Radiodetection 3300 User manual

Model 3300
Twisted Pair/Metallic Time Domain Reflectometer
Operation Manual
250-0023-03

Thank you for purchasing Radiodetection's Model 3300 Metallic Time Domain Reflectometer.
Our goal is to provide you with a high quality troubleshooting tool which is both powerful and easy to use.
We all share a commitment to quality and excellence and will do our best to continue to provide you with
test equipment to meet your needs. Please read the operator's manual thoroughly to ensure the best results
from your TDR. As always, Radiodetection welcomes your comments and suggestions.
Radiodetection
28 Tower Road
Raymond
ME 04071
USA
Tel: [phone]
Toll Free: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [email protected]

SECTION 1: GENERAL INFORMATION..................4
1.1 Safety Information...........................................4
1.2 Introduction ........................................................5
1.3 General Features.................................................6
SECTION 2: OPERATING PROCEDURES..............6
2.1 Theory of Operation...........................................6
2.2 Front Panel Description .....................................8
2.3 Instrument Operation........................................16
SECTION 3: TDR FUNDAMENTALS......................25
3.1 First-time Start Up............................................25
3.2 Cable Connection.............................................25
3.3 Cable Check......................................................25
3.4 Cable Impedance..............................................26
3.5 VOP ..................................................................26
3.6 Pulse Widths.....................................................28
3.7 Noise Filter / Powered Cable............................29
SECTION 4: APPLICATION NOTES........................30
4.1 Locating Splits and Resplits..............................30
4.2 Locating Bridged Taps......................................31
4.3 Moisture in Twisted Pair...................................40
4.4 Locating Intermittent Faults.............................42
SECTION 5: WAVEFORM EXAMPLES...................44
SECTION 6: MAINTENANCE................................53
SECTION 7: SPECIFICATIONS..............................55
APPENDIX A....................................................................57
APPENDIX B....................................................................58
WARRANTY
TABLE OF CONTENTS

SECTION 1: GENERAL INFORMATION
1.1 Safety Information
Symbols:
!Caution: Refer to accompanying
documents
Warning Any Warning sign identifies a
procedure or process, which if not
correctly followed, may result in
personal injury.
Caution Any Caution sign identifies a
procedure or process, which if not
correctly followed, may result in
equipment damage or loss of data.
Warnings
Before using, review all safety precautions. Note and ob-
serve all warning and caution statements on the equipment
and in the documentation.
Do not operate this instrument near flammable gases or
fumes.
Do not modify any part or accessory of this instrument. If
the unit is damaged, do not use. Make sure the product is
secured from use by others.
To avoid electric shock, do not remove covers or any parts
of the enclosure.
If the instrument or any associated accessory is used in
any manner not detailed by the accompanying documen-
tation, the safety of the operator may be compromised.

Caution: As with most electronic equipment, care should
be taken not to expose the equipment to extreme tempera-
tures. To ensure that your Model 3300 will be ready to use,
store the instrument indoors during extreme hot or cold
temperatures. If the instrument is stored overnight in a ser-
vice vehicle, be certain the instrument is brought to speci-
fied operating temperatures before use.
1.2 Introduction
The Model 3300 is a multipurpose metallic time domain
reflectometer, cable fault locator. Model 3300 is designed
to quickly and easily locate cable faults in metallic cables,
primarily on non-loaded twisted pair cable in the telecom-
munications industry.
Using time domain reflectometry, or cable radar, the Model
3300 transmits a signal down the cable. Impedance dis-
continuities along the length of the cable reflect some or
all of the signal energy back to the instrument. These re-
flections are measured and displayed as both a waveform
and a numeric distance to the fault.
The Model 3300 will test all types of metallic paired cables
for open, shorts, impedance discontinuities and many other
cabling problems common to the telecommunications in-
dustry.

1.3 General Features
Locates cable and connector faults in all types of twisted
pair telephone cables.
Compact, lightweight, portable.
Rugged packaging for testing in all types of weather con-
ditions.
Pre-set Ranges for quick testing.
Exclusive SUPER-STORE waveform storage.
RS-232 Port.
Automatic and manual cursor placement functions.
Intermittent Fault Detection Capabilities.
SECTION 2: OPERATING PROCEDURES
2.1 Theory of Operation
A Time Domain Reflectometer (TDR) works on the same
basic principle as radar. Pulses of energy are transmitted
down the cable under test. If the cable has a constant im-
pedance and is properly terminated, all of the energy will
be absorbed.
If the pulse reaches an impedance discontinuity, part or all
of the pulse energy is reflected back to the instrument. If
the cable is an open circuit, the reflected pulse will be in-
phase (upward reflection) with the output pulse. If the
cable is a short circuit, the reflected pulse will be out-of-
phase (downward reflection) with the output pulse.

