Lightning strike? Power surge?

[qflyer]

On my boat dock, I have a Mokerlink switch (pictured) with 4 cameras plugged in. Port 1 is a Linksys router in AP mode powered by 120V. Port 2, 3, 4, and 5 have POE IP cameras (Dahua/Andy's) including a $800 PTZ on port 5.

This afternoon, we had sunny skies at the house, but a strong thunderstorm about 5 miles to the north. Very loud thunder for a few minutes, no visible lightning anywhere near the house/dock. No power outages or flickering lights, etc. All perfectly normal. This evening, I noticed two of my cameras were offline. At the dock, the data lights on ports 4&5 were dead. Tried swapping things around and 4/5 stayed dead until I plugged the Linksys in. Port 4/5 work fine for the router. Both cameras that had been on 4/5 work fine on ports 1-3. So it appears that only the POE on 4/5 is dead. No damage to any cameras.

Does this sound like a typical failure mode for lightning/surge? I have the switch plugged into a surge protector, and the surge protector lights are all normal/protected. It seems like the only thing that's affected is POE on 4/5.

I was planning to replace this switch in the near future anyways, so no big loss, but I could have lost almost $1,500 worth of equipment. What's the best way to protect from something like this or worse in the future?

 

[Flintstone61]

Holy Cannoli. Thats a lot of hardware out on the dock. Lightning does the most unusual things! Sounds like a finger of energy reached out a touched something in your hardware.
Switches are probably your least expensive component on the dock.
Maybe somebody here can point the way toward some lightning grounding. are you using 3 pronged plug 120 VAC electric outlets with GFI?

 

[Teken]

- Grounding: Single point earth ground bonded to all network infrastructure to the homes electrical service panel.

- Shielding: All cable, connectors, patch panels.

- SPD / TVSS: Type 1~4 where appropriate used in a tiered fashion to absorb and shunt to ground any voltage rise / spike

- Isolation: The use of optical fibre, PtP RF, SSR.

All of the above are the most basic requirements and solutions to reduce the incidence of a voltage rise / spike / surge.

None of the above will address a voltage sag, frequency drift, or common mode disturbances. Only a AVR UPS and a isolating PSU transformer will address those issues.

As it relates to SPD / TVSS there are a dozen ways to build one. Not everyone incorporates the correct components to address every possible electrical fault. Hence why it’s imperative to use a tiered approach along with hardware that utilize different technology like Clamps, Crow bar, Hybrid.

 

[qflyer]

Holy Cannoli. Thats a lot of hardware out on the dock. Lightning does the most unusual things! Sounds like a finger of energy reached out a touched something in your hardware.
Switches are probably your least expensive component on the dock.
Maybe somebody here can point the way toward some lightning grounding. are you using 3 pronged plug 120 VAC electric outlets with GFI?

Yep, 3-prong, GFI. I knew the switch had "lightning protection surge", but I also had everything plugged into a surge protector which appears to be unharmed, but I'm going to replace it anyways just in case.

- Grounding: Single point earth ground bonded to all network infrastructure to the homes electrical service panel.

So not sure what the best or right way to do this is. Since this is on my boat dock, I don't have power from the main panel run to the dock - terrain makes that very difficult and expensive. I've just run a 12 gauge extension cord (200') from an outside outlet on my house down to the dock cabinet where I keep the switch and router.

- Shielding: All cable, connectors, patch panels.

Got that covered.

- SPD / TVSS: Type 1~4 where appropriate used in a tiered fashion to absorb and shunt to ground any voltage rise / spike

- Isolation: The use of optical fibre, PtP RF, SSR.

I'll have to do some google searching on this as I have no idea what SPD/TVSS is. The dock is isolated from the rest of my network as it's connected via wireless point to point bridges. I'd love to do fiber, but again terrain and permits from the power company that owns the lake make that a long, expensive, and difficult process. So far the P2P bridge has been flawless.

All of the above are the most basic requirements and solutions to reduce the incidence of a voltage rise / spike / surge.

None of the above will address a voltage sag, frequency drift, or common mode disturbances. Only a AVR UPS and a isolating PSU transformer will address those issues.

As it relates to SPD / TVSS there are a dozen ways to build one. Not everyone incorporates the correct components to address every possible electrical fault. Hence why it’s imperative to use a tiered approach along with hardware that utilize different technology like Clamps, Crow bar, Hybrid.

Thanks for all the advice! Off to Google now to figure out what's next. Appreciate you pointing me in the right direction.

 

[Teken]

If you truly have a 200 foot extension you literally have a giant antenna. That’s a sure way to receive a collect call from God. Regardless, the best you can do given the distance, terrain, and limitations of install is to incorporate the best surge protection you can in a tiered fashion.

Surge Protective Device (SPD)

Type 1: Installed at the service entrance meter

Type 2: Installed at the service panel breaker

Type 3: These are installed at the Point of Use such as a outlet. These can be a surge outlet, power bar, AVR, UPS.

Type 4: Installed inline (series) prior to an end device like a washer, dryer, HVAC, HWT, etc.

If you don’t have a SPD on the Ethernet line do so. One thing you can do if you don’t already have fibre to the home (ISP) is to install a fibre media converter. This will help isolate and decouple the copper line to your homes network.

As it relates to proper grounding there isn’t a lot you can do besides validating everything is sound and secure. If you’re not comfortable working in 120 / 240 VAC - hire it out.

Having said that anyone following basic safety can insure all ground, neutral, and line wires inside the service panel is tight. Confirm the Earth ground at both the service entrance coming into the service panel is tight. If the same is connected to the water pipe insure it’s bonded correctly and corrosion free.

If you have centrally located network hardware that has metal casing which also has a grounding screw - ground it!

More specifically anything that has a ground screw should be connected together and than connected to ground. This is much easier to do if the equipment is located next to the service (breaker) panel as the ground wire is accessible to bond to.

In that instance you simply connect all hardware together and attach the same to a service ground bar. That service ground bar than connects to the Earth ground coming from the service panel.

This insures a single point Earth ground.

When the above isn’t possible you can take mimic the same by attaching a ground wire / strap to a outlets casing screw. If your like most American homes that use plastic / fibreglass JB’s. Securing to the case obviously doesn’t work so connecting to the ground wire is required.

In Canada 99.9999% of all outlets are metal which is bonded to the ground wire. Which makes it very easy to use the plate screw as a grounding point.