Testing Audio Wall Jacks (smart wired home)

[Riffraff]

I just bought a "smart wired" home which has wall plates with binding
posts for the speaker connections in various rooms, a bank of push
on/push off buttons to control which rooms have the sound turned on
and a wall plate with 3 pairs of binding posts for input. I also have
several places where wiring which appears to be speaker wiring is just
hanging out of the walls. Is there a way I can test which jacks are
on with which switches using just a multimeter or do I need to drag my
speaker around the house to test each one?

Thanks,
Riffraff

 

[NSM]

I just bought a "smart wired" home which has wall plates with binding
posts for the speaker connections in various rooms, a bank of push
on/push off buttons to control which rooms have the sound turned on
and a wall plate with 3 pairs of binding posts for input. I also have
several places where wiring which appears to be speaker wiring is just
hanging out of the walls. Is there a way I can test which jacks are
on with which switches using just a multimeter or do I need to drag my
speaker around the house to test each one?

If you don't have any speakers or other equipment attached yet, hook them up
to a bell transformer and use a multimeter.

N

 

[Art]

That or even a 9 Volt battery connected will work, as long as there is a
continous circuit you will read the voltage with your meter.

 

[sofie]

NSM:
Get a small speaker and "drag" it around the house to test the jacks with a
real signal and a real LOAD.... this certainly can't be any harder than
wiring up a battery or bell transformer and using your multi-meter.
Furthermore, a meter could give you a "false positive" because the meter is
very sensitive, offers very little load, and can give you a just about full
voltage indication even with a bad connection or bad switch with a fair
amount of contact resistance that would render speakers just about
unoperational.
Use a speaker and a real signal.