DigiTrace DET-3000 hand held cable fault locator for power and trace heating cables

Electrical fault finding in a heat tracing system presents specific challenges because in most cases, the heating cables are buried under the insulation. Hence visual inspections or measurements on small segments to localize the fault are often impossible, impracticable or very costly, certainly when the heat tracing circuits extend over long lengths.

DigiTrace DET-3000 hand held cable fault locator for power and trace heating cables

Electrical fault finding in a heat tracing system presents specific challenges because in most cases, the heating cables are buried under the insulation. Hence visual inspections or measurements on small segments to localize the fault are often impossible, impracticable or very costly, certainly when the heat tracing circuits extend over long lengths.

The DET-3000 is a hand held, universal, cable fault locator that uses the principles of Time Domain Reflectometry or TDR.

It can be used to localize faults on all types of metallic cables consisting of at least two conductors or one conductor and a metallic sheath. TDRs can locate both major and minor cabling problems including sheath faults, broken conductors, water damage, loose connectors, crimps, cuts, smashed cables, shorted conductors, system components, and a variety of other fault conditions.

In addition, TDRs can be used to test reels of cable for shipping damage, cable shortages, cable usage, and inventory management.

Since it operates on the principle of a reflected pulse which travels at a percentage of the light speed, depending on the dielectric properties of the cable, it is not suitable for short cable lengths.