Author Topic: Next project: Blitzortung  (Read 23024 times)

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Offline Cutty Sark Sailor

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Re: Next project: Blitzortung
« Reply #25 on: July 17, 2013, 02:48:37 PM »
Egon shipped my Red today 8-[
 


Offline miraculon

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Re: Next project: Blitzortung
« Reply #26 on: July 17, 2013, 03:35:10 PM »
Corrected link for pics of my flat panel antenna...:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/20280791@N08/sets/72157634655162504/

Don

Excellent pics on the flat panel build.

I am going to try my loop one more time, with Teflon 20AWG wire. I got six turns through by adding a 2nd pulling box at the top (half-way). Then the wire jammed and it broke. (cheap 'hookup' wire)
If this doesn't work, I'll try the flat panel one. I is just my obstinance and "matter of principle" that I need to "make it work", despite time/effort/money spent on it.

Greg H


Blitzortung Stations #706 and #1682
CoCoRaHS: MI-PI-1
CWOP: CW4114 and KE8DAF-13
WU: KMIROGER7
Amateur Radio Callsign: KE8DAF

Offline schwab

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Re: Next project: Blitzortung
« Reply #27 on: July 18, 2013, 08:01:02 AM »
Thanks for the update regarding your antennas and upcoming installation of Blitzortung "Red".

It will be interesting to see how your station compliments the USA network of stations...especially as storms roll through the Midwest.

I have found that my UNSHIELDED 12 cm ferrite antennas work well for my Blitzortung "Green" setup EXCEPT when it comes to some of the storms I am most interested in...the ones near Minnesota...that's when my system is too sensitive and goes offline because of it's automatic "interference" mode.

I understand I have the option to either shield my antennas which sacrifices some distant lightning detection or invest again in equipment by switching to the "Red" version which provides new and upgraded gain adjustment options.

Welcome to the USA team of lightning Blitzortung observers.

Offline miraculon

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Re: Next project: Blitzortung
« Reply #28 on: July 20, 2013, 11:26:16 AM »
I thought that I would mention two quick points.

  • The adjustable window comparator mod (posted previously http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=19429.0) worked very well during the frequent lightning we had last night. This is the first time that this has happened. I really put the adjustable control in as a noise countermeasure, but it worked like a charm for the strong-storm interference mode issue. I had to adjust it to about 1.3V Pk-Pk or +/-0.65V. This compares to the fixed resistor value of +/-0.417V.

  • I bought a 8" 1.25" diameter steel pipe nipple and a pipe cap. This slid nicely over the ferrite rod antennas inside the PVC pipe/caps. I was able to prove that the ambient noise is indeed picked up by the antennas themselves. It is not picked up by the amplifier board or my CAT5 STP wiring. The normal noise floor (not during my offending noise problems) is about -22dB on my VU meters (soundcard). With the steel pipe "shield", it dropped to -55dB. The tracker program "monitor" waveform showed a flat-line on the red trace with the pipe over the antenna.

    Now that I know the displayed signal vs. antenna orientation I will have a better idea where the noise is originating from. At least I will know N-S or E-W.

Greg H


Blitzortung Stations #706 and #1682
CoCoRaHS: MI-PI-1
CWOP: CW4114 and KE8DAF-13
WU: KMIROGER7
Amateur Radio Callsign: KE8DAF

Offline dfroula

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Re: Next project: Blitzortung
« Reply #29 on: July 23, 2013, 12:02:16 PM »
My System Red kit arrived yesterday at 1:00 PM. I completed assembly at 9:00 PM and am now active and sending data from the Chicago area. It was just in time for a severe thunderstorm.

I took my time with construction, and all went smoothly. The amp and controller powered up the first time. In a few minutes I had the flat panel loop antennas, GPS and network connected. After entering the processor ID in my user information, I was sending data. My station ID is 681, user 599.

