underground short

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Re: underground short

Charlie

Yes you can.

If you locate the short and dig to expose it, then seperate the wires, it is an easy fix.

Once you seperate the wires a continuity test will confirm the location.

Mike P.
 
Re: underground short

Don

I was being smart. This similar to the garden hose theory. A military thing.

The Garden Hose Theory: If you have a leak in a hose the easiest way to find the leak is to do the following.

Cut the hose if half the leak is on on side or the other. Keep cutting the hose in half until you find the leak.

This is the way we were taught to troubleshoot electronics. This is one of the simplest ways to explain troubleshooting to newbees.

Mike P.
 
Re: underground short

It seems that if you know Resistance per foot and the fault is between any two wires, it should be possible without digging up the entire run. However, you do not know the contact resistance of the fault. The only way this would work is if the fault were a perfect connection with no added resistance.

IPL has some highly specialized equipment that can find a fault but it is not an ohm meter. :)
 
Re: underground short

An underground short is usually an indicator of insulation degradation. The entire cable is beginning to fail.

The best locator is known as a "Backhoe"
 
Re: underground short

There is another thread on this forum that discusses another instrument, a TDR. {time domain reflectometer]I think that it could be a better tool to locate underground shorts. Here is an exceprt from one of the manufacturer's websites:

The problem facing the lighting department was that the road had been constructed out of brick paving, which meant the fault must be located accurately to minimize the difficult reinstatement required. The short circuit had been sporadically blowing fuses. The Model 1205T was applied to one end of the cable, the initial AUTO-SEARCH located the open circuit at the next column. Further AUTO-SEARCHing indicated a fault approximately midway between the two columns. The Model 1205T was then applied at the opposite end of the cable and the same result confirmed the location of the fault. After originally stating that the company could not afford a TDR, the very pleased lighting department contacted Riser Bond Instruments a few days later to confirm that the fault was exactly where the Model 1205T indicated.
Click to expand...
While not looking to spend your money, I have purchased one ofthese, and have found that it can be a real timesaver.

Just another idea.
 
Re: underground short

I use a under ground wire tracer isolate the circuit in question on both ends and hook up the tracer to the two shorted wires and when you get to the short you will loose the signal mark this point then repeat from the other end mark again you will notice a little seperation of these two points just find the middle of the two and you got it.
 
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