Author Topic: USPLN Sensor Request  (Read 45059 times)

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Offline waysta

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Re: USPLN Sensor Request
« Reply #175 on: April 15, 2017, 08:12:09 PM »
When those of you who got your recent shipments, did you have BNC to BNC on the Stroke?  And the proper BNC on the base of the antenna?
Was the GPS a screw thread type of TNC ?

I asked for only connectors at the antennas, and none on the sensor/receiver side so I could drill smaller holes in the house wall and wood floor in my lab.

Both of the stroke antenna and the Trimble "bullet" GPS antenna are TNC.  I did not get the spare BNC and TNC for the RG6, fortunately between two crimpers found the right dies, and did not screw up.

The RG6 is really interesting, a quad, but with a modern foam core, very light weight and easy to work with compare to several other RG6 I've used for past projects.
« Last Edit: April 15, 2017, 08:15:22 PM by waysta »

Offline drew

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Re: USPLN Sensor Request
« Reply #176 on: April 15, 2017, 08:12:56 PM »
Drew,
Just a thought.  I had requested a non-standard cable length, and wonder if you did too?  If they were just tossing pre-made or contractor made sets of cable into a box, then no big deal.  If those of us requesting a custom length required them to make that specifically in house before shipment, then I can see how in a rush they could be confused and just BNC both ends.

Did you as for a non-100 foot length of coax?

Dale
Mine are 150'. I jumped the gun earlier. Upon assembly I discovered that my stroke antenna cable is correct. I have BNC on the receiver end, and TNC to screw into the antenna on the other.

I picked up the missing PVC connector for the GPS antenna at Lowes today. I'm going to get everything assembled tonight and installed in a temporary location tomorrow. I will contact TOA Monday to verify they are receiving data before installing the stroke antenna on my 35' TV tower.


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-Drew Richards

Offline DaleReid

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Re: USPLN Sensor Request
« Reply #177 on: April 15, 2017, 08:57:58 PM »
Alas, I have no special crimper to do either the BNC or the TNC correctly and would be a cobble job at the most.  I know I'd used them very few times in my life but wish I had them now (with less life left than 40 years ago.  Its like a Bird wattmeter, don't use it often but one handy thing when you need it.

I'm hope a buddy with the TNC to BNC adapter that I'll get tomorrow will solve the problem.

Yes, that is a strange coax, but it says rated to 3 Gig on the side of it.

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Offline DaleReid

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Re: USPLN Sensor Request
« Reply #178 on: April 16, 2017, 04:17:01 PM »
While waiting for either a new cable or an adapter to show up, I borrowed an adapter and got the antenna hooked up.
the Terra Term works well after I got the parameters set correctly 

I peeked around a bit with the queries and now like the man with two watches wonder which GPS is correct?
I got xx.748065 lat by xx.553955 with elevation of 303 meters from the TOA and
           .748080         by.553984 from my RED Blitz and
           .748082         by.553985  at 305 meters from the RED station.


Admittedly the GPS antennas for the Blitz stations are within a foot of each other and the TOA lash up for testing is approx 33' away, so that might account for the variation to some degree.  I'll have to see how much each digit at 6 decimal places is worth at my latitude about 1/2 way from the equator to poles.

I see there is a channel C and D .  Enabled is 0 for C and 1 for D.  and some threshold numbers and counts.  Of course I got on the air this afternoon after all the action blew through right over me last night.

Does the box begin to work, as it says it is connected to the CAP, right away or are channels only enabled after you make the call to the control center to let them know?  I dont want to do that until I have the antennas permanently erected on the shed where they will listen, which is a couple hundred feet away from where thy are now.

Just curious.

Oh, I was fiddling with my stoke probe and the upper cap came off (really, I thought it was glued on, so I didn't poke around) and there is a small gauge, perhaps 20 or 22 copper wire silicon sealed to the top, and the end is filled so I can't see if it is a simple straight wire or some sort of coaxial stack, but at these frequencies I would assume a straight piece of wire for sensing.

