Development of underground cable fault detector using Arduino

Abstract

The main objective of this project is to detect the faults and abnormalities occur in underground cables using Arduino based devices. At the feeder's end, Direct Current (DC) voltage was applied, based on the location of fault in the cable, the value of current changes. In the case of a short circuit fault like L-G (line to ground) or L-L (line to line) fault, the change in voltage values measured across the resistor. Then, it feed to the in-built ADC of the Arduino. The value is processed by the Arduino and the fault is calculated in terms of distance from the base station. The value is sent to the LCD interfaced to the Arduino board and it is displayed the exact location of the fault from the base station in kilometers for all the three phases. The project is arranged with a set of resistors which represent the length of the cable. At every known kilometer fault switches are placed to induce faults manually, hence the fault distance is determined.