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MogulTx
08-28-2012, 12:38 PM
Guys and Gals,

I think my little shop took a direct lightning strike ( at least a fairly direct strike with a big surge). I went to use my router a couple days later, and even though I had it off at the time of the lightning, I wound up with a blown 5V transformer, X prox switch, and it looks like I blew a couple chips on the board, and my USB cable.

I am jotting this note to let you know how great Frank was to sit through all the trouble shooting with me, and help me get my machine worked on. It took several sessions ( because I had to check various things and gather the equipment to test, etc., plus email communication times, etc.).

I can't blame ShopBot for this, at all. This was well beyond the scope of what we would protect a machine for normally. The machine, the building, the box and everything were all well grounded. Still, the breakers were tripped in my shop and back into my home. There was evidence of smoke in my power panel ( I have disassembled and examined the breakers and conductors. Looks like that is all good) And power was out several times throughout the "neighborhood" during this storm (we are semi-rural) for the better part of a day. The way in which this blew is very odd- and indicates a huge surge that was either close by or directly on my building.

My board is not back to me yet. The failure has been really hard on me as far as meeting a production schedule. ShopBot will ship it back today. So I will still be at least 24 hours getting the machine back up and operational- but it is certainly nice to have a responsive group of folks to work with and nice to get a quick turn around on these kinds of problems. Once we figured out that the 5V transformer was not the only issue and that the residual issue was not the result of software problems, it was easy to decide to pull the board and send it in for eval.

With Frank's help we have been able to whip pretty much everything that we believe is wrong with the machine- and now i am hoping I will be back in working shape again quickly...

My thanks to all the ShopBot Crew. Especially Frank and Scott for getting me bailed out quickly!

crash5050
08-28-2012, 01:54 PM
I had my computer shop hit by lightening once. I was heavily insured, but it took aqute some time for the insurance company to agree to pay for 200K worth of servers and modem banks (I was an ISP before the cable and dsl era). THis time, I have a Rider on my policy for my shopbot alone, thru USAA. THey have been very responsive on all of my other claims. I hope I never have to use it.

Good luck..

David

myxpykalix
08-28-2012, 04:41 PM
The only way to protect against a lightning strike is to have it physically unplugged from any powersources. It doesn't matter if it isn't turned on the power surge will barrel thru lines, circuits, whatever:eek:

MogulTx
08-28-2012, 06:35 PM
I have insurance but the deductible is "prohibitive"...

Insurance in TX is painfully expensive for things like this.

Frank just shipped the board back to me. Total charge from them is about 110, plus shipping. I can't complain about that. The total shipping ( to and from) will cost me as much, unfortunately. But it is better than being down another week!

MogulTx
08-29-2012, 02:55 PM
'Got my Board! 'Got my Board!

Now I gotta go install my board!!!