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What is you surge suppression experience

colporteur — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:29:41 GMT

Key Features • Supports 10/100/1000/10GBASE-T Ethernet speeds • Full PoE, PoE+, and PoE++ (IEEE 802.3af/at/bt) compatibility • Supports up to 90W of power delivery • IP65-rated waterproof outdoor enclosure • Designed to protect against lightning strikes and electrical surges • Ultra-low capacitance for high-speed data performance • Fast response time for critical equipment protection • Simple inline RJ45 installation • Flexible mounting options for poles, enclosures, and walls • Tested to international surge protection standards Ideal Applications • Outdoor wireless radios and backhaul links • Fixed wireless and WISP deployments • Outdoor WiFi access points • IP surveillance and security cameras • Network switches and outdoor enclosures • Industrial networking and SCADA systems • Municipal, campus, and enterprise network infrastructure

I am on my third install of CAT6 cables to Access points on the top of grain bins. This advertisement for Data Surge Protection Outdoor SPD IP65 10GB Ethernet came across my desk.

Many a fault over 20 years working in telecommunications were repaired on two wire copper pairs by replacing the fuse or surge suppressor. I never gave a thought to network cable. Then I was never running them up the side of grain bins. Now I'm thinking about them after the ad appeared to remind me.

Looking to find anyone that has experience and can provide some insight.

RE: What is you surge suppression experience

colporteur — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 02:27:50 GMT

I've used CAT 6 to carry HDMI. Expensive and not flexible but worked.

RE: What is you surge suppression experience

colporteur — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 02:25:50 GMT

Me, I gots to git me one of doze.

RE: What is you surge suppression experience

geralds — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 21:06:38 GMT

That would be a great research project.
I really don't want to lie, but over these years I think... something similar has come to my attention, either through hearings or sights.
I’ve been reading the electronics magazine *Elektor* for decades (since 1977) and following the EDN website; I’m sure they’ve reported on this topic several times.
Right now, connections are being made between electronics and bacteria; there is a lot of research going on in this area.
Well... "We are the Borg!"."You will be assimilated! Resistance is futile!".. 🤖

RE: What is you surge suppression experience

beacon_dave — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 20:32:37 GMT

If I recall correctly, that project back in 2003 was for a medical application. The electronics were to be surgically implanted and powered remotely via the plastic optical fibre which passed through the skin to an external light source to power it.

Apparently stomach gases (and patients) don't react particularly well to sparks from copper based wires.

RE: What is you surge suppression experience

geralds — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 20:11:07 GMT

Yes, something like that.

That’s roughly what I had in mind, only using fiber-optic cables.

I had to plan projects of this kind in the late 90s and early 2000s, though unfortunately, I was never able to actually implement them; it would have been too expensive for the clients.
However, back then, I did transmit TV signals over a distance of 100 meters in a hotel using Cat 7 LAN cable and converters. That was a great project.

RE: What is you surge suppression experience

geralds — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 19:57:00 GMT

Hi colporteur,

Ah, yes, I see.

In that case, the situation is somewhat complex.

PoF (Power over Fiber) works only on a photovoltaic basis.

—>> there are optocouplers consisting of an LED and a solar cell within a single IC (photovoltaic optocouplers).
However, the current they can supply is very low.

One idea:
fiber optics — 1 transmitter and 1 receiver (FDDI standard) — combined with a solar charge-pump converter (using the free fibers as the light source) to power the remote module. A fiber optic cable typically contains eight fibers, so there are enough fibers available for the power supply converter.

Regarding your remote modules: what are their power requirements?

RE: What is you surge suppression experience

beacon_dave — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 19:40:42 GMT

[quote userid="37381" url="~/technologies/power-management/f/forum/57199/what-is-you-surge-suppression-experience/238161"]PoF power over fiber would be a game changer[/quote]

Sounds familiar 😂 🎺

Microwave and Optical Technology Letters, 2003
Interference-free optical power delivery for electronics modules

RE: What is you surge suppression experience

colporteur — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 18:16:33 GMT

Many of my endpoints are PoE because of power. PoF power over fiber would be a game changer. I have visions of what the sfp would look like.

