Detector for detecting a current carrying conductor
AssigneeRadiodetection Limited
InventorRichard David Pearson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A locator for determining the location and/or orientation of a concealed conductor, comprising a reference field detector operable to detect an alternating magnetic field along a reference axis; a first field detector operable to detect an alternating magnetic field along a first axis; and a processor operable to calculate an in-phase component of a signal detected by the first field detector, the in-phase component being in phase with a signal detected at the reference field detector and to calculate a signal indicative of a position of the concealed conductor relative to the locator using at least the in-phase component.
Claims20
A locator for determining the location and/or orientation of a concealed conductor, comprising:
- a reference field detector that detects an alternating magnetic field along a reference axis;
- a first field detector orthogonal to the reference field detector and that detects an alternating magnetic field along a first axis;
- a second field detector parallel to the first field detector and orthogonal to the reference field detector, that detects an alternating magnetic field along the first axis;
- and
- a processor programmed to calculate an in-phase component of a signal detected by the first and second field detectors, wherein the in-phase component is in-phase with a signal detected at the reference field detector, and to calculate and output an indication of a position and/or orientation of the concealed conductor relative to the locator using at least the in-phase component of the signal detected by the first and second field detectors,
- wherein the first and second field detectors are configured to minimize interference from sources other than the concealed conductor.
A method of determining the location and/or orientation of a concealed conductor, comprising:
- measuring a reference magnetic field along a reference axis;
- measuring a first magnetic field along a first axis;
- measuring a second magnetic field along the first axis;
- calculating an in-phase component of the first and second magnetic fields, the in-phase component being in phase with the reference magnetic field;
- and
- calculating position and/or orientation information of the concealed conductor using at least the in-phase component of the first and second magnetic fields.
A non-volatile carrier medium storing computer readable instructions for execution by a processor in a locator for locating and/or determining orientation of a concealed conductor, the locator having a reference field detector that detects an alternating magnetic field along a reference axis;
- a first field detector that detects an alternating magnetic field along a first axis;
- a second field detector that detects an alternating magnetic field along a first axis;
- wherein the instructions comprise instructions for controlling the processor to calculate an in-phase component of signals detected by the first and second field detectors, the in-phase component of the signals detected by the first and second field detectors being in phase with a signal detected at the reference field detector and to calculate a signal indicative of a position and/or orientation of the concealed conductor relative to the locator using at least the in-phase component detected by the first and second field detectors.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.