 Notice. New forum software under development. It's going to miss a few functions and look a bit ugly for a while, but I'm working on it full time now as the old forum was too unstable. Couple days, all good. If you notice any issues, please contact me. |
Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Lightning is fun.....
Page 1 of 3   |
|||||
| Author | Message | ||||
Grogster Admin Group  Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9588 |
Hi all. Today at work, we had a massive lightning strike - directly to the main building. The damage it has caused was amazing for a fraction of a seconds' worth of lightning. Phones, security system, two separate nursecall systems, server-room, part of the main switchboard, TV head-end system - toasted!  Although to be fair, several million volts on 12v and 230v equipment is probably not a really nice combination.  It was powerful enough to blow the chips off the back of the LCD in the nursecall system box, blow holes through the regulators, melt the PCB copper, and crack the main processor chip in half! Wow.... (obviously a swap-out replacement job, no point in servicing that one!) Firemen also checking all the roof-spaces because electrical fires tried to get going in the main strike area, and a couple of other roof spaces too, but luckily they did not take they just smoked. Fire service was there very quickly indeed, and checked it all out and gave it the all-clear. Nasty smell of deep-fried electronics in all my rooms of care - looks like I will be busy for the next few weeks..... It was a HUGE strike. I had just walked outside, and BANG! It was like a bomb going off, it was that loud and bright - many people thought it WAS a bomb. I saw a huge explosion of sparks erupting from the base of the strike, and I could not even SEE the base of the strike at that point. Also blew fittings off the wall, and lights out of the roof. In one area, a musician was giving a performance, and her amplifier blew up - literally - sprayed broken bits of plastic metal and electronics all over the audience - impressive. In a bad way..... Probably the worst strike I can ever remember in my life thus far - it was massive! I dear-say with a strike like this and of this kind of power, there is nothing you can really do to prevent or protect against it, cos it has such power it just blows everything to bits. I guess you just pick up the pieces, clean away the mess, get everything going, and hope it does not happen again. Now, who wants to help me fix the broken bits?  Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
||||
mikeb Senior Member  Joined: 10/04/2016 Location: AustraliaPosts: 174 |
Hi Grogs, I feel for you mate. I don't know if you have them over there but we have a company called Harvey Norman over here and they would have sold you a 'surge protector' that would have prevented your devastation. The salesman actually state that the manufacturer of equipment will not warrant said equipment without the use of a surge protector. Of course the warranty is always in a sealed box which the user can't access until they get it home.I always finish them off with the line that "You are actually going to try and sell me equipment that is not fit for the purpose for which it is being sold. Show me where it says in the manufacturers warranty that this is the case". Seriously, I'm talking line transients here and not direct lightning strikes. There isn't a surge protector in the world that will prevent damage from this event. Once again, sorry for your loss. Electronics can be replaced. At least you didn't suffer a direct strike. Regards, Mike B. There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those that understand binary and those that don't. |
||||
| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9588 |
Yeah, I always giggle myself at those claims that a surge-protector will protect you against that kind of thing. Yes, we have Harvey Norman here too. We don't get these kinds of lightning strikes very often here. The one today would probably be a one-in-fifty-years kind of event. We do get lightning, but nothing like this beast today normally. The destruction it did is truely amazing...... Oh well - that's what Insurace is for(yes, they have lightning-strike insurance - I bet they are glad they do now!), and it is work for me. Only problem is you just can't fix everything at once, but all those affected want their area of fault dealt with first.  Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
||||
| WhiteWizzard Guru  Joined: 05/04/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2932 |
You sure it wasn't one of your badly earthed PCBs that attracted the 'bolt' At least you (and everyone else) are safe! |
||||
| VK2MCT Senior Member Joined: 30/03/2012 Location: AustraliaPosts: 120 |
WOW. I'm fortunate that I live near some very tall TV Transmitter Tower Antennae. The earthing straps at the bases are very impressive. I think that the theory is that if the entire tower & spike at the top is at near earth potential then there won't be a voltage potential to blow up stuff. From what I remember at one point the feeder 'coax' was about 8in diameter and filled with an inert gas as dielectric. Two feeders each to an upper and lower part of the antenna via 'coax' of different lengths (phase difference) allowed the radiated RF to be directed downwards (doughnut) rather than a sphere. Sorry - just needed to free that part of my brain for PIC32 stuff. John VK2MCT. |
