Patent ID: 11927090
Assignee: VERMEER MANUFACTURING COMPANY
Field: Civil engineering (Other fields)
Classification: CPC E  F | IPC E

Claim 0:
1. A horizontal directional drilling method comprising:
operating a horizontal directional drilling machine to power a drill string terminating at a drill head to create an underground borehole extending at least partially horizontally between an entry point and an exit point;
attaching a utility line and a pair of insulated wires to the drill string with an adapter assembly at the exit point;
further attaching an observation device to the drill string, the observation device connected with an uphole module over the pair of insulated wires via a power line communication (PLC) subsystem with a downhole PLC encoder;
performing pullback of the drill string, with the utility line, the pair of insulated wires, and the observation device connected thereto, back toward the entry point with the horizontal directional drilling machine;
while the pullback of the drill string is being performed, transmitting data from the observation device in a half-duplex manner on the pair of insulated wires simultaneously with delivering power from a power supply to the observation device on the pair of insulated wires; and
displaying the data from the observation device on the uphole module during pullback of the drill string.