Lightning strikes…thrice???!!!

It occurred in 2014. A 12 months later, it occurred once more. And after a nine-year blessed respite, a month again it occurred a third time. What am I speaking about? Shut-proximity lightning (every time unknown whether or not it simply cloud-to-cloud arced overhead or truly hit the bottom) that after once more clobbered a few of my residence’s electronics. Thursday evening, August 8, we scored a direct hit from a west-to-east traversing heavy rain, hail and wind squall. When the home shook from a thunderclap seemingly straight overhead, I had a nasty feeling. And the following quick cessation of each LAN and WAN connectivity sadly confirmed my suspicions.

As background for these unfamiliar with my previous protection, I’m the third proprietor of this home, positioned within the Rocky Mountain foothills simply southwest of Golden, CO. The earlier proprietor had, when retrofitting the residence to route coax and Ethernet to numerous areas in each the bottom flooring and higher degree, gone the easy-and-inexpensive route of attaching the cabling to the home’s exterior, punching by way of rooms’ partitions wherever inside connectivity was desired. Sadly, that cabling has additionally proved to behave as an efficient electromagnetic pulse (EMP) reception antenna at any time when sufficient-intensity (power and/or proximity) lightning is current.

This time, just a few issues—one among our TVs that originally now not “noticed” any of its energetic HDMI inputs and the train treadmill whose motor stalled—had been briefly shocked till after I power-cycled them, after which era they fortunately returned to regular operation. Alas, different gear’s demise was extra definitive. As soon as once more, a number of multi-port Ethernet switches (non-coincidentally on the ends of these exterior-attached community cable spans) obtained fried, together with a CableCard receiver and a MoCA transceiver (each related to exterior-routing coax). My three-bay QNAP NAS additionally expired, presumably the results of its connection to one of many lifeless multi-port Ethernet switches. All these items will likely be (morbidly) showcased in teardowns to come back.

Immediately, nevertheless, I’ll concentrate on the most expensive sufferer, the management subsystem for the recent tub on the again deck. Within the earlier 2014 and 2015 lightning incidents, we’d nonetheless been utilizing the house’s authentic spa, which dated from the Nineteen Eighties and was initially positioned inside the residence. The beforehand talked about second proprietor subsequently moved it exterior (the unique “scorching tub room” is now my workplace). The geriatric scorching tub ran nice however finally leaked so badly that in 2019 we went forward and changed it. Looking back, I bear in mind having a dialog with the technician on the time about how its discrete transistor-and-relay dominant electronics would have possible enabled it to run endlessly, however for bodily integrity compromise that led to its eventual demise.

After the storm calmed, on a hunch I went exterior and lifted the recent tub cowl. The management panel put in on the recent tub rim curiously was nonetheless illuminated. However the panel itself was lifeless; the show was clean, and the management buttons had been all inoperable. Curiously, the recent tub pump (and presumably different subsystems) additionally appeared to nonetheless run tremendous; I might hear the motor kick on as regular in response to every energy activation cycle, for instance. However not with the ability to modify the temperature and pump pace, to not point out alter the filter cycle settings (and the clock settings they’re primarily based on) was an apparent non-starter.

Sadly, the producer’s three-year guarantee had expired two years earlier. Extra usually, manufacturing on this specific management panel had sarcastically ended roughly coincident with once I purchased the recent tub again in 2019, and my technician was now not in a position to supply a alternative. This meant that, though there was an opportunity that solely the comparatively cheap management panel had gone dangerous, I used to be going to have to exchange all the “pod” equipment that included (amongst different issues) a more recent mannequin management panel. Right here’s what the outdated “pod” appeared like after my technician pulled it out and earlier than he hauled it away for potential spare-parts scavenging functions; based on him, the blue cylindrical construction on prime is the water heater:

And listed below are some closeups. The massive sq. IC on the heart of the final one, for instance, is probably going the digital management processor. Sadly, its markings have both been deliberately obscured or had been in any other case too faint for me to have the ability to discern:

I sadly don’t have any comparative footage of the unique scorching tub’s electronics, however belief me, they had been method extra “analog”. Be at liberty to chime in together with your ideas within the feedback as to the comparative reliability of “oldie however goodie” vs “shiny new” circuitry…

Now for the eliminated outdated management panel:

And its put in and operational successor:

So, what occurred right here? As setup for my theorizing, listed below are just a few extra old-panel pictures:

Initially, there have been truly two cables linked to the panel. One, not proven right here, was a easy two-wire harness that, I hypothesize, ran energy from the “pod” circuit board to the panel’s LEDs for illumination functions. As I discussed earlier, it seemingly survived the storm simply tremendous. The one proven right here, however, is a multi-wire cluster that terminates at and connects to the circuit board through the connector proven within the second-photo closeup.

This specific cable was, I imagine, the Achilles heel. Its alerts are presumably low-voltage, low-current digital in nature. Keep in mind my earlier point out of Ethernet cables (for instance) appearing as EMP reception antennae, with disastrous tools penalties? I’m guessing the identical factor occurred right here, through this foot-or-so lengthy multi-wire harness. Did the EMP solely fry the management panel’s electronics, versus additionally damaging the “pod” board circuitry? Maybe. By analogy, in some instances over these three (thus far…one other heavy-thunder storm is sarcastically brewing as I kind these phrases) lightning-damage episodes, the Ethernet switches on each ends of a specific outside cable run have died, whereas in different instances, just one change has expired. Regardless, given the alternative parts-(non)availability circumstances, it’s a moot level.

I’ve obtained extra to inform, together with the already-mentioned teardowns, plus (for instance):

• How I resurrected my community storage, within the course of bolstering my file backup scheme
• Choices (a few of which I’ve tried, with various levels of success, and documented) for shelling out with the outdoors-routed Ethernet and coax cables, and
• Residence-wide surge safety schemes

For now, nevertheless, I’ll wrap up this publish’s subject focus with an as-usual invitation for readers’ ideas within the feedback!

—Brian Dipert is the Editor-in-Chief of the Edge AI and Imaginative and prescient Alliance, and a Senior Analyst at BDTI and Editor-in-Chief of InsideDSP, the corporate’s on-line e-newsletter.

Associated Content material

• Lightning strike turns into EMP weapon
• Gadgets fall sufferer to lightning strike, once more
• Floor strikes and lightning safety of buried cables
• Teardown: Lightning strike explodes a change’s IC
• Teardown: Ethernet and EMP take out TV tuner
• Teardown: MoCA adapter succumbs to lightning strike

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