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Weather Station Hardware => Blitzortung => Topic started by: Cutty Sark Sailor on July 11, 2014, 05:42:24 PM

Title: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: Cutty Sark Sailor on July 11, 2014, 05:42:24 PM
February 1 2015    UPDATE
For several reasons the signals data has been moved to non-public access.
Please see post http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=25107.0
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: miraculon on July 11, 2014, 07:39:24 PM
That's pretty cool, Mike. Sure beats typing over "signal" or "FFT" and the station number all the time in the image URL like I have been doing...

Greg H.

Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: JonathanW on July 11, 2014, 08:03:54 PM
Nice work, Mike!
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: Maumelle Weather on July 11, 2014, 10:09:28 PM
Thanks Mike for doing this. I realized today that I have not grounded my controller. ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) Plan on doing that tomorrow, if possible, before it gets screaming hot.

John
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: Knickohr on July 12, 2014, 05:42:15 AM
Thanks Mike for inspiration  =D>

I adapt this to my station, works pretty fine  8-)

http://www.sternhimmel-ueber-ulm.de/blitz/blitz.htm

Great job !

Thomas
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: Jumpin Joe on July 12, 2014, 09:01:21 AM
Sorry for the late response.... 

Thanks for all of your hard work and support of Blitzortung and WXForum.  =D>  =D>

Joe
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: dfroula on July 12, 2014, 11:14:53 AM
What does it signify when one's station is highlighted in yellow?
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: DaleReid on July 13, 2014, 09:16:44 AM
Great Effort!

This is a treasure trove for those who are curious, to say the least.

THANKS.

Hey, maybe it isn't enough caffeine here, but what did you mean by this statement?

" proper 'cycle' images for your station... upper left corner of each image..."

I'm not getting it.  What's a cycle to you?  The version? The stepping through the images?  I'm confuzed.

Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: DaleReid on July 13, 2014, 11:06:23 AM
I gotcha.  It would be 'watching updates happen' in my vernacular!

No static images unless the aforementioned things are causing the station to not be updating in the server.

Just verbage, but I was thinking of having to manually click on something to see it change.

All is well with my page.

Two questions more:

How much of a load does this place on the BO server?  Does it efficiently dispatch to your display scripts, or is it a bandwidth hog when you are getting a request for a display (which, question 1a, is do you generate those displays constantly, or ONLY when someone loads a particular station and then your software gets busy?)

Final question:  Do you drink from a fountain or a bubbler?

Dale


S
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: DaleReid on July 13, 2014, 01:27:54 PM
Thanks for how you do it.

And, is it pop or soda?

Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: W3DRM on July 23, 2014, 11:10:34 PM
REDS: When you upgrade to firmware V7.2 you will see some interesting changes in your signals display...  ;)
(Find 7.2 after BO login, miscellaneous, firmware directory)

I noticed there was a new firmware version available on the controller webpage under either the Status or Settings tab (can't remember which one showed it). I just clicked on download and it grabbed the latest version.
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: W3DRM on July 27, 2014, 10:37:16 PM
Forgot to mention... duh


One feature of the 'signals'  is not working - Egon turned it off at the server a few weeks ago as they began loading new processing. On the far right of the signal image is a red line... when this feature is available, that line will move to somewhere in the waveform for each signal... that means the server used it, and selected that point on the waveform. Also, on the 'channel' display text information, a 101 would show by the 'used' channel. If the signal was not used, that would show '100' and the red line would remain at the right margin. I hope he'll turn it on again, we can then get an idea of what a 'good' signal looks like...

Have been looking at various sites to see how everyone's waveforms compare to mine. While doing this, I just noticed that the red-line is still fixed at the right-side of the signals display but now, I am seeing a vertical white line that seems to move around on the display. Does anyone know what this white line is indicating? Is it new or have I just missed it in the past?
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: bidouilleur on August 10, 2014, 08:56:26 AM
what do you loose by asking their help ?
the no you have, the yes you risk  ;)
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: bidouilleur on August 10, 2014, 01:12:57 PM
hence why I'm also here, what else to say to those who help :  =D>
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: miraculon on August 14, 2014, 09:02:28 AM
Added 1141, Norman Oklahoma, on the campus of the National Weather Center!  Welcome aboard!  http://frankfortweather.us/BoStaSig/

This is pretty cool  8-)

Greg H.
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: Jumpin Joe on August 14, 2014, 09:39:04 AM
Greg,

I think it's REALLY Cool!!!   =D> =D>

Joe
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: Jumpin Joe on September 01, 2014, 11:00:31 AM
Mike,

Thanks for all of your Labor in keeping up with everything!!! =D> =D>

Welcome to 1154 in Rochester, San Jose and the campus of NWS in Norman, OK !