The most challenging part of the build was soldering the surface mount op amps and the GPS module. I used lots of rosin flux paste beneath the parts and very fine solder to make the connections. The solder paste I used is not the stuff with actual solder mixed in. It is a jellied rosin based flux only (from Radio Shack)...amber colored and inexpensive. It causes the applied solder to flow on the surface mount parts with no solder bridges. The excess needs to be cleaned off with alcohol afterward. The stuff is slightly sticky so it helps hold the component in place while getting that first critical pin soldered. Using the flux and some fine solder the GPS module went on in seconds. The hardest part was aligning the GPS module to the pads as they have a concave connection pin design that can make visually aligning the part tricky.

The signal scope on the web page is not working very well, but the page warns it is a beta feature. The signal display works perfectly on my Android pad running Chrome....perfect display and auto-update. Not so on IE. Chrome on the PC updates for a while, then stops.

The kit had NO missing or extra components. My compliments to the kit packager.

A severe thunderstorm was approaching as I first put the station into service. I had the gain set to 2x2 initially. The board periodically went into interference mode with the intense approaching storm. I tried boosting the gain to 4x2 from the web interface. The board went into interference mode about 75% of the time. After a minute or so the board gave a loud beep, the LCD said a new gain setting was applied, and the gain was set back to 2x2. The controller rebooted for some reason. Because I had not saved my gain settings to FLASH memory through the web page, the board displayed the gain change message and defaulted back to the lowest gain. I'm not sure why the reset occurred. It happened when the board was very frequently going in and out of interference mode during a thunderstorm. I believe this is a bug in the firmware, which I have reported.

I see that so far my station has a very high efficiency percentage on the web pages (>90%). Is this a measure of correlated strikes/total strikes or something else?

The operation of the System Red blue "user" button in combination with the LCD display is currently undocumented. Here's what I discovered by experimentation.

A single quick press of the blue button scrolls through the status screens. The status category is highlighted at the top of the screen. Once in a category, a long press of the blue button displays settings that can be made from the board affecting the current category. Once in that settings menu, a quick press of the button scrolls through the selections. Once the item one wishes to change is selected, a long press executes the change. The display then returns back to the status display. (Much easier to make changes via the web server).

A VERY long press in any display mode seems to toggle the lightning detect click to the buzzer on and off.

Nice implementation of a single button user interface!

I decided to try using the Red amp to also drive my Lightning Radar setup. I used the test header on the amp board to connect a stereo audio cable to my LR laptop. This works great, likely due to the high impedance of the sound card input. I had to back the gain on the laptop down some. The Red controller saw no reduction in hit frequency or sensitivity. My efficiency ratings are still at the top of the list for US stations.

The lightning radar performance with the Red amp board can be seen at http://projectmf.homelinux.com. It is really good, accurately locating strikes when connected to the Florida LR station (I'm near Chicago).

Two systems with one pair of antennas!

Regards,

Don

Offline miraculon

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Re: Next project: Blitzortung
« Reply #30 on: July 23, 2013, 05:43:15 PM »
Don,

I see your station on the "Participants" page on Blitzortung.org

2      681   Saint Charles   United States / Illinois   North America   2.0   unknown   2013-07-23 21:37:09   3416   |   80.8%

I don't see your station icon on the map yet, but maybe it will show soon.

Glad to see that you got the station up and running.

Greg H



Blitzortung Stations #706 and #1682
CoCoRaHS: MI-PI-1
CWOP: CW4114 and KE8DAF-13
WU: KMIROGER7
Amateur Radio Callsign: KE8DAF

Offline dfroula

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Re: Next project: Blitzortung
« Reply #31 on: July 24, 2013, 11:38:48 AM »
All of us with new System Red units should be aware that although the data from the units is getting sent to and stored by the server, the data is NOT being used in the on-line maps (Blitzortung,org or lightningmaps.org), nor is the data or statistics from the units available.

Here's what I have been able to gather through several emails with Egon and the other developers:

- The Red units use a new reporting format that is quite different from that used with the older units.

- The servers are currently calculating lightning strikes with two parallel processes. The first calculates strike positions using the old format from older stations only. The second process integrates data from both old and new formats into the strike calculations. However, only the data from the old stations is used at Blitzortung.org and lightningmaps.org for display on maps.

- This means that you cannot use the advanced features of the maps, such as filtering only to show strikes using your station's data in position calculations.

