Electrical Troubleshooting Quiz — Nov. 3, 2020
You’ve been the electrical maintenance manager at your plant for about a year. You and your boss have discussed a “thorn-in-the-side” issue for several months. The plant has a lot of fiber optics, and one circuit or another seems to have a problem every week.
The plant has a contract with a firm that handles the trouble calls. They send a different tech every time, and each tech tells a different story about the problem. You’ve seen many cables repulled and many fiber-optic devices replaced. Sometimes on the same node or circuit, a given cable or device gets replaced with each visit from a tech. It seems like they don’t really know what they are doing, and the downtime is expensive.
What can you do?
Optical power meters are inexpensive — a decent one costs under $30. You can buy an optical fiber fault detector cheaply; it works similarly to a time domain reflectometer (TDR) for copper cables. But instead of measuring the reflected electrical signal against time to locate a fault, it does that with a light signal.
Obtain both instruments and then:
- Take baseline optical power data at each fiber connection; keep the data in the CMMS.
- Test all optical fiber cables; replace any marginal ones.
For the devices, build (or buy) a test rig for those that are widely used in the plant. For example, if you have 24 fiber optic converter cards, then build a rig that powers one card, includes a controllable light source, and has an output meter.
With these tools, you can check what the techs report. You can even avoid calling them in the first place.
About the Author
Mark Lamendola
Mark is an expert in maintenance management, having racked up an impressive track record during his time working in the field. He also has extensive knowledge of, and practical expertise with, the National Electrical Code (NEC). Through his consulting business, he provides articles and training materials on electrical topics, specializing in making difficult subjects easy to understand and focusing on the practical aspects of electrical work.
Prior to starting his own business, Mark served as the Technical Editor on EC&M for six years, worked three years in nuclear maintenance, six years as a contract project engineer/project manager, three years as a systems engineer, and three years in plant maintenance management.
Mark earned an AAS degree from Rock Valley College, a BSEET from Columbia Pacific University, and an MBA from Lake Erie College. He’s also completed several related certifications over the years and even was formerly licensed as a Master Electrician. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE and past Chairman of the Kansas City Chapters of both the IEEE and the IEEE Computer Society. Mark also served as the program director for, a board member of, and webmaster of, the Midwest Chapter of the 7x24 Exchange. He has also held memberships with the following organizations: NETA, NFPA, International Association of Webmasters, and Institute of Certified Professional Managers.