Good morning Good afternoon and good evening for those who connect with me on my youtube channel I have made several videos regarding troubleshooting techniques for detection of problems in cathodic protection systems and on one occasion a person asked me what were the minimum equipment needed to execute these activities I found it interesting and very important that question and today I want to make that video What are the minimum equipment needed? I'm going to talk about the minimum and then I'm going to talk about what are the additional equipment that we must have when we are running these types of inspections or evaluations at this moment I have 4 vehicles assigned that are under my responsibility and each vehicle I have equipped with the minimum necessary equipment are the ones I'm going to show you right now so that each of the engineers the customer requires each engineer to be CP2 have the minimum necessary equipment I'm going to show you at least the equipment that I have in my vehicle the minimum necessary equipment that I am telling you look at these are the equipment that I have in my vehicle and this is what I consider the minimum that an inspector who executes troubleshooting should have I'm going to describe each of them this is the PCM is a 150 watt equipment is a power equipment supplying up to 3 amps we use this equipment to map currents we use it between 80 and 90 percent. It is very useful for us in fact we get and detect the root cause in fact we got and the problems with this type of equipment tells us the directions of the currents or how the currents are distributed in the ground this is a piece of equipment that needs an electric generator I have a drum to have fuel storage and both are necessary I need to have a portable power plant however this equipment I can install in cathodic protection rectifiers because I can feed it with direct current voltages but there are times when we are far from rectifiers for use as power sources where I must carry the portable electric generator and its drum with fuel this generator when I connect it to the PCM approximately 8 hours of continuous work without refueling the other device we need and it is mandatory to have a copper sulfate reference half cell I love these types of cells when they come with electrolyte gel because I don't have to do as much maintenance and this is a measuring stick is the same as that used to make CIS but I use it to make my measurements the other indispensable equipment is a portable source of current the CS-10 notice that I have identified them with the number of the vehicle the company where I work identifies and each team has the identification of the vehicle to which it belongs so that there is no confusion of equipment between the inspectors this is a portable source of current. allows me to supply voltages and currents I can regulate the currents I can activate an interrupt cycle to do point current injection tests has its connection cables and its charger which fixes them with a strip so I don't miss the chargers and connectors I also love this team because it has a way to secure it with Steel Cable with Looped Ends and I give a padlock The other indispensable and necessary equipment is to have a radio frequency insulation checker as I mentioned in previous videos this is the ideal equipment to evaluate insulating joints insulating packing monolithic joints as I mentioned above radio frequencies cannot travel on the ground and this is the most appropriate on the other hand, when we use multimeters to check insulation is not the most appropriate way, because direct voltage currents can travel on the ground, which would give us erroneous readings we must always have an amperymetric clamp to measure currents of output of the rectifiers or wherever we are making injection of currents and this is the current switch at least notice that I have this and this other each vehicle must have at least 2 switches I love it is type of switches, because they are very pactic and versatile I can install it in the alternating current phases I can install them in the adjustment taps as well has its satellite antenna and its interruption schedules pre-established among the basic tools that the vehicle should have must have your drive sockets set, Ratchets, bit driver must have your tape in yellow flagging to demarcate the damaged insulations previously used yellow paint but the client didn't like that idea very much. and now I mark them with this type of tape is the same tape that surveyors use we must have replacement fuses for the rectifiers according to the capacity of the same we must also have these measurement shunt because there are occasions that we have very small currents that these teams cannot measure it because it is out of their appreciation and uses many these shunts to make current measurements especially when we detect inverted potentials in perpendicular crossings we must have replacement diodes this is a block of full-wave diodes are 4 recessed diodes here I uploaded some videos of how the diodes blocks are evaluated in the inspection of rectifiers I also have this cable to make temporary bridges electric bridges with alligator at their ends so that I can do spot current bypass tests I also have some Vice grip, in this case I have 2 we need them sometimes and apart from this we must also have Retractable Extension Cord with 8 AWG with 75 ft of length more or less because on occasions we need to connect to fence or to beds of anodes or when we must improvise a temporary anode we use this type of cable number 8 either to connect to the pipes or in an anode bed at least I always have 2 so that it allows me to make those kinds of connections.