- This also means that you will not be able to see any of your station reports in the text files in the Services/Miscellaneous area of the Blitzortung site. Also, your hourly report files will not be created.

- The only evidence I have seen on Blitzortung.org that data is actually being processed is that the Services/User data area has information about your station, including a graph of the last received strike. Your station will also appear in the Participants area of the web page. An efficiency ranking is calculated for all stations, including Reds.

- Edmund's Lightning Viewer program will not run if you have a Red system, even with an unlock key from Edmund. The program will not run because it thinks you have never sent data to the servers, even though you really have.

So, as one developer said in the forum, the unit is currently an oscilloscope that shows lightning strikes with very accurate time stamps.

I realize that it takes some time to complete the upgrades needed to support the new System Red. Its unfortunate that with all the new units being placed into service in the US, we are unable to see any improvement in coverage and accuracy.

Regards,

Don

Offline Cutty Sark Sailor

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Re: Next project: Blitzortung
« Reply #32 on: July 24, 2013, 11:51:57 AM »
Red Arrived a few minutes ago...

I guess these old eyes are about to get tested... !
 


Offline Cutty Sark Sailor

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Re: Next project: Blitzortung
« Reply #33 on: July 25, 2013, 06:40:10 AM »
Well, sat down and built the amp board yesterday afternoon... the 15 year old techniques came back in a hurry... followed the instructions for doing small to large, and decided to begin with the SMD op amps. If I'm gonna blow it, I'm gonna blow it quickly, is my theory.

Using my 20W sharp pointed 30 year old Weller pen and 24 gauge solder proved a piece of cake on the op amp SMDs. At least they look good. Haven't check module yet. (Don't know how I'll fare on the GPS module on the controller... never installed one of that design...)

Matter of fact, it was a heck of a lot easier and faster than sorting through the resistor values... those codes are difficult to read for these old eyes. Take it slow, use an ohm meter, and another trick was I counted total resistor values amp + controller, and subtracted the controller count... that helped determine if I was in the ball park in a couple of cases, as I tried to determine color bands. If you're anything like me, a magnifying glass will be your best friend.

So, all's going well, except RN1 is open. I mean really open. The 1k array for the leds in the amplifier is missing... not there, nada, don't have it. But completed the build of the Amp anyway. Also questioning if in fact have all the proper resistors for the controller. We'll find out today... I know that connector for AMP B isn't there, but we won't be using that for now...

I've scads of components packed away somewhere, and considering a jury rig amplifier RN1...
But I ain't goin' there 'till I see how the controller assembly goes.

 


Offline DanS

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Re: Next project: Blitzortung
« Reply #34 on: July 25, 2013, 07:34:56 AM »
"If you're anything like me, a magnifying glass will be your best friend."

No way I could do anything these days without mine. :shock:<- that's me without the magic glass.

Offline Maumelle Weather

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Re: Next project: Blitzortung
« Reply #35 on: July 25, 2013, 06:36:06 PM »
Well, sat down and built the amp board yesterday afternoon... the 15 year old techniques came back in a hurry... followed the instructions for doing small to large, and decided to begin with the SMD op amps. If I'm gonna blow it, I'm gonna blow it quickly, is my theory.

Using my 20W sharp pointed 30 year old Weller pen and 24 gauge solder proved a piece of cake on the op amp SMDs. At least they look good. Haven't check module yet. (Don't know how I'll fare on the GPS module on the controller... never installed one of that design...)

Matter of fact, it was a heck of a lot easier and faster than sorting through the resistor values... those codes are difficult to read for these old eyes. Take it slow, use an ohm meter, and another trick was I counted total resistor values amp + controller, and subtracted the controller count... that helped determine if I was in the ball park in a couple of cases, as I tried to determine color bands. If you're anything like me, a magnifying glass will be your best friend.

So, all's going well, except RN1 is open. I mean really open. The 1k array for the leds in the amplifier is missing... not there, nada, don't have it. But completed the build of the Amp anyway. Also questioning if in fact have all the proper resistors for the controller. We'll find out today... I know that connector for AMP B isn't there, but we won't be using that for now...

