Early morning spark show

CanCuba

CanCuba

Known around here
Dec 9, 2020
1,240
3,945
Havana, Cuba
** Upload the second video is crapping out on me so the video in this post is the good one**

Since I need a CPAP machine to sleep (total life-changing device for me and many others), I'm acutely aware of power outages at night. It doesn't become impossible to breathe but is a bit more difficult.

Went out twice last night for about 20 minute each time. The second time, I was first woken up by a buzzing and then some noticeable "booms". Checked the video this morning and what a treat!

This is the newly mounted refurbed 4KX from @EMPIRETECANDY. You can see how quickly it adjusted for the very rapidly changing light conditions. The first video is pretty good, the second is excellent! You can see the streetlight (which has never functioned in my 5+ years here) being blown open and the bulb falling down. Then the smoke passes by the camera for a few seconds.

Since my system is on a 150ah backup, I'm able to keep illumination. And pleasantly surprised at how well the illuminator on the cam worked. There's also a solar powered reflector about 15' to the right of the camera and about 8' back.

And to say nothing of the mic on this cam.
 

Attachments

Last edited:
  • Like
  • Wow
Reactions: mat200, guykuo, JDreaming and 10 others
I'm betting that a transformer exploded on a pole behind the tree with the 3 blue trash cans. It seems to be the source of the first light AND much debris comes down below it.

Image40.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: mat200, JDreaming, Parley and 4 others
I agree that a transformer probably blew. It was most likely caused by a small animal traveling along the pole wires.

This happened often at my parent's house with squirrels. They would travel the pole wires and touch the transformer. Then boom! ... an explosion and power outage. The electrical company finally designed a way to keep the squirrels from touching the transformer.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mat200, JDreaming, Parley and 2 others
 
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: Jim I., CanCuba, JDreaming and 2 others
Just checked and the transformer is one more post up the street.

Very well could have been an animal as we see rats running along the wires quite frequently.

But it looks like the branches on the second tree starts to sway with the wind.

They've been neglecting forestry work on the right of ways so I suspect it was the same bunch of branches that caused a 23 hours power outage on the same block last week.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JDreaming, Parley, looney2ns and 2 others
Rodents can be hard on electric service even when they don’t short the wires and fry themselves. This was at the mast before it went down to the meter at a house we were installing a generator at. Luckily the line workers decided to just cut the wires there instead of shutting down several houses on the same transformer. This was the neutral almost chewed completely through by squirrels
IMG_0558.jpegIMG_0557.jpeg
 
  • Wow
  • Like
Reactions: mat200, TonyR, CanCuba and 6 others
97JeepXJ said:
Rodents can be hard on electric service even when they don’t short the wires and fry themselves. This was at the mast before it went down to the meter at a house we were installing a generator at. Luckily the line workers decided to just cut the wires there instead of shutting down several houses on the same transformer. This was the neutral almost chewed completely through by squirrels
View attachment 186153View attachment 186154
Click to expand...
Similar squirrel damage at MIL's house:

Zmodo / Funlux suck how they manipulate the game.

Scratch that...I see what happened. They didn't "hide" for the reason you think. It was in the attempt to not have the community get a shilled deal essentially. I happen to know that forum ;) You absolutely should mod alert shills! If you feel that hasn't been working, just PM me there...
ipcamtalk.com ipcamtalk.com
 
  • Wow
Reactions: JDreaming and bigredfish
TonyR said:
Similar squirrel damage at MIL's house:

Zmodo / Funlux suck how they manipulate the game.

Scratch that...I see what happened. They didn't "hide" for the reason you think. It was in the attempt to not have the community get a shilled deal essentially. I happen to know that forum ;) You absolutely should mod alert shills! If you feel that hasn't been working, just PM me there...
ipcamtalk.com ipcamtalk.com
Click to expand...
Oh wow, that took me down a rabbit hole of learning about Zmodo cameras, seeing @mat200, @fenderman, and yourself calling out peoples bullshit like usual.. good times, good times. But anyways, it appears that our customer was very close to being in the same situation as your MIL. To the point the missing wire was pulled out by hand while they were up there.
 
  • Like
  • Haha
Reactions: looney2ns, mat200 and CanCuba
Always amazed me how much damage rats/mice, squirrels or rodents in general can do to electrical mains yet never seem to suffer the expected consequences. They LOVE to chew on anything electrical, from LV cabling to mains feeds... yet I never find dead critters around the damaged cables. Well, almost never. Once I saw 2 male squirrels chasing each other back & forth over overhead triplex cable (240 split phase residential). They got away with that being triplex is insulated... but the party ended badly when one squirrel decided to jump off the secondary drop on the pole transformer, and hopped up onto the 13,200V primary open wire transformer supply. The ensuing noise and smell was unforgettable. Blew the transformer fuse (which if you've heard them, sound like a gunshot), knocking out power to my house for several hours until utility bucket truck arrived. The lineman said squirrels crow-barring primary distribution feeds was a common problem. I felt bad for him having to scrape the stinking charcoal squirrel skeleton off the xfmr insulator. The other squirrel lived to brag about his ordeal, though something tells me he learned nothing. :rolleyes:
 
  • Like
Reactions: JDreaming, looney2ns, lulu5kamz and 4 others
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom