Electrical strike system control for subsurface boring equipment
First Claim
1. An electrical strike sensing system for sensing potentially hazardous conditions to personnel when equipment contacts an electrical power conductor, comprising:
- a current sensing circuit for sensing current carried by the equipment resulting from said potentially hazardous condition;
a voltage sensing circuit for sensing a voltage between the equipment and a reference;
a processor for converting the sensed current to a current percentage of a predefined reference current, and for converting the sensed voltage to a voltage percentage of a predefined reference voltage;
a predefined threshold value above which dangerous electrical conditions of the equipment are considered to exist;
a combiner for combining said current percentage and said voltage percentage and providing an output; and
a comparator for comparing the output of the combining circuit with the threshold value to provide an alarm condition if the combiner output exceeds the threshold value.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
An electrical strike sensing system for providing an alarm if the underground boring equipment encounters a potentially hazardous condition. The system senses current carried through the equipment, as well as the voltage between the equipment and a reference. The measured current is converted to a percentage of a reference current, and the voltage is converted to a percentage of a reference voltage. The current and voltage percentages are added, and if the sum exceeds 100%, the alarms are activated. The current and voltage percentages, as well as the date and time of the strike, are stored in a nonvolatile memory.
56 Citations
29 Claims
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1. An electrical strike sensing system for sensing potentially hazardous conditions to personnel when equipment contacts an electrical power conductor, comprising:
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a current sensing circuit for sensing current carried by the equipment resulting from said potentially hazardous condition; a voltage sensing circuit for sensing a voltage between the equipment and a reference; a processor for converting the sensed current to a current percentage of a predefined reference current, and for converting the sensed voltage to a voltage percentage of a predefined reference voltage; a predefined threshold value above which dangerous electrical conditions of the equipment are considered to exist; a combiner for combining said current percentage and said voltage percentage and providing an output; and a comparator for comparing the output of the combining circuit with the threshold value to provide an alarm condition if the combiner output exceeds the threshold value. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method of sensing a potentially hazardous condition to personnel when equipment contacts an electrical conductor, comprising the steps of:
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sensing a current dram by the equipment as a result of the potentially hazardous condition to personnel and providing a current indication; sensing a voltage between the equipment and a reference and providing a voltage indication; combining the current and the voltage indications; comparing the combined current and voltage indications with a predefined threshold; and providing an alarm if the combined current and voltage indications exceed said predefined threshold. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A method of sensing a potentially hazardous condition to personnel when equipment contacts an electrical conductor, comprising the steps of:
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sensing a current and a voltage of the equipment as a result of the hazardous condition to personnel; processing the sensed current and voltage to define a percentage parameter representative of a voltage percentage summed with a current percentage; comparing the percentage parameter with a threshold percentage; storing in a memory the percentages of the current and voltage when the threshold percentage is exceeded by the percentage parameter; and storing in the memory a time parameter in association with the current and voltage percentages as to when the threshold percentage was exceeded. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23)
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24. A method of sensing a potentially hazardous condition to personnel when equipment contacts an electrical conductor, comprising the steps of:
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sensing a peak current drawn through the equipment as a result of said equipment contacting the electrical conductor; sensing a peak voltage between the equipment and a reference point as a result of the equipment contacting the electrical conductor; dividing a reference current magnitude into said sensed peak current to define a current percentage; dividing a reference voltage magnitude into said sensed peak voltage to define a voltage percentage; adding the current percentage and voltage percentage; and if the added current and voltage percentages exceed a predefined threshold, providing an alarm to warn the personnel of the potentially hazardous condition. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26)
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27. An electrical strike sensing system for sensing potentially hazardous conditions to personnel when equipment contacts an electrical power conductor, comprising:
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a current sensing circuit for sensing current carried by the equipment resulting from said potentially hazardous condition; a voltage sensing circuit for sensing a voltage between the equipment and a reference; a predefined threshold value above which dangerous electrical conditions of the equipment are considered to exist; a processor programmed to convert a number of indications of the sensed current and the sensed voltage to respective groups of digital signals, and programmed to process the respective groups of digital signals to identify a respective maximum current amplitude and a respective maximum voltage amplitude; said processor being programmed to process the digital current maximum and the digital voltage maximum by addition of digital signals representative thereof and produce an output; and a comparator for comparing said output with the threshold value to provide an alarm condition if said output exceeds the threshold value. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29)
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Specification