Finding a break in SWA

Seanieke

Is there any device or way of determining where a break is an a length of SWA?? rather than the maths of measuring the resistance of the 2phases against the lenght of the cable..?

Auslander

With a spade:D

DublinDilbert

Is it just a once off or do you need to do it on a regular basis?

You can determine the distance to the break in the cable using time domain reflectometry.

http://ie.farnell.com/megger/tdr900/cable-length-meter-tdr/dp/8746338?Ntt=8746338

Its only €650

Davy

Cat and jeny could be an option

Cheeble

I had a similar problem a few years ago with 400m single core in foil. We measured the capacitance from core to foil at each end. The ratio of the two gave the location of the break. You need a multimeter with a good capacitance setting, and you need to be careful about how you position the unscreened ends of the cable when making the measurement, but with practice, we got it accurate to within about 5 metres.

You might be able to do something similar, though I'd expect more problems (i.e. less accuracy) with swa.

Cheeble-eers

Rev. BlueJeans

That's quite a cool idea!

i found TDRs quite good in the past, but only as a guideline, bearing in mind that joints etc., will bugger up the resistivity, and that cable runs are not always straight.

mac_iomhair

thats smart thinking cheeble... id nearly set up a break in a cable to try that out for the craic!