Patent ID: 6381011
Filing Date: 2002-04-30
Classification: G01M

Abstract:
An optical fault locator for locating reflective events within a fiber optic cable, said optical fault locator comprising:at least one user input for accepting information from a user; a laser assembly for sending a pulsed laser light through the fiber optic cable; a front end for receiving a reflected portion of the pulsed laser light from the fiber optic cable, comparing, a value of the reflected portion of the pulsed laser light with a threshold value, and outputting a digital pulse corresponding to a result of the comparison; a complex programmable logic device in communication with the front end for sending the threshold value to the front end accepting the digital pulse from the front end, and sending at least one output corresponding to a distance to a reflective event; a microcontroller in communication with said user input, said laser assembly, and said complex programmable logic device, said microcontroller being programmed to accept said information from said user input, calculate the threshold value, simultaneously send a threshold signal, corresponding, to the threshold value, to said complex programmable logic device and a laser signal, corresponding to the threshold value, to said laser assembly to launch a laser pulse, receive said at least one output corresponding to a distance to a reflective event from said complex programmable logic device, calculate an actual distance based upon said at least one signal, and send a distance output signal; and at least one user output for accepting said distance output signal from said microcontroller and providing a corresponding distance value to the user.