Joe
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: schaffer970 on September 02, 2014, 03:24:18 PM
Looks like Tobi made his changes???  I'm not seeing anything in the Tool.  #-o
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: W3DRM on September 03, 2014, 11:43:05 AM
It looks like all of the Region 3 signals are flat-lined... Those from Europe appear to be okay. I guess this is an indication that Egon is still working on the servers.
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: JonathanW on September 04, 2014, 07:56:44 AM
Nice!
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: Maumelle Weather on September 04, 2014, 08:19:01 AM
I like that a lot, Mike. Being able to see each channel is a major plus.
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: miraculon on September 04, 2014, 08:26:32 AM
Curiously, my 6.8USB "Green" waveforms are still working (as is FFT).

Still wish that they would put E-Field into the FFT....

Greg H.

Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: miraculon on September 04, 2014, 10:51:37 AM
 #-o

Why did I miss that?!?

I guess that I was thinking about the all-in-one FFT, but that would probably be a big mess. Looks good Mike, I guess that I am a "little slow" this morning....

Greg H.

Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: Silversword on September 06, 2014, 06:16:04 PM
Hi Mike,

Is there something that I am missing to do as I see that I have been seeing flat lined graphics at http://frankfortweather.us/BoStaSig/maui993/index.html (http://frankfortweather.us/BoStaSig/maui993/index.html)?

Your hi res looks very good.

May I suggest that your http://frankfortweather.us/BoStaSig/ (http://frankfortweather.us/BoStaSig/), either be in numerical order by Stations or in alphabetical order by Country/State... might be easier to locate instead by City.  Just my thinking...

Thanks for getting this project to where we can see what others are seeing to make some comparison.

Regards,

--Stan Y.
   Maui, Hawaii
 
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: bidouilleur on September 07, 2014, 11:00:47 AM
Cutty

question being region 1 (France) where the graphs are dead for several days. You seem to still have access to them, you generate them privately or Egon gave you a testing access to new graphs?

I guess the generation of these graphs is quite ressource hungry and since many stations have been added in very short time, I guess the poor servers have the fans spinning full speed.

Any details of what's coming or a possibility to start some graph generating on private servers ?

wondering if a boinc style collaboration might be interesting to share some work over all the red stations we have, mostly using like 30% cpu, there is capacity to use I think ...


Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: bidouilleur on September 07, 2014, 12:10:43 PM
just curious and eventually to answer on the french forum if someone asks
thanks for your time
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: Cutty Sark Sailor on September 11, 2014, 11:17:44 AM

Now, some station's info should be updated or corrected:  You might consider doing this, if you haven't.

Please, if you haven't, read the initial updated post in this thread!  http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=23233.msg223608#msg223608
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: Jumpin Joe on September 11, 2014, 12:48:25 PM
9/11/2014

Ok,.. pages are back online... http://frankfortweather.us/BoStaSig/index.html
Only about a third of the pages have been upgraded, so bear with me...  other things been going on...

The Index Page is now sortable by Station Number, City, and State... page isn't perfect yet, but....
Station pages who have been upgraded have a select menu at top of graphics.
Note... "Green Stations" are apparently not locked into the new server generated graphics format as yet, so remain as before...,
Red Stations whose pages haven't been updated remain in the old format, and show no signals, or menu.

Discovered a few things while updating....
Now, some station's info should be updated or corrected:  You might consider doing this, if you haven't.

Please, if you haven't read the initial updated post in this thread!  http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=23233.msg223608#msg223608

Mike,

Thank you for all of your hard work!  =D>

Joe
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: Silversword on September 13, 2014, 03:30:17 PM
Hi Mike,

Looks like your http://frankfortweather.us/BoStaSig/index.html (http://frankfortweather.us/BoStaSig/index.html) page is being redirected for some reason...Hope that it is my end and not yours.

