is my raspberry or SD card toast or both ?

[Texican]

As I posted about yesterday, when the lightning hit and burned down my guest cabin, it also seems to have fried some other equip located in different building where I keep my solar equipment.
I know 1 of my poe ethernet switches that allow comms from solar assistant and some poe camera to a router 100 ft away will not power on at all.
I can not seem to connect with solar assistant
1. if I unplug ethernet from SA and restart, it does NOT make a wifi called solar assistant
2. if I try bluetooth, my phone and tablet say connected but at 10.0.0.5 on a browser I get nothing
3. If I ethernet SA to laptop and browse to solar-assistant.io/sites/local, I get the following info


if I click on either ip address I get can not reach this page, took to long to connect
if I click on my site name, it gives me the SA connect with bluetooth page

so far I have not tried connecting SA via a router with internet access as I am waiting on a new poe switch coming later today

trying to see if I need a new raspberry, or maybe my sd card for SA is toast or both ? hate to waste $250 If I dont have to

 

[wildbillpdx]

Several things you can try. First, pull the SD card and see if you can read it in a regular computer. If you can, attach the raspberry pi to a monitor or tv using and HDMI cable to see what happens at boot.

Does the pi connect to your router and get an IP address? Can you ping it?

 

[Texican]

Several things you can try. First, pull the SD card and see if you can read it in a regular computer. If you can, attach the raspberry pi to a monitor or tv using and HDMI cable to see what happens at boot.

Does the pi connect to your router and get an IP address? Can you ping it?

put the sd card in windows laptop and it says
there is a problrm with your drive, scan the drive to fix it

I am able to see the files, should I go ahead and scan and let it try to fix it ?

plugging SA ethernet into router did not seem to work

 

[wildbillpdx]

put the sd card in windows laptop and it says
there is a problrm with your drive, scan the drive to fix it

I am able to see the files, should I go ahead and scan and let it try to fix it ?

plugging SA ethernet into router did not seem to work

I’d wait on the sd card. Windows may not understand the file system. If you have another card try downloading a fresh image from the SA website and see if you can boot the pi from that. You still should try attaching a monitor to see what messages you may get during boot.

 

[irv818]

put the sd card in windows laptop and it says
there is a problrm with your drive, scan the drive to fix it

I am able to see the files, should I go ahead and scan and let it try to fix it ?

Definately not.

I would hook the Pi to a monitor and keyboard and see what happens when you (try) to boot it.
From there, try burning a new sd card, and see if that boots.
Eliminate one failure point at a time.

 

[wildbillpdx]

Definately not.

I would hook the Pi to a monitor and keyboard and see what happens when you (try) to boot it.
From there, try burning a new sd card, and see if that boots.
Eliminate one failure point at a time.

Huh...just what I suggested.

 

[rpdom]

Ignore the message from Windows about a "problem" with the card. You should see two "drives" associated with the card. Ignore the second one - that is Linux formatted and Windows won't recognise it (it will recommend you format it, which will wipe out your SA system). Check that the first one looks good. If it is, the card is probably good.

I agree with the suggestion to connect the Pi to a monitor or TV and see what (if any) messages you get when you connect the Pi to power.
Also, if it is a Pi 4, try connecting it without the card in. You should see a diagnostics screen (unless it is an early Pi 4 that hasn't had it's firmware updated).

 

[Madcodger]

Also, FWIW (hopefully helpful) to anyone reading this thread - a cautionary tale about POE switches and lightning...

I have a Ubiquiti switch that does POE on about 1/3 of its ports in our "main" building. I installed that high-end switch simply because a nearby lightning strike took out a cheap POE switch I had, and the Ubiquiti was the only POE switch I could find within driving distance (was during Covid craziness and this is rural Maine). I remember whining about how I didn't need all its fancy features, and that I had to buy some controller thingy just to use it, but it was all I could find at that time. Anyway, thst fancy switch has been fine for about 3 years now, while an additional TWO of those cheap POE switches in other buildings on the property have been fried during thunderstorms, each time taking out something attached to it (latest was a Peplink AP, which ain't cheap). Meanwhile, the fancy Ubiquiti switch and everything attached to it, and POE injectors used in other places around the property, have all been fine during those same storms.

The moral of the story is that if you, like me, have been using cheap POE switches, at least some of them seem to be especially bad at handling lightning, and especially good at allowing surges to flow through to equipment attached to them. Personally, I'm done with anything but high-end POE switches, and will use multiple individual POE injectors in "outlying" areas on the property where the Ubiquiti can't directly supply power. In fact, I'm convinced that using individual POE injectors is overall probably my smartest move despite the modest increase in overall power consumption this might entail, as having multiple things connected to a POE switch seems to be an invitation to lightning damage. Anyway, the cost of replacing the fried equipment has already exceeded any savings I found from using those cheap POE switches. Hope that little story helps someone.

 

[Supervstech]

Any string of wire will pickup emf from a nearby strike and send high voltage along it.

I recommend GROUNDED shielded cable when using poe...

And I frequently unplug electronics when a storm is coming.