Armada Technologies Pro900 Guía De Uso página 13

Armada Technologies Pro900™ LOCATOR USER GUIDE
Additionally, the feedback of your locate is given in 3 manners; audible
external speaker, headset, or signal meter. Any of these three options
indicate signal strength that is being received by the Pro900™.
Finding Faults –
Breaks or severe wire damage can be found with the
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
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 mid-
range 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 –
There are generally
two accepted methods to find a lost solenoid/valve.
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