Vbox7 zapped (@#$% lightning!)

[Lone Gunman]

Check your home owners insurance.I had a lightning hit years ago,took out a bunch of stuff,save for the deductible it was covered.
It hit a 70' spruce tree in the neighbor's yard,from a clear blue sky,storm had passed thru 20 minutes before.

Yeah, I called State Farm about mine as I had a $1,300 estimate on fixing all the stuff, including the burnt buried cable and was told that instead of the $500 deductible I used to have, I now have a $1,000 deductible?? Sort of a WTF moment since I don't ever remember being notified that it was changing??? Makes you wonder doesn't it? I mean what would happen if something REALLY bad went south?? Oh well.

 

[FTA4PA]

Yeah, I called State Farm about mine as I had a $1,300 estimate on fixing all the stuff, including the burnt buried cable and was told that instead of the $500 deductible I used to have, I now have a $1,000 deductible?? Sort of a WTF moment since I don't ever remember being notified that it was changing??? Makes you wonder doesn't it? I mean what would happen if something REALLY bad went south?? Oh well.

That really stinks! They probably put the increase notification in some tiny print hoping you didn't see it. Insurance companies are good at that.

 

[KE4EST]

Insurance companies are good at that.

Heck, all companies are good at that.

 

[FTA4PA]

Heck, all companies are good at that.

So true!

 

[armadillo_115]

Yeah,and wait till your next premium comes due! $$$$

I had typed a long rant about what an insurance company did when we lost the family biz to a fire...but decided to erase it and spare y'all the details.

I will give just one example though: They refused to pay ANYTHING on a $5000+ forklift.Reason: Said it was my fault because I should have had AUTO insurance on it. Auto Insurance on a Business forklift! Not even possible in NC at the time...if ever.
I got $400 scrap metal value after hauling fees.
(End of rant>

 

[fred555]

Anything short of my house burning down, I'm fixing it myself and leaving the insurance company out of it.
A wise man once said: Never willingly let the (insurance) man into your life.

 

[FTA4PA]

Yeah,and wait till your next premium comes due! $$$$

I had typed a long rant about what an insurance company did when we lost the family biz to a fire...but decided to erase it and spare y'all the details.

I will give just one example though: They refused to pay ANYTHING on a $5000+ forklift.Reason: Said it was my fault because I should have had AUTO insurance on it. Auto Insurance on a Business forklift! Not even possible in NC at the time...if ever.
I got $400 scrap metal value after hauling fees.
(End of rant>

Sorry to hear it!

 

[waylew]

Insurance company,lawyers and accountants,regulated by government,lawyers and accountants.

 

[primestar31]

Yeah, I called State Farm about mine as I had a $1,300 estimate on fixing all the stuff, including the burnt buried cable and was told that instead of the $500 deductible I used to have, I now have a $1,000 deductible?? Sort of a WTF moment since I don't ever remember being notified that it was changing??? Makes you wonder doesn't it? I mean what would happen if something REALLY bad went south?? Oh well.

State Farm f-ing SUCKS. I had them for 25 years, no claims. My furnace exploded from a gas pocket in 2005. I had to pay $1,000 deductible, and they paid $2,500~ or so for a replacement furnace. Next 1 year renewal, they more than doubled my insurance cost. I finally switched to Liberty Mutual, and cut the cost back to around $550 a year, for twice the coverage, and a lower deductible.

I'll never go back to State Farm after the crap they pulled on me. They are more than happy to take your money, but when it comes time to claim something, look OUT!

 

[FTA4PA]

Is there a number visible on the top of that smd component?

Over the past few years my near vision has become terrible. I can't see anything tiny like that without some kind of magnification, hence the reason I bought the glasses in post 51 above. The SMD part you mentioned has some form of epoxy over it so I will have to remove that to see if there is a part number.

Surprisingly, I did manage to get the wire back on the lead - only took a fraction of a second with those glasses. I tried it out but still nothing so I guess it's just a single output lnbf now! I removed the epoxy from the SMD component and the number on top is V75 and it has four pins. This appears to be the datasheet for it. http://www.cel.com/pdf/datasheets/ne3503m04.pdf

 

[N6BY]

Surprisingly, I did manage to get the wire back on the lead - only took a fraction of a second with those glasses. I tried it out but still nothing so I guess it's just a single output lnbf now! ...

After ruining 2 of my C2WPLLs in modification attempts (shortening the antenna wire), and seeing your fix attempt fail, I am starting to wonder if some of the components on that circuit are ruined by simply touching a soldering iron to them? I have had very good results soldering and repairing other boards, just not the C2WPLL.

 

[FTA4PA]

After ruining 2 of my C2WPLLs in modification attempts (shortening the antenna wire), and seeing your fix attempt fail, I am starting to wonder if some of the components on that circuit are ruined by simply touching a soldering iron to them? I have had very good results soldering and repairing other boards, just not the C2WPLL.

