HBBC-Tech-Team wrote

I installed 6 EAP225's in a church about a year ago. Since then I've had to install 9 replacements due to damage during lightening storms. In each case, ONLY the EAP225's have been damaged. No other equipment in the church was damaged. The problem seems to be the EAP225 data port gets blown. The unit seems to function but there is no data traffic. A factory reset makes the unit brain dead.

 

Just for the record, the PoE injector of each unit is plugging into an earth-grounded surge protector which is plugged into an earth-grounded UPS. And yes, I've verified the earth grounds are good. After the first round of damaged units I installed APC PNETR6 data line surge protectors on the data cables between the PoE injector and switch. This seems to have solved the problem for all but one unit, which has been replaced a total of 3 times in 11 months.
 

Is there ANYTHING your engineers can do to make the EAP225 data port tougher against ESD on the data line?
 

I love the Omada product line but I'm being forced to consider a complete replacement of the WiFi solution due to the cost of replacing failed units.
 

Thank you!

Hi,

1.In each case, ONLY the EAP225's have been damaged. No other equipment in the church was damaged.

You say only the EAP225 is damaged, could you please tell us is there any other model of EAP in the network?

2. A factory reset makes the unit brain dead.

1) Do you mean that when you have a reset for the EAP225, the EAP225 will be broken? Could you please tell us more details about it?

2) Do all EAP225 have this problem? What's the version of the firmware?

3. How did you find no data traffic is sent via the EAP225? Did you see it on the Omada Controller? What's the version of your Omada Controller?

forrest wrote

HBBC-Tech-Team wrote

I installed 6 EAP225's in a church about a year ago. Since then I've had to install 9 replacements due to damage during lightening storms. In each case, ONLY the EAP225's have been damaged. No other equipment in the church was damaged. The problem seems to be the EAP225 data port gets blown. The unit seems to function but there is no data traffic. A factory reset makes the unit brain dead.

 

Just for the record, the PoE injector of each unit is plugging into an earth-grounded surge protector which is plugged into an earth-grounded UPS. And yes, I've verified the earth grounds are good. After the first round of damaged units I installed APC PNETR6 data line surge protectors on the data cables between the PoE injector and switch. This seems to have solved the problem for all but one unit, which has been replaced a total of 3 times in 11 months.
 

Is there ANYTHING your engineers can do to make the EAP225 data port tougher against ESD on the data line?
 

I love the Omada product line but I'm being forced to consider a complete replacement of the WiFi solution due to the cost of replacing failed units.
 

Thank you!

 

Hi,

 

1.In each case, ONLY the EAP225's have been damaged. No other equipment in the church was damaged.

You say only the EAP225 is damaged, could you please tell us is there any other model of EAP in the network?

 

2. A factory reset makes the unit brain dead.

1) Do you mean that when you have a reset for the EAP225, the EAP225 will be broken? Could you please tell us more details about it?

2) Do all EAP225 have this problem? What's the version of the firmware?

 

3. How did you find no data traffic is sent via the EAP225? Did you see it on the Omada Controller? What's the version of your Omada Controller?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rather than answer questions that are covered in the original post, I'm happy to send you a couple damaged units.

HBBC-Tech-Team wrote

Just to wrap up this thread - the TPL engineers believe the problem is not due to ESD despite overwhelming evidence. And there is no interest in examining damaged units I've offered to send them. Shopping around for alternatives...

Hi,

For our EAP products, both the ESD test and lightning test meet the regulatory standards. When you power the EAP with passive PoE, the protection level of EAP225v3 has reached 6kV of surge protection. 

We have received similar feedback from our customers. In those places with much rain, EAP is easy to be managed because of the lightning stroke. 

You say after installing surge protectors on the data line, the frequency of units damaged during storms has been reduced, but not eliminated. So we think that it may because of the lightning stroke. After you install the surge protectors, the frequency has been reduced but still exists; you can check the wiring, location, etc.