I've scads of components packed away somewhere, and considering a jury rig amplifier RN1...
But I ain't goin' there 'till I see how the controller assembly goes.



Hi Cutty Sark,

I'm glad I'm not the only one on RN1 missing. I have 4 RN's in my kit. Is there supposed to be 5?

6B102G    Qty. 2
A101 G    Qty. 1
A103 G    Qty. 1

I have started assembly yet.  I'm waiting on my visor magnifier to arrive from Amazon tomorrow.

John
GR2AE, GR3, Cumulus

Offline Cutty Sark Sailor

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Re: Next project: Blitzortung
« Reply #36 on: July 25, 2013, 08:12:05 PM »

I'm glad I'm not the only one on RN1 missing. I have 4 RN's in my kit. Is there supposed to be 5?

6B102G    Qty. 2
A101 G    Qty. 1
A103 G    Qty. 1

I have started assembly yet.  I'm waiting on my visor magnifier to arrive from Amazon tomorrow.

John
Yeah, 5. You've got the ones for the controller, but missing the one for the amp. That's a 6pin, 7 resistor (all 1k) network. One in series with 5V, connects to 6 which go to anodes of LEDs. So I built one.
I was also short a 47ohm and a 10 ohm for the controller, and the second cat5 connector for what would be amp 2.
I dunno what's going on with mine..,. something doesn't seem right... still puzzling on it... watching all the pretty lights, and weirdness...
 


Offline Maumelle Weather

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Re: Next project: Blitzortung
« Reply #37 on: July 26, 2013, 07:43:56 PM »
HI Folks,

I need some assistance.  Can someone show a physical diagram (I've got the schematic) on how to make the RN1 network, please? Or can I order this one 1K network Resistor from Mouser?

Thanks,

John
GR2AE, GR3, Cumulus

Offline Cutty Sark Sailor

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Re: Next project: Blitzortung
« Reply #38 on: July 26, 2013, 08:05:33 PM »
HI Folks,

I need some assistance.  Can someone show a physical diagram (I've got the schematic) on how to make the RN1 network, please? Or can I order this one 1K network Resistor from Mouser?

Thanks,

John
Here ya go John
 


Offline Maumelle Weather

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Re: Next project: Blitzortung
« Reply #39 on: July 26, 2013, 08:08:43 PM »
Thank you very much!!!!  I'll need to run to Radioshack and get the resistors.

Appreciate it,

John
GR2AE, GR3, Cumulus

Offline pvw

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Re: Next project: Blitzortung
« Reply #40 on: July 26, 2013, 09:05:18 PM »
Nice, I was wondering the same thing John.
Better living and lower productivity through the use of technology.

Offline Cutty Sark Sailor

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Re: Next project: Blitzortung
« Reply #41 on: July 26, 2013, 09:32:16 PM »
 :-) Sure is fun trying to follow who's who here and who's who on USATOA...  ;)  :twisted:
 


Offline Maumelle Weather

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Re: Next project: Blitzortung
« Reply #42 on: July 26, 2013, 09:38:36 PM »
I'm salineweather on usatoa.com
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Offline Cutty Sark Sailor

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Re: Next project: Blitzortung
« Reply #43 on: July 26, 2013, 09:48:09 PM »
I'm salineweather on usatoa.com
Yeah, I figured that out from CoCoRaHS on fb... your secret's out.
Geano over on usatoa
 


Offline Maumelle Weather

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Re: Next project: Blitzortung
« Reply #44 on: July 26, 2013, 09:50:52 PM »
Thank you again for the pic. Got my eyeballs today. Got resistors just a short while ago. Pretty much ready to go, but will wait until tomorrow. Too tired to look at small parts at this hour.
GR2AE, GR3, Cumulus

Offline dfroula

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Re: Next project: Blitzortung
« Reply #45 on: July 26, 2013, 10:21:48 PM »
I figured out how to display the US map with and without the data from the Red stations, for comparison.

These maps show the "A" and the "B" version of the US "Live Maps" view of lightning activity in the US from Blitzortung.org. The maps usually show two different versions of the maps, one with the "Red" stations included in the position calculations, one without. However, this is not always true. Sometimes they show the same data, sometimes one will show no data at all, depending on how the servers are configured. Check the embedded text in the map images to see the current state. There is clearly a lot of changing of things by the Blitzortung team as they integrate the Red data into the servers.