||||
| paceman Guru Joined: 07/10/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1329 |
My commiserations Grogs, pretty scary stuff - I guess Tassie Jim would know how you feel after his experience last year. We lived on the central Q'ld coast near Gladstone for ten years and I remember some wet-season storms when there were so many lightning strikes you'd often hear it sizzle when it was nearby. Looks like you're on-line still though so just change the underdaks and you're set. Greg |
||||
| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9588 |
Here is the LCD module I extracted from the system during some initial investigation as to how serious a fault we had:   Blown the top off all three controller chips on the LCD, burnt out a ton of tracks on the bottom-left, and the 2nd image shows a discharge path that left a very noticeable pit in the metal LCD shield.(this looks like it was the exit path to the chassis) Some serious juice flowing around there when it happened. Impressive though - in an electronically-fatal way. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
||||
yahoo2 Guru Joined: 05/04/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1166 |
Hi G-ster, for most strikes the voltage differential created for hundreds of metres around the point it touched the ground is enough to kill most things. I was going to mention this early next year when you were closer to installing your inverter. we are supposed to fit surge suppression in our off-grid builds. I think it is a good candidate for a DIY makeover, they are quite pricey. I build my own low voltage ones but not the 300 or 600 volt version. I'm confused, no wait... maybe I'm not... |
||||
| Phil23 Guru Joined: 27/03/2016 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1667 |
Hi Grog, Great to see the photos, & more welcome when you have time. Curious as to whether you felt the magnetic field or anything like that? Phil |
||||
| mikeb Senior Member Joined: 10/04/2016 Location: AustraliaPosts: 174 |
@Grogster If those BOB's (on your LCD) were PIC32's they probably would have survived. No wait......Geoff didn't use lightning as part of his destructive tests.  There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those that understand binary and those that don't. |
||||
TassyJim Guru Joined: 07/08/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 6269 |
I hope your insurance company works faster than mine did. I had a 3 month wait to see how much they were going to pay out. I did my own estimate in a few minutes, their payout was $8 more than my quick estimate! 9 months on, the dogs are still terrified by any heavy rain or wind. So is the missus. 9 months on and I still haven't replaced all the 'mites that were lost. All the shiny new equipment you end up with will not work as well as the stuff you lost and getting it all settled down and talking to each other will take time. Jim VK7JH MMedit |
||||
| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9588 |
Hey guys.  Yes, fun. I will keep you all posted, but I'm off down there now to see if I can find the fault in the TV system. The head-end is running OK, so it is downstream of that, but pretty much EVERYONE has no TV, so it is probably the launch amplifiers - they are in the same room with the PABX which also blew up, so it would not surprise me if they have died. I checked them quickly in passing yesterday, and the power LED's were on, but they have probably been blown to bits inside too. The saga continues...... Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
||||
| aargee Senior Member Joined: 21/08/2008 Location: AustraliaPosts: 255 |
I really feel for you because you may be heading for months and months of intermittent faults with all sorts of electronics. Things will have been stressed and may not show any symptoms until weeks/months after the event. My experience with lightning is that is apparently random as to where it travels on its way to earth. I've seen the results of it jumping across off power point switches and frying devices plugged in. As an aside, I advise my customers that the best lightning protection is to physically remove power leads from power-points. For crying out loud, all I wanted to do was flash this blasted LED. |
||||
| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9588 |
Yes, tend to agree with that - unfortunately....  We'll have to wait and see. With this strike, there was no warning, and I never heard any thunder or anything - it was not even raining. It was just BAM! out of the blue like that. DAY TWO: Today's carnage......    That USED to be a nursecall system repeater. This was in the area of the main strike. Whaddya think? Bit of solvent, a clean, and a new battery? This is a real pain in the arse, as that repeater serviced call point in rooms, and without it, they are all off line. You can't buy that old repeater equipment anymore, and we were going to upgrade that sector, but I was not planning to do it before Christmas.  Looks like that - along with just about everything else, is now going to be a rush-job, and I don't like them for the stress level, but have already kinda decided to just run with it - you can only do what you can do, so a bit of progress each day, and eventually I should get everything back on-line again.TV system has a whole heap of holes in the signal. SO FAR have only found splitters and amps that have been fried, and keeping my fingers crossed that none of the underground cable runs have been blown, cos that is digger time to fix, and just takes so much time...... .....all the while, people asking you if they will have TV back on for the news.  Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