Regards,

--Stan Y.
   Maui, Hawaii
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: Cutty Sark Sailor on September 13, 2014, 03:36:19 PM
Hi Mike,

Looks like your http://frankfortweather.us/BoStaSig/index.html (http://frankfortweather.us/BoStaSig/index.html) page is being redirected for some reason...Hope that it is my end and not yours.

Regards,

--Stan Y.
   Maui, Hawaii

No, it's on my end... may take awhile to resolve.... dang it... may be awhile...     working...working...   and it's a weekend....
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: schaffer970 on September 13, 2014, 11:59:09 PM
See things are back up!  Hope you realize how much all of us appreciate what you do.   =D> \:D/
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: Cutty Sark Sailor on September 14, 2014, 12:27:23 AM
See things are back up!  Hope you realize how much all of us appreciate what you do.   =D> \:D/
Yeah, me too!  :twisted: Had to resort to a few threats.... been with my host for over 10 years, never been treated like this... India's heard about it... wait till Monday when US dudes come to work!   I'm gonna get some a*****es terminated.   Hope I don't get myself terminated in the process...  :roll:

Anyway, thanks very much for the 'preciation' thought,... this does take a bit of work,... especially since I'm not a 'server guru' like some...

Anyway, check all the data and pages,... I think all stations that are active are now online... I got confused, and need to recheck everything before I post back status in the primary post,...

Let me know if anybody catches anything amiss.... would be best, probably, with a PM....

Thanks again!

Mike


Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: Cutty Sark Sailor on September 14, 2014, 08:13:20 AM
Thanks to n2qew  =D>  for browsing through all the pages, and catching a few things... I'll try to get 'explanations', fixes, and some refinements up later today... meantime let me know (PM) of errors or anything similar that you notice.

 ](*,)  Mike
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: JonathanW on September 14, 2014, 10:37:48 AM
See things are back up!  Hope you realize how much all of us appreciate what you do.   =D> \:D/
Yeah, me too!  :twisted: Had to resort to a few threats.... been with my host for over 10 years, never been treated like this... India's heard about it... wait till Monday when US dudes come to work!   I'm gonna get some a*****es terminated.   Hope I don't get myself terminated in the process...  :roll:

Anyway, thanks very much for the 'preciation' thought,... this does take a bit of work,... especially since I'm not a 'server guru' like some...

Anyway, check all the data and pages,... I think all stations that are active are now online... I got confused, and need to recheck everything before I post back status in the primary post,...

Let me know if anybody catches anything amiss.... would be best, probably, with a PM....

Thanks again!

Mike

Hi, Mike,
I don't think my station page (1013, Montgomery Village) is up yet.

Jonathan
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: Cutty Sark Sailor on September 14, 2014, 11:25:09 AM


Hi, Mike,
I don't think my station page (1013, Montgomery Village) is up yet.

Jonathan
Jonathan, it should be now... Please check again...
... sorry.   :oops:

This is probably not the only goof....  :roll:

Mike
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: Cutty Sark Sailor on September 14, 2014, 11:27:47 AM
9/14/2014
ALLRIGHT  =D>
http://frankfortweather.us/BoStaSig/index.html

...and check this thread's initial post for any mods or updates and other info...
Still have refinements and tidying-up to do, so bear with me.... find errors or issues, let me know!

Mike
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: JonathanW on September 14, 2014, 05:22:12 PM


Hi, Mike,
I don't think my station page (1013, Montgomery Village) is up yet.

Jonathan
Jonathan, it should be now... Please check again...
... sorry.   :oops:

This is probably not the only goof....  :roll:

Mike

No problem at all -- I appreciate you providing the page!  Looks good now.

Jonathan
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: Cutty Sark Sailor on September 14, 2014, 06:35:25 PM
Just added new stations
Colchester Vermont  1168
Soddy Daisy Tennessee 1166

Welcome!
and
HAPPY ORTUNGS
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: StElmo on September 14, 2014, 09:57:51 PM
Thanks for the welcome and picking up 1168 for your list. Finished soldering this afternoon ... and it worked!

