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FALCON F +
USER MANUAL
DCI DigiGuide
10.31.2022
DIGITAL CONTROL, INC
6
Bootcamp
HDD LOCATING HISTORY
Locating in the horizontal directional drilling (HDD) industry was initially
based on locating a buried cable by sweeping the locator back and forth to
find the highest signal strength (peak signal), indicating that the locator was
over the cable. Unfortunately, this method did not always guarantee an
accurate location of the cable, nor did it provide any depth information.
This “peak signal” method was adapted to HDD with the introduction of a
transmitter that provides information on the position and depth of the drill
head. However, this method is unreliable and inaccurate because the peak
signal strength is not always directly above the transmitter housing.
In addition, peak signal locating doesn’t show where the drill tool is headed.
Think of drilling like driving a car: it is more effective to look ahead through
the windshield to see where you are going than to look down at the road
through the floorboard to keep the car (drill tool) on the road (drill path).
BALL-IN-THE-BOX GUIDANCE
DCI’s design uses a “locate point” in the transmitter signal. The Front Locate
Point (FLP), which is out ahead of the transmitter, shows where the
transmitter housing is heading.
DCI invented the
Ball-in-the-Box
user interface to make it quick and intuitive
to find a locate point, speeding up drilling jobs: just move the locator so the
ball moves into the box on the screen.
Finding a locate point also helps you find the drill head itself.