PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

Hello there people, Chris will be off the forum for a few weeks, till his internet PC is repaired after being broken down for a lighting that fell onto his house, quite scary to say the least!

e hope to have you soon Chris…

I hope his DAW is still intact... loosing data can be very painfull!

my condolances...
Nestor, how did he come to contact you, halfway around the world?(if i can ask...)

No, it’s not his DAW as far as I well understood his post, it is his internet PC. I think he would have spoken in a “completely” different mood, and would have said something about Pulsar! Fortunately, this is not the point

He has written me the PM because we have something to do together soon, to tell me he’s going to be off the Z for a couple of weeks or so.

Interesting:
In ancient times people woud say that if a house was hit by lighting, all those living inside were blesed by superior forces... Chris is going to come with even better compositions now

...or he could regret not spending $20 protecting his PC with a shield, he'll rather travel

This is the reason why I bought a Universal Power Supply(UPS) with surcharge protector...

Sorry for your loss, Chris. Come back soon

Yeah - send him some nice thoughts from me. I hope it didn't fry all components.

yeah, at first I also thought those 'protectors' were just gimmicks - good against medium voltage changes, but completely useless on a direct hit.

After checking some of the 'official' papers I have to admit there are pretty good protections available, but only if it takes the complete electricity installation into account
you'll need an expert for it - or become an expert yourself

and best wishes for Chris

cheers, Tom

uh...I did not buy a $20.00 job. My UPS would probably be the one that blows up even before my components do.

I RTFM

One of the most important things in your house cabling is getting a good ground, at least at about 1.5 meters deep into pure earth. You’ll be surprised to know there are still many countries where people do not prevent accidents by using this absolutely vital ground to earth connection, with a metal stick.

You also need a good amount of JULES in your plug, to protect your PC. About 1400 Jules will be quite fast making it very improbably for a bad contact or something, to get your PC (unless the problem comes from within ).

Of course, lighting is a power that can behave unexpectedly because electricity and electromagnetism are extremely complex when there is humidity and a number of conductor materials around. It is said that the power–energy of a big lighting could easily supply electricity for a whole modern city for a week… that’s huge!

Still, the best option is Paul’s one, but of course, it’s much more expensive, particularly when you go beyond the 1000 watts boundary. UPS are also slightly noisy, and consume again double of electricity, not to mention hit.

The wiring here has been renewed since few moths and it's correcly grounded and certified.
But August is quite hot here; today it has been near 40° C. I'm in fear of spontaneous combustion for my PC.
Let you know if it will happen.

I'm in fear of spontaneous combustion for my PC. Let you know if it will happen.

that's drastic!

For what it's worth...

A few years ago my sister's house got hit by lightning. I was in the house when it happened. The lightning hit their TV antenna on top of the house. They had a ground wire which traveled across the roof and down one corner of the house to a ground rod. The lightning strike was so powerful that the electricity somehow managed to arc across the ground wire (which was insulated) to the aluminum siding and into the house. Appliances that were located in the section of the house nearest to the ground wire all got fried (a washer and dryer). The only thing that protected the TV's was a cheap distribution amp in the attic which acted as a fuse and prevented the lightning from hitting the TV's inside the house.

So - even cheap protection is better than none.

ZAP!

Blimey, hope it doesn't strike twice..!

Royston

Thank you Nestor and all other for your nice words.

The Internet PC returned this morning.

It was a very heavy lightning hit.

My girlfriend saw the lightning hiting the street in front of the house.
It was very bright and last a while glowing. A classical ball-lightning.
The noise was very heavy, too and we had a tingle noise in our ears for the rest of the day.
The lightning must came into the house through the telephone cables in the street

The hit destroyed many things in the house.
The light switchs and bell knobs in the hallway were simply shot out of the walls.
Some bathroom tiles shattered, too. Wow.

All neighbours in the house lost their telephones, modems, some TV-sets, video recorders and computers were damaged, too.

Our Internet PC lost his network section of the mainboard and the TV-Tuner card.
Also our router and DSL modem were destroyed.

They could repair/exchange all componets without getting any lost on the hardrives.
Our insurance will pay the repair costs.

My DAW survived the hit because it is secured with a overvoltage protection edge connector.

I have pluged the InternetPC and DSL/LAN cabels to it too, now.


Anyway, I used the time without the Internet to study Reaktor build my first instruments composed some tracks and switched to Cubase SX but I´ve missed you guys and Z.

Now, I have to refurbish what I´ve missed the last weeks.

Nature is beautiful, isn´t it?

Cheers

welcome back - and congrats the repairs don't ruin you

as impressive as the story is - yet this was not even a direct hit...

cheers, tom

Happy to hear from you Chris! Fortunately everything is ok, particularly all of you and your neighbours!

It’s amazing what you say! Man this was a hit!

i'm glad no one was hurt...