Nicomatic and the CEA LIST Institute have collaborated to jointly develop Orthogonal Multi-tone Time Domain Reflectometry (OMTDR) technology that enables network analysis and sensor intelligence to be distributed in aircraft electrical wiring interconnection systems EWIS without impacting network traffic.

 Nicomatic’s SmartCo smart connector system brings in-built intelligence to EWIS and reduces aircraft downtime by solving the problem of fault-finding in aircraft electrical cable runs.

The EWIS is the backbone of complex systems in modern aircraft and is subject to the same harsh environmental and operational conditions as other aircraft systems.

Detecting and tracing faults in aircraft electrical cable runs is time-consuming, frustrating, costly, and the cause of disruption to flight schedules.

Distributed analysis enables complex networks to be analysed, solving the problem of fault ambiguity as diagnosis information from several sensors can be aggregated.

Integrating OMTDR into an aircraft wiring harness by embedding it into SmartCo aerospace connectors adds an “always on” distributed wire diagnosis and sensor communication system in real time to the EWIS.
 
Nicomatic and the ECA Group have integrated OMTDR into a portable all-in-one electrical troubleshooting test tool, the Electrical Ground Support Equipment (E-GSE) TC50 e-tool.

The TC-50 is a multi-function tool in a case that simplifies wire troubleshooting and testing.

Validated on most popular aeronautic cable types, it plugs into a wire network and measures voltage/current/resistance, checks phase order, tests diodes, tests insulation and thermal imaging.  The TC-50’s user interface is web-enabled for access on the included rugged smartphone or any mobile device.

Using the TC-50 with Nicomatic’s SmartCo reflectometry technology provides precise wire-fault localization, enabling quick diagnosis and thereby minimizing aircraft ground time.

The Wire Fault Localization feature enables the detection and localization of faults such as open- and short-circuits and the measurement of impedance variations with an accuracy of 0.1% across a cable length of 1m to 100m.