Dale

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Offline WeatherHost

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Re: USPLN Sensor Request
« Reply #179 on: April 17, 2017, 07:05:13 PM »
Replacement is mounted and is doing things more in line with the booklet than the first one did.  No idea what happened.


Anybody know if you can officially ban FedEx from your property?


Offline ALITTLEweird1

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Re: USPLN Sensor Request
« Reply #180 on: April 18, 2017, 07:53:11 AM »


Anybody know if you can officially ban FedEx from your property?



If you order something that is delivered by fed ex, you are automatically giving them permission to come onto your property.
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Offline WeatherHost

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Re: USPLN Sensor Request
« Reply #181 on: April 18, 2017, 12:50:52 PM »
^^  Well, no, not really if I don't select that carrier.  Most times, I don't know who the carrier is until after the order is placed.


-----------------

So, I'm logged in, seeing strikes and trying to figure out how to use it all.  Should be fun learning, eh?


Offline WeatherHost

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Re: USPLN Sensor Request
« Reply #182 on: April 18, 2017, 01:03:38 PM »
I like conduit, what can I say?


Offline WeatherHost

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Re: USPLN Sensor Request
« Reply #183 on: April 18, 2017, 07:08:34 PM »
Their GE Pro is a bit of a resource hog.  My CPU cranks when I have it open.

Is it possible to down-tweak the area of coverage to just our region instead of worldwide?  (yeah, I just made that phrase up)

Has anybody asked about a GRLX placefile for hosts?


Offline DaleReid

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Re: USPLN Sensor Request
« Reply #184 on: April 19, 2017, 04:31:55 PM »
I'm anxious to see if the unit works.  I had a screw up on the cable, so the TOA is sending me an adapter to remedy that.

In the meantime, while I cannot mount the antenna at the permanent site (I'm not going up on that roof any more than I have to) I did plug everything in and is running inside my home near a window with a  loaner adapter.  All seems happy.  I did message and get a reply from support that my station is connected and reporting time from GPS ok. 

I wonder, as a possible storm approaches this afternoon and tonight, what one can see from their station? 

I realize that until the control center activates my station that I won't have access to their site to see lightning, and also the LPS-200 box might not be fully active until it gets enabled by the control center.

Nonetheless, the manual indicated that one might possibly see the Threshold light blink.  I assume that is when the box determines a stroke has occurred and reports it.

So my first question is, when a storm is relatively nearby and in progress, can one look at their box and see blinking frequently, or is is pretty infrequent?  How far away does this thing pick up strokes and blink?  100 miles max?  1500?

Second is what one sees coming from the USB port monitored with TerraTerm or some other display package?  In addition to the commands, when it is just idling I get an occassional line of:
[appGps.c:309] GPS LOCK: 4/19/2017


and also this with the status:

[appLog.c:1659] CHAN C ENABLED 0: COUNT 0, OFFSET -1758, LP 1
[appLog.c:1664] CHAN C THRESH: POS 32767, NEG -32767
[appLog.c:1666] CHAN D ENABLED 1: COUNT 964078, OFFSET -1758, LP 1
[appLog.c:1671] CHAN D THRESH: POS 4915, NEG -3276

I assume that the count for channel D (brings back memories of The Man From U.N.C.L.E with 'open channel C') which does go up occasionally  indicates that it has heard a qualifying stroke, but wonder if anyone knows for sure.

Thanks.  Dale
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Offline hankster

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Re: USPLN Sensor Request
« Reply #185 on: April 19, 2017, 05:01:59 PM »
Here is the info I got on sensor sensitivity.

It takes 3 lightning sensors to locate one lightning stroke and a fourth sensor for verification.  A network may have baseline distances (sensor to sensor) of 30 to 600 kilometers (~20 to 400 miles). The accuracy of the system is typically 80 to 250 meters for strokes as far as 480 kilometers (300 miles) distant from the center of the network.

