PROJECT ON

UNDERGROUND CABLE FAULT DISTANCE

LOCATOR

By:GAURAVOJHA
ABHILASHGUHAROY
RAHULVERMA
VISHAL
1

Contents
Project overview
Block diagram
Components Used
Voltage Regulator
Microcontroller
ADC
LCD
Circuit and Working
Software requirements
Applications
Conclusion

Project overview
The project uses the simple concept of OHMs law

where a low DC voltage is applied at the feeder

end through a series resistor.
The current would vary depending upon the

length of fault of the cable in case there is a short

circuit .

The

series resistor voltage drop changes

accordingly which is then fed to an ADC to
develop
precise
digital
data
which
the
programmed microcontroller would display the
same in Kilo meters.

The project is assembled with a set of resistors

representing cable length in KMs and fault

creation is made by a set of switches at every
known KM to cross check the accuracy of the
same.

Block diagram

Components Used
Voltage Regulator(7805)
Microcontroller(8051 series)
ADC 0804
Relay
Relay Driver(ULN2003)
LCD(16x2)
Resistors
Capacitors
Switches

Voltage Regulator(7805)
The pulsating DC is filtered out to a pure dc by an

electrolytic capacitor which is then fed to this

voltage regulator.
The filtered dc being unregulated, this voltage
regulator is used to get 5v DC constant at its pin
no 3 irrespective of input DC varying from 7V to
15V.

Microcontroller
Itisasmallcomputer
Hason-chipRAM,ROM,I/Oports.

CPU

I/O
Port

RAM ROM
Serial
Timer COM
Port

Asinglechip
Microcontroller

External interrupts
Interrup
t
Control

On-chip
ROM for
program
code

Timer/Counter

On-chip
RAM

Timer 1
Timer 0

CPU

OSC

Bus
Control

4 I/O Ports

P0 P1 P2 P3

Address/Data

Serial
Port

TxD RxD

Counter
Inputs

Features of MC
8K Bytes of In-System Programmable (ISP)

Flash Memory.
4.0V to 5.5V Operating Range.
Fully Static Operation: 0 Hz to 33 MHz.
256 x 8-bit Internal RAM.
32 Programmable I/O Lines.
Three 16-bit Timer/Counters.
Eight Interrupt Sources.
Full Duplex UART Serial Channel.

Pin diagram

ADC(0804)
Analog to digital converters find huge application

as an intermediate device to convert the signals

from analog to digital form.
These digital signals are used for further
processing by the digital processors.
Various sensors like temperature, pressure, force
etc. convert the physical characteristics into
electrical signals that are analog in nature.

ADC0804

is
a
very
used
8-bit
to
digital

commonly
analog
convertor.
It is a single channel IC,
i.e., it can take only one
analog signal as input.

Features of ADC0804
Compatible with microcontrollers, access time is

135ns.
Logic inputs and outputs meet both MOS and TTL
voltage level specifications.
Works with 2.5V (LM336) voltage reference.
On-chip clock generator.
0V to 5V analog input voltage range with single
5V supply.
20-pin molded chip carrier or small outline
package.
Operates ratio metrically or with 5 VDC, 2.5 VDC, or
analog span adjusted voltage reference.

Relay
A relay is an electrically operated switch.
Current flowing through the coil of the relay

creates a magnetic field which attracts a lever

and changes the switch contacts.
The coil current can be on or off so relays have
two switch positions . Switch contacts as shown in
the diagram.

Relays allow one circuit to switch a second circuit

which can be completely separate from the first.

For example a low voltage battery circuit can use
a relay to switch a 230V AC mains circuit.
There is no electrical connection inside the relay
between the two circuits, the link is magnetic and
mechanical.
To drive relay through MC ULN2003 relay driver IC
is used.

Relay driver ULN2003

ULN is Relay driver application.
The ULN2003 is a monolithic high voltage and

high current Darlington transistor arrays.

It consists of seven NPN Darlington pairs that
features high-voltage outputs with commoncathode clamp diode for switching inductive loads.
The collector-current rating of a single Darlington
pair is 500mA.
The Darlington pairs may be paralleled for higher
current capability.

The ULN functions as

an inverter.
If the logic at input 1B
is high then the output
at its corresponding pin
1C will be low.

Liquid crystal display (lcd)

Most

common

LCDs

connected

to

the

microcontrollers are 16x2 and 20x2 displays.

This means 16 characters per line by 2 lines

and 20 characters per line by 2 lines,

respectively.

If an 8-bit data bus is used the LCD will require

11 data lines(3 control lines plus the 8 lines for

the data bus)
The three control lines are named as EN, RS, and
RW.

Software requirements
Compilers are programs used to convert a High

Level Language to object code. Desktop compilers

produce an output object code for the underlying
microprocessor, but not for other microprocessors.
The programs written in one of the HLL like Cwill

compile the code to run on the system for a

particular processor .

circuit

working
The basic working of our project employs ohms law.
The feeder is fed through a resistor by a DC supply

and as per the fault occurrence the current through

this resistor changes.
Now depending upon this change in resistance the
voltage across the resistance also changes.
This change in voltage is fed to the microcontroller
via ADC which converts this voltage signal to a
readable form to the microcontroller.
Microcontroller is coded to read various data given
by ADC and give signal to LCD for displaying
corresponding distances.

Power supply

The 230V AC supply is first stepped down to 12V

AC using a step down transformer.

This is then converted to DC using bridge rectifier.
The AC ripples is filtered out by using a capacitor

and given to the input pin of voltage regulator

7805.
At output pin of this regulator we get a constant

5V DC which is used for MC and other ICs in this

project.

Relay Driver And Relay

Fault Detection

 While any of the 12 switches are operated they

impose conditions like line to ground (LG), line to

line (LL), line to line to line(3L) fault as per the
switch operation
Any NO point while driven to GND through the
common contact point of the relay develops a
current flow through R1 & any of the cable by the
fault switch depending on the created fault.
Thus the voltage drop at the analog to digital
(ADC) pin varies depending on the current flow
which is inversely proportional to the resistance
value representing the length of cable in kilo
meters.

This varying voltage is fed to the ADC to develop

an 8 bit data which is further given to the

microcontroller which gives data to LCD to display
the distance in kilometers.

Application
Its main application is detection of underground
cable fault which is very hard to detect as it is not
possible to see faults like line to line and other
such faults which is quite possible with the case of
overhead transmission line.
So for such cases our project is very helpful as
the distance at which the fault has occurred can
be calculated and then further action regarding
the fault can be taken to overcome them.

Conclusion
In this paper we detect the exact location of short
circuit fault in the underground cable from feeder
end in km by using microcontroller8051. For this
we use simple concept of OHMs law so fault can
be easily detected and repaired.