NR5103E in EPNT2 blown up with lightning new setup required.

[Eagle]

Unfortunately the setup I made with putting an NR5103E has gotten blown up by blasts of lightning last night. So back to the drawing board again  The landline cable was arc'ing and the fuse box also made a blue flash . The paint along the cable is off the wall and the plastic cover for the landline shot from one side of the room to another. 

So then in the morning when I put the fuses back on and tried to power on the router this morning with the remote plug the PoE injector made a very loud bang and sparked as well. 
The huawei B535 I also use for Wi-Fi is fully dead and won't turn on either   Ill attach picture of some of the damage.

Should I try going for the NR5103E again with cell locking (swedish version that was on ebay) or should I try get the Three ireland NR5103E if even available. I wonder is the EPNT2 itself damaged as theres alot of plastic dust inside it now. Going to probably need another outdoor ethernet cable as well and PoE injectors etc.  
Just wondering if there's any improvements I can do now that I'm forced to and what I will need again?  

Unsure whether to get that swedish version with cell lock capability , or go for the V2 if it's even available or just get the same again ...

One other weird thing is the router randomly updated itself to B15 while using a Three sim so I wonder since Three Ireland also have the device does that also mean FW updates for theirs are getting installed onto this or does is it still coming from the UK Three.

[Eagle]

Managed to get a hold of the NR5103EV2.
I got firmware updated in letterkenny and noticed B7 being used.

[Seán]

That sure was a close strike , hopefully your PC is still working fine.  I have seen a few obliterated landline sockets before from lightning and had a few household appliances damaged from an overnight surge about 20 years ago.  Pity to lose another router from a thunderstorm.  I had a close call when I originally moved my Chateau 5G outdoors as just a week later we had the most intense lightning and downpours that I ever recall seeing here. 

I suggest replacing the Ethernet cable with a shielded outdoor Ethernet cable.  Even if the cable still works, the surge likely damaged the wiring insulation, which would lead to the wires degrading from moisture.  Shielded cable also offers better protection from surges as the PoE injector connects the outer shielding to the grounding wire.  I'm currently using this injector.  For the splitter, this one should work, which has the 2.5mm inner core that should fit the NR5103EV2, assuming it has the same 12V DC jack as the original model.  I'm using the 2.1mm model for my MikroTik Chateau 5G router inside a weatherproof enclosure. 

I suggest testing your EPNT2 first with one SMA port at a time to the primary antenna port.  If any port gives a very week or no signal, then that antenna element is damaged.  It is quite likely the antenna is fine as lightning tries finding the easiest path to ground.

Try the Huawei B535 with another 12V power supply as it may have just damaged its power supply.  I have seen a Eir router survive from a surge down a phone line where it just damaged the power supply. 

It may also be worth giving Eir another test run to see if they provide bands 1 and 3 yet, especially with Three having 5G on band n78 for a few years now.  From testing a roaming eSIM on Eir around our area, I'm surprised at just much their network improved with bands 1 and 3 operating in most areas that Three operates band 3 (and 1), whereas Three's performance degraded a lot in rural areas since their energy saving measures mid 2023. 

Hopefully the NR5103EV2's PCB also fits the EPNT2.  Just be sure to test the antenna ports first.

[Eagle]

Thanks for that ... I've ordered all those below they'll be here start of the week
20m ethernet shielded cat6 outdoor cable
The PoE splitter and PoE injector
Spare 10cm ipex-sma male connectors
1 Meter Cat 6 Ethernet cable

All of the ethernet cables are basically not working at all , don't get detected anymore

I'll make a post of the progress of teardown tmoro as I get through it , it seems to be even thinner than the V1 so it should fit. I had a quick test out the road with a power inverter and to my surprise it connected to B1,B3,N3,N78 (the dream combo) with full signal bars on both LTE and NR NSA . It gave about 250-300 down and upload was spiking well into the hundreds but it seems to drop instantly and stabilise around 50. I'd be over the moon if this router fixes the weirdness the last one has. I don't think N3 ever worked in the old one? I just hope it doesn't lose it's capability whenever I start trying to connect the ipexs from the internal antennas onto the EPNT-2 nightmare finding combos.

It did basically go straight into 5G without any issues as soon as I started a speedtest. I checked for firmware in letterkenny when checking out band 7's and it prompted the latest firmware version and gave me an option whether to do it or not. Unlike the V1 where it just says inet connection failed then starts rebooting itself and installing. So the fact it can update from home now is great.

And the spare plug I have worked on that B535 router that's nice I don't have to get another although the ethernet port is dead. The rest still work. I'm lucky the ethernet port on the PC is ok too.

My only concern now is how the tear down on the V2 will work out!

---

Nice bit of potential firmware modification for cellular lock maybe?  This is a post from ispreview.
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/talk/threads...ost-345967

[Eagle]

I have just remembered I have tp link PoE splitter I orginally ordered back with the V1 and it has the 2.1mm jack , but so does the NR5103EV2 I've just realised. It has a switch for 5v 9v and 12v not sure which one to use?

I also have a TP link TL-POE150S (48v input) not sure whether it's strong enough to power it or not. Believe the output is 24w.
I found a ubiquiti one as well with the same spec , all of the stuff I ordered before for mikrotik LHG setups before probably coming in handy

I'm going to start trying to disassemble the V2 to see how it is on the inside. I may just order an EPNT-2 to come Tuesday as well to be sure everything is 100%.
One thing is I vaguely remember initially setting up the EPNT-2 and it had a much stronger signal when I first got it but then it seemed to have issues. I had a fear I might've drilled too far in with the screws. I wonder would that cause any signal loss to it.

[Seán]

Check the voltage of the power supply for the NR5103EV2 to be on the safe side. This is the voltage to set the switch to on the PoE splitter, most likely 12v like the original V1. Nice to see if the NR5103EV2 using the more common 2.1mm jack as these plugs are more widely available, particularly for DIY leads to power from a 12V battery, etc.

You can try that TP-Link PoE injector to see how well the router operates with it. It provides 48 volts down the Ethernet cable and the PoE injector converts that voltage down to selected voltage for the router. I don't think the Ubiquiti PoE injector will work as I originally bought a Ubiquiti PoE injector for my set up and it would not power the 12V generic or TP-Link PoE splitters I have.

Best of luck with it connecting both 5G bands there as that looked promising with it connecting to both down the road. I remember you mentioning that the old one would not work with 5G band n3 until you drove to the shore closer to the mast. 250-300Mbps is also very impressive without an antenna from your distance, so you may get higher once fitted into the EPNT-2.

[Eagle]

Yeah it's indeed 12v so that's good. I have the new EPNT-2 and started tearing the NR5103EV2 apart so I'll move to the new thread. Since the N3 worked with just INT antennas I'm hoping it'll do the same  in the EPNT-2!

https://confusedbird.com/thread-318.html