Apparatus and method for monitoring and controlling detection of stray voltage anomalies
First Claim
Patent Images
1. An apparatus for detecting an electrical field comprising:
- a sensor probe that generates one or more signals corresponding to an electrical field detected by at least one electrode coupled to the sensor probe;
a processor, coupled to the sensor probe, that digitizes the one or more signals into samples and that performs a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) on a most recent set of samples for every 16 samples digitized, and then performs a second FFT at a rate of 60 Hz to produce field strength values related to each of electrodes to generate a smoothed frequency domain representation with a domain overlap of the one or more signals at a predetermined rate, and that analyzes the frequency domain representation to identify a voltage anomaly in the electric field;
a prescaler that prescales field strengths to exclude electrical fields that produce an inaudible audio indication;
an audio generation device, coupled to the processor, that outputs a variable audio indication proportional to strength of the detected electrical field using a pitch table storing discrete pitch values with entries corresponding audio indication tones to electrical field strength, wherein each entry is no more than one-eighth of a step change in pitch from a next discrete pitch and wherein the audio generation device has a discretely variable alarm threshold, and the audio indication is based on an average of signals from the sensor probes and the variable audio indication is a discrete tone;
a timer register, coupled to the audio generation device, that counts down to zero, and when the timer register reaches zero, that reloads the count from a period register for avoiding generation of transient pitch discontinuities by updating the count during high-to-low or low-to-high transitions of the variable audio indication.
6 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Apparatus and methods for detecting stray voltage anomalies in electric fields are provided herein. In some embodiments, an apparatus for detecting an electrical field may comprise: at least one sensor probe for generating data corresponding to an electrical field detected by the at least one sensor probe, wherein the at least one sensor probe comprises at least one electrode; a processor, coupled to the at least one sensor probe, for analyzing the data to identify a voltage anomaly in the electric field; and an indicator, coupled to the processor, for alerting a user to a presence of the voltage anomaly in the electric field.
-
Citations
15 Claims
-
1. An apparatus for detecting an electrical field comprising:
-
a sensor probe that generates one or more signals corresponding to an electrical field detected by at least one electrode coupled to the sensor probe; a processor, coupled to the sensor probe, that digitizes the one or more signals into samples and that performs a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) on a most recent set of samples for every 16 samples digitized, and then performs a second FFT at a rate of 60 Hz to produce field strength values related to each of electrodes to generate a smoothed frequency domain representation with a domain overlap of the one or more signals at a predetermined rate, and that analyzes the frequency domain representation to identify a voltage anomaly in the electric field; a prescaler that prescales field strengths to exclude electrical fields that produce an inaudible audio indication; an audio generation device, coupled to the processor, that outputs a variable audio indication proportional to strength of the detected electrical field using a pitch table storing discrete pitch values with entries corresponding audio indication tones to electrical field strength, wherein each entry is no more than one-eighth of a step change in pitch from a next discrete pitch and wherein the audio generation device has a discretely variable alarm threshold, and the audio indication is based on an average of signals from the sensor probes and the variable audio indication is a discrete tone; a timer register, coupled to the audio generation device, that counts down to zero, and when the timer register reaches zero, that reloads the count from a period register for avoiding generation of transient pitch discontinuities by updating the count during high-to-low or low-to-high transitions of the variable audio indication. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
-
Specification