I read a recent post from Beteljuice about the input stage of a cable connected WS2300 being fried by nearby lightning activity and have tried fitting surge protection to my WS2350.
My setup is 12m cable from display to hygro, 20m hygro to wind sensor, 10m hygro to rain gauge.
I wired the input to the display via a standard telephone Master outlet which includes suppression circuitry.
No way was this successful
The suppression appeared to chew up the waveform to the extent that communication failed. Time after time the unit tried to connect and then gave up, only occasionally did the odd single reading get through.
Taking out the suppression all is back normal
Has anyone fitted surge suppression on a La Crosse unit successfully?
Guess I will just have to remember to disconnect if there is any possibility of lightning around.

Brian

" .. I wired the input to the display via a standard telephone Master outlet .."

There MUST have been some sort of plug adaptor somewhere, or you wired it yourself - don't forget LaCrosse 'Pinouts' are non-standard.

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Make sure in your adapter the pairs dont cross over from one end to the other. Might be worth a visit to maplins to make your own "box of tricks" then add in the supressor technology

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I am quite sure that I got the wiring straight thro.
I metered 1 for 1 from the cable right to the RJ11 plug.
What is more, I made a direct replacement of the Master outlet for an Extension outlet which has no suppression and all was well again.
I know this is puzzling and I am not inexperienced in electronics and am convinced that I got the wiring correct.
It would be very interesting to know if anyone else has tried successful surge supression on a La Crosse unit with its strange technology.

" ... I am quite sure that I got the wiring straight thro .... "

For a Telco connection ! - LaCrosse don't use the 'usual' wires - what you expect to be a 'data' pair isn't.

I don't think I should have started this

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Hi Beteljuice
We will have to agree to disagree on this one.
I am convinced on my side, you on yours.
The reason I posted on this was to raise a note of caution to anyone trying a similar exercise.
It sure did blow yesterday and gave my system a real workout.

OK a few things, (I've done a bit of 'looking up')

A telephone or modem type protector should sort of work on the PC / wx side cable - It will NOT work 'as is' on the sensor side because of their crazy cabling.

For this PC side, a plug-board type is necessary OR if you are using a Telco jack fitted with GD21A ( not GD11B) with the Earth connected ! - this will offer some protection for the PC but not the wx !

Even if you wired your own on the sensor side cable then it is still possible for the com port to be fried because these are 'Shunt' circuits and may not dissipate the energy quick enough !

Apparently it is VERY difficult to stop your cabled system from being fried !

One recommendation I found was to put in LOW current, 10 Ohm resistors serially in all four conductors to act as a 'fuse'. ie. break open rather than shunt, but of course that does make them a 'One Shot' device. still something worth considering though.

The consensus of opinion is "If you expect lightning - unplug your external sensor cables"

Apparently this also applies to one-wire lightning detection systems

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Thanks Beteljuice, that really does clarify the situation and thanks for doing the research.
Guess it will have to be 'manual intervention'
You would have thought that the designers could have done better.
Sticking the anemometer as high as practical is not exactly an ideal position for an unprotected devce in a thunderstorm