Opinions of power transformers near PBX equipment

[telebub]

I would like to hear any opinions you all have regarding PBX equipment being installed near power transformers.

A couple of years ago, we had an Option 11 mounted in a small room a few feet from a power transformer. This system ran fine for about 5 years but then all of the sudden began having very strange problems. It would Sysload and INI for no apparent reason 3 or 4 times a day. Phones out on the floor would have popping noises coming from their speakers. We replaced everything but the dongle but nothing cleared the issue. Finally we thought it might be environmental and moved the system to the customer's computer room. It has been running fine ever since. Our theory was that the transformer must have been emitting something that drove the Option 11 crazy but we had no way of proving it.

Now we have picked up a new customer with an Option 61 sitting about 4 feet in front of a power transformer. They have several bad ports in this system and the customer states that they have ports go bad pretty often. It seems like they go bad a lot more frequesntly than they should. Because of my previous experience with the Option 11 near a transformer, I want to know if this system being so close to this transformer could have a detrimental effect.

I would greatly appreciate any opinions or personal experiences regarding this.

War Eagle!
Lions Baseball '09!

 

[GHTROUT]

I would say "Yes" the transformer definitely has an effect on the system, since it is such a strong EMF (Electric and Magnetic Fields)

http://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/emf/

<--- Look what it does the "people"

We've all had monitors and phones and watches fail at one time or another because of "what they are near". johnpoole has so much time in a hospital might have some experiences with phones in the radiology area. I know I've spent more time on phones in those departments.

So, it pretty much would go without saying "there is some effect".

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[don2119]

I had a similar problem at two different sites.
The problem was non approved grounding.

 

[telebub]

Interesting GHTROUT. I also tried to find some sort of statement from Nortel instructing not to install PBX equipment near power transformers. I looked in the Planning and Engineering guide but didn't see such a statement.

War Eagle!
Lions Baseball '09!

 

[pruden]

I would tend to agree with don2119. I have had several field experiences where improper grounding was the issue for random trouble reports. 4 feet should be enough space to make EMF a minimal issue. I would get out the docs and your meter and check and double check the grounds. One other point (got burned on this once when my company picked up a new customer) - you might want to look at the boards that are failing and maybe the shelves. We had a similar issue and it turned out that "a while back ..." the air conditioner line above the PBX leaked and over time the cards in one IPE stack started to fail. Might be an old issue that you don't know about - maybe you can see damage there.

 

[allenmac]

Basic electrical theory - to generate AC current you need 3 things, a magnetic field, a conductor, and motion. The transformer is providing the magnetic field and the motion, any pbx cabling running through that field is providing the conductor.

I have seen transformers too close to the telecom equipment / wiring play havoc with the system.

 

[telebub]

Thanks for your input guys. Don2119 and Pruden, I agree 100% with you regarding grounding and I understand that pretty well and that is the 1st thing I check when running into weird problems. I was mainly wanting more info regarding a big transformer sitting beside a switch and what impact it might have on a switch. I appreciate all of your responses.
I wonder if anybody makes an EMF curtain?

War Eagle!
Lions Baseball '09!