Motor vehicles such as automobiles are increasingly dependant upon electronic circuitry for operation and require increasing levels of sophistication to efficiently diagnose and repair such motor vehicles. A wide variety of faults may occur in automotive electrical systems including short circuits, open circuits, and failed components such as failed connections, relays, switches, and computer modules. Another type of fault that may occur in electrical systems is arcing. Arcing may be defined as unwanted electric spark or arc jumping a gap between two isolated nodes or conductors and may occur on an intermittent or impulsive basis within an electrical system.
Arcing may be caused be the presence of solid or liquid contamination, by the presence of moisture in an electrical system, by carbon tracks from decaying plastics, and by other causes, all of which may lead to an increased probability of an electric spark jumping a gap between two isolated nodes. The occurrence of arcing may lead to improper operation and/or damage to the electrical system which may include pitting in a relay, surface damage to a conductor, premature electrical failure, or fire.
Known conventional multi-meters lack the capability to detect the occurrence of arcing. Because arcing can be the cause of an existing failure in an electrical system or a potential failure in an electrical system, the ability to identify and detect the occurrence of arcing is highly beneficial. For example, the ability to identify and detect the occurrence of arcing may allow a technician to diagnose and repair a malfunction in an electrical system before permanent damage occurs. In addition, the identification of arcing can itself be an indicator that permanent failure has occurred in an electrical system such that the technician may then repair or replace a damaged component or module.
Another type of fault that may be difficult to detect in an electrical system is a loss of integrity in low-resistance or low-impedance electrical paths that carry relatively high-amperage current to various locations within the electrical system. For example, such electrical paths may include a battery cable of a motor vehicle carrying current from the battery to the starter. The electrical resistance of such cables is relatively low due to the large diameter of such cables making measurement of the resistance difficult using conventional multi-meters. Specialized micro-ohm meters may be used to measure the resistance in such cables. Unfortunately, the testing of a low-resistance cable using a micro-ohm meter typically requires the disconnection or removal of the cable from the electrical system. Furthermore, such micro-ohm meters may apply a relatively high-amperage test current to the cable which could damage sensitive electrical components if the high-amperage test current were inadvertently applied for an extended period of time.
As can be seen, there exists a need in the art for a system and method for detecting the presence of arcing in an electrical system. In addition, there exists a need in the art for evaluating the integrity of relatively low-resistance electrical paths or cables of an electrical system. Furthermore, there exists a need in the art for evaluating the integrity of relatively low-resistance electrical paths or cables without requiring the disconnection or removal of such electrical paths or cables from the electrical system.