HINT: The map showing the most strikes is the one showing the data from the Red stations.

Refresh the page in your browser to get the latest images. Or, I have set up this web page that auto-updates the two images every 60 seconds:

http://projectmf.homelinux.com/red_maps

The European version is at:

http://projectmf.homelinux.com/red_maps_euro

There's only two Red stations on-line in the US, I think. Mine near Chicago and one in Winter Haven, Florida. If you compare the maps, you can see the added coverage, depending where the current lightning activity is located. I could see significant differences in the Midwest and Canada this morning, due to the added coverage of my station.

Check the comparative lightning counts in the upper right corner of each map for comparison!

Don


WITHOUT system Reds:



WITH system Reds:
« Last Edit: July 27, 2013, 11:01:09 AM by dfroula »

Offline DaleReid

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Re: Next project: Blitzortung
« Reply #46 on: July 27, 2013, 08:39:41 AM »
While this will never give locations withing meters like the ten grand a month subscription stuff does, this is so great to see these efforts.

As far as you know, is it not possible for the location maps to be any more detailed or have finer display resolution?

What I mean is we get most of North America displayed. It would be nice to have, for example, four quads of the US to choose from, sort of like strike star, and all.

I am impressed that the infrastructure of the processing of the data provided seems to be pretty solid, not a lot of errors visible, and so on.  So maybe the programming effort to provide a zoom in, quad or near state by state display, would be too time consuming.

I'm wondering if anyone knows the theoretically achievable, with best geometry and many stations reporting data to the central computer, what kind of accuracy is achievable?  Is it withing a hundred miles?  Fifty? Five?  When lots of Reds are up and running, how much increased accuracy results? 

Nice project.  Gotta go check the savings account balance... be right back.
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Offline Cutty Sark Sailor

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Re: Next project: Blitzortung
« Reply #47 on: July 27, 2013, 09:31:14 AM »
Being a Newbie, and still floundering a bit, I think Dale's mapping questions are all answered affirmatively with the LView, and other software... from what I've read. However, I haven't acquired any of that, or get it working, as yet... baby steps for this old man.
Seems that I read a suggestion that accuracy with enough stations reporting and set properly could be somewhere under or about 300 meters (?), at the current stage of development. Don, or others can correct or expand perhaps.
 


Offline miraculon

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Re: Next project: Blitzortung
« Reply #48 on: July 27, 2013, 10:07:51 AM »
Quote
As far as you know, is it not possible for the location maps to be any more detailed or have finer display resolution?

If you are a "contributor", that is actively sending data to Blitzortung.org via the tracker/RED, your login gives you access to higher zoom levels. In addition, if you set up MyLightningDetection with the PHP scripts you can really zoom in the maps and see the strikes closer than the "public" version.

As far as location accuracy, the 300m figure is undoubtedly for Europe or maybe even just Germany. In the US, with the sparse station distribution it has been running a few thousand meters. Here is the last 24hrs. The yellow is for strikes were my station participated, the red line is for all stations.



Greg H.



Blitzortung Stations #706 and #1682
CoCoRaHS: MI-PI-1
CWOP: CW4114 and KE8DAF-13
WU: KMIROGER7
Amateur Radio Callsign: KE8DAF

Offline dfroula

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Re: Next project: Blitzortung
« Reply #49 on: July 27, 2013, 10:41:06 AM »
Yeah, except if you have a "Red" station, Lview and the web tools deny access to any data or data-based tools as they think you have never sent any data, even though your Red controller is happily pumping data to the servers. The data from Red stations is not integrated at all, from a user's perspective, even though the data is being analyzed and processed behind the scenes. We just can't see the results yet, with a few exceptions that are not that useful. Like the "Rankings" list. That list IS updated for Red stations, but I don't have a clue what the "Efficiency" rating means or how it is calculated. Nor is it explained on the web site. The maps I show above are a sort of hack I developed based on an examination of the source html of the web pages. Things may change dramatically in a few days.

Don