In either case, a substantial amount of energy will be re-
flected. If it were possible to have a cable with no loss, all
of the signal energy would be reflected. The incident and
the reflected signals would look identical.
Reflections from an impedance higher than the character-
istic impedance of the cable are in-phase, or upward. Re-
flections from an impedance lower than the characteristic
impedance of the cable are out-of-phase, or downward.
Inductive faults cause the TDR to display an impedance
higher than the characteristic impedance of the cable be-
ing tested. Capacitive faults cause the TDR to display an
impedance lower than the characteristic impedance of the
cable.
The Model 3300 displays the cable under test as a digi-
tized waveform and a numeric distance readout on the Liq-
uid Crystal Display.
The digitized waveform enables the operator to view the
signature of the cable in great detail. An impedance mis-
match (opens, shorts or faults of less severity) can be iden-
tified and the distance to the fault determined.

2.2 Front Panel Description
O
I
Model 3300
*
L i n e 1 P u l s e = 1 0 0 n s e c V O P
V G a i n= 4 x
V O P = 6 5 %
L 1 : 1 5 d B R L
ttaBecnalaB
P r e s s *
f o r m e n u .
▲▼
131 ft
200
1
0
2
BACK
LIGHT
CONTRAST
CONTRAST
ZOOM
OUT
ZOOM
IN
V GAIN V GAIN
RANGE RANGE
CURSOR CURSOR
WAVEFORM
POSITION

Keypad
I/O Use the I/O key to turn the instrument on and off.
Backlight Use the backlight key to turn the electrolumi-
nescent backlight on or off.
Contrast Use the two arrow keys to change the contrast of
the LCD.
Zoom In, Zoom Out Use the two zoom keys to “zoom”
in or out on an area of interest on the waveform display.
Waveform Position Use the four arrow keys to move the
position of the waveform(s) left, right, up and down.
V Gain Use the two arrow keys to decrease and increase
the vertical waveform amplitude or gain.
Range Use the two range keys to increase and decrease
the cable distance displayed on screen. Pulse width and
vertical gain are automatically adjusted for each range.
Cursor Use the two arrow keys to move the cursor left
and right.
* A menu will pop-up when the asterisk key is pressed.
The unlabeled icon keys control a selection cursor for
choosing the desired instrument control. Once the control
is selected, pressing the asterisk key will close the pop-up
menu and activate the control.
When a control is activated, the icon keys will control the
function and on-screen icons will graphically represent how
the keys affect the control. The icons will change depend-
ing on the type of action in the particular control.

Back panel description
RS-232 CHARGER
LINE 1 LINE 2
!
12V
!

The Model 3300 has three connectors on the back panel.
RS-232 Serial I/O Port enables the operator to transfer
waveforms to a printer.
The Model 3300’s battery pack is charged by plugging the
external battery charger into the charging socket and AC
power. The Model 3300 may be operated while the batter-
ies are charging as long as the charge level is above the
minimum level.
Twisted pair cables are connected to the Model 3300 by
way of the telco test leads. Test leads connect to the Line 1
and Line 2 banana jack connectors.

Display
The display is a 320 x 240 dot-matrix, high contrast,
SUPERTWIST Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) with elec-
troluminescent back lighting. The top two thirds of the dis-
play contains the waveform and cursors. Instrument set-
tings and measurements are located on the bottom of the
display.
Information areas on the Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)
are:
A. MESSAGE CENTER. The message center displays
various information about the status of the instrument and
waveform display modes. Additional messages are dis-
played when utilizing the standard and optional waveform
storage functions.
B. PULSE WIDTH. Model 3300 has selectable pulse
widths for testing various lengths of cable.
Line 1 Pulse = 100nsec VOP
V Gain= 4x
VOP = 65%
L1: 15dBRL
Balance Batt
Press *
for menu.
▲▼
131 ft
200
A
1
0
2
G
F
IH
E
B
C
D
J

