Ireland's second Lightning Detector

Snowbie

Danno wrote: »

BTW Have you Windows Live Messenger?

Yep Pm sent. But with regrads to this thread, it be worthwhile for someone to look up this thread for future reference if they also get a detector so we should post as much info as possible here

Danno

True. I'll continue to post here. Windows live would be handy for calibrating on the fly tho.

CIDK

Well Lads,

Been thinking of getting a detector for some time now and and pretty sure i should probably get one after reading up a good bit about them and reading through various threads here......

Will order as soon as i get back to work after the christmas(so I can have a reliabel delivery address).

Mine will be based in Midleton Co. Cork (sorry not going to move up west just yet) I expect to be online by the end of Jan 09 at the latest. I'll provide the data netweather aswell as making it directly availably via NexStorm.

Hopefully I'll be able to get some help off you guys while I'm setting up.

John

Danno

Well done CIDK, a third station would be brilliant and in an ideal location in the south also. Any help required just ask either myself or Snowbie.

By the way, do you have a weather station also?

CIDK

Thanks for that Danno,
I do have a weather station bought a few years ago, but to be honest it’s a cheap piece of crap that has no abailty to communicate with a data logger or has any automated online ability. I've been using you guys for fairly reliable data online in that regard for the last year or two. Since my main interest is in the convective stuff and am mad about lightning, I think a Boltek would be more appropriate at this time for me. We defo need another few this side of the pond anyway.
Something decent like a Davis will next on the card once this little project is over.
I think you might be meeting up with the Netweather USA 2009 Stormchase group down in Cork so will be looking forward to meeting you down there unless there is another Danno from Laois on Netweather??

Danno

Nope, only 1 Danno on NW-TV. Hopefully the Sunday will not clash with a work day. Will know for sure closer to the time.

Snowbie

Good stuff mate, that bethe 4th detector on this island now. The third one Danno is in Clougfern(also a member of the IWN) in Newtownabbey NI here

Are you getting the Boltek PCI stormtracker or the LD-250 unit?

CIDK

Still not sure on which one I'm going to buy Snowbie. Was thinking initially the LD 250 given that is its relatively mobile with a bit of effort. Was then thinking I might be able to use it in the US but in fairness but since we’ve got Barron, so the chances anything are your driving into has major