RE: What is you surge suppression experience

shabaz — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 22:42:45 GMT

There's an AI attempt (seems quite reasonable.. attached).

It is in a few formats. I asked the AI to preserve all the details of suggestions, and only use the material in the discussion and comments, no external content.

Depending on if colporteur is OK with it, perhaps it could become a blog? Then it could have longer visibility (hopefully indexed by Google) since it is an interesting topic as mentioned.

community.element14.com/.../surge_5F00_suppression_5F00_blog.zip

RE: What is you surge suppression experience

colporteur — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 22:10:09 GMT

I'm OK with changing the forum. I like the discussion, it is expanding my knowledge.

What if anything do I need to do?

RE: What is you surge suppression experience

geralds — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 21:39:06 GMT

[quote userid="37381" url="~/technologies/power-management/f/forum/57199/what-is-you-surge-suppression-experience/237921"] gibt es GPS-Antennen und Kameras. [/quote]

GPS? shure? Or are they WLAN-antennas?

All these buildings needing a potential ground system, a lightning rod from the roof to the ground.

What's in the Silos?

RE: What is you surge suppression experience

shabaz — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 20:53:25 GMT

Hi Gerald,

Very useful information!

RE: What is you surge suppression experience

geralds — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 14:40:28 GMT

Hi,

First, to put it simply: I highly recommend a fiber optic cable connection.

Why?!!!! -> Because you have two major problems, plus a few other minor issues that also play a role.

1) Lightning strikes
2) Different grounding potentials between the buildings.

1.a) Lightning strikes can NEVER be intercepted with just a single component. That's the "minor" issue I was referring to.

Please look here at Eaton, USA (I use this in EU, Austria):

https://www.eaton.com/us/en-us/products/backup-power-ups-surge-it-power-distribution/surge-protection.html#sortCriteria=%40p_navigation_title%20descending%2C%40page_title%20descending%2C%40title%20descending&f-product_attributes_product_status=Active&enableQuerySyntax=true&cq=%40sub_category_id%3D%3D%22surge-protection-devices%22%20AND%20%40country%3D%22us%22%20AND%20%40language%3D%22en_US%22

So, the building needs a foundation grounding system, which is driven very deep into the ground in the center.

There are regulations regarding whether there needs to be one or more of these; this depends on the size of the building site.

You've roughly illustrated the extent in the video, about 300m on each side, approximately...
Therefore, also because there are several buildings, multiple foundation grounding systems are necessary; depending on the size, two or three.

This also depends on where the power source is located and where the transformer is situated.

The point is:

The power lines, in this case the lightning strike from where it would originate, create a voltage cone. Within this voltage field, the building's infrastructure, and even living beings with their step voltages, can be affected.

Therefore, first, the building must be protected with a lightning rod. This lightning rod already dissipates a significant amount of energy.

Second, the building needs surge protection for the three-phase power supply in the distribution box, directly at the inlet of the power line, along with an RCD (residual current device) and fuses.

With this surge protection, you can also install filters if a modem is installed that transmits data over the power line.

Third, surge protection devices for the equipment are then installed in the building, for example, as you showed in your post.

For the building, it is crucial that the protective earth conductor (PE) is very well connected to the foundation earth electrode, located at the bottom of the building on the equipotential bonding bar.

For the building, it is important that the protective earth conductor (PE) is very well connected to the foundation earth electrode, which is connected to the equipotential bonding bar at the bottom of the building.

The better these buildings are connected to the ground, the better the grounding potential between them. The lower the grounding potential, the better, ideally less than 2 volts.

The problem is minimized between buildings when you need to run data cables; underground is better than above ground.