C. VERTICAL GAIN. Displays the level of vertical am-
plitude or gain applied to the waveform.
D. VOP or V/2. The programmed velocity of propagation
is displayed as a percentage of the speed of light from 30%
to 99%.
E. MENU. Pop-up menu for selecting instrument con-
trols.
F. SELECTED MENU ITEM. Displays the currently ac-
tive menu selection, which is controlled by the icon keys.
The on-screen icons graphically represent how the keys
effect the control.
G. BALANCE displays the current position of the CABLE
BALANCE control on a "slider" type indicator.
H. DISTANCE BETWEEN CURSORS. Model 3300 au-
tomatically calculates and displays the distance between
the 1st and 2nd cursors or between a cursor and the zero
distance reference, depending on the setup configuration.
(See Setup Options Menu in Section 2.3) Each time the
cursor placement is changed or the VOP is adjusted, the
DISTANCE BETWEEN CURSORS reading will auto-
matically update.
I. BATTERY LEVEL INDICATOR. A horizontal bar
graph indicates the battery level. When the battery level
reaches the one-quarter full scale mark, the low battery
message is activated.
J. DISTANCE MARKERS. These tick marks are dis-
played along the top of the screen and can be in feet or
meters format. These distance markers enable the operator
to view the distance along the cable being tested.

Pop-up menu
Pulse Use the two icon keys to decrease and increase the
pulse width.
VOP or V/2 (depending on the velocity format setting cho-
sen in the setup menu) Use the two icon keys to decrease
and increase the velocity of propagation.
Balance Use the two icon keys to adjust the output bal-
ance circuit.
Filter Use the two icon key to cycle through the available
software filters.
Setup Use the * key to display the setup options menu.
Store Use the * key to store a waveform to an available
storage location.
Recall Use the * key to recall a stored waveform from
memory and display the list of the stored waveforms.
Overlay Use the two icon keys to adjust the trace separa-
tion in dual waveform display modes. This control is only
available when two waveforms are displayed.
Mode Use the two icon keys to cycle through the available
display modes for single, dual, or difference waveform
display modes.
Print Use the * key to print the on-screen waveform to a
serial printer for documentation.
Search Use the * key to preform an auto-search of the
cable to find major faultsor the end of the cable.

Cable Use the two icon keys to scroll through a menu of
cable types in order to obtain the correct VOP of the cable
being tested.
Press *to select.
Pulse Overlay
VOP Mode
Balance Print
Filter Search
Setup Cable
Store
Recall

2.3 Instrument Operation
Proper operation and precise distance readings will be en-
sured if you remember the following procedures and choose
the mode of operation to best suit your cable testing con-
ditions:
1. Establish a quality cable connection.
2. Adjust the Balance Control to match the proper
impedance of the cable.
3. Enter the correct VOP of the cable under test.
4. Start the test in the shortest pulse width.
2.3.1 Range Control
RANGE operation will step through and display a preset
distance of cable. A range consists of a specific pulse width,
gain setting, and distance of cable. The transmitted pulse
is on the left side of the screen and the cable span is shown
to the right. The exact length of cable on the screen for
each range will be relative to the VOP being used. When
using Range, you still have complete manual control and
can change the pulse width, zoom-level and other key func-
tions as needed.
With the distance format set in feet mode and a 65% VOP,
the ranges are 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1,000, 2,000, and
5,000 feet.
With the distance format set in meters mode and a 65%
VOP, the ranges are 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1,000, and
2,000 meters.
Characteristics of RANGE operation:
1. To switch to the next range, press the RANGE
up or down arrows. The distance graduations will
change as the range is changed.
2. The cursor can be moved while in the RANGE

mode. As the ranges are changed, the cursor will
remain at the same position as the previous range.
3. If the instrument is setup in the dual cursor
mode, cursor 1 can also be adjusted; however, it
will be placed back at the "0" distance marker
whenever a new range is selected.
2.3.2 Distance Between Cursors
Distance readout format may be selected in the setup menu
as either single distance cursor or dual distance cursor.
Single Cursor Operation
Single cursor operation uses a single distance cursor to
display the distance to fault. All measurements are refer-
enced from the zero distance marker and the front panel
cursor keys control cursor movement. Remember that the
distance measurement is from the transmitted pulse, to the
cursor. Accuracy of the distance reading is dependent on
the placement of the cursor and an accurate VOP.
Dual Cursor Operation
When a test is initiated, the independent cursors are used
to measure the distance to a fault or to the end of the cable.
The cursors are interchangeable; but, to reduce confusion,
use the 1st cursor to mark the point you are measuring
from and the 2nd cursor to mark the point you are measur-
ing to. The cursors will retain their accuracy and resolu-
tion regardless of distance or horizontal zoom settings.
Model 3300's unique dual independent cursors allows you
to place cursors at, and measure to (or between) ANY TWO
POINTS on the waveform. The distance displayed will au-
tomatically adjust with the movement of the cursors. The
front panel cursor keys control Cursor 2 and a menu selec-
tion controls Cursor 1.
DISTANCE BETWEEN CURSORS is automatically cal-

