Axlink Surge Protection

sonny

Any recommendations for surge protecting the Axlink port? I have multiple instances of losing thermostats recently, and in this case also lost an RF receiver. Processor made it through this one, thankfully.

Thanks, Sonny

Thomas Hayes

Are you using the pwr from the axlink or remote PS for each device?

sonny

Axlink power for the R2 interfaces, the thermostats only have ground connected since they are internally powered. Seems like the surge might be hitting the thermostats on 24vac from the HVAC system and getting into Axlink, not sure though. I'm working on that angle as well.

TurnipTruck

Be sure that your master controller is grounded. The fact it uses an external switching power supply usually means that it is not grounded unless specific action is taken to ground it.

If you have an Axlink Bus strip very close to the controller, I would use it as my system ground. If not, make a jumper from the Axlink ground connector to system ground.

Also, if your Internet access is from a cable modem, be sure that the incoming cable line is grounded electrically close to the rest of your stuff. I have seen numerous occasions where something came in on the cable line and blew things up that were on the LAN including Axlink devices.

Thomas Hayes

I once had an issue where I needed to remove the ground connection on the axlink and use only the AXP and AXM. The issue turned out to be bad AC wiring that the electrician had somehow ended up with a 60 V AC offset on the grounds.

TurnipTruck

More on Axlink

I generally connect the Axlink cable shield to ground at the master controller end only. If the cable loops through an Axlink device, I splice the ground through that device, but do not connect it to the device.

It is my theory that anything picked up by the shield should be drained back to the controller end where the real ground should exist.