||||
| WhiteWizzard Guru Joined: 05/04/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2932 |
Out of interest Grogs, did it 'blow' the 28pin DIP out of the socket, or was it already unpopulated? Like you say, bit of a clean, few track repairs, and all should be fine Please keep sending the photos (if you get the time to!). Quite an eye opener to see this kind of stuff. |
||||
| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9588 |
The control chip is supposed to be in that socket - one of those old EEPROM's with the window, and you would erase them in a UV cabinet - pretty old technology. A bit more of a close-up:  Note the 14-pin DIL chip in the upper left of this shot - plastic case blown right off it. Along with the regulator down the bottom-right. Relay at bottom-left used to have a top bit. Fuse gone. Even the plug-pack which ran this has been blown to bits. I can't even FIND the core, all that is left, is the case of the plug-pack, all blown to bits. It shattered the 230v outlet it was plugged into - just three burnt ends hanging off the T&E feed cable. This has been removed and terminated by the sparkie, so I did not get a shot of that before, sorry. There is supposed to be receiver card in the blue edge-connector - what's left of it - and that was blasted out of the box and is embedded in the roof paper. I will try to get a shot of that tomorrow. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
||||
| VK2MCT Senior Member Joined: 30/03/2012 Location: AustraliaPosts: 120 |
If you can sometime, I would like to see the outside of the building and closeby buildings. Just wondering why this building? Bloody hell, it must have been a big bang. John. VK2MCT |
||||
| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9588 |
What is surprising EVERYONE - including the firemen - is that there is practically no damage to the building at all, despite it being a direct strike. Newspaper reported that we've only had six building strikes here in the last 40 years. A strike like this can usually start a bloody good roof fire too, but we have been incredibly lucky, cos even that repeater in the roof - blown to bits, yes, but no fire was started - thankfully. Looking in the roof today(where I pulled that repeater out), the lighting has hit the repeater aerial(and vaporised it!), shot down the aerial mast-pipe to the inside of the roof, and has arced off there to the heap of electrical cable runs in the roof-space. That will all have to be gutted and patched by the sparkie, and it has also barbecued an entire bundle of telephone cable runs, so that will also have to be cut out and patched. This is all separate to everything else that also blew up. And yes - it was one HELL of a bang. Everyone I talk to are all saying how they have never seen anything that powerful in terms of lightning ever. Not in our little corner of the world, anyway. How do you guys who have lots of lightning deal with this kind of thing? I know you can get lightning arrestors, but I think they only work for the little strikes. Big ones like this just blast through everything so it would seem. I don't know what potential would have been in that strike. Twenty - thirty million volts? Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
||||
| paceman Guru Joined: 07/10/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1329 |
If the strike is very close or hits where you are Grogs (not your person of course ) the strike and the bang it makes are there together, you don't see the lightning first and then later hear the thunder because there's no distance for the sound of the strike (the thunder) to travel.I think just a quick puff with an air duster should fix those. Sorry.  Greg BTW, don't forget you might also get a deluge of orders shortly after Geoff's MicroChip magazine writeup hits the street. Ahem - sorry again. |
||||
| TassyJim Guru Joined: 07/08/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 6269 |
We had a bad electrical storm last night. Two dogs and the BOSS shaking again. There was one close strike (1km away - not as close as last time and definitely not as close as Grogster's) at about 3am. My weather station recorded a spike in wind speed and at the time the windows on the house rattled severely.  I don't know if the recorded gust was real or the result of induced currents in the wind speed sensor. So far, everything seems to have survived. In my younger (and more adventurous days) I used to enjoy photographing lightning. Spending half the night sitting on my father's garage roof waiting for the storm to get closer. Jim VK7JH MMedit |
||||
| Page 1 of 3 |
|||||
 Print this page |
 |
The Back Shed's forum code is written, and hosted, in Australia. | © JAQ Software 2025 |
