Help making "cable" blocks detect battery block through other cable blocks

I have a mod in which you can make copper armor and "charge" it in various ways, to get different effects. Anyways, i need to make a "cable" block (it is just a full block, no fancy models or anything) that can use a procedure to detect connected "battery" blocks, similar to how leaves can detect logs, even through other leaves. I'm not sure how i would do it.