The shielding of the LAN cable then acts as a ground conductor because it's connected to the protective earth (PE). Be careful not to create a ground loop.

Precisely for this reason, I recommend using fiber optic cable instead of copper cable.

Since you need power and LAN in all buildings, you can use fiber optic cable as the "backbone." The LAN cabling infrastructure is then located within the building.

Strictly speaking, this would eliminate the need for a wireless setup. In my experience, wireless LAN has its own set of problems, mostly related to weather conditions. Whether fiber optic or wireless, you'll need to use data converters in both cases. So, the effort involved is comparable. Fiber optic cables might be a bit more expensive to install, but after that you practically have no problems, unless an excavator tears the cable off, or the laser diode weakens after many years.

This was just the first thinking about, ok.

In the 1990s and 2000s, I offered these devices at my company as an electronics technician. Later, I was an electrician for the railway. Now I'm retired.

If you like, you can post here some details of your project.

Best Regards

Gerald

RE: What is you surge suppression experience

cstanton — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 09:48:26 GMT

Hey Shabaz,

To get the best visibility, it may be better to be additionally written up as a blog post separately to this forum thread, and then it can contain member quotes and replies, rather than converting the forum thread to a blog post which may then hide the comments.

RE: What is you surge suppression experience

shabaz — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 20:09:13 GMT

Hi cstanton if colporteur is Ok with it, please could this be turned into a blog rather than forum discussion? I think it could benefit from more visibility so experts coming across this can provide some advice for all : )

RE: What is you surge suppression experience

shabaz — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 19:58:22 GMT

Also, reading more, apparently another path is through the mains supply to your network equipment, because any lightning strike to earth will create a huge voltage difference in earth, and that means that the line+neutral can become temporarily at a massively different voltage to local earth or to earth near your Ethernet cable. Just a few picofarad capacitance to ground will therefore cause massive current to flow. There are DIN mount surge protectors for the mains. I don't know anything about these, but hopefully an electrician may know. So, a holistic approach may need the surge protection on both the mains entry (and check it has line/neutral to Earth protection, not just line to neutral like cheap mains extension surge protectors) as well as the surge protection at the Ethernet cable (both ends, and ideally with TVS as well as GDT) and add large ferrites at the Ethernet cable (both ends) too.

Total speculation however.. this is well outside my comfort area : (

Also maybe worth considering optical if possible : )

RE: What is you surge suppression experience

shabaz — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 18:21:11 GMT

These look interesting; three-terminal GDT from Littelfuse, but in SMD format which should be better, probably easier PCB layout with these too.

RE: What is you surge suppression experience

obones — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 09:17:03 GMT

The different pairs is because of the standard, the network pairs are 1-2, 3-6, 4-5, 7-8 with only the first two used in 10/100 configuration.

RE: What is you surge suppression experience

shabaz — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 01:59:39 GMT

Hi Sean,

I was googling and found this product which looks interesting: Citel MJ8-POE-C6A

The datasheet has this diagram:

I've never seen three-terminal GDT's before, but the Cyclone product you found uses three-terminal ones too. However, the MJ8-POE-C6A also includes a lot more.

This is the Cyclone circuit from their datasheet:

The Citel one has a shielded metal enclosure, plus also has silicon devices (for faster action; the GDTs will be slower) for differential-mode within each pair, but also between two pairs. Not sure why the two central pairs in that diagram don't have the same arrangement, anyone know?

Also, I was wondering, it might be a good idea to buy ferrites too, and clip them at each end, to suppress common-mode spikes, so the diodes and GDTs have to do less work. They would have to be quite large ferrites.

I bought these a while back:

I wasn't planning to use them for network connections, but because I wanted to fit an antenna outdoors and was worried about induced voltages during thunderstorms.

