Jump to content

I've Killed Another One


Recommended Posts

Back in April I posted about the death of my Freesat box - see here:

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/1644409/ShowPost.aspx

I did as advised (thanks Martin!) and bought a French box which does everything the Freesat box did, just without the red button on the BBC and the programme info.

Anyway, we had a nasty storm on Friday afternoon and guess what, the French box has now packed up - no power is reaching it.  It was switched on (I was hurling abuse at some pompous t*****r on radio 4 at the time - great fun!) then pop, all dead!

I am going to take it back to Conforama and hopefully they'll be kind to me (they always have been in the past) and give me a replacement.  Can anyone advise me as to the best way to avoid this happening again.  It seems these boxes are delicate little flowers who expire at the least provocation (or storm).  They are not earthed - could this be a factor?  And how can you get round this?

Many thanks.

Fi

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Assuming none of your other equipment such as modems PC or Washing machines with chip type controllers has died then it sounds like your dish is acting as a lightening rod. Two suggestions :

 

Install a thick copper wire between your dish and a new picket de terre (earth rod) in your garden. The dish should have a bolt suitable for attaching  the copper wire.

 

Also buy a surge and parafoudre extension strip for your equipment and a short extra cable with two F type connectors to route the antenna cable though the block. Example below not an endorsement

 

http://recherche.fnac.com/search/quick.do?text=Belkin%20Parafoudre&category=electronic&subcategory=8&Origin=EF_GOOGLE_FNAC_TV&OriginClick=yes

 

You may be incredibly lucky and find a small internal fuse has simply been blown with no other damage.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote user="Anton Redman"]

Assuming none of your other equipment such as modems PC or Washing machines with chip type controllers has died then it sounds like your dish is acting as a lightening rod. Two suggestions :

 

Install a thick copper wire between your dish and a new picket de terre (earth rod) in your garden. The dish should have a bolt suitable for attaching  the copper wire.

 

Also buy a surge and parafoudre extension strip for your equipment and a short extra cable with two F type connectors to route the antenna cable though the block. Example below not an endorsement

 

http://recherche.fnac.com/search/quick.do?text=Belkin%20Parafoudre&category=electronic&subcategory=8&Origin=EF_GOOGLE_FNAC_TV&OriginClick=yes

 

You may be incredibly lucky and find a small internal fuse has simply been blown with no other damage. [/quote]

The internet via the livebox did pack up for a while, but the telephone line wasn't affected, and the lights, bar the network light, stayed alight.  A combination of replacing the data cable and vacuuming the innards of the pc and the fans (such a lot of dust and fluff!) seems to have sorted it out - I think this problem was more to do with the pc than the livebox.  She is coming up for her 4th birthday so probably due for honourable retirement soon.

I will follow your advice and check out parafoudre option.  Doing anything to the dish will have to wait for the return of my staff (aka husband) next week - I'm terrified of ladders!

Fi

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Certainly do follow Anton's advice.   I must say we haven't earthed our five dishes but we do have lightning protector mains adaptors on all the boxes,  computers,  etc.

But to be honest we also simply UNPLUG anything and everything in the electronics line at the first distant rumble,  and if we're out for the day we do the same,  regardless of how fine the weather appears.    Lightning is incredibly nasty stuff,  about six years ago a French friend had EVERYTHING electronic in his house fried,  fridge,  fax,  doorbell,   TV,  sat receiver, etc.  

It is incredibly annoying to abandon a programme,  particularly if one is shouting abuse at the time (as I was when the wretched wretched Mandelson was on this morning,  I'd have been grateful for an excuse to extinguish him) but better than losing the gear.    Unplug the ADSL modem from the phone line too (get one of those mains multi-boards that also caters for the phone line) ,  even if you've got protection along the lines that Anton recommends.  

Don't tell Castorama about the storm,   just say it stopped working.   Guarantees often exclude lightning damage.

Hope you get a new one without problems!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just got back from Castorama.  Just told them the power had stopped.  Apparently someone has to look at it first, but there shouldn't be a problem with the replacement (could be famous last words but I am being optimistic today).

We shall see ......

I was shouting at some self-seeking windbag of a politician - goes by the name of Brown .....

Fi

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think we all are!   Those of us who are tax-resident in Britain feel fairly cross.

Still,   at least I know there are an awful lot of other people who - like me - actaully feel ill when we hear or see Ghastly Gordon.  Sorry to be political,  but it's gone far too far.

Apparently Mrs T was heard to remark to Mr Lamont a few weeks ago "Well,  they've (Zanu-Lab) gone and done it again".  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A happy ending for the box - Conforama are going to replace it - I will schlep to St Die tomorrow.

Now if only we could do the same with the current windbag intake that would be marvelous!

Fi

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That is good.    Gernerally our Castorama (Perigueux) is very helpful.

Glad you're nearly back in business,  but do head for the plugs next time there's a storm.    I must say I don't disconnect the dish feed (Anton will disagree,   and he's of course right if one is to have total confidence) but certainly the mains (and the phone line to a computer) are VITAL.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's an interesting point Anton.    In fact for our ADSL protection I unplug the surge protector from the mains AND withdraw the incoming telephone plug from the surge protector,    more on the basis that one might as well "protect the protector" if one can.

But you make a very important point.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

...   ah but not if you're not there you don't!    So it's still serving a purpose.

I view the surge protection as the fianl stop-gap if human intervention during storms has failed for some reason,  such as absence  (or being struck by lightning oneself!!).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why is equipment seemingly so vulnerable to storm damage here in France? In UK, tv`s, phones, modems etc are all the same, and the lightning storms are the same too, (less frequent, granted!) yet nobody worries about lightning damage?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote user="dave21478"]Why is equipment seemingly so vulnerable to storm damage here in France? In UK, tv`s, phones, modems etc are all the same, and the lightning storms are the same too, (less frequent, granted!) yet nobody worries about lightning damage?[/quote]

I suspect that more people in France are at the end of long transmission lines, long telephone lines or are just in more exposed locations. Relatives in Ireland went through 4 modems in 4 years until I fitted surge supressors.

Regards

Pickles

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pickles makes a good point.

We have English neighbours in a hamlet no more than 1 km away who keep getting power cuts because their hamlet is at the end of the line.

We are on a different line and hardly get any, and then only in extreme weather.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well I've reinstalled the new box and strangely enough it seems to function better than the last one!  We now have Film 4 amongst others which simply had no signal before.  Very strange.  And we now unplug things when we're not using them, or when the storm is on top of us!

Speaking of which ....

Fi

PS  We don't get many power cuts, but we do get a lot of storms.  Last lengthy power cut was the "big" one in February., otherwise I think it has gone of for a few minutes twice at the most.  The storms are a sight to behold though!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Could it be the prevalance of overhead power lines in rural areas perhaps?

I have never (touch wood) had a single power cut in over 3 years but last night whilst reading in bed (too hot to sleep) I noticed my reading lamp give a tiny flicker sevarl times whilst the storms were sweeping over other regions. I have only ever noticed this phenomenen when we or other areas have storms.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The flicker is a voltage variation that is an indication that somewhere (not too far away) a powerline has been struck, causing a transient on the grid. The grid system is normally configured that the loss of one circuit does not result in an outage for large parts, the load being transferred to other feeds.

Of course the loss of single radial feeds will result in an outage of all consumers on that feed. Many times it is very very short duration due to the auto-reclose facility on many feeders.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...