atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information Returning after absence -- with a problem/question

Well, I guess it is. Not really sure what happened then, but it was seven years ago, so who knows. I may have tried to log in with the other ID and that's why it got stored in the browser password memory. Don't know why this one didn't come up when I looked in the same place for it this morning.

Delete and or merge as you will.

I see that the old account has been logged into. I merged the new account into the old one. The new account is now gone.

Now can somebody discuss why the protector block is failing?

And suggest an alternative? I always trusted Porta, but now I'm wondering.

Since the modem is working, I'm guessing one of the three points stopped most of the charge.

Third point was the Phone In/Out ports on a CyberPower 425VA UPS. I was never sure how reliable those were and that UPS is also dead now.

NID interface device protector, sneak fuses, Porta device and UPS; three of which failed but somehow managed to damp enough of it that the SagemCom 1704N modem still works.

That is always a really high topic.

I think this is a better fit for the Cabling forum

So it didn't get the NID protection or at least it reset? If it did that much damage at the Porta and the Siemens after going through the NID and all grounds are bonded, I don't see what more you could have done.

You said it also took out other equipment, which makes me think it came in through the power and not the phone lines and arced over to the phone lines probably within the building. I would drive a temporary ground to test my existing ground, just to make sure I've got a good ground to begin with.

Back in the days of open wire we'd see lighting come into a building burning the carbons to ground and opening the fuses and still blowing the phone equipment off the wall. There's not much you can do about a direct lightning hit, as you've probably found out.

Could be anything. Could have come in on AC and worked backwards towards the NID I guess. No way to know for sure.

Of 7 UPSs of various sizes and brands, 4 are working fine, one I'm not sure of, the one mentioned above passes voltage to the surge protected outlets, but no battery function. The last one is smoked well -- I'm sure you know the odor.

Two GigaBit switches appear to be dead. NIC cards in two computers are gone, but the computers seems fine. Third PC is toast, won't boot.

A few wall warts, maybe a cell phone repeater.

Aside from the odor from the UPS, the only visible indication anywhere inside or out is that shattered sneak fuse. That's why I suspected the phone line. However the brand new DSLAM installed down the road within the last year is still working fine.

Phone feed cable down this road is mostly buried with monuments supplying the premise drops.


Anybody familiar with ITX UltraLinx protectors for 66 blocks? Would they help?

Whole house surge protector mounted at the breaker panel will save you a lot of headaches. Cost installed is less than one of the blown GigaBit switch.

Your hit came in through the ac line based on what is fried. You're lucky more wasn't fried.

Do you have a well for water? This has happened hundreds of times around here. The old well casing was probably steel and had a bond wire from the casing to the house. Over the years, pumps are replaced and plastic pipe is used. The bond is broken and now you have a perfectly good path for lightning to travel to your house on the old, disconnected bond wire.

I answered why the Porta Systems failed. There is no way to prevent damage from a direct or near hit. You can only minimize damage. ITW is good so is Sycom Surge. You can get a whole house lightning/surge system that will MINIMIZE damage but NOTHING will completely stop a direct or near lightning strike. It's physically impossible to contain that much energy in that short of time unless you go to extreme measures with an unlimited budget and the expertise of engineers that work with that. We have such a facility here in Western PA which was built by Westinghouse in Waltz Mills, Madison, PA. I have been told they were able to contain an 800,000 volt man made lightning bolt. If you saw the facility, you would then understand why I say the job of containing a direct or near strike is beyond what is commercially available.

Rcaman

I've looked at a variety of whole house devices over the years in the $100 range that attach inside or outside the panel, Siemens, InterMatic, Square D, etc.. They all mention 'surge' but seem to deliberately avoid saying 'lightning'. The ones that do are much higher priced.

No well here. Used to work off a cistern until county water came in.

I have a 60' TV mast grounded and guyed. The cable is on a quick disconnect F connector inside the house that I pull when storms approach and it was undone for this storm.

This area seems to get hit quite a bit. Even some buildings with professionally engineered grounding systems have been hit more than once.

The thing that bugs me about the Porta is that the ports are blown instead of the gas fuses. Once I change the port, I can use the same fuse. I do change it however. I could understand if the fuse was toasted.