Outdoor Ethernet Thunder Lightning Surge Protector for PoE+ Gigabit 1000Mbs - LAN Network

For an outdoor camera or access point, do you need one one on each end? that is, one at the outdoor camera location and one at the network rack? or will just one at the network rack be OK?

Hello, 
basically, you will need ethernet surge protector in front of each port where surge can occurs. If you have protector just on camera, and surge occurs between your rack will not be protected. If surge occurs at camera, you will be protected because you have protector between camera and rack.

What exactly is the "bi-directional Transient Voltage Suppressing (TVS) array"? The only components on the circuit boards are 4 gas discharge tubes.

That's just a prettier way of saying "gas discharge tubes".

Can you please elaborate on the protection this provides against thunder?

Thunder -No. Lightning, and static electricity, it will protect your equipment to some degree. Although there is no protection against an act of God that being a direct hit by lightning. If you ensure your grounds are done correctly and you utilize grounded ethernet cable it will do a very good job in protecting your equipment.

If i install this between the poe injector and outdoor access point will there be any degradation to power received by the access point device?

You will be fine, surge protector wont affect the POE.

Little off topic. Any suggestions on how to ground? I have 2 protectors - one outdoors and one indoors.

The outdoor surge protector should be grounded by a relatively heavy wire running from its ground lug to a ground rod pounded into the earth (preferably at least 6 feet long). For this application, 8 AWG or 10 AWG wire is sufficient, although some folks will suggest lighter gauge wire. The ground rod may come with a clamp that allows you to firmly attach the wire to the rod - if it doesn't, buy a proper clamp for that size rod. You should not use the same ground rod that is used for your building electrical ground, and I don't like using the same ground rod that is used by anything else, but I am rather careful about potential lightning damage - it can spread dramatically into interconnected systems.

I need to run ethernet to birdhouse camera mounted on a post. My house is old and doesn't have the third type grounding sockets so how would I ground?

Drive a ground rod at bird feeder an use adapter plug with ground tail.

Is there a way to test to see if it was hit indirectly, we had storms and my wifi ant. Quit working, I replaced wifi ant only and came back on but dont know if protector still good.

No, I don't know for certain. I have a number of these units in play, and when they have taken a hit, they typically blow and cease passing signal. So while I can't be certain, I think if they passing data they are good to go.

Is this item compatible with the Ubiquiti Air Fiber AF-24 Units?

Yes, Poe 50v not problem at all.

One Jack is marked IN, and the other OUT... but I don't seem to have any directions as to which cable goes where?

It doesn't matter which jack goes to your switch (or POE supply) and which goes to your device. The surge devices are simply connected between each Ethernet signal and ground. So just picture signals 1-8 connected together between the two jacks, 1 to 1, 2 to 2, 3 to 3, etc... Then each signal connects to a surge device (8x) which of course goes to ground. So IN can be OUT, and OUT can be IN. Just make sure to ground this device to a good earth ground. Hope this helps.

Do I have to use shielded cables to use this device? I realize that's recommended, but is it required for it to work?

If this is going to be used outdoors you need to use outdoor rated cable. If not then no.

Do I need one on each poe port or does one satisfy grounding? My switch has many poe ports.

If the devices connected on the other end are susceptible to lightning, then yes. If they are just devices inside your home, you are probably OK. I would make sure the switch is hooked up to a UPS.

Will this work between an nvr and an ip camera that is using poe to power the camera?

Apparently so. I have it installed between the POE injector and the wireless radio that services my LAN.

Is this UL Listed?

I do not know but have had no failures with this product. We use it on towers at 300 feet and they protect my Ethernet equipment from lightening.

My box arrive without any instructions... Do I need to conect one ground wire in the surge protector?

Yes, there is a grounding connector near the middle bottom of the printed circuit board. Get a piece of copper wire (solid copper preferred), crimp the copper wire to the O-ring terminal, connect the O-ring terminal back to the PCB, and extended the remaining end of the copper wire to a ground rod or other appropriately earth-grounded device.

Can I use this to protect an ip camera outdoors? If so how which terminal on the surge protector do I connect the camera output?

The unit has an "IN" and "OUT" Ethernet connection. In my opinion, the unit is designed to protect the equipment to which you plan to connect the IP camera. In other words, it is more likely that the IP camera or cable will be subjected to a lightening strike. If the surge protector is doing its job, then you loose the camera but protect the equipment downstream of the camera. Make sure to ground the protector using at least #10 wire. The camera output is connected to the "OUT" the router or computer is connected to the "IN". Keep in mind, that this suppressor may not protect against the enormous surge caused by a direct hit to the camera or cable.

I want to protect computers on both sides of an outside & exposed 200ft cat5e run. Should I terminate both ends with one of these i.e. buy 2?

Yes. Also you want as short a ground wire as possible. Note that the cable length from the protection box to the computer needs to be longer than your ground wire. You want a higher impedance in the wire to the device being protected then the ground.

Does this device require POE? Will simple cat6e gigabit network be protected?

Yes it will be protected. This device doesn't require PoE. It can be installed on non-PoE network.

For poe camera on a tower, how will this be mounted to the tower?

You should ground the surge protector to your house's common electric ground so mount it as close to your power meter as possible and connect the ground wire there.

Which side of the PoE injector should this be placed? On the powered side (between PoE/I and the camera) or between the PoE/I and the router?

Either side - depends where you want it grounded. This one allows DC pass through for standard PoE and PoE+. However, some PoE+ peripherals may exceed the clamp voltage.

How do you know if it's working properly or not? There are no indicator lights on it. Thanks.

This surge suppressor uses fast gas discharge tubes (GDTs) to suppress high energy transients, typically from lightning, but with very low capacitance so as to not affect high speed data circuits (yes this unit works for GigE). The GDTs will show physical damage after a high energy event that leads to failure. Take a look after any lightning hit or nearby hit to your building. However, a series of smaller events may not lead to visible failure, so the unit should be replaced based on an expected frequency of smaller surge events. Note GDTs require high voltage and induced current to trigger, so a close lightning strike (e.g., your backyard) may be one minor GDT event. Check the unit and replace after ~20 such events. A GDT/MOV tester can be purchased, but they are very $$$$ (continuity test is insufficient, you need a breakdown discharge test). A multimeter continuity test will show open for a good GDT and a typcially failed GDT (failure closed is possible after a severe event in which case damage is visible) For a typical GDT datasheet see Littlefuse SL1003A Series GDTs here: http://www.littelfuse.com/~/media/electronics/product_catalogs/littelfuse_gdt_catalog.pdf.pdf