Satellite dishes and Lightning Storms... oh and another question too

mjsmyth

I bought a Lidl setup december of last year, and up till 2 weeks ago was delighted with it. That was when the power supply blew on it. Today I ordered a new receiver and am eargely awaiting its arival tomorrow.

It got me thinking though, There is a big dish on my wall, if lightning were to hit it or the lnb, it would travel down the cable and wallop in to my recevier. Is it worth earthing the dish / lnb or am I worrying about nothing?

Secondly, my Lidl Comag SL55, is now dead. I opened it up (probably a bad idea, but I was hoping it may be a fuse issue) and took a look. I noticed that the power supply feeds 12v to the board. Could I attach a 12v supply to the board? one of those multi voltage adaptors with the end choped off and connect using wire connectors?

I did notice though that the power supply has 4 wires feeding the board where a muli voltage adaptor would only have 2. Any thoughts on this?
The only reason I wan to do his is to upgrade "ahem" the box with a different firware to see if it works.

Thanks,
MJ

netwhizkid

I can't really say anything only that it is dodgy to to anything to electronics unless you know what you are dealing with. Try the Digitalspy satellite forum They may be able to help you over there.

Ulsterman 1690

I notice that Lidl dishes have an earth terminal on them although nobody seems to use them :rolleyes:

In the US outdoor antennas are supposed to be fitted with lightening arresters but nothinhg like that here

watty

Earth the Dish if on a wooden house or Mobile home. The Bracket on a damp Irish Building is usually enough to discharge Static buildup.

A lightning arrestor or earth won't help at all with any lighting strike withing 50ft, generally.

Never earth the LNB. Notice all dishes the LNB is insulated or insulated from the dish.

jamesobrien

It is possible for the voltage to travel down the cable and blow up the box. If you have a electrical storm it is better to uplug satellite boxes, computers and telephones. There are some surge protectors you can get. But you have to get a good one.

watty

Yes unplug everything. Esp. phone lines as unlike ESB it is mostly unique to you right back to the exchange. A surge arrestor in most cases is a waste of money. Even a strike 100m away from phone line ANYWHERE between house and exchange can fry a Motherboard with internal modem. With external modem you may still lose the serial port or just the modem.

A surge arrestor MIGHT protect agains static, or a power line falling against another or phone wire, but even then it is doubtfull. I used to design eqip for Exchanges and once for a job in Panama, and it had MUCH more protection than usual. Ordinary Exchange equipment is much better protected than any retail available "surge protector" and mostly the gear is trashed with any nearby strike.

Unplugging everything works best!