If this makes someone feel secure, why not????
However, for argument:
I spent my 35 year career before retirement working with, among others, devices damaged by Lightning Impulses.. either direct or on power line.
With all respect, I believe you're wasting your time and money.
First, a lightnng impulse isn't a single spurt of electricity... its leaders, discharge, secondaries, broad frequency bandwith, scary as heck.
... scads of volts, scads of current potential, who knows how many gauss M... etc... and un-predictable in manifestation
Second, remember that the system, because of the external PS, should be completely isolated from AC / Earth ground...
... and if I remember correctly, that "ground" would be a 'perfect earth return'... ha, ha....
Now, external EMF would be looking for a ground.... which it can't theoretically find through the system,
unless you've added one....
What happens on the secondary discharges if the initial discharge 'blows' a so called protect diode?
What happens if the 'discharge current' of the diode then flows along the tiny ground paths of the controller, for example... ?
These are in large part 3.3 - 5 volt devices. The circuit traces are fractions of millimeters apart.
Protect devices would likely only "prove a negative" that is to say, "well, that stroke didn't fry me... must be working"...
Various scenarios were discussed at various depths during development... even possible 'fusing'....
the consensus generally was "In event of HIGH Emf or direct strike you'll still get toasted... "..
No ground is likely to be perfect, and some "protect" devices require that treacherous
'2nd connection' to ground... which 'bypasses' or 'offers' an alternative to the 'isolated' design condition...
..."protects" often result in "circuit board path arcs" rather than simple component damage... sometimes because of a second 'ground escape'....
Properly installed and mounted, the E amp interface is about as secure as any device exposed to atmosphere.
If you have 'grounded' your controller, to minimise noise, or just because you thought it a good idea,
you may have actually opened up the possibility of arcing by providing
a higher' resistance path to ground' through a "coax surge protector" which may direct the leader surges into
a controller's "lower resistance"... multiple paths... when the 'controllers' path to earth is actually a fraction of an ohm
because of adding a 'ground' as mentioned above... it could easily be
lower than the 'air' to ground impedance... when otherwise the 'air might have completed the initial discharge directly to earth,
if it had not been offered an alternate path because of the protect!
(dang, that's a screwy paragraph... whatever... )
Conversely, a "standard' ungrounded controller can only connect to earth ground through a shielded RG45 cable
assuming the routers are not 'isolated' from AC ground... which is an incidental reason why we
suggest unshielded RG45 to any router... no multiple grounds. In fact, shielded RG45 to the router can result in 'ground loop' noise.
Now, suppose the device does fire... is it a one-time protect-then-replace technology, ?
How do you know if has 'worked' and is now defective?
A 'reset type device? Is its reset response time in the nanoseconds? ...
otherwise secondary discharge blows you away...
If this were an issue, obviously more kits would be shipped to 'dead stations' then are shipped to 'new installs'...
We've had 2 or three in Americas Region (3) since system Green rolled out, maybe... (I could be mistaken on numbers)
and they seemed (from my poor memory) related to power line over-voltage due to Lightning on AC line.
or direct strikes... which few devices survive regardless of 'protects'.
Remember the "FIRST" from above... direct hits are just too dang bad. Sorry. That's Lightning,
However, If it makes you feel more secure, as above, why not... ?
Then check your E-field reception and delays to make sure it hasn't been affected by your modifications.
Cheers!
However, for argument:
I spent my 35 year career before retirement working with, among others, devices damaged by Lightning Impulses.. either direct or on power line.
With all respect, I believe you're wasting your time and money.
First, a lightnng impulse isn't a single spurt of electricity... its leaders, discharge, secondaries, broad frequency bandwith, scary as heck.
... scads of volts, scads of current potential, who knows how many gauss M... etc... and un-predictable in manifestation
Second, remember that the system, because of the external PS, should be completely isolated from AC / Earth ground...
... and if I remember correctly, that "ground" would be a 'perfect earth return'... ha, ha....
Now, external EMF would be looking for a ground.... which it can't theoretically find through the system,
unless you've added one....
What happens on the secondary discharges if the initial discharge 'blows' a so called protect diode?
What happens if the 'discharge current' of the diode then flows along the tiny ground paths of the controller, for example... ?
These are in large part 3.3 - 5 volt devices. The circuit traces are fractions of millimeters apart.
Protect devices would likely only "prove a negative" that is to say, "well, that stroke didn't fry me... must be working"...
Various scenarios were discussed at various depths during development... even possible 'fusing'....
the consensus generally was "In event of HIGH Emf or direct strike you'll still get toasted... "..
No ground is likely to be perfect, and some "protect" devices require that treacherous
'2nd connection' to ground... which 'bypasses' or 'offers' an alternative to the 'isolated' design condition...
..."protects" often result in "circuit board path arcs" rather than simple component damage... sometimes because of a second 'ground escape'....
Properly installed and mounted, the E amp interface is about as secure as any device exposed to atmosphere.
If you have 'grounded' your controller, to minimise noise, or just because you thought it a good idea,
you may have actually opened up the possibility of arcing by providing
a higher' resistance path to ground' through a "coax surge protector" which may direct the leader surges into
a controller's "lower resistance"... multiple paths... when the 'controllers' path to earth is actually a fraction of an ohm
because of adding a 'ground' as mentioned above... it could easily be
lower than the 'air' to ground impedance... when otherwise the 'air might have completed the initial discharge directly to earth,
if it had not been offered an alternate path because of the protect!
(dang, that's a screwy paragraph... whatever... )
Conversely, a "standard' ungrounded controller can only connect to earth ground through a shielded RG45 cable
assuming the routers are not 'isolated' from AC ground... which is an incidental reason why we
suggest unshielded RG45 to any router... no multiple grounds. In fact, shielded RG45 to the router can result in 'ground loop' noise.
Now, suppose the device does fire... is it a one-time protect-then-replace technology, ?
How do you know if has 'worked' and is now defective?
A 'reset type device? Is its reset response time in the nanoseconds? ...
otherwise secondary discharge blows you away...
If this were an issue, obviously more kits would be shipped to 'dead stations' then are shipped to 'new installs'...
We've had 2 or three in Americas Region (3) since system Green rolled out, maybe... (I could be mistaken on numbers)
and they seemed (from my poor memory) related to power line over-voltage due to Lightning on AC line.
or direct strikes... which few devices survive regardless of 'protects'.
Remember the "FIRST" from above... direct hits are just too dang bad. Sorry. That's Lightning,
However, If it makes you feel more secure, as above, why not... ?
Then check your E-field reception and delays to make sure it hasn't been affected by your modifications.
Cheers!
