Harmonics in pole power transformers?

That's the problem, too much product variation in the field. For example, our smart meter does not have a flashing LED. I think we'll have to make do with 60Hz.

The setup very different between locations. We cannot rely on any of that.

You don't have to be blind for that. Our neighbors in Germany, after half an our of lawnmower din: "Peter, those were not weeds! They were my carnations!"

I love those kinds of jobs where you have next to nothing to use as input and you have to make it work anyhow.

There are already provisions to detect a pump failure. The goal is to find out what failed. Pump damage means their own guys or a contractor has to drive out. Mains failure before the panel means they have to call the utility instead. Having the wrong crew arrive carries a large cost. The end customers don't want to pay more for a more distinct failure report than they have to.

The trick is to be able to install this without that truck roll. Because such a truck roll would increase the cost per install by several hundred Dollars, considering travel charges.

Yes, like "Mixed Nuts" (Or Grizzly H.?) wrote the E-field will be very paltry. But we'll have to try.

No install possible. All we can do is supply a little unit with instructions "Stick this to the XYZ box in the upper left corner and wait until it beeps three times".

Well, I was hoping the substation transformers were much better because there is not as much cost and size per kW pressure as with pole pigs. But maybe that isn't the case. We shall see, only experiments will tell, it seems.

That's what we'll do anyhow. But the fields from the power lines can change in many locations even without faults. Swaying vegetation, animals, precipitation, vehicle traffic and so on.

That would work but utilities frown very much upon non-employees climbing up a pole and sticking something to a transformer. Especially these days.

How will that detect a damaged pipe? Or a pump with a bad shear pin?

But some fraction of those things are impossible.

So, how much does a coundit vibrate from the electrostatic or piezo forces on the wires?

One gathers that the customer is building the gizmos, not running the cattle.

Remember, fishing lures are designed to catch fishermen. ;)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

No. It costs too much to hire electricians. The problem will have to fix itself.

Ha!

If you're the farmer or building owner, it's reasonable. On the other hand, if you're selling gizmos that will on average save several hundred dollars' worth of wasted time every few years, you can charge more for your gizmo.

Everybody wins. What's not to like?

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

No idea. We'll first try the 60Hz field sniffer. It might be a dud but we won't know without trying.

That's already being detected. But we must differentiate between a pipe failure or whatever and a mains power failure. Because if they send the wrong crew out it's going to cost them an unnecessary few hundred Dollars every time. Like when the phone company service truck comes out and then they determine the fault was on your premises. Then they typically send you a bill. If it was before the demarc they don't but if you had called a private phone services and the utility side is down then they send you a bill without having fixed anything. Such scenarios to be avoided here.

I'd guess, VERY linear. The non-linearity is due to saturation of the core. Since the power company pays for all losses before the electric meter, I'd guess they are happy to pay for a little more copper and iron, so they don't have to pay for those losses over the next 50 years.

Jon

Why not put capacitive plates next to the power feed (likely a Romex-style cable) near the breakers. You can probably get a really good signal if you wrapped two pieces of aluminum foil around the cable for 6" or so. Then, you could connect these to a low-impedance amplifier, and test the signal for the right frequency and voltage. It should have no trouble detecting the difference between good mains power and some small induction when the mains power fails.

Jon