Enhanced sonde recognition
First Claim
1. A digital signal isolator module for detecting an oscillating magnetic signal produced by a sonde, the digital signal isolator module comprising:
- an analog-to-digital converter to convert an analog signal, received from an antenna, to a digital signal, the analog signal including fundamental and harmonic frequencies associated with an oscillating magnetic signal; and
a digital signal processor, coupled to the analog-to-digital converter, to process the digital signal, the digital signal processor including a frequency spectrum analyser having an output and frequency bins that are substantially aligned with the fundamental frequency and a plurality of the harmonic frequencies of the magnetic signal.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A detector for locating a sonde is comprised of a plurality of antennas, a corresponding number of signal isolator modules 1 and a geometrical evaluation module. The magnetic signal generated by the sonde has a fundamental frequency and harmonic frequencies. A frequency spectrum analyzer 29 which forms part of the signal isolator module 1 has frequency bins which are aligned with the fundamental frequency and a plurality of harmonic frequencies of the magnetic signal produced by the sonde. The frequency bins follow variations in the frequency of the magnetic signal produced by the sonde which allows the detector to detect the sonde at a separation of up to 30m.
8 Citations
35 Claims
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1. A digital signal isolator module for detecting an oscillating magnetic signal produced by a sonde, the digital signal isolator module comprising:
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an analog-to-digital converter to convert an analog signal, received from an antenna, to a digital signal, the analog signal including fundamental and harmonic frequencies associated with an oscillating magnetic signal; and a digital signal processor, coupled to the analog-to-digital converter, to process the digital signal, the digital signal processor including a frequency spectrum analyser having an output and frequency bins that are substantially aligned with the fundamental frequency and a plurality of the harmonic frequencies of the magnetic signal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method of detecting an oscillating magnetic signal produced by a sonde, the method comprising:
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converting an analog signal, received from an antenna, to a digital signal, the analog signal including fundamental and harmonic frequencies associated with an oscillating magnetic signal; and processing the digital signal, including analysing the digital signal using a frequency spectrum analyser having an output and frequency bins that are substantially aligned with the fundamental frequency and a plurality of the harmonic frequencies of the magnetic signal. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A computer program embodied on a computer readable medium for detecting an oscillating magnetic signal produced by a sonde, the computer program comprising:
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receiving a digital signal from an analog-to-digital converter, the digital signal being converted from an analog signal that includes fundamental and harmonic frequencies associated with an oscillating magnetic signal; and processing the digital signal, including analysing the digital signal using a frequency spectrum analyzer having an output and frequency bins that are substantially aligned with the fundamental frequency and a plurality of the harmonic frequencies of the magnetic signal. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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Specification