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Weather Station Hardware => Boltek/NexStorm Lightning Detectors => Topic started by: CurtisZM on August 25, 2016, 05:41:11 PM

Title: Boltek stormtracker PCI is being discontinued
Post by: CurtisZM on August 25, 2016, 05:41:11 PM
To All,

 I was looking into purchasing the Boltek Storm tracker PCI kit. I contacted Boltek and this is the response:

The StormTracker PCI system will be discontinued once we are out of stock.  Stock is very low therefore we have removed it from the website.
Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.
Title: Re: Boltek stormtracker PCI is being discontinued
Post by: saratogaWX on August 25, 2016, 05:54:23 PM
IMHO, it's not a bad thing to discontinue the PCI card.
It is a full-height old-style PCI bus, and it was getting harder to find replacement systems that had that bus--most have PCIe now, and the card was too tall to fit a 'mini' case.  So I've had to stick with a desktop tower case (Dell Optiplex 7010MT) just to have the full-size PCI card work.
Title: Re: Boltek stormtracker PCI is being discontinued
Post by: CurtisZM on August 25, 2016, 09:06:45 PM
  I'm sure it is easier to support the LD-250 & LD-350 as an external device.

   Just have to save longer to purchase the LD-250..
Title: Re: Boltek stormtracker PCI is being discontinued
Post by: JupiterJoe on October 01, 2016, 01:44:42 AM
I upgraded my weather computer and was bummed that the pci card didn't fit. So I just run lightning on the old computer while the new one runs all the other weather stuff.
I understand why they're discontinuing it, but it would be cool if they just updated it to a newer version pcie card to keep costs down. Their other two options are so expensive.
Title: Re: Boltek stormtracker PCI is being discontinued
Post by: weatherc on October 01, 2016, 07:58:25 AM
IMHO, it's not a bad thing to discontinue the PCI card.
It is a full-height old-style PCI bus, and it was getting harder to find replacement systems that had that bus--most have PCIe now, and the card was too tall to fit a 'mini' case.  So I've had to stick with a desktop tower case (Dell Optiplex 7010MT) just to have the full-size PCI card work.

There are mini-ITX-boards with fullblown PCI-slots and my own case are a pretty neat 35x20x15 cm sized one. But, yes, its a power-eater with today's standards (ca 20 watt) when running 24/7.

Btw. have someone even tryed to run LD on a Raspberry or any of its more powerful cousins? Running the "computer" itself at 1-2 watts would be a nice and lowpower wx-puter for for 24/7-running ;)
Title: Re: Boltek stormtracker PCI is being discontinued
Post by: MGCJerry on November 26, 2016, 07:51:21 AM
I ended up having to sell my Boltek PCI on ebay awhile back (and I think a member here bought it) and I'd love to get one again. I actually changed my wx server and modified it to take the PCI card for the Boltek. If I do get a LD250, ill need to invest in a crap card to get another serial port since it seems almost all of these "modern" expansion cards for legacy (or not commonly used) interfaces are made as cheap and unreliably as possible. Its a total shame too.
Title: Re: Boltek stormtracker PCI is being discontinued
Post by: eliteweathernz on January 18, 2017, 01:17:34 PM
This is correct. I import and distribute Boltek Lightning Equipment here in New Zealand. Boltek have phased the Stormtracker PCI card out.
Available is obviously the LD250 and LD350 Long Range detectors. EFM100 Short Range Detectors.

Hope this answers a few questions.