gauge never moved. Attempting to use it to find an old line, I could only get a tone near the connection and barely anything a few feet away when turned all the way up. To make sure it was defective, I tested on two other lines installed a few weeks ago. They are 3.5 feed under ground and 40 feet long. I could not trace them either.Absolute waste of time and money. Returning immediately.

Works great! Tired of paying $$$ for local company to visit every time cut in line - saw they use this device everytime to fix it in about 10 minutes. We have 2-3 breaks per year, so this device will pay itself back in about 2-3 years.Hand unit uses 1 9V battery. Transmitter uses 8 AA batteries. Kind of cheap Radio Shack like construction, but hey, it works.3 ways to hook transmitter to dog fence, easiest is to hook transmitter to the O-ring clamp, and place an exposed section of your dog wire in the center of the clamp. This will induce a current into the dog wire. You also can directly clamp one lead to the dog wire and ground the other; the third way is to attach transmitter to the case, put case near the dog wire, and it will induce a current. Suspect I will never use this third case method, wish I wasn't paying for it - maybe there are lesser models without the case inducer.Once batteries in and O-clamp around dog wire, start running the line. Loud sound atop wire. None of this "null" signal stuff. Also, the 0-10 signal transmiter is VERY helpful.Found break within 1 minute, patched it up, and on the way.I am taking the batteries out of the unit for storage, as I will probably only use every 2-3 months, and don't want this $650 piece of equipment to die from alkaline battery seepage.

I was a bit nervous spending this much money on a tracker since I'm just an individual property owner; I don't need this thing all the time. I have been very happy with this and I think it was worth the money. I was working on a property where I needed to run water and electric lines which I knew would intersect existing electric lines (five times!). I had previously used an Armada 300, and I found this to be easier to use, especially for electric lines, because of the inductive connection it can make (clamp included in this kit). Also, the rigid handle/pickup foot on this unit is easier to use than the corded receiver of the Armada. It's easier to be precise about where the line is (no waiting for the receiver to quit swinging on the cable) and easier to use in tall grass or brush.It took me a little time to get used to how the unit works and then to find my wires, but after a little practice I had no problems. It's been mentioned in another review (or the manual, I forget where I read this) to not turn the transmitter's power to maximum. I chose 6-7 on the knob. Then I turned the receiver on and placed the pickup foot near the wire I was going to locate with the receiver knob set as very low, just enough to tone that I was near the wire. I did this, adjusting the receiver power up as necessary, to track the wire about 10 feet from the transmitter. Then I placed the receiver's pickup foot above the wire (where I had the strongest signal) until it reached a level of 10 on the meter on the receiver. At that point it was very easy to sweep the receiver's foot left and right to trace the wire, adjusting the receiver level so that, when over the wire, the meter read 10, as I moved away from the transmitter.This unit can also be used to find the depth of the buried wire. I found it to be fairly accurate and easy to do.Anyway, I hope the instructions there help first-time users. I'm happy with the device. I now put tracer wire in all the trenches I run (water, electric, gas) on my properties (I have for the last year). Now that I own a tracker, I won't be at the mercy of borrowing one in the future.