A low-cost Raspberry Pi based time domain reflectometer for fault detection in electric fences

Abstract

Electric fences used to create protected areas (PAs) are prone to faults that affect their operation. The conventional method of measuring the voltage of the fence periodically to detect faults and walking along the fence to locate the faults is inefficient and time consuming. This paper presents a low-cost Raspberry Pi time domain reflectometer (TDR) for fault detection and localisation in electric fences. The system is designed using cheap off-the-shelf components. It uses time domain reflectometry to detect hard (open and short circuit) faults in electric fences. Time domain reflectometry is a method of detecting and locating faults in electrical cables. The Raspberry Pi TDR is evaluated and it has successfully detected and located open circuit and short circuit faults in electric fences with a mean absolute error of 1.52 m. The Raspberry Pi TDR offers the potential to remotely monitor electric fences autonomously, hence improving their effectiveness.