It's still in the cardboard-box breadboard stage, in the basement near computers, CFLs, LEDs, etc., and often gets into interference mode. I will work on improving the performance.

Paul
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: schaffer970 on September 16, 2014, 12:51:10 PM
Things seem to be not working - Eagon change links on you???   ](*,)
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: Cutty Sark Sailor on September 16, 2014, 01:14:20 PM
Things seem to be not working - Eagon change links on you???   ](*,)
Yeah,....  ](*,)
 he'd implied they might be temporary. I'm not sure the links were actually changed... I know he was modifying them some yesterday, and now I rather think he's redirected them to another part of the server that only the developers can see, and are using to evaluate quality of station signals and performance.

Well, we will just have to see...

Mike
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: Cutty Sark Sailor on September 16, 2014, 06:18:09 PM

Offline until further notice...   :?: :?: :?:

Developers working on alternatives...

Mike
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: W3DRM on September 25, 2014, 04:08:56 PM
Has anyone developed a dynamic Blitzortung map that shows not the lightning strikes, but the status of all known Station ID's? It would be nice to have access to a Google-maps based display that shows all stations along with a color-coding that indicates whether they are on-line (green), in interference mode (red) or off-line (blue). Some kind of notation on each station showing its' station ID number perhaps on mouse roll-ever would also be nice. I'm sure the station and status info is available via the servers.
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: Cutty Sark Sailor on September 25, 2014, 04:27:46 PM
Grids map http://www.blitzortung.org/Webpages/index.php?lang=en&page=1 shows grey station marker if offline....
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: StElmo on September 25, 2014, 06:00:09 PM
Welcome Blitz station 1169 in Halifax. More data from northeastern North America.

Paul
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: W3DRM on September 25, 2014, 10:53:10 PM
Grids map http://www.blitzortung.org/Webpages/index.php?lang=en&page=1 shows grey station marker if offline....

Well that is a D'UH...  :oops:

Thanks!
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: Cutty Sark Sailor on January 11, 2015, 01:06:20 PM
January 11 2015    UPDATE  See http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=24900.0
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: txweather.org on January 11, 2015, 08:12:15 PM
Even though I was not listed on yellow/red I still updated mine with some useful info :)

Thanks.
Title: SIGNALS PAGE IS BACK AND UPDATED!
Post by: Cutty Sark Sailor on January 15, 2015, 06:43:38 PM
OK... our good friend in Region 1, Robo, doesn't like to watch guys in pain, so
he rebuilt the Signals Pages for us in Region 3.... http://frankfortweather.us/BoStaSig/

So, probably months ahead of schedule, my way of doing things, we now have all active stations server signals
online in one easy to find location....Thanks to Robo...    and it'll be much easier to maintain.

So, if you've sent any signals at all since NOV 1 2014... you should be there, and be able to make
any optimizations or finesse adjustments needed... and the quiet time now is a good time to
really develop a baseline.  And track down noise.  This tool will help.

Please check the accuracy of the index, and your station's page(s    Greens only have 1 page)
If you catch an error, let me know... pm or email... if you post it here I may miss it.

Mike
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: Cutty Sark Sailor on February 02, 2015, 12:25:01 AM
February 1 2015    UPDATE
For several reasons the signals data has been moved to non-public access.
Please see post http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=25107.0
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: Cutty Sark Sailor on May 24, 2015, 11:32:35 AM
A bit behind on updates, but today added 2 new stations to the signals page... http://sferics.us
1345 Marion Iowa
1346 Bobcaygeon Ontario Canada
All active 'AMERICAS' (ex-'Region 3') stations should now have their server received 'signals' and 'FFTs' available... excluding the Green Stations, as Egon has gradually changed the processing to handle the more implicit RED data.  Note that "Greens" are not ignored, just the signal data at this source is not available.  Note also that the 'signals' server was offline for approximately 24 hours, but is back up as this is written...

Cheers!
Mike
Title: Reprogramming to Post Signals from Green Stations
Post by: schwab on May 25, 2015, 07:17:50 AM
Signals from Green Stations are displayed on www.lightningmaps.org under the station tab but not on Blitzortung.org or sferics.us

Is there a way these already viewable signals can be posted for green stations again on Blitzortung.org so they will then ultimately appear on sferics.us?

