I meant to post this earlier but I kept getting distracted. My wife bought a weather station in 2006. She wanted to add a lightning detector to it soon after. This was our anniversary present to each other (12 years woo!). We are really happy with this system.

Before the kit arrived I ordered some other parts.
GPS Antenna http://www.ebay.com/itm/261553309782
Discovery board http://www.mouser.com/Search/Refine.aspx...4DISCOVERY
Shrink tube http://www.ebay.com/itm/111434272257
Magnet wire http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0082CUNVE/
R/C foam rubber http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006NATXY/
12 50x7.5 mm ferrite rods http://www.surplussales.com/Inductors/Fe...rRods.html
Heat gun from Harbor Freight

I followed these directions to make 2 antennas http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=19914.0. Well, I basically followed them. If you read through the comments you will find some changes to the process. I did not glue the ferrite rods together. I pressed them together and then put 1 wrap of electrical tape to hold them together. I put the rods in the shrink tube and used the heat gun. They are tightly held together. I wrapped the magnet wire on the outside of the shrink tube. I used electrical tape every so often. Ok, I actually deliberately spaced the electrical tape to be at the end and at the center of each rod so that the humps were evenly spaced. There is a tape hump where each rod touches the one next to it. After wrapping the wire I put the entire thing in another shrink tube and heated it up. I wrapped each antenna in the R/C foam (like in the directions) and then slid the antenna into 3/4" PVC. I did not use the metal foil shield. I used the ribbon cable shield. https://forum.blitzortung.org/showthread....01#pid4401





At this point I waited until Sep 24. Ok, the post office had it and gave me a note about it on the 23rd but I did not have it in my hand until the 24th. Woo.

The *wonderful* directions from W3DRM said to make the H-field amp first. I admit that I made the control board first. I soldered 1 module per night. The amp would not have been very entertaining by itself but the control board could be plugged into my network and I could play with the GPS and I could register the hardware. I also wanted to get a little bit of soldering in before I attempted those surface mount op-amps.

The control board soldering was pretty uneventful. I had already loaded the firmware on the discovery board the day it arrived so I was ready to plug them in and turn it all on. I had a little bit of Goldilocks fun with the phone chargers. The first one I plugged in was too low (4.0), the second too high (5.3) and the third was just right (5.1).

On Thursday I made the H-field amp. I had some trouble with the surface mount parts. It would take until the E-field amp before I remembered how I like to do those. I like to put a very small amount of solder on the pads before I put the component on. Ah well. I plugged everything in and had 1 working channel. I plugged the amp into the second input to see if I had messed up something on the controller board. Same results.

On Friday I decided to make the E-field amp instead of debugging the silent channel on the H-field. If I got the E-field working then the detector could use it while I was fixing the H-field. Alas once I was done the E-field did not work either. Crap.

Saturday I took the H-field amp offline and put a nice (less than 1 Vpp) quiet signal into the antenna inputs. Years ago my wife bought me a signal generator for I think $1 at a surplus auction from UTC. The General Radio 1210C and surplus oscilloscope did me good. I found that the signal went into IC7 but did not come out. A quick touch up and both channels worked.

On the to E-field! The pre-amp had power but the signal was not making it out. A continuity test showed that 2 of the 8 pins on IC1 were not connected to the board. That would be pins 3 and 6. I believe that is the input and the output. Yeah, I would mess up both of those. Some touch up work there and E-field works. Woo. I had a little bit of fun changing the frequency and watching the output change on the 3 output pins.

All in all this was much easier than my Elecraft K1.

A friend of mine gave me some 3/4" pvc so now to complete the installation I think I only need: 3 end caps, 1 junction box and 2 pieces of shielded cat 5/6 cable. Right now station 1181 still has its antennas in the computer room.

Has anyone received one of the latest shipments that went out in late August? If so, how was it shipped? Mail? Other? When did it arrive?

I live in middle Mexico and everything getting here is slow and I've still not seen the package.

Currently getting an error from nginx: "An error occurred. Sorry, the page you are looking for is currently unavailable".

Hi,

I am selling 1 of 2 Blitzortung System RED systems - either 874 or 966. These stations are currently running in Region2 - Oceania.

I have configured both the same way & both have the same antenna type.

The second unit was planned for a rural deployment which didn't eventuate.

I would prefer a Region2 / Oceania buyer, in order to add to the detection capability in the region.

Either reply or PM me if you are interested.


Regards,
Stephen

My station is new. It WAS showing up on the maps as being used for locations. Now, it is not.

Do I have to do anything or is it a server function (SNR, threshold, etc)?

Why every time I go to the Blitzortung.org forum do I now get a #$%*@ Taptalk page that I have to dismiss before I can get to the forum?
I have zero interest in using Taptalk and DON'T want to be constantly asked to download it, to me this is SPAM of the worst type, how can I avoid it??? Is there a switch I can add to the URL so I get straight to the forum?
I am using an iPad with ios8.
Ben.

I'm building the RED controller at the moment and I have come to putting the socket on the for the LCD. The kit includes two 10 position socket strips, but the board has holes for two 9 position socket strips.

I can easily clip off one of the pins to get it onto the board, but I thought that I would check first before doing that -- in case I am missing something obvious.

Also does the voltage regulator have to be screwed to the board?

Thanks

Philip

Is this part no longer needed or just missing from my RED controller kit?

Here I am sitting at my computer in Southern California 92883 and we are experiencing a very heavy thunder/lightning storm. My first though? Blitzortung.org!! I wanted to watch and hear it ping off every strike.

The problem is that while I've seen about 50 lightning strikes in the last hour, the website doesn't show them. Maybe two? Two out of 50? I assume the issue is lack of reliable detectors in my area. I'd be happy to help out if needed.

Hello,

I have noticed on the live maps display for New South Wales - Oceania, there appears to be a position eror of around 200km.
I have referenced two stations of known location to illustrate the apparent error.

I know the position error also seems to apply to the Albury station - as the Albury station should be close to the NSW/VIC border.

I can't reference the New Zealand stations - although their detections are shown on the "New South Wales" map, the stations are of fthe map.

regards,
Stephen

(Sth Sydney 1 & 2).

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