Topic: AcuRite Ligntning Detector

[miraculon]

I have a Hobby Boards Lightning detector, but it is a simple device and only counts events. It works great for what it is, but there is no direction/range capability for it.

The Boltek seems to be the standard for detection, direction and range. Unfortunately, it is more than I can justify cost wise.

I am wondering if there are others that would like to encourage AcuRite to make a affordable lightning detector that would give some range and distance capabilities.

[d_l]

A USB-, serial- or IP-accessible unit would be nice for those  that only use laptops as weather computers.

[CNYWeather]

I asked for a snow sensor from them. I was first in line 

[Scalphunter]

 Boltek has an USB unit.

[Skywatch]

It would be intresting if the detector would give a number depending on how close the strike is. Maybe even have a strike direction indicator with stikes per minute or hour, and a trend indicator whether the lightning is getting more or less intence.

A few years ago I made my own lightning detector. Took some aluminum foil and an old FM radio antenna, attached the antenna to a maganet, then wrapped the foil around that, then took come Copper wire and coiled it around the maganet/foil/antenna and attached the 2 wire ends to a power meter. It worked! Everytime a storm came through the numbers would spike when lightning flashed. Now if only we can hook something like this up to a computer then we could get more out of that data.

It's definitly a great idea especially since there are no consumer grade detectors out there at an affordable price. Boltek wants 599-899$ for their lightning detectors. Everything else is either handheld or doesn't have computer interface. There is no real way to log lightning at an affordable price in a way that the average consumer can handle. Hobby boards is nice but not everyone can wire one of those guys together.

[Rhino]

No worries fellas, I am listening