RE: What is you surge suppression experience

kmikemoo — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 03:28:21 GMT

That is a reasonable question. Another IT guy would probably read any notes you have on the AP or network map. To everyone else... connectivity is magic. Even if you tell them, they will forget. SO... The label maker may seem like an old guy thing BUT... it works. Slap an "Isolator Installed" label on the AP and PTP cable ends. Sometimes, in the heat of the moment, even we forget stuff. A little reminder can help a lot.

For the isolators we installed, they were physically close enough to the equipment that their existence was reasonably obvious. They also have a data tag. If a technician couldn't figure out where to go from there... I didn't want them working on the equipment anyway. Rude? Maybe. Back to Troubleshooting 101, right? Is it receiving power? Is it receiving input? As I taught my techs... No gozinta = no gozouta. (Goes in to / Goes out of).
The reality is that, most of the time, they figure it out. 👍 - unless you keep rescuing them. 😂

RE: What is you surge suppression experience

colporteur — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 17:27:53 GMT

The video is taken from the new legg completed about May. Just to the left on the start of the video is the communications tower. I estimate 100m away.

At the end of the video there is a 125 ft grain auger. The end of the auger points to four bins in a row. then a large silver bin. That is the north part of the yard. The bin farthermost from the silver bin has a point to point link back to where I am standing. That PTP is has a AP.

Sorry for the noise. I never realize it. I am standing next to the belt motors that move grain both up/down and across to different bins.

Biggest concern about putting them in is knowledge transfer. I would know they are there and what to look for. Since they are not common in networks would others?

RE: What is you surge suppression experience

kmikemoo — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 02:10:13 GMT

Sorry. It was all single pair, twisted shielded. And it was no where near the distances outside that you are dealing with. We had some crazy long indoor runs, but that's not even close to what you're up against. If the access points are relatively inexpensive and you haven't experienced any issues up to this point, I would recommend still rolling the dice. And remember... a little bit of paranoia is good. It increases your chances of survival.

Also sorry. I think this stuff is cool and I don't get to talk about it much anymore.

If you have lost equipment or the access points are kind of expensive... keep considering the isolators. When we needed to power a remote device, sometimes we used 18/2 thermostat wire. It's cheap. 2-pair Belden was a possibility, but that stuff is expensive. The power draw on the isolators was so small that the line loss was negligible, even for long runs. Per the NEC, thermostat wire can be run in the same conduit as the communication circuits. And, since it's DC, there's no worry of cross-talk. I will say that the low voltage and communications circuits did always get their own conduit run - even if it was non-metallic. Don't put it in the same conduit as the power circuit.

As long as you don't run your CAT6 across the ground wire on a power pole, you should be in good shape. Your "risk" is EMP. If the bin has a ground strap that attaches it to a ground grid... don't run your CAT6 there. The thing that used to kill all of our telephone modems was pole ground EMP.

RE: What is you surge suppression experience

kmikemoo — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 01:19:06 GMT

Ah... so kind of telecom to provide you with some lightning protection. I think you are at low risk of a direct strike but still at average risk of the elevated ground plane created by a near lightning strike - caused by the relative proximity to the telecon tower. and the inability of Mother Earth to dissipate that much energy instantaneously.
Now... if it hasn't presented itself as a problem up to this point, your efforts will be "taking a reasonable protective posture". You can make a sound financial decision. If the isolators are just a fraction of the cost of the equipment they protect... go for it. If they are even 25% the cost and you have never experienced an equipment failure from a near lightning event... put your money into other things.

RE: What is you surge suppression experience

colporteur — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 00:53:04 GMT

The CAT6 cable runs are outside the bin. On some other bins there are GPS antennas and cameras. I default to the yard supervisor for installation. He hasn't told me NO to this point.

I would have thought lighting rods would have been the norm on bins but not here. Over 90 bins some as high as 90 feet and not a lighting rod to be seen. The yard site is adjacent to a 1000ft telecommunication I figure that might be the lighting rod:) The guy wires from the tower cut through part of the yard.community.element14.com/.../20260708_5F00_101421.mp4 tower.