Lightening is killing my card, can anyone help? Please

[dpotts1 0]

I have 9 cameras on some mini-storage rental units. I had a GV-800 that was beleived to have been damaged by lightening. Only 4 ports worked after the storm. I was told that lightening could induce voltage because of the metal frames and metal covering of the building and that I should put in surge suppressors in the video signal line. I did that. One for each camera attachted to the port at the PC. The supressors are grounded to a ground rod that I drove into the earth near the computer.

Came a bad storm last night. All nine cameras say video lost. Am going to take PC with card to the dealer to see if card is bad again.

Talked to another mini storage owner who has had the same problem (cards damaged due to lightening) He has put in 3 systems . If someone has run into this problem and found a solution, please let me know what to do.

[griffonsystems 0]

i just had a client of mine get hit by lightening - it distroyed the 18 gage wire in several spots and knocked out 2 ptz and 2 indoor cameras - the ptz on the roof took the direct hit frying the board - there were green flakes of board in the spectra4 dome. it traveled thru the wire to the dvr and killed the card and went back out to the 2 indoor cams and killed them 2... i installed new cams and my client is submitting to his insurance for the cost.. i havent heard of anything that will stop lightening... since u lease the equipment do u then own it and can submmit a claim for the cost?

[CollinR 0]

On the card, farthest from the slot cover do you see a burnt spot? If so I think you can just replace that. I don't know enough about them but it does appear with GV cards die from lighting that circuit fries and the damage is pretty concentrated.

[dpotts1 0]

Thank you for your information. None of the cameras or any part of the building has ever been actually hit by lightening. The cameras have not been damaged, just the GV-800 card.

[rory 0]

Also make sure everything is on a Voltage Regulator, could also be from a brownout, power problem.

[dpotts1 0]

The computer is on a UPS but the cameras are on regular AC with surge supressors. Please explain in detail the power regulation equipment that is needed.

 

Thanks so much for your help.

[dpotts1 0]

The 3 times this has happened over the last 2 years has been when we experienced a really bad thunder storm. I live in Middle Tennessee. We were hit last night with tragic weather which included Tornados and thousands of lightening strikes.

[Rebco 0]

dpotts1

I am sorry to hear of whay happend in you neck of the woods, I was watching it on the news, My heart goes out to all the people there.

[rory 0]

Everything should be on an AVR. Pick the size that your system needs. Some UPS come with built in AVR, so check that you dont already have it.

[dpotts1 0]

Thanks Rory,

I have been trying to get an education on how to properly put things togeter but I am new at this. Here is what I was told to do, by an installer. We have a mini storage rental property that has 4 seperate buildings each of which contains the individual rental units. The buildings are steel framed , covered with metal roof and metal walls on concrete slabs. 4 cameras are powered from one location of a building and 4 from another of a different building. We mounted Individual transformers at each location to power the cameras. One of the conduit runs on top of a building for about 60 ft. then the conduit goes underground the rest of the way to the office. The ac circuit for the transformers is surge protected but not power regulated. Camera 9 is powered by an individual transformer located in the office. It is powered from the UPS that also powers the computer. I don't know yet if the UPS has the AVR feature built in. Cat 5 cable was used to supply power from the transformers to the camera and to carry the video signal to the computer. The cat 5 is run in PVC conduit. In some cases the pvc conduit will carry more than one cat 5 cable run. At the run ends we have the cat 5 attached to baluns which attaches to the surge supressors which attach to the leads of the GV-800. No surge supressors at the camera ends. The grounds from the supressors are tied together then attached to an 8 foot ground rod driven into the earth. I feel sure this was not the proper way of doing the installation but that is what we have. The system works fine so far as picture quality but the card seems to fail only when we have a severe lightening event. The lightening has not hit the cameras or the building directly but somehow manages to kill the GV card without making a direct hit. Not every time but it has failed 3 times in less than 2 years. We want to fix the problem but need someone who has run into this problem and figured out what to do about it , to let us know. The cameras are attached either to the roof or sides of the building. They are attached directly to the metal roof or siding with metal brackets. They are not insulated from the metal in any way. One camera is attached to a utility pole.

 

Thanks for everyones help.

[PHAND 0]

You have multiple ground points.

 

Electricity will travel the shortest path to ground.

 

You 'should' have all the cameras fed to one power supply. They 'should' all pass through the same grounding block, which 'should' also go to the exact same ground that the computer is plugged into.

 

The DVR computer is plugged into the electrical system and runs over (presumably) to the main ground. You then have your cameras running through a grounding block, but they are grounded to a different rod.

 

What may be happening is that something else on the same circuit as the computer is getting spiked and finds that the shortest path to ground is the computer which has a ground rod attached to it Geo card inputs.

 

That's my theory at least.

[dpotts1 0]

Thanks Phand,

 

We have just added ground rods for each metal framed building. We have connected all the ground rods together including the grounding system that serves the computer. We have installed surge suppressors in each video line. We have installed grounding block for each camera which is tied into all the other grounds. We have isolated the camera housing brackets from the metal skin on the bulding by mounting on rubber wrapped pressure treated wood. We are waiting for the replacement card. We discovered that the buildings were not grounded properly when built. That is why we have installed more ground rods. Also an engineer told us that the fact that the camera surge suppressors were not connected to the ground that serves the computer was 90% of our problem.

 

Thanks again for everyones help.

[WeAreNotAlone 0]

On the card, farthest from the slot cover do you see a burnt spot? If so I think you can just replace that. I don't know enough about them but it does appear with GV cards die from lighting that circuit fries and the damage is pretty concentrated.

 

Seems to me that lighting damage would be pretty common. - and one of those things NOT covered under warranty.

(It would be nice to have info on exactly what is damaged- how repairs could be done locally.)

 

I think due to the pricing on these cards (that they are not just "throw-aways) that the cards should be designed with replaceable fuseable links for a lack of a better word to protect the card itself that could be replaced easily in the field- with locally obtained parts.

 

(Yes I know nothing can stop a DIRECT HIT)

 

I don't know about Geo's polices about replacing boards / or repair options but this subject has me sort of wondering how Geo handles cards returned to them... Do they replace at no-charge? At Full retail?, or say a fixed rate to replace a card?

 

(EG- Best case being Geo would replace /repair at no -charge -seeing how there is a huge mark-up on their products IMO)

 

Lastly, and Geo might already do so... I think mfg's of such products should have info on how to protect / install their products instead of leaving this to third party hearsay. (Internet forums- and the like.)

 

Getting back to the cards themselves- How about a thread in which people post pics of damaged cards, with info on what was done to repair them..

 

 

 

.

[VST_Man 1]

ISOLATE the camera & cable from the buildings all together. went thru this 2 years ago.lost camera's and DVr......once I installed the camer's (dome) onto a plastic 4x4x3 box, which isolated them from the buildings, I've never lost a camera or dvr since.

 

we've discussed the issues with grounding and strikes........path of least resistance is the building........which if hit charges to x amount of volts, and where are yur camera's attached???? conduit???

 

just my theory..but I'm happy.

 

I don't EVER ground anything at the camera's.I always isolate and let it run.....

[dpotts1 0]

We have done a number of things to try and take care of the problem.

 

*Installed 8 ft. ground rods ( Two for each metal building ) to make sure that the building skin and metal frame is properly grounded to earth.

*Made sure that the additional ground rods and the electrical service ground are bonded together.

*Isolated the cameras and brackets from the building skin.

*Installed E-Clips surge suppressors at the camera end and at the DVR card end.

 

According to the folks at Steadyvolt.com , the problem should be taken care of. The E-Clip gadgets are expensive but carry a lifetime warranty.

 

When the card was damaged it did not show any sign of damage, it just did not work. I sent it back to MFG. for repair. The fixed it. It works fine now.

[security101 0]

I've had the same prob with storage buildings, seems their a magnet to lightning or the static buildup problem.

 

I like to isolate from building too, and ground at the camera, entrance to main building and at the head end.

 

The computer case ground can be checked too.

 

Jim