Offline Bushman

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Re: USPLN Sensor Request
« Reply #186 on: April 19, 2017, 05:56:15 PM »
Mine arrived today - FedEX!  Yay!  And true to their word, not customs/shipping or duties.  :)  Looking forward to getting it installed next week if all goes well.
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Offline WeatherHost

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Re: USPLN Sensor Request
« Reply #187 on: April 19, 2017, 05:56:50 PM »
I don't want a strike TOO close, but I want one in the region to see if this registers it.


Offline ALITTLEweird1

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Re: USPLN Sensor Request
« Reply #188 on: April 19, 2017, 07:53:39 PM »
It's been almost 2 weeks since last contact with Sandy. I emailed her last week and got no response. The last response was that it is shipping and I would be getting the tracking number. AT this point, if it comes... cool... .If not, I guess I don't have to get on the roof to install it. Was kinda looking forward to it.
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Offline WeatherHost

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Re: USPLN Sensor Request
« Reply #189 on: April 19, 2017, 07:56:32 PM »
^^  I can't figure out how big this company is (or isn't) or how much staff they have, or how busy they are.  All of the tech support contacts have been with one person.  The replacement was shipped out the same day I reported the failure.

So far, I've only seen three names total.


Offline WeatherHost

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Re: USPLN Sensor Request
« Reply #190 on: April 20, 2017, 09:49:55 AM »
More storms in the area today, so maybe we'll see if it works.


Offline WeatherHost

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Re: USPLN Sensor Request
« Reply #191 on: April 20, 2017, 04:02:42 PM »
Can any of you that have these see the other sensor locations?  User guide makes mention of an icon, but I don't know if that's a piece we get or not.

Also, how do you know if the strikes on GE were detected by your sensor?


Offline hankster

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Re: USPLN Sensor Request
« Reply #192 on: April 20, 2017, 04:14:02 PM »
You can not see other sensor locations.

You don't know but I understand they are looking into providing that information.

Offline n2qew

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Re: USPLN Sensor Request
« Reply #193 on: April 20, 2017, 05:00:54 PM »

For some reason everything appeared to stay blank for me until I got to the comments field.  I went ahead and typed it all out and submitted what appeared to be a blank form, but it seems to have worked since I got the reply.

Try typing your replies out in Notepad, then pasting them into the fields.

Form fixed. I mentioned the problem in an email I sent offering my location. They replied that my site would improve detection efficiency in the region.

Got a reply today that they found and fixed the form issue. Also, signed agreement.

So, if you look at the map of sensor locations here:
http://www.uspln.com/documentation/USPLN_NAPLN_Data_Sheet_Feb2016.pdf
and see nothing close to you, they might want you. Map is a year old, but probably is still good enough. 

http://toasystems.com/contact-us/host-a-sensor/

Offline Bushman

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Re: USPLN Sensor Request
« Reply #194 on: April 20, 2017, 05:04:49 PM »
Not sure why they would not divulge a map of sensors.  It appears there are very few in Canada from the snippet on the PDF
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Offline WeatherHost

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Re: USPLN Sensor Request
« Reply #195 on: April 20, 2017, 05:24:26 PM »
I hear thunder and I see strikes displayed 20-25 miles out, but no triggers on mine yet.


Offline WeatherHost

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Re: USPLN Sensor Request
« Reply #196 on: April 20, 2017, 05:27:06 PM »
Since some of this may be proprietary/NDA, should we have a closed area for discussion and idea sharing?


Offline n2qew

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Re: USPLN Sensor Request
« Reply #197 on: April 20, 2017, 11:05:45 PM »
^^  I can't figure out how big this company is (or isn't) or how much staff they have, or how busy they are.  All of the tech support contacts have been with one person.  The replacement was shipped out the same day I reported the failure.

So far, I've only seen three names total.
Tried to send you a PM with an answer to your question. PM blocked. Send me an email to bob at (my user name) dot net and I'll reply back with what I have learned.

Offline ALITTLEweird1

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Re: USPLN Sensor Request
« Reply #198 on: April 25, 2017, 12:21:47 PM »
I finally got my tracking number today.
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Offline WeatherHost

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Re: USPLN Sensor Request
« Reply #199 on: April 25, 2017, 01:03:58 PM »
Support is a lot quicker though if/when you need help.


 

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