culated and displayed. Distance is determined from the cur-
sor placement on the waveform. Therefore, the accuracy
of the cursor placement is crucial for accurate readings.
For greatest accuracy, place Cursor 1 at the "0" distance
marker and Cursor 2 at the leading edge of the reflected
pulse.
To set the cursors manually, zoom in on the first cursor
using HORIZONTAL ZOOM. Set the first cursor by us-
ing the 1st cursor left and right arrows to the “0” distance
marker on the waveform. To set the second cursor, zoom
in on the point of interest and use the 2nd cursor left and
right arrows to move the second cursor to the leading edge
of the reflection. For the most accurate distance reading,
always zoom in on the reflected pulse and adjust cursor
placement manually.
The distance between the cursors is displayed on the LCD.
Remember that the distance measurement is not from the
transmitted pulse, but from the first cursor to the second
cursor. Accuracy of the distance reading is dependent on
the placement of the cursors and an accurate VOP.
2.3.3 Display Modes
There are a number of different display modes to choose
from. Using the pop-up menu, scroll to “Mode” and use
the icon keys to cycle to the desired display mode.
Display Mode Explanation
Line 1 Live waveform from Line 1 input
Line 2 Live waveform from Line 2 input
Line 1 & Line 2 Two live waveforms simultaneously
Line 1 - Line 2 Difference between Line 1 and 2
Crosstalk Crosstalk mode (Line 1 transmits,
Line 2 receives)
IFD Intermittent Fault Detection mode
Live & Stored Live and stored (recall) waveform

Live - Stored Difference between live and stored
Stored Stored (recall) waveform
Display Mode Loops
Line 1 Recall
Line 2 Recall Line 1 & Stored
Line 1 & Line 2 Line 2 & Stored Line 1 - Stored
Line 1 - Line 2 Line 2 - Stored Stored
Crosstalk Stored Line 1
IFD Line 2
2.3.4 Intermittent Fault Detection (IFD) Mode
IFD detects and displays intermittent faults, whether they
are opens or shorts. Some TDRs have a similar feature;
however, if the waveform is repositioned, the intermittent
fault function is interrupted and the process must be started
over. The Model 3300’s IFD retains the waveform trace.
The waveform can be adjusted, repositioned, zoomed in
and out, and the cursors moved, without affecting the IFD
function. The Model 3300 will monitor the cable, waiting
for an intermittent fault to occur.
Upon entering the intermittent fault mode:
The LCD’s waveform area displays and saves the
maximum and minimum reflections of the wave-
form trace. The auto-off 10 minute timer is disabled
so the instrument does not turn off in the middle of
the test.
The IFD waveform area stores waveform changes. If an
open or short occurs, the instrument will keep the fault
trace displayed against the live waveform. This function
allows the user to find intermittent problems.
The operator can adjust the waveform with the horizontal
position controls, increase or decrease the vertical gain,
zoom in or out, and move the cursors. When zooming dur-

ing the IFD mode, the instrument may need to pause slightly
to fill in additional waveform data.
During the IFD mode, do not change the pulse width. If
the pulse width is changed, the IFD routine will reset and
start collecting data at the new pulse width.
The intermittent fault waveforms are stored in memory.
This is an important difference between the Model 3300
and other TDRs. While the waveform is in memory, there
are three important things to note;
1. The waveform can be adjusted as if it were a live
waveform.
2. Make sure the Model 3300 battery is fully charged.
In the IFD mode, if the instrument battery level goes
below a minimum safe level, the instrument will turn
itself off to prevent possible battery damage.
3. Waveforms can be stored and taken back to the
office for downloading to a serial printer for
archiving.
Storing an IFD Waveform
To store an IFD waveform, select Store from the pop-up
menu while in the IFD mode. The instrument will save the
intermittent waveforms in a dedicated IFD memory loca-
tion. If a waveform has been stored in the IFD memory,
the next time you enter the IFD mode, a prompt will ap-
pear to confirm you wish to overwrite the old waveform.
2.3.5 Zoom Control
The Horizontal Zoom control expands and contracts the
waveform around center screen. This control can be used
to closely examine a feature found using preset RANGE
operation or can be adjusted manually for complete con-
trol of the waveform display distance.