Had an odd occurrence with the network gear in my observatory. A tiny thunderstorm (little more than an isolated black cloud) passed by last week an we had one bolt of lightning that struck nearby. I didn't see exactly where the bolt hit, but the flash and boom were almost simultaneous, so it was probably within a few hundred feet. There was no obvious damage to anything in the house and later in the evening I checked the observatory. everything powered up and seemed to be OK. All the gear is behind a UPS and I assumed it had done its job to limit any surges. The cables to the observatory building are underground and the network line is standard cat-5 in PVC conduit.
A few days later I started an observing session. The network switch box looked like it was working OK, but there was no connection to the router. When I opened it up here is what it looked like inside. Lightning (EMP?) had put enough power into a cable that it literally blew a hole in one of the chips on the PC board. The main router and other equipment on the network are not damaged. Weird stuff. 8O
A few days later I started an observing session. The network switch box looked like it was working OK, but there was no connection to the router. When I opened it up here is what it looked like inside. Lightning (EMP?) had put enough power into a cable that it literally blew a hole in one of the chips on the PC board. The main router and other equipment on the network are not damaged. Weird stuff. 8O
Attached Image:
Jim McSheehy