Lightning

It's available and easy to install.

N

Yeah, that sucks. Once it gets past the power supply, probably not worth much time. And, as you say, even keeping the electronic parts is probably worse than useless. The motors are probably good though.

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And, then the lightning strike comes in on the phone line or the cable tv coax or the extension cord laid out to the garden fountain pump....

When it's a direct strike, your number is up.

In regards to the VCR with the malfunctioning display: what display are you referring to? the clock display on the front or the on-screen (menus, Status messages, timer prog setup, etc.)? let me know, maybe i can help...

Most strikes are induced. Whole house will help in that case.

N

Two

up? I

for

testing

that,

off

working,

SAP

while

Everything

only

even

excessive

is

You remember the business of the Russian's military using valve/tube stuff well into solid state era belatedly realised to be because it is EMP resistant. Anyone know how ordinary domestic radios in the valve era fared with lightning strikes ?

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on

Very well, except for an occasional power transformer, or if a long wire antenna was used, the rf coils would sometimes open. Chuck

I vividly remember a direct strike on our TV antenna when I was a toddler in the 50's. I drew representations of it on my blackboard for years; a cascade of dashes representing the sparks I saw falling past our front door. I don't know how serious the damage; but I do remember Dad replacing the antenna itself...and using that TV right up through most of the 60's until it was scrapped for a color set.

jak

Thanks. I originally said 'on board' to distinguish it from 'on screen;' but that unit has now been determined to have survived unscathed, after a second round of 'disconnect/reconnect' to the AC supply.

Upon that second round of diagnosis, I've discovered the issue with the phones to be a result of a damaged outboard caller ID unit. It was connected to only one line, but took both down. Disco'ing it fixed that problem...scratch another device. I opened up the cel charger today--a switching type. The resistor in series with the AC line is charred beyond recognition and both diodes immediately past that are shorted...didn't go any further. I'll keep the housing (nifty little unit with flip-down AC prongs) and the stupid Sony/Ericsonn proprietary plug.....

The fax machine is the major loss. I detailed the aquisition of this here a couple years ago. Again: an HP 3200m which I purchased at auction, with a corrupt bios. It's showing a '79: Service Error' with the second line of the lcd reading a cryptic 'download_modem.O'(verload?). I'll research that to see if reflashing the BIOS might cure, but I'm not optimistic. The thing about these units is that if one section dies *nothing* works. Now I'm out a scanner/printer along with the fax. I learned that lesson a few years ago, and will never purchase such (new) again; but this one was such a good deal and has paid for itself already. Of course replacement cost might be many times my initial investment of around $65.....

jak

I think it would certainly help to some degree. I had a similar (more severe) loss about ten years ago. I recently aquired ownership of this property after renting it for 17 years; so now I have much more latitude in replacing the antiquated knob and tube electrics.

Neither strike was direct. The last one nailed a stately oak tree in the back yard (which spreads over the house and is the highest point in the neighborhood). This strike is as yet undetermined as to it's exact 'ground zero'; but the actual pulse appears to have had via multiple points of entry. It took out one unit connected solely to the AC, but also appears to have caused damage seemingly localized to the phone line and cable as well. In fact, based on number of devices affected, the major damage looks to be from the phone line (two phones--three survived--fax, caller ID). I don't know whether to attribute the TV/VCR damage to the AC, cable or some combination...probably the latter.

Obviously, any secure whole-house protection would have to secure *all* the copper coming into the house. I'll be looking into that. Hopefully--some day--all but the AC will be non-conductive fiber...which will probably introduce it's own set of issues.

And so it goes....

jak

'ground

to

well.

Sounds right. See

# Unlimited main breaker panel current # Transient surge capacity - 950 joules # Maximum surge current - 50,000A # Response time - Instantaneous

for possible solutions.

N

If you have the time, the HP and the TV's, if reasonably large screen size. Any evidence of ground traces being burned does not bode well...

Tom

This wasn't lightning, but I had an experience once where I encountered what I believe was one phase of a 3-phase system which was wired to a regular 110-120 receptacle. Our entire band was plugged in, and all gear was solid-state except for my old 50's Fender Super. It was my practice to turn it on and let the tubes warm up before throwing the Standby switch, and when I powered on (first, thankfully) it emitted load groaning noises. I immediately switched it off, and cautioned the other guys to not turn their gear on. I don't know for sure what would've happened, but I'm pretty sure any SS gear under that circumstance without an SMPS would've immediately been toast. That amp also worked for many years afterwards.

Tom

"Tom MacIntyre" ha scritto nel messaggio news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Argh ! If you didn't try a diagnosis you can't establish what's damaged ! Maybe the VCR are still reparable... for the phones I think that they're junk, you can retain them to cannibalise components, but they're unusable. The celly's charger can't be repaired : it's a too small SMPS... buy a new one, it didn't have an high cost.

I.

"jakdedert" ha scritto nel messaggio news:UDlwe.4919$ snipped-for-privacy@bignews4.bellsouth.net...

Argh !

Two

For the TVs, open them, and first control the fuse : if it's blow, change it. You maybe lucky ! Or, if it didn't work, or the fuse re-blows, change the bridge rectificator, and even the 110v filter cap and the line filter... if this didn't fix, you may try to change *all* the components in the power supply, all resistances, all caps, all inductors, the ic, all transistors, everything. Value if this is worth the price of the TV. This may cost from

10 to 15 dollars. If the damage isn't only in the power supply, but has affected uP, EEPROM and other ICs value if they have a low cost and then try to change them... if they have an high cost, junk the set ! I

for

testing

They didn't charge but can take the line ? In this case, they're recuperable, but if they didn't take the line, they're junk !

that,

Read above.

off

working,

SAP

while

Hum, for the second VCR with the non-functioning display : verify that there are +33V to make the FPD work ! If they aren't present, try the diodes and electrolytic caps on the secondary of the power supply. Also try to change the fuseable resistors...

Test power supply, for more info reply...

only

You was lucky ;-).

even

Does it turn on ? Test the PSU ! If the damage is extended on the mother-board you can discard it or ebay for mechanical spares that are 100% good.

I.

In the past few years, a tree thirty feet from my service entrance and a tree fifty feet from my service entrance got struck. The second one lit up the neighborhood. I had no electrical damage either time.

Six days ago my chimney got hit. The bolt blew masonry and shingles sixty feet. I was online. My screen froze with a strange tint, but things were fine on restart.

I lost two stereo receivers and the control board for my furnace/ac. My battery-powered indoor/outdoor thermometer was "stunned". It recovered when I switched from F to C and back.

My other electronics, including a shortwave plugged in with one stereo receiver and a TV plugged in with the other, showed no damage. One stereo receiver was on, and I suppose the surge took the amp. The other was off, and the digital controls got wrecked.

My modem and cordless phone were fine. Across the street, the surge from my strike took out the neighbors' modem, satellite receiver (with a telco connection) and two phones. They went online six years ago and have repeatedly asked why they kept losing modems and surge protectors. I have repeatedly told them that until they bond their telco electrode to their power electrode (NEC 250.54) they will be vulnerable to ground surges. They have repeatedly ignored my advice and will continue to ignore it.

I might not have lost my ac control board if I'd paid more attention to the above article. The furnace and the compressor are on concrete slabs, and I've never checked to see if their frames show zero ohms to my primary grounding electrode.

Except the cellphone charger, everything the OP lost may have been connected to a TV cable or telephone cable. I wonder if his bonding is okay. I think I've read that sometimes cable TV has no local ground, and before you ground your end, you must isolate it from the company cable with a couple of baluns.