Lightning & Surge Protection 101 - Part 1

As we all know by now, or will find out, microprocessor-based systems\devices and other sensitive [CMOS, etc.] electronics have a great aversion to voltages, currents, and frequencies they are neither designed nor intended to handle. Historically, a number of different schemes have been applied to the problems of lightning and surge protection, with varying degrees of success. In the case of Life Safety Systems [Fire Alarm, Mass Notification, Security, CCTV, Surveillance, Access Control, etc.], our main concern is preservation of specific systems, sub-systems, and devices in fully operational condition, and that is what we will focus on in this series.