Fault wizard

[birdog37]

Anyone have this situation and what else would you do.Had a lightning strike knocked out 2 fuses,one on the main line the other @ a dip pole.Closed in the main line and went to dip closed in the fuse on the dip.Door opened up,didn't really blow,just melted slow.Another lineman called me we looked at map seen where new wire met old (#2& #1) were spliced.Fortunately there was an open here so we isolated this section and tried it and it held.We high potted the cable, showed 7200 to ground,it stayed there.Ok figured bad cable.Came back next day with fault wizard.When we tried to high pot cable !st it would only read about .1 kv to ground.Tried to get a read on how far the fault was and gave us a false read..Longer than what the run was.So the lineman in charge decided to keep thumping the cable thinking high resistance fault and I will burn it open.Never did.The only thing he burned up was the thumper.There not designed to thump for more than an hour of usage.He had it set on 10k.DC of course.Guess were going to try and burn open cable with old thumper.Can run this up higher I guess,not to exceed rated voltage of cable.I think fault is @ the splice because you can't thump cable right,ya just don't here the whack at the fault because the cables concentric s has no return on the thumper.Any thoughts?High resistive fault in sand?

[reppy007]

Anyone have this situation and what else would you do.Had a lightning strike knocked out 2 fuses,one on the main line the other @ a dip pole.Closed in the main line and went to dip closed in the fuse on the dip.Door opened up,didn't really blow,just melted slow.Another lineman called me we looked at map seen where new wire met old (#2& #1) were spliced.Fortunately there was an open here so we isolated this section and tried it and it held.We high potted the cable, showed 7200 to ground,it stayed there.Ok figured bad cable.Came back next day with fault wizard.When we tried to high pot cable !st it would only read about .1 kv to ground.Tried to get a read on how far the fault was and gave us a false read..Longer than what the run was.So the lineman in charge decided to keep thumping the cable thinking high resistance fault and I will burn it open.Never did.The only thing he burned up was the thumper.There not designed to thump for more than an hour of usage.He had it set on 10k.DC of course.Guess were going to try and burn open cable with old thumper.Can run this up higher I guess,not to exceed rated voltage of cable.I think fault is @ the splice because you can't thump cable right,ya just don't here the whack at the fault because the cables concentric s has no return on the thumper.Any thoughts?High resistive fault in sand?

I think the fault is in a ,**** forgot the word,either in a pullbox/pullhole or in pit that in underwater as your thumping it,,,seen that before,the fuse will melt all day and night.figure out where these are and then thump & listen,you almost have to be right on top of the fault to hear it........keep us informed as to what you find.

[rob8210]

I remember years ago we had a cable fault underneath a sidewalk, we had a set of earphones that we could use to try to hear the thumper. The other thing I saw a guy do was to take his boots off, then he could feel the thump .

[reppy007]

This is where a screen really helps,you can take a picture of the before and after thumping,spit the screen and compare the two....Ill stick to the fault being under some sort of equipment that has a lid/grate...in water.

[birdog37]

Reppy sounds like a better type fault wizard.Maybe we can get this one next if they can't get this one fixed.I did some checking on the internet and they said if ya thump more than an hour ya can burn it up,voids all warranty on machine.Funny i was just bragging this machine up the other day now its probably trashed along with all those other vcrs,tv.'s,etc.trinkets from china we buy.Im just glad i was told to go help the other crew when we couldn't find the fault and he continued to thump cable.Like i said the lineman in charge said the machine did burn open the cable more.Should of been some other warnings in the box other than how just how to hi pot and thump.He said it went from .2kv to like .7kv but @ the expense of the thumper.There's no vault,water is a possibility.I believe thou that the sand is acting like an insolater glassified so to speak.They want to bring out the old thumper which can run up to 100kv dc of course.Wouldn't think ya would go more than what the cable is rated for 15kv.Any thoughts here if they would try to go higher? Remember this cable goes from #1 jacketed newer to #2 buried direct with a splice 150 ft. away from a 3 phase tub.Rob now that you said that about taking shoes off I had a foreman years ago he would stick his head in a 5 gallon bucket,then we got some head phones.How times have changed.....Will let ya know how it goes.Think tuesday we will make our 3rd attempt.

[reppy007]

Reppy sounds like a better type fault wizard.Maybe we can get this one next if they can't get this one fixed.I did some checking on the internet and they said if ya thump more than an hour ya can burn it up,voids all warranty on machine.Funny i was just bragging this machine up the other day now its probably trashed along with all those other vcrs,tv.'s,etc.trinkets from china we buy.Im just glad i was told to go help the other crew when we couldn't find the fault and he continued to thump cable.Like i said the lineman in charge said the machine did burn open the cable more.Should of been some other warnings in the box other than how just how to hi pot and thump.He said it went from .2kv to like .7kv but @ the expense of the thumper.There's no vault,water is a possibility.I believe thou that the sand is acting like an insolater glassified so to speak.They want to bring out the old thumper which can run up to 100kv dc of course.Wouldn't think ya would go more than what the cable is rated for 15kv.Any thoughts here if they would try to go higher? Remember this cable goes from #1 jacketed newer to #2 buried direct with a splice 150 ft. away from a 3 phase tub.Rob now that you said that about taking shoes off I had a foreman years ago he would stick his head in a 5 gallon bucket,then we got some head phones.How times have changed.....Will let ya know how it goes.Think tuesday we will make our 3rd attempt.

Id say keep the thumping to a minimin,thumping for an hour or even near that long is a no-no.

[reppy007]

Is it a fault wizard,Or is it Memorex?

[thrasher]

Not sure on the new thumpers but ours has both a Thump mode and and a Burn mode. If you suspect a high resistance fault then you switch to burn mode, which is current limited, and apply continuous DC till you get a low resistance fault. You know you have a low resistance fault when the current limiter trips. Then go back to Thump mode. This way you don't Thump for a long time.

[reppy007]

Looks like they are having a nightmare finding this one....I thought he said today they would locate it........one spanning might be in order...

[birdog37]

tommorrow reppy is when were going to use the old thumper and high pot it to max. voltage of the cable.I think the name on this thumper is a timex....lol.Will let ya know the outcome..thanks

[birdog37]

Couldn't getter done today people sick....maybe tomorrow?

[reppy007]

Couldn't getter done today people sick....maybe tomorrow?

Now that is a good title for a thread,,,,work thats being slowed down due to sickness....sounds like the one whos sick knows the fault wizzard or thumping machine a little better than the rest.....experience....priceless!

[birdog37]

Your right he's the only one that knew how to run the old thumper.Well the verdict is high resistance fault under a blacktop driveway.The darn thing must also be @ the bottom of the cable.The sound was so drowned out that the only way to pin point it was with an acoustic listening device I requested to use.The old thumper may have burned open cable more but it also failed too.
A selnoid burned up and would not thump.We went to get another fault wizard from another area put it on cycle thump and found it like I explained earlier.Now were not sure if they will fix cable,it has failed before and there is a 3 phase customer off this piece of cable.They generally use the strike 3 rule and replace it.Even thou its only been twice.We contacted the company on the fault wizard and they said it is best to use the cycle mode to find the fault because of the build up of the voltage and the burst of energy that discharges is better than a hi-pot.More amps. to ground than hi-potting.Just don't cycle thump more than an hour.

[reppy007]

Your right he's the only one that knew how to run the old thumper.Well the verdict is high resistance fault under a blacktop driveway.The darn thing must also be @ the bottom of the cable.The sound was so drowned out that the only way to pin point it was with an acoustic listening device I requested to use.The old thumper may have burned open cable more but it also failed too.
A selnoid burned up and would not thump.We went to get another fault wizard from another area put it on cycle thump and found it like I explained earlier.Now were not sure if they will fix cable,it has failed before and there is a 3 phase customer off this piece of cable.They generally use the strike 3 rule and replace it.Even thou its only been twice.We contacted the company on the fault wizard and they said it is best to use the cycle mode to find the fault because of the build up of the voltage and the burst of energy that discharges is better than a hi-pot.More amps. to ground than hi-potting.Just don't cycle thump more than an hour.

That pipe under the street must have water in it....we have lots of old urd where it is direct lay all over the neighborhood,but piped under the street/intersections.....urd can be tricky at times.

[birdog37]

Reppy its a sewer pipe.Primary actually runs under the sewer.Deadening the sound even more.

[reppy007]

Reppy its a sewer pipe.Primary actually runs under the sewer.Deadening the sound even more.

just between us,a hole in the bottom of the cable is better than a hole on the top of the cable,the one on the bottom is sitting on the pipe,you can usually always hear that one....the hole on the top of the cable is against nothing so it becomes a little harder to locate sometimes.

[birdog37]

Finally fixed cable yesterday. It was bad below the sewer line and in sand. Reason for the fault was the splice body pulled apart. Evidently, the cable was hit a long time ago when they put the sewer line in and fixed by someone who figured he'd never be back here again, as noone here knew the splice was there. Finally, end of story.

[reppy007]

Finally fixed cable yesterday. It was bad below the sewer line and in sand. Reason for the fault was the splice body pulled apart. Evidently, the cable was hit a long time ago when they put the sewer line in and fixed by someone who figured he'd never be back here again, as noone here knew the splice was there. Finally, end of story.

So you guys pulled in new primary?

[birdog37]

No they wanted to go ahead and fix it.I believe the mystery was too much for them.I guess the cable did not fail as originally thought before it was hit again some where else..

[reppy007]

No they wanted to go ahead and fix it.I believe the mystery was too much for them.I guess the cable did not fail as originally thought before it was hit again some where else..

I love the mysteries that happen in this line of work....and I wish my memory was better,there has been lots of those mysteries.

[birdog37]

It all pays the same I think its one of the better parts of the job figuring out the why..........