B-O-O-M-!!! (the culprit is discovered)

[johnridley]

This evening I went to address the fact that the dog's contain collar hasn't worked for a while. I replaced the battery and went to test it since it didn't seem like the old battery was in that bad a shape. Didn't work. So I went to the garage to check on the transmitter. Pilot light was out. Checked and found that the transformer wasn't plugged into the wall. Dug around and found it on the floor, with the plastic case off and the wires all chewed up. OK, some rodent likes wires.

Went inside to show J and to try to find a replacement wall-wart. Then realized, "that doesn't look like chewing. Actually, that looks a lot like the windings exploded." Went and got the transmitter box; it rattled.

It's been about 2 months since we got our close lighting strike; I think now we know what it hit; it must have hit the wire loop that the dog's collar runs on. The inside of the transmitter that's hooked to that loop is covered with black soot, a toroid was blown right off the board, the controller chip has a crater in it, and the transformer has the above mentioned damage. Check it out. I think this is the probable entry point for a big ole' spike.

Comments

[tceisele.livejournal.com]

I was going to say that the PetSafe "stubborn dog" collar[1] just uses a standard 9-volt battery, but I see that they seem to have redesigned everything recently, so now I'm not so sure. They are selling some moderately outrageously priced Duracell 9-volts on their battery page, so it probably does still use 9-volts.

[1] Yes, we have stubborn dogs.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

I'll probably wind up with PetSafe. I might try to find an older version that takes standard batteries though.
our dog doesn't need the extra zap, she stays pretty well anyway. If she decides to run the fence, it doesn't matter how high I turn the zap (the Innotek has 5 strength levels), she'll run it anyway. Generally this only happens when I've been standing in the neighbor's driveway talking for half an hour and she's decided she's done without her daddy for too long and she's going to be back with me again no matter the fence. She backs off about 100 feet and gets a run at it, and leaps over the wire, usually I hear "Yip!Yip!Yip!" as she hits apogee, then she skids up next to me.