METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DIAGNOSING FAULTS IN THE GEOPHONE GROUP OF A GEOPHYSICAL DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEM

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DIAGNOSING FAULTS IN THE GEOPHONE GROUP OF A GEOPHYSICAL DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEM This invention relates to a method and apparatus for quick and convenient fault diagnosis of a geophone groupgeophone cable complex of a geophysical data acquisition system used in the collection and recording of seismic information, such faults within each geophone group of such a system being identified, irrespective of the fact that a cable or cable segment is interconnected between the group under test and the fault-testing apparatus of the present invention. Specifically the present invention includes means for driving the complex with a D. C. current of predetermined amplitude; means for driving the same complex with an A. C. current of absolute peak amplitude equal to the amplitude of the D. C. current, and means for detecting and measuring the excess of resulting A. C. voltage with respect to D. C. voltage so as to provide a direct measurement of the difference between A. C. and D. C. impedance of each geophone group.