lightning protector for telephone lines

You should be able to pickup an 100Mbps Ethernet card for less than R100 ! Any 100Mbps network card should do. The main differences are in whether the card's drivers are built into Windows or not. If it isn't then, they usually supply a CD with the drivers, or you can get it from the manufacturer's website :)
 
MickZA said:
Agreed, I was involved in laying xon/xoff data cables across golf courses for outside broadcasting in the 80s and we used optical decoupler arresters at both ends, lightning still takes out the arrester but the equipment survives.
Click to expand...

+1
only way to prevent lightning hitting your equipment is to break the cable and have a Fibre Optic link between the 2 points. Lightning dont travel down Fibre.
 
mystic007 said:
Ellies has this optical lightning barrier:
Click to expand...

That should work, but line speed might be an issue. I see it states "Optical Telephone Line Isolator" on the unit so it's as I described earlier.

I wonder if these modern units now survive strikes (ours were home brew units to BBC specs) - anyone used one yet?
 
Last edited:
buju357 said:
here is my version of the circuit , I went a bit high on the resistors and used a 90 volt gas discharge tube.

http://buju357.blogspot.com/2010/12/protection-for-telephone-line.html
Click to expand...

buju357 - you may have a problem when your phone rings (receiving a call) as the ringing voltage can be in excess of 100 volts thus your gas-discharge device may conduct, looping the line (equivalent of picking up the telephone handset) !!!

The circuit works as follows: the VDR will conduct faster than the gas-discharge device .. The two resistors are used to 'isolate' the VDR from the gas-discharge device .. When a surge is present on the telephone line, the VDR will act quickly and 'short' out the surge but the VDR can not handle the current involved .. This is where the gas-discharge device kicks in .. It is slow to react and will conduct slowly until the gas is ionized completey giving a nice 'heavy' short conducting the surge away to ground .

The VDR will then have very little effect after the gas-discharge device has ionized ... If the two resistors were not used, the VDR would short (go low-resistance) and conduct, shorting the line, preventing a voltage across the gas-discharge deviceto develop which means the gas-discharge device would never ionize .. That means the VDR takes the brunt of the current and would probably destruct, blowing open and then your equipment would be vunerable ...

Dick
 
Sheepbot said:
I've got the best lightning protector - it's called the UnPlug2000 :p
Click to expand...

I use the older version UnPlug93 and it still works wonderfully well, regardless of the OS or hardware. Best of all, it's freeware :D

When I leave home, none of my PCs are connected to any copper coming into the house. When I hear or see stormy weather, I disconnect. (Telephone jack and electrical outlet are within arms reach.) For the times when a large download has to be dropped, a download manager is worth its weight in gold.
 
Just bought a Digitech lightning protector at Game today which will protect the electrical and telephone connection. Cost R160 and apparently comes with a guarantee that they will buy you new equipment to the maximum value of R5,000 should it not do its job.

Seems like this is a fast moving item at the moment, as both Makro and Incredible Corruption were sold out.
 
Last edited:
I lost a Dsl modem 1 week ago thanks to the country wide thunderstorms.

I just bought 2 cheapy R195 modems this time and not the WIFI unit I initially bought for R350.

I can rather buy additional Modems for R195 than having to buy something that might or might not work arresting the power surges..


I never plugged my modem out before this is the first time I got hit by lightning in a year. Its an interesting subject tho, I bet if telkom made the effort to put the cables underground and had their own surge protection we wouldn't have been in this dilemma hey?
 
RPG_Fan said:
Had a lightning storm yesterday and now my line doesnt want to sync...
Anyone had this issue?
Click to expand...
Yeah, common issue. Chances are the DSL port on the router is fried. Ethernet card on your computer could be fried too as well as ethernet port on router. Try syncing with a friends modem if possible. Also phone Telkom on 0800375375 and ask them to confirm the line status from their side..
 
sandmanm34 said:
Yeah, common issue. Chances are the DSL port on the router is fried. Ethernet card on your computer could be fried too as well as ethernet port on router. Try syncing with a friends modem if possible. Also phone Telkom on 0800375375 and ask them to confirm the line status from their side..
Click to expand...
Gave telkom a call and on their side it also shows that it is not syncing. They logged a line fault for me. Ehernet ports are working fine on the router because pc and media player are communicate. Also have a lightning protector.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X