Thanks.
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: Cutty Sark Sailor on May 25, 2015, 09:18:31 AM
My info from Egon is that the signal source should already be changed to another source, temporarily, with another change in access upcoming in a week or two... and I'll 'skate' by as long as I can with those pages, knowing at least one more 'update' will be required. I do not know if Greens will be available at that source after this move.  This will be about the third/fourth change, so kinda waiting for a 'permanent' location, as the signals site will have to be 'rewritten' to some degree.... Yes, we could pull the LMO green signals, with a bit of a hack or two, but they would be what you already see on LMO, with a variation or two...  but it would be better, at this end, to wait until the server changes are all made. I'm sorry, but I just don't have a better answer for now.
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: Cutty Sark Sailor on July 28, 2015, 10:18:24 AM
Possible circumstantial frequency display error in FFT System Red discovered: 
Americas operators, see http://sferics.us/bo1/index.php?topic=180.0

Also found signal access for GREEN stations, need help implementing into current pages structure, however.
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: Cutty Sark Sailor on March 01, 2016, 08:17:33 AM
(http://forum.blitzortung.org/attachment.php?aid=2315)

From Tobi (Jan 24th 2012):
(http://forum.blitzortung.org/attachment.php?aid=2318)
Quote
The zigzag is inserted by the server, not by the station! The threshold to decide whether it's encoded as noise or not depends on the noise floor value for each channel separately. It is multiplied by a percentage which is defined by the server (currently 50%). Example: Noise floor is 40mVpp with 50% -> Everything below 20mVpp is encoded as noise. There's also a noise gap value, which means that noise encoding stops/starts a defined distance before/after non-noise. This value is currently set to 5.

 To be more exactly, it's not just one threshold but a minimum and maximum value where noise is allowed. To continue with the example, the noise floor of 40mVpp is a result of measured noise peaks between -10mV to 30mV. Then a factor of 50% will result in 0mV to 20mV min/max threshold for noise encoding. This means, noise with a DC offset will not be encoded! The maximum block length is 64 samples. The encoding itself needs 3 bytes, which results in a max. compression of 95%. A lot of (close) lightning produces only short peaks, which means that most data before and after a peak can be saved as noise. Yes, we loose some (unnecessary) information, but due to the high efficiency we benefit at other places (network, server bandwidth and data processing).

 Other values in the signals are delta encoded which uses 4bit instead of 8bit for each value. The max. compression is 35/67 = 48%.

 If the delta encoding doesn't work due too high deltas (> 7), then the samples will be saved as their raw values.

 The encoding applies to each signal data separately. Before sending all the data, the whole UDP packet can be compressed. On the status page you can see the encoding efficiency for each channel and the compression efficiency for each server. Higher values are better.

These 'coding' triggers are only visible on the server side station signals... not on your 'local' display. They may or may not be displayed depending on how the developers are running Server at any given time, and what they're looking for. (Hint, Hint...)
Title: Re: Station Signals - Tool - Region 3
Post by: Cutty Sark Sailor on December 14, 2018, 01:35:57 PM
America's Region Operators
Server Signal Graphics now restored at Sferics.US (http://sferics.us) ...as the recent server issues are becoming resolved...

More Signal Data presented, and a few more modifications may be forthcoming
Operators can access your station channels using your Sferics.US credentials.

The images do NOT attempt to show all signals sent by your station, for various reasons. The Server is polled at 2½ second intervals...
...so if no signals sent from that amp, or that specific channel, in that 2½ sec window, the image is blank. Currently, some of the specific windows may show only the channel selected by the server as "Valid"... that is, the best channel data to be considered for 'stroke' identification and for 'locating' computations.

This is NOT public data..
BT operators only, stations assigned to Region 3 (Americas Hemisphere) This does include some 'other' stations that also report to Region 3 Server.

This list, as of 12/14/2018 should include those listed on the Main BT manifest, only, and there are still a few glitches with that list.  If there's an issue on that list, then there will be an issue on Sferics. If you're not on it, I can't add you to Sferics.

System GREEN graphics not available.
A few nuts and bolts to tighten, some revisions, but she's operable...