Electric fence phenomena

[tagh]

Interesting, when I have to operate old fashioned touch controls on T Vs they just would not work. So you have a reversed polarity pigeon pecking the wires when you approach. ….. well, noone else knows the answer to the problem either!

[RobertArthur]

@ Quicksilver, dietary habits among students perhaps as an explaining factor? One magnet a day keeps the meterman away...

[Polarengineer]

RA, yes of course I have had a gander at the insides. No burnt parts, no corrosion, removed the main capacitor and replaced just to re-establish the contacts. Reinstalled it in the horse shelter and it did the minute pulse thing. I gave up and checked prices of a new one and then got fed up with the crappy internet sites and gave up on that too. I popped out to re-establish contacts with the wires on the fence and the thing was working OK. Once again not broke just off colour. Totally weird.

[RobertArthur]

PE, about power quality and brown-outs, micro coupures and voltage spikes. En bout de ligne of the ENEDIS network these spikes can be rather nasty. With the introduction of a new range of scopes by Tektronix in the 80s, the 2200 series, the first generation switched-mode power supplies quite often blew up, especially in rural areas (Scotland). Voltage break down in semiconductors, end of the powerline reflections, voltage peaks much higher than expected. Perhaps your fence electronics react a bit nervous when these electric ghosts try to enter the horse shelter. How far away from the tableau électrique in your house?

Trial and error approach in your case: add a mains filter (Schaffner has lots of them) in combination with a simple parafoudre system. One step further: a little UPS.

[Polarengineer]

RA, I tend to think that a voltage spike would have caused permenant damage, not so? The unit is on its own tableau in the shelter with all the junk they contain and connected to the house tableau via a 160m underground cable. I have lost about 6 telephone gigasets from these spikes so I am aware of the dangers. There has never been an outage at the shelter due to lightning induced spikes. Bye the way the sangliers are not waiting for the solution, they have struck.

[RobertArthur]

PE, if the fence electronics get their power from a non stabilised power supply, only a transformer, diode bridge, electrolytic capacitor without a linear voltage regulator as the LM 317, there is a possibility of disturbances on top of the 5 or 12 V DC supply lines. We should ask the 555 ic if he/she/it likes it or not. The factory specs don't mention anything special. I'm puzzled.