ADSL connection drops out when welding.

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salival

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#63061 20-Jun-2010 09:39

Hi Guys,

I have a ADSL connection with snap internet.. This is in no way their problem. I have enquired with them but they have never seen/heard of this before.

I bought a high frequency tig (Tungsten Inert Gas) welder to use out in the garage.. Been using it for a while. Everytime I weld be it AC or DC our internet drops out.

I can hold a connection for weeks with no disconnects.. soon as I weld, Bam.. disconnect.

Nothing else reboots/crashes/power cycles, The router disconnects doesnt power cycle.

It's a Thompson router that you get from telecom when you sign up.

The welder has NOTHING to do with phone lines in any way shape or form.. But, it can draw up to 27 amps input for 200 amps output.

Cheers

cyril7

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#343405 20-Jun-2010 10:45

Hi, HF welders use both AC or DC output, with an adjustable offset square wave output being more common to achieve either. They use some pretty nasty switch mode power supply techniques to generate this that can cause high frequency radiation, they also output a high frequency signal to assist gas ionization that can be anywhere from 15KHz through to 1MHz depending on the exact welder model.

The ADSL signals range from 25kHz through to 2.2MHz, so it quite reasonable to suspect that the welder is providing enough radiation back into the phone lines or modem to screw the ADSL, even though the welder and phone line/ modem may be several 10s of meters apart.

Its also possible that the power supply on the modem is marginal and the drop in 230V as the welder stricks is enough to drop the modem out of power supply regulation, but as it use a switch mode supply that can probably work down to quite low supply voltages its unlikely, and other applicances would have dropped out also.

So my guess is that radiation from the main switching supply or the HF ionization supply is getting into the phone line and upsetting things. Its possible this could also be coupling via power cables back to the phone line, dont forget that typically the phone line and power feed sit in the main trench coming up your drive let alone being in close proximity within the house frame itself.

Similar issues exist for folks living near large AM transmitters that also share the same spectrum.

I would start looking at the quality of the phone cables and their proximity to power cables, use higher twist rate cables such as cat5 rather than more common phone and cat3 cabling. Ensure you dont have any non twisted pair cables such as phone line cords connecting to your modem.

Do you have any idea if the phone cable is near the welder, even if its an extention line from the house to the garage, if thats the case disconnect it to see if it helps.

Cyril

n00dy

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#343420 20-Jun-2010 11:37

I would go with the power drop as well, I found that thomson is very sensitive to power I had the worng power suppy plugged in once and everyting worked but wouldnt establish an adsl connection the difference on the power was .5 amp

webwat

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#343589 21-Jun-2010 00:17

Then maybe plug tohe modem into a UPS to get a smoother power supply. Is your welding workshop near the Telecom line entry point or any phone lines? If not, maybe its worth moving the modem closer to the entry point, disconnecting the line closest to the welder, and/or installing a hard-wired splitter onto the line with Cat.5 going to your modem jackpoint.

Time to find a new industry!

cyril7

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#343619 21-Jun-2010 07:56

Have someone watch the modem when you fire up the arc, does the modem reset (ie all lights go through its boot sequence) or does just the DSL light go out, this will determine if its power dropping or interference.

Cyril