Austria Microsystems AS3935 Franklin Lightning Sensor IC

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miraculon:

I came across an interesting IC dedicated to lightning detection. I am not much of a programmer, but this could be a cool project for someone who is so inclined. Or maybe, one of the weather equipment suppliers like Davis or AcuRite could integrate it into one of their designs.

It has both SPI and I2C interfaces. Hardware wise, it looks like it requires minimal external circuitry.

http://www.ams.com/eng/Products/RF-Products/Lightning-Sensor/AS3935

I found the datasheet at Future Electronics: http://www1.futureelectronics.com/doc/AUSTRIAMICROSYSTEMS/AS3935.pdf

I also found an Evaluation kit, completely assembled that also includes a "Lightning Emulator" to test it. I found the eval kit manual at:
http://media.digikey.com/pdf/Data%20Sheets/Austriamicrosystems%20PDFs/AS3935_EvalManual_AN.pdf

rdsman:

I've ordered a couple of these to play with:

http://embeddedadventures.com/as3935_lightning_sensor_module_mod-1016.html

Maybe I can emulate the Boltek!

miraculon:

That is a nice project board. Keep us posted on your progress. What are you going to control it with?

Greg

rdsman:

I don't really have a plan for them.  I will probably just write some code and see if they work well enough to pursue a "real project" using one.

kd7eir:

I have a couple AS3935 Franklin Demo Board kits coming in the mail from Future Electronics.  I will be evaluating these for making a realistically priced lightning detector for hobby use.  There is really no reason for a lightning detector to cost hundred of dollars, it's just not that complicated to implement.  My plan is to link the AS3935 with an ATMega microprocessor for display and analysis purposes.  I believe that this could be produced for well under $100 USD for a basic system, and well under $200 USD for a multi-sensor system to allow for triangulation of the strikes.

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