and of course you can not miss the safety steel cables with looped ends because these transmission equipment are sometimes left alone and we must leave both the tram and the electric generator insured to prevent them from being stolen I use this type of steel cable to secure them in the field basically these are the minimum equipment that you should have now I'm going to talk about the additional that do not have to be in the vehicles these additional ones must be in the office in the warehouse or in where they are saved for additional requirements I'm talking about having a DCVG of having a CIS have a portable rectifier for more powerful current injection tests the accessories used by these equipment the E-FRAME to do ACVG I forgot to show you the PCM receiver this is the PCM transmitter let me show them the receiver now if this is the pcm receiver both the transmitter and receiver make up a single equipment in fact the receiver case is there remember that this magnetometer this accessory that is here if this equipment does not have the magnetometer connected it will work like a normal pipe detector but when you have the magnetometer connected we can do current mappings for these equipments in a moment I show you the additional ones that we must have at our disposal basically it is to give them an idea that when it corresponds to you carry out these types of inspections or assign them this type of activity when Pedro Morales asks me what do you need? My answer is all this is what I need to be able to do my job if we are not doing incomplete work or it becomes more difficult for us to execute them sometimes the PCM or current mapping gives us indications of underground electrical contacts and sometimes we will have to resort to the use of other techniques to help us and give some conclusions With more precision I am already talking about the additional equipment that should be available in our storage We need to have a DCVG team. all this makes up the DCVG equipment. satellite antenna cables to measure remote signals and the DCVG equipment There is nothing better for my personal opinion do DCVG with an analog instrument there is no other that surpasses it I clarify that I do not work for this company I don't work for this company I don't work for this company I don't work for this company I don't work for this company I'm not advertising anyone sometimes we need to evaluate the quality of coatings but this equipment is unable to tell me what is the direction of the current in the subsoil How does the current move in the subsoil? this equipment is the best these are the canes and this this this makes up the latest generation DCVG with satellite antenna and has a software that calculates the IR gradients and percentages go from damages we will eventually need a portable rectifier make it powerful. This is also a source of voltages and currents but it works when supplied with alternating current voltages. for that we need the electric generator that I showed you in the vehicle and it is a cathodic protection rectifier like the ones we find in the field we use this equipment when we need powerful currents that overcome the resistance of the circuit at least where I am working there are resistivities of 200,000 to 300,000 ohms and this equipment can work with those scenarios eventually we will need to measure soil resistivities sometimes when we do troubleshooting we will recommend the installation of sacrificial or impressed current anodes and we have to measure the resistivity of the soils to be able to make the pertinent calculations we must also have it available these accessories are the E-Frame of the PCM this is the accessories or complement to be able to do ACVG voltage gradients by alternating currents I have 2 models of different brands we must also have them available we must have a data logger available to be able to do CIS. This is an old model
but we also have the latest generation. one is in Houston and one is in Chicago here in Atlanta I have this in case I need to do CIS when we have short casing at road junctions, we have this equipment it is a short circuit detector in casing the famous Panhandle then I will make a video of how this equipment is used I love it because it brings everything integrated and because I do not have to make so many arrangements, when I am using vehicle batteries, multimeters, clamp meters, shunt this is a very versatile equipment I think very few know him but this is the equipment I'm going to make a video of the use of this equipment. You know what my style is, teach you in the field how to do it and how to interpret the results eventually we also get a lot of interference from dynamic or telluric currents and we are going to have to use dataloggers I have this type of dataloggers devices that measure VAC, VDC, temperatures and eventually we're going to have to use these coupons these are coupons for measuring current densities when we suspect interference or outlets or current discharges this coupon added to these dataloggers we complement the data records when we are doing DCVG and CIS we need someone to go moistening the ground we use this device to moisten the tips of the canes. we must have it available
I come back and I repeat this is the additional that we must have available in our stores these must remain in the office we must have the disposition because sometimes we make the decision that I need to do DCVG I need to do a CIS I have a short circuit casing I need to do a more powerful current injection test I need to do resistivity measurements I need to measure voltage gradients by alternating current I have interference, dynamic currents, telluric currents I need to install dataloggers, I need to know the current density in a specific location I would need all these equipments for that again and again, have a very good morning, a very good afternoon and a very good night a pleasure to share my knowledge with you I apologize for saying goodbye without making this clarification I love using these teams, I repeat that I do not work for them because they have an option where I can activate them via bluetooth sometimes I am far from a measurement point between 20 to 30 meters because I am measuring the drain point of a rectifier but I must be a little removed or with a remote and I love to put it in this mode I'm going to activate the lighting so that you can see that I have it measuring voltages of alternating currents but when I activate here on my tablet let's take it out and do it from the start I'm not advertising and I'm not getting paid to do this I only share knowledge with you this is the software for this brand notice that a device is detecting me that is this one here when i touch it for me to connect he gives me the reading that the caliper is measuring then I can take my tablet and leave the measuring caliper in a fixed place and I would be watching it remotely I love the graphic mode function although I cannot modify the periods i can see the waveform I can see if it is stable or if there are fluctuations if there are disturbances. I love to use it when I have presence of dynamic currents At this moment, despite the fact that I am measuring voltages of alternating currents, I am seeing that there are fluctuations. which is not normal in an electrical voltage network that should be constant but I can see the disturbances that the line has it is very useful, it is not as detailed as the waveform of a CIS or an oscilloscope but in the field for me it is super useful I can see if I have unsynchronized switches and with this application I can see it I'm going to cause a disturbance myself to see how he reacts. there I am creating a disturbance
interrupted and the reading fell, we see that the same in the field I want you to see that I am the one who creates the disturbance, it falls to zero, I reconnect it another tool you should have and I insist a lot to the inspectors when you detect a problem or the root cause of a problem document locations this is an application called GPS SURVEY Cam Notice that when I take the picture It is recorded who did it, what was being done, the date, GPS coordinates and the address If you bring me a photo and it does not have this information The first thing I'm going to ask you is where is that rectifier from? is it in saudi arabia? is it in latin america? is it in mexico? is it in the united states, canada? I swear I did it in such a place For me, if they are not giving me this information, then it is not reliable. I can even question you please avoid questions use these tools that are very good and support the professional work that you do in the field This was what I wanted to complement them. Sorry that I had been fired, but I consider this very important have a great afternoon
2022-06-11