DEVELOPMENT OF A PROTOTYPE UNDERGROUND CABLE FAULT DETECTOR

Author’s Name : A Dhivyadharani | T Sowmya

Volume 01 Issue 02  Year 2014  ISSN No:  2349-2503  Page no: 1-6

Abstract – Cable faults are damage to cables which affects the resistance in the cable. If allowed to persist, this can lead to a voltage breakdown. To locate a fault in the cable, the cable must first be tested for faults. This prototype uses the simple concept of OHMs law. The current would vary depending upon the length of fault of the cable. This prototype is assembled with a set of resistors representing cable length in Kilo meters and fault creation is made by a set of switches at every known Kilo meters (km’s) to cross check the accuracy of the same. The fault occurring at what distance and which phase is displayed on a 16X2 LCD interfaced with the microcontroller. The program is burned into ROM of microcontroller. The power supply consists of a step down transformer 230/12V, which steps down the voltage to 12V AC. This is converted to DC using a Bridge rectifier. The ripples are removed using a capacitive filter and it is then regulated to +5V using a voltage regulator 7805 which is required for the operation of the microcontroller and other components.

Keywords –cable, voltage break down,  faults, prototype