How the Astraphobe works...
The non-technical, plain English story...
Normally when your router and other equipment gets fried by lightning, its because the lightning comes in via the phone / ADSL line. This is very difficult to stop without spending a small fortune. You can of course unplug your equipment and lines which is free and very effective but its not safe to do this during a storm (do you really want to be holding a piece of wire when the other end is stuck by lightning?). The Astraphobe is self contained and has a built in storm detector. You plug your line into one end, and your equipment into the other end. When the Astraphobe detects a storm it tells you on its display. If and when the storms gets too close, it unplugs your line, so now your equipment can't get zapped. As soon as the storm moves away, it plugs you back in.
You do not need to do anything after installation and setup, its fully automatic. And that's it, simple! Now you can leave everything connected, go out, and let the Astraphobe do its thing. Its easy to set up, and the instructions are easy to follow. End of story! If you want more technical info, read on...
The slightly more technical overview...
The Astraphobe is designed to protect your sensitive electronic equipment from damaging high voltage electrical surges that may enter your house via your telecommunications line during the presence of a nearby storm. It does so by being installed in-between your line and your equipment, tracking storms in your vicinity, and disconnecting your line immediately the storm moves too close to you. As long as the storm is too close, your line and equipment remains disconnected, and as soon as the storm moves away and it is safe to do so, it reconnects your line. Effectively, the Astraphobe "unplugs" your line in the presence of a nearby storm, and "plugs" it back when the storm moves away.
Lightning Detection
Lightning is an electrostatic discharge either within a cloud or between clouds, or of course between a cloud and the ground. When lightning strikes, the visible lightning channels carry enormous electrical currents and behave as a giant antenna system transmitting an electromagnetic impulse. This impulse propagates through the atmosphere in a similar way to which television and radio signals are broadcast. The Astraphobe detects lightning by examining the atmosphere for these electromagnetic impulses. There are also many other man-made electromagnetic impulses, so any impulse received by the Astraphobe is first validated to establish whether or not the impulse was created by a lightning strike. If so, additional processing takes place to estimate the distance to the storm.
Mode of Operation
The Astraphobe has four modes of operation. Each mode has a corresponding display, which will always start with either the word “Online” meaning your line is connected, or the word “Offline”, meaning your line has been disconnected.
In normal operation, when no storm is nearby, the Astraphobe will display a message showing that you are online, that its clear, and approximately how long it has been since a storm was detected.
When a storm has been detected some distance away, the Astraphobe will show “Online. Stormy!” on the top line of the display. On the bottom line it will indicate the estimated distance to the storm, together with a timer counting up the time since the last successfully analysed strike.
If the storm gets too close, the Astraphobe will internally disconnect your line. On the top line the text will indicate “Offline” together with the current distance estimate of the storm and a timer counting down. When the timer reaches 0, your line will be reconnected, but any strike too close to you will reset the timer!
The Astraphobe incorporates a special power failure recovery mode. During a storm when the Astraphobe has disconnected your line, if the power goes off either momentarily or for an extended period, when it comes back on again the Astraphobe will enter power failure recovery mode, keep your line disconnected whilst it scans for storms. If no storm is found, your line is reconnected.
Flexibility
You may choose what distance the storm may approach, and what timer values to use.
Other features
A menu is used to select the various options. The Astraphobe also incorporates a feature where one may display and reset a strike counter, as well as display the total number of strikes, storms and disconnect events.
The non-technical, plain English story...
Normally when your router and other equipment gets fried by lightning, its because the lightning comes in via the phone / ADSL line. This is very difficult to stop without spending a small fortune. You can of course unplug your equipment and lines which is free and very effective but its not safe to do this during a storm (do you really want to be holding a piece of wire when the other end is stuck by lightning?). The Astraphobe is self contained and has a built in storm detector. You plug your line into one end, and your equipment into the other end. When the Astraphobe detects a storm it tells you on its display. If and when the storms gets too close, it unplugs your line, so now your equipment can't get zapped. As soon as the storm moves away, it plugs you back in.
You do not need to do anything after installation and setup, its fully automatic. And that's it, simple! Now you can leave everything connected, go out, and let the Astraphobe do its thing. Its easy to set up, and the instructions are easy to follow. End of story! If you want more technical info, read on...
The slightly more technical overview...
The Astraphobe is designed to protect your sensitive electronic equipment from damaging high voltage electrical surges that may enter your house via your telecommunications line during the presence of a nearby storm. It does so by being installed in-between your line and your equipment, tracking storms in your vicinity, and disconnecting your line immediately the storm moves too close to you. As long as the storm is too close, your line and equipment remains disconnected, and as soon as the storm moves away and it is safe to do so, it reconnects your line. Effectively, the Astraphobe "unplugs" your line in the presence of a nearby storm, and "plugs" it back when the storm moves away.
Lightning Detection
Lightning is an electrostatic discharge either within a cloud or between clouds, or of course between a cloud and the ground. When lightning strikes, the visible lightning channels carry enormous electrical currents and behave as a giant antenna system transmitting an electromagnetic impulse. This impulse propagates through the atmosphere in a similar way to which television and radio signals are broadcast. The Astraphobe detects lightning by examining the atmosphere for these electromagnetic impulses. There are also many other man-made electromagnetic impulses, so any impulse received by the Astraphobe is first validated to establish whether or not the impulse was created by a lightning strike. If so, additional processing takes place to estimate the distance to the storm.
Mode of Operation
The Astraphobe has four modes of operation. Each mode has a corresponding display, which will always start with either the word “Online” meaning your line is connected, or the word “Offline”, meaning your line has been disconnected.
In normal operation, when no storm is nearby, the Astraphobe will display a message showing that you are online, that its clear, and approximately how long it has been since a storm was detected.
When a storm has been detected some distance away, the Astraphobe will show “Online. Stormy!” on the top line of the display. On the bottom line it will indicate the estimated distance to the storm, together with a timer counting up the time since the last successfully analysed strike.
If the storm gets too close, the Astraphobe will internally disconnect your line. On the top line the text will indicate “Offline” together with the current distance estimate of the storm and a timer counting down. When the timer reaches 0, your line will be reconnected, but any strike too close to you will reset the timer!
The Astraphobe incorporates a special power failure recovery mode. During a storm when the Astraphobe has disconnected your line, if the power goes off either momentarily or for an extended period, when it comes back on again the Astraphobe will enter power failure recovery mode, keep your line disconnected whilst it scans for storms. If no storm is found, your line is reconnected.
Flexibility
You may choose what distance the storm may approach, and what timer values to use.
Other features
A menu is used to select the various options. The Astraphobe also incorporates a feature where one may display and reset a strike counter, as well as display the total number of strikes, storms and disconnect events.