Sidekick Plus

Feature

Description

Specification

Cable Fault Locating

Fault locating method #1, low resistance

Sidekick’s TDR can be used to find a variety of cable faults on metallic cables including

·        cable shorts

·        open fault

·        Bridged taps/lateral

·        Load coils, splitters

·        couplers

·        loop extenders

·        rough estimate of the total amount of cable that is wet and the approximate location of the wet section.

·        Low insulation faults

If the fault is bad, i.e. shunt faults between 0Ω-10kΩ, the built-in TDR can be used for finding faults on copper cables effective up to 10 km range (depending on Vp). The instrument provides full control of Gain, Vp, Pulse width, averaging & vertical offset as well as zoom facility to investigate areas of interest.

A built-in comprehensive cable library is available to calibrate the Sidekick Plus to the correct cable.

Apart from Signalling & telecom copper cables, the Sidekick can be used for low voltage cables for locating distance to fault and identifying the type of fault.

TDR Features include :

·        Dual trace function: Sidekick® Plus test set can display two TDR traces at the same time or perform mathematical comparisons of the traces using the second reference test pair.

·        Zoom feature allows the user to get a closer look at the TDR trace (Zoom In : Data over smaller range), Zoom Out (data over larger range)

·        Adjustment of Gain/Offset/Averages/VP/PW

·        Data storage of TDR Traces with the ability to recall saved traces On-site and download to Computer.  

Up to 10 km distance to fault

Time Domain Reflectometer (TDR)

Fault locating method #2, high resistance

RFL feature built in the Sidekick can locate high resistive faults on copper pairs up to 20MΩ.

High‑resistive faults are generally caused by damage or deterioration of cable insulation or sheath protecting the wires due to the presence of water or moisture.  This enables telecom cable maintenance groups to be Pro-active in clearing faults before the faults occur. 

>60 km @20MΩ

Resistive Fault Locator (RFL)

Data Saving

Traces can be stored on the instrument to be uploaded to the PC later. Hundreds of test results can be saved for  viewing TDR traces

Up to 400 autotests or 200 TDR results can be saved.  

Cable Testing & Diagnostics

Cable Length measurement

This feature can be used to measure cable length i.e.

·        measure distance to an open, mutual capacitance as well as the conductor to ground capacitance of the pair.

·        measure cable length of cable rolls.

Up to or greater than 100 km

Leakage / Insulation Resistance

Measure insulation resistance up to 1 Giga-Ohm by “leakage test.” This tests insulation resistance at 150 DCV which is higher than the normal operating voltages in order to determine the likelihood of a future breakdown in insulation (a high resistance fault) and/or to bring about such an impending failure while the technician is on-site and can locate and repair the problem.

The leakage test is ideal to locate to detect  :

a.       intermittent resistance faults

b.       cable shorts.

999MΩ @150VDC

Earth/Ground Test

Check ground integrity and measure the earth resistance based on the fall of potential method.

0 to 250 Ohms

Multimeter function

AC & DC Voltage

Sidekick Plus can measure all the critical voltage parameters without changing lead configurations. Set the impedance of Sidekick Plus to currently defined Telecom standards of 1 MΩ. The instrument also provides the ability to change this to 100kΩ  to conform to older specifications wherever available.

Sidekick Plus provides 1MΩ impedance as per telecom standards, unlike many other testers that offer 3MΩ which results in invalidated readings.
The information can be presented in either: digital, Analogue, or 3 wire format.

AC & DC voltage can be presented on the same screen simultaneously.

250VAC

300VDC

AC & DC Loop Current

Current measurement information can be presented in either: digital, Analogue, or 3 wire format.  AC & DC voltage can be presented on the same screen simultaneously.

Up to 110mA

Circuit Noise and Power Influence (PI)

The power influence measurement specifically identifies electromagnetic interferences (EMI) from external sources (mainly power lines). Circuit noise on cable pairs is generated internally by pair imbalances or externally by Central Office equipment, subscriber equipment, or electromagnetic interference (EMI) equipment (radio transmitters, generators, transformers, etc.).  Normally, poor ground or sheath on the cable pair or the external equipment allows noise to “leak” onto the cable pair.

30 to 110 dBrnC

Resistance

Low voltage test to measure loop resistance. Circuits being installed too far from the exchange may well test OK but if the loop resistance is too high the higher frequency signals from ADSL & VDSL will not be seen at the far end causing slow modem speeds.

100MΩ