Digitilt Probe

 Improper coiling of any electrical cable twists the conductors inside the cable and will eventually cause reliability problems. Cable reels are one solution to this problem, but are typically used only with longer lengths of cable. With shorter lengths of cables, it is probably easiest to coil the cable by hand, either in figure-8s or in over-under loops. You can find a drawing of this in our inclinometer probe manual. Some DOTs report that they use two traffic cones to guide their figure-8 coils. Other people use a large laundry basket to hold their over-under loops. Still others have reported mounting garden hose holders on a backpack, one at the top and one at the bottom, and then making figure-8 loops. With longer lengths of cable, cable reels become more practical. There are two types of cable reels: storage reels and slip-ring reels. Storage reels are simply a place to store the cable. To use the cable, you must unreel it first. Some people use garden hose reels for this purpose. Note that any reel should have a hub diameter of about 12 inches (300 mm) to avoid small bends in the cable. Storage reels can be heavy, but then, so is the cable. Slip-ring reels provide an electrical connector, so that you have full operation of the cable while it is on the reel. Slip-ring reels tend to be expensive and heavy. Slope Indicator’s slip-ring reel weighs 37 pounds (16.5 kg). Thus is it not very portable. Mines and other sites with very deep inclinometer installations sometimes use motorized reels. These are even larger, heavier, and more expensive. They also have automation features, such as controlling the depth of the probe.

Yes, but this is not a simple task, and it can cause a shift in the calibration of the probe. Normally we recommend that this repair be performed at the factory, since the probe can be recalibrated after the repair. The repair requires kit number 50302555, which contains a wheel yoke with wheels, two springs, and four roll pins, so you normally need two kits per probe. If you are interested in replacing the wheels yourself, download these instructions to learn more.

ASTM now has a practice that lists the necessary equipment and method for verifying the calibration of your probe. However, in many cases, your data and graphs can go a long way toward satisfying your verification needs:

1. The bottom 10 feet of your casing should be installed in stable ground. This way, you are assured of a stable reference. (To be more exact, we recommend that you install 5-reading intervals of casing in the stable ground, thus with metric casing, this would be 2.5 meters.)
2. Since the bottom of the casing is stable, your surveys should show no movement at all within that ten feet. Any movement that you see is error. Thus you have an in-situ test stand.
3. With this in-situ test stand, you don’t need to perform any explicit tests. The information you need to check your probe is embedded in your readings.
4. This in-situ method of checking the probe is better than the test stand method for several reasons: First, the installed casing is more stable than any test stand on the surface. Second, the information is embedded in each inclinometer survey, so it won’t get lost. Third, the embedded information shows the condition of the probe at the exact time of the survey.

This information is provided for those who have already contacted the factory and decided to do a repair themselves. Wire colors vary according to the age of your cable, so you’ll have to use an ohmmeter to determine which wire you have. Note that this information is for making repairs to solder joints within the Lemo connector, which is on the indicator end of the control cable. Please do not attempt to make repairs to the connector on the probe end of the cable. It is extremely difficult to reassemble this connector properly.