Armada Technologies Pro900 Guia Del Usuario página 13

Armada Technologies
Finding Faults –
Pro900™. The setup of the unit is the same as when tracing wire. The
difference comes in the reception. Whereas the traced wire continues to
emit a signal along the path of the cable, a break will cause the signal to
stop at the point of the break. A nick or damage will cause the signal to
drop to a lower level but not necessarily end. Either the speaker or the
analog meter on the receiver will indicate this drop.
Be sure the cable or wire you are tracking is grounded – this completes a
'loop' for tracing current signal. To trace a cable, it must be grounded,
either mechanically or capacitively. Mechanical means a direct physical
ground at one end. Capacitive grounding generally applies to cable buried
directly in the earth. The signal needs a path to return to the ground stake
and without it, you will not get a good locate. A bad ground is indicated on
the transmitter output signal meter when an OK or midrange signal level
doesn't appear even at full power. In many cases, a direct buried cable
fault will provide this grounding and allow for a cable to be located.
A general rule is the greater the damage to a cable, the greater the drop
off in signal at the point of damage. Conversely, minimal damage or weak
grounding will show little change. This is an art and small faults are
sometimes difficult to locate. Practice and experience will help immensely
in this task.
If the damage is too small to locate and has a path to ground, consider
using a ground fault locator like the GFL3000. Small damage to cables,
like shovel nicks or gopher chews, are very difficult to locate with a locator.
Ground fault locators are designed to find exactly that kind of fault. More
information on ground fault locating and the GFL3000 can be found at our
website www.armadatech.com.
Finding Irrigation Solenoids and Valves –
accepted methods to find a lost solenoid/valve.
The first method is to connect the red lead of the transmitter to the station
wire leading to that valve and the black to ground as described above. We
refer to this as the 'unbalanced' method. Operate the Pro900™ as above
and begin your locate. When you reach the point where a valve/solenoid
Breaks or severe wire damage can be found with the
Pro900™ LOCATOR USER GUIDE
There are generally two
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