Display of Underground Cable Fault Distance over Internet

The objective of this project is to determine the distance of underground cable fault from the base station in kilometers and displayed over the internet. Underground cable system is a common practice followed in major urban areas.

While a fault occurs for some reason, at that time the repairing process related to that particular cable is difficult due to exact unknown location of the fault in the cable.

Proposed system is used to find out the exact location of the fault and to send data in graphical format to a dedicated website together with on board LCD display using a GSM module.

The project uses the standard theory of Ohms law, i.e., when a low DC voltage is applied at the feeder end through a series resistor (Cable lines), then the current would vary depending upon the location of the fault in the cable as the resistance is proportional to the distance.

In case there is a short circuit (Line to Ground), the voltage across series resistors changes according to the resistance that changes with distance .This is then fed to an ADC to develop precise digital data which the programmed microcontroller of the 8051 family displays in kilometers.

The project is assembled with a set of resistors representing the cable length in km and the fault creation is made by a set of switches at every known km to cross check the accuracy of the same.

The fault occurring at a particular distance, the respective phase along with the distance is displayed on the LCD. The same information is also sent to a dedicated website over internet activated SIM with GSM, interfaced to the microcontroller.

Furthermore, this project can be enhanced by using capacitor in an AC circuit to measure the impedance which can even locate the open circuited cable, unlike the short circuited fault that uses only resistors in DC circuit as followed in the above proposed project.