Author Topic: Recomendations  (Read 2348 times)

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Offline txweather.org

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Recomendations
« on: June 21, 2014, 12:20:26 PM »
Team,

I am working on several upgrades and one of them is adding a lightning dectection system.
Doing some research (Very little) I like the Boltek system.

But what kit do I need?

Do I need the relay?

Also is there any software for this systems that work in Linux?

Thanks for the help and recommendations!

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Offline CamarilloWX

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Re: Recomendations
« Reply #1 on: June 21, 2014, 02:13:20 PM »
Have you checked out the Blitzortung threads?  I am considering going that route.
Eric

Offline txweather.org

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Re: Recomendations
« Reply #2 on: June 21, 2014, 02:19:57 PM »
Have you checked out the Blitzortung threads?  I am considering going that route.

I have seen it.
I just dont have the time to build the system :(

But it was my first choice... Or could be... :D

Thanks!

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Offline CamarilloWX

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Re: Recomendations
« Reply #3 on: June 21, 2014, 03:06:08 PM »
I dont really have time either but that usually doesn't stop me from starting a project. It's the finishing part I have trouble with.
Eric

Offline txweather.org

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Re: Recomendations
« Reply #4 on: June 21, 2014, 03:06:45 PM »
I dont really have time either but that usually doesn't stop me from starting a project. It's the finishing part I have trouble with.

ROFL.

Ditto! :)

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Davis Vantage Pro2 Plus +FARS|Meteobridge Nano SD|Meteohub|Meteobridge MR-3020|WU KTXSPRIN75/PWS JRARGWX75/CWOP EW2972/WBB TXWDVUE75/Blitzortung ID: 1142|AWEKAS: 12095
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Offline DaleReid

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Re: Recomendations
« Reply #5 on: June 21, 2014, 03:19:14 PM »
Boltek is stand alone.  Single station gets you some information, albeit sort of crude range and direction.

These are two entirely different approaches.

Boltek listens to a signal, then determines as best it can the direction, and then using the strength of the signal and software that comes with or can be purchased separately, some attempts at averaging and statistics to figure out maybe how far away it is.  Like seeing a picture of something and without surrounding reference having a clue as to how big it is.  And therein lies this method's problems.

I have had a Boltek for over a decade, and have purchased both the popular add on software packages that go with it.  One's advice in fine tuning the software is that, to paraphrase, it may take months of tweaking to get the approximate distances correct!  MONTHS!

Turning to the Boltek solution, I have had my system running for a couple of months.  IT IS NOT STANDALONE.  The problem is that my station gets a signal, which by itself is useless.  The magic, and I do mean magic, comes on board when that info is sent to servers that compare my time-stamped report of a strike to at least four others, sometimes up to twelve other messages from other users, and then computes where the strike might have been.  While the innards of their algorithms haven't been shared, the basic concept isn't hard, but the math and correlations are.

The best the strike locator can do is about 300 meters, if everything is spot on.  The error ranges posted with the strikes usually are a kilometer or so, and sometimes I see a three mile range error, but rarely more than that. 

A few months ago I was able to watch an approaching storm coming into a city where I was in a 19 story building watching the isolated storm approach.  I had some landmarks in the distance, and a road heading directly west of my location.  Within a second one cloud to ground stroke occurred south of the road, and then another a short distance north of the road.  Blitz's map showed those strikes and plotted them in darn near where I knew they had just hit.  Spectacular.

However I have had many strikes occur about my home location, and because they were either not seen by enough other stations to generate enough information for the Blitz system to try to calculate a strike, or were no strong enough to be heard by the other stations, or were cloud to cloud, they did not ever plot on the map.  My station was useless for seeing those near strikes since it overloads with such a powerful signal close at hand.

How about both?  Dip your toe in with the Boltek, and work on a Blitz station (and access to the precise data maps) as you get to it?

Enjoy, no matter what.

Dale
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Offline txweather.org

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Re: Recomendations
« Reply #6 on: June 21, 2014, 03:29:44 PM »
Dale,

Thank you for your information and experience share!

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Offline floodcaster

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Re: Recomendations
« Reply #7 on: June 21, 2014, 03:34:19 PM »
Dale,

Thanks for the detailed explanation. Isn't StrikeStarUS similar to what Blitz is doing or am I comparing apples to oranges here? I've had a Boltek for years but the Blitz network really interests me. However, my experience with building something like that is close to zero so I'm a bit intimidated by it all.

Bill
Bill


Offline Dr Obbins

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Re: Recomendations
« Reply #8 on: June 21, 2014, 05:00:39 PM »
Turning to the Boltek solution, I have had my system running for a couple of months.  IT IS NOT STANDALONE. 
Dale, I think you mean Blitzortung here.

I also had a Boltek for years and never got it tuned in during all that time. I believe that StrikeStarUS could do the same as Blitzortung if they did more programming. Look at these 2 screenshots taken at the same time. Keep in mind that StrikeStarUS is showing 60 minutes and Blitzortung is showing 120 minutes.

Offline DaleReid

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Re: Recomendations
« Reply #9 on: June 23, 2014, 01:11:29 PM »
I meant to bring a Boltek station on line, if you have it or can get one reasonable, and have SOME location and range data, WHILE you get a Blitz kit and start participating in the movement that we are all in here at this forum subgroup.

I had fiddled endlessly with the last two releases of the two programs for the Boltek and even when a storm was forecast (which usually sent me running to make sure the 'lightning computer' was on) it was of such little comparison to reality where the storm was and the immense, always present 180 degree shadow or ghost effect, that after awhile my initial five years of infatuation with the gizmo began to wane.

There is another option that takes GPS timing (an additional $1500 if I remember right for that board) and sort of does the Blitz thing.  I'm not sure if StrikeStar is purely that or a melding of the two technologies.

But my initial thought was that to get interested in storms and local detection and all, get on board with a Boltek and then if people began offering a service to build kits or an option for a functional board set does materialize from ETR (Egon, Tobi, Richo, et.al.) then one could grab that and have a different technology.

Sorry for the confusion.

Now I got to go look at how StrikeStar works....

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Offline dalecoy

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Re: Recomendations
« Reply #10 on: June 23, 2014, 02:46:38 PM »
I have been quite happy with the performance and accuracy of my Boltek system, for close to 10 years - having moved it a few years ago from New Mexico to Missouri.

http://www.thecoys.net/stormvue/StormVueNG.html

I also provide data to Strikestar, which in my opinion does a rather good job.

That's not to criticize the Blitz operations, of course.

It is technically very difficult to receive lightning strike data at a single location, and intelligently "guess" which of 4 types of lightning is involved, the direction, and the range.  Particularly if there may be other things in the near vicinity of the antenna that may distort and/or reflect the signal. 

 

anything