The document describes a system to detect the location of faults in underground cables. It uses a PIC16F877A microcontroller to sense changes in voltage across series resistors in the cable based on the length of the fault. This precise digital data is then displayed on an LCD screen interfaced with the microcontroller showing the fault location in distance. It also uses an ESP8266 WiFi module to display the fault information over the internet. The system aims to accurately locate faults without needing to remove long stretches of underground cables.

1. UNDERGROUND CABLE FAULT
DISTANCE DETECTOR

2. ABSTRACT
Underground cables are prone to a wide variety of faults due to underground conditions, wear and tear, rodents etc.
Diagnosing fault source is difficult and entire cable should be taken out from the ground to check and fix faults.
The project work is intended to detect the location of fault in underground cable lines from the base station in km
using a PIC16F877A controller.
To locate a fault in the cable, the cable must be tested for faults. This prototype uses the simple concept of Ohms
law. The current would vary depending upon the length of fault of the cable. In the urban areas, the electrical
cables run in underground instead of overhead lines.
Whenever the fault occurs in underground cable it is difficult to detect the exact location of the fault for process of
repairing that particular cable. The proposed system finds the exact location of the fault. In case of fault, the
voltage across series resistors changes accordingly, which is then fed to an ADC to develop precise digital data to a
programmed PIC IC that further displays fault location in distance.
The fault occurring distance, phase, and time is displayed on a 16X2 LCD interfaced with the microcontroller. IoT
is used to display the information over Internet using the Wi-Fi module ESP8266.

3. LITERATURE SURVEY :
S.NO PAPER SURVEY
1 FH Md Arifin,MZ Hasan,ISA Mahyudin,
SNM Arshad (January 2020)
Development of fault distance locator for
underground cable detection. Journal of
Physics Conference Series 1432. IEEE.
• Thus, the underground cable fault distance locator is
develop to detect the exact fault location and the
distance of underground cable fault from based station
in kilometers as the system will detect the faulted cable
on underground and will send the information to the
control room by using a relay.
2 Jitendra Pal Singh, Narendra Singh Pal,
Sanjana Singh,Toshika Singh, Mohd.
Shahrukh,Underground Cable Fault
Distance Locator ,IEEE.
• In this paper, a way for sleuthing underground cable
fault distance locator is done by using microcontroller.
The target of this project is to work out the gap of
underground cable fault through base station in
kilometers.
• It uses the straight forward conception of ohm’s law

4. LITERATURE SURVEY :
S.NO PAPER SURVEY
3 Dr. G. Joga Rao, S. Sharmilla, M. Mohan
Avinash, N. Dileep Kumar,S. Mohan
Swamy, B. Ranjith Kumar, Analysis of
Underground Cable Fault Distance
Locator.
• This paper proposes fault location model for
underground power cable using microcontroller. The
aim of this project is to determine the distance of
underground cable fault from base station in
kilometers. This project uses the simple concept of
ohm’s law. When any fault like short circuit occurs,
voltage drop will vary depending on the length of fault
in cable, since the current varies.
4 Dr.Mohan M,Swarnamalayam,
Naveena.P, Sivasankari R,
UNDERGROUND CABLE FAULT
DISTANCE LOCATOR
• The project work is intended to detect the location of
fault in underground cable Lines from the base station
in km using a microcontroller.To detect a fault in The
cable, the cable must be tested for faults.This
prototype uses the simple Concept of Ohms law.
Depending upon the length of fault of the cable,the
Current will be varied.

5. LITERATURE SURVEY :
S.NO PAPER SURVEY
5 M. R. Hans, Snehal C. Kor, A. S. Patil ;
“Identification of underground cable
fault location and development” 2017
International Conference on Data
Management, Analytics and Innovation
(ICDMAI)
• In this paper two methods are proposed to identify and
locate the faults on underground cables. One of the
methods is Murray Loop method and the other one is
Ohm‟s Law method.
• Murray loop method uses the whetstone bridge to
calculate exact distance of fault location from base
station and sends it to the user mobile. Whereas in
Ohm's law method, when any fault occurs, voltage
drop will vary depending on the length of fault in
cable, since the current varies.
6 Laxmi Goswami; “IOT Based Fault
Detection of Underground Cables
through Node MCU Module” 2020
International Conference on Computer
Science, Engineering and Applications
(ICCSEA)
• In this paper IOT based technique with Google
database for the fault detection with the help of Node
MCU Wifi Module is used. It is totally based on IOT.

6. LITERATURE SURVEY :
S.NO PAPER SURVEY
7 Vivek KR Verma; “UNDERGROUND
CABLE FAULT DETECTION USING
IoT” International Research Journal of
Engineering and Technology (IRJET),
July 2020
• The main aim of this paper is to find the accurate and
specific location of the fault in the underground cable
with the help of IoT device and by using Arduino
Mega microcontroller kit. The result is shown on a
web page and also the message is being sent on the
mobile phone with the help of GSM.

7. BLOCK DIAGRAM
PIC16F877A
RTC
AC SUPPLY
REGULATOR
TRANSFORMER
RECTIFIER
RELAY DRIVER
CURRENT
SENSING UNIT
IN CABLE
LCD DISPLAY
WIFI MODULE

8. REFERENCE:
1. FH Md Arifin,MZ Hasan,ISA Mahyudin,SNM Arshad (January 2020) Development of fault
distance locator for underground cable detection. Journal of Physics Conference Series 1432.
IEEE.
2. Jitendra Pal Singh, Narendra Singh Pal, Sanjana Singh,Toshika Singh, Mohd.
Shahrukh,Underground Cable Fault Distance Locator ,IEEE.
3. Dr. G. Joga Rao, S. Sharmilla, M. Mohan Avinash, N. Dileep Kumar,S. Mohan Swamy, B.
Ranjith Kumar, Analysis of Underground Cable Fault Distance Locator.
4. Dr.Mohan M,Swarnamalayam, Naveena.P, Sivasankari R, Underground Cable Fault Distance
Locator.

9. REFERENCE:
5. M. R. Hans, Snehal C. Kor, A. S. Patil ; “Identification of underground cable fault location and
development” 2017 International Conference on Data Management, Analytics and Innovation (ICDMAI)
6. Laxmi Goswami; “IOT Based Fault Detection of Underground Cables through Node MCU Module” 2020
International Conference on Computer Science, Engineering and Applications (ICCSEA)
7. Vivek KR Verma; “UNDERGROUND CABLE FAULT DETECTION USING IoT” International Research
Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET), July 2020

10. THANK YOU