Possibly but can't be sure - could have been static discharge from soldering iron or that lightning hit may have doomed mine before I started.

 

[turbosat]

Hello to everyone else with lightning problems! Mother nature got me today, usually unplug the lnbf cable when I hear the thunder, but today's storm will cost me at least a new c-band lnbf. Couldv'e avoided it by unpluggin the cable to the box, but I was watching the Sox/braves baseball game on c-band, 5-4game and I didn't want to miss the last 2 innings, lol. There was a sound like a missile strike, and I knew it was all over, probably for the receiver too. Lucky the receiver is ok, put in my backup lnb on the big dish, and got c-band back until my next cband lnbf lands next week. Heck =I'll prob do it again, but only if Alabama football is on satellite and I'm watching on the satellite. UNPLUG THE CABLE, people, and save yourself some money, haha.

 

[FTA4PA]

Hello to everyone else with lightning problems! Mother nature got me today, usually unplug the lnbf cable when I hear the thunder, but today's storm will cost me at least a new c-band lnbf. Couldv'e avoided it by unpluggin the cable to the box, but I was watching the Sox/braves baseball game on c-band, 5-4game and I didn't want to miss the last 2 innings, lol. There was a sound like a missile strike, and I knew it was all over, probably for the receiver too. Lucky the receiver is ok, put in my backup lnb on the big dish, and got c-band back until my next cband lnbf lands next week. Heck =I'll prob do it again, but only if Alabama football is on satellite and I'm watching on the satellite. UNPLUG THE CABLE, people, and save yourself some money, haha.

Sorry to hear that! I know the sound you are talking about. I've heard (and felt) it myself. Lightning can travel in weird ways so hopefully you don't find any other damage like I did. Good luck!

 

[. Raine]

Well, we just got whacked by lightning last night, it took out one of our Roku 3's and our cable modem, hopefully nothing more. I was able to fix the cable modem, just a cooked diode and trace, but the Roku appears to be toast, it comes on, boots up, but displays nothing on the HDMI output. Swapped it out for one of the other Roku's on another TV with different power pack, cable, etc, hard reset it, same thing. Took it apart and there's a ton of SMD fuses in it, but none open and nothing obvious. Going to go to Wal-Mart later today and buy a new one and then I'll dig deeper into this one when I have more free time. We own the cable modem, not rented, so I'm real happy that was repairable!

We could here crackling in the vicinity of the cable modem last night and you could feel the charge in the air when it happened and so today I went out to check the ground block on the cable wire drop. Our main house ground is literally a few feet away from this box, so I'm a little annoyed at the cable company right now. But, I should've checked it right when they first installed it, rather than trust them to do a good job. Here's a picture of their stellar work, they might as well have just put a barrel connector in there. Needless to say, I'm going to run some #6 solid from the block to our ground and replace the line going into the house. And screw the block down.

I am real glad it didn't take out my router and switches and all that though!

 

[Troch77]

Lighting got my Well pump last night too.

Tripped the Main breaker in the process.
Was pulling my pump last night until 3 am this morning.

10/3 was fried all the way to pressure switch.

That was some bad lightning last night, In Eastern PA.

All Satellite equipment all Good.

Samsung Galaxy S6 Active

 

[. Raine]

Ugh, that's the worse. Lightning got my parent's submersible pump a few years back, I definitely wouldn't want to have to pull a well pump, especially in this heat!

 

[Radioguy41]

Homeowner's insurance should cover that, including pulling the pump, mine did.

 

[Lehman bud farm]

Lightning got my parent's submersible pump a few years back, I definitely wouldn't want to have to pull a well pump, especially in this heat!

The line of storms on the East coast are going on again today already.
This system is just not moving away too quickly. Nowadays, everything is unplugged with these summer storms since they seem to get nastier and nastier. No sense taking a change in having equipment getting damaged if a slight precaution can be done beforehand.
Well pumps are a totally different beast, we make sure no one runs water during a storm so it does not kick on.
Our parents well is over 900' deep and it went out twice in the last 5 years so that is no picnic to replace the pump there.

 

[FTA4PA]

Sorry to hear some of my Satellite Guys neighbors here in the east received lightning damage. We lost power for part of a day and phone/dsl service for two days earlier this week from storms. We were very fortunate to have had no storm damage in our area last night (Central PA). I was watching the radar and could see bad storms heading our way several times but they either went just north or south of us or dissipated altogether. The sky to the east of us was lighting up constantly. Agree with Lehman bud farm about the storms getting nastier. Been here almost 10 years and the last few years have been worse than any of the previous ones. Hopefully all will come through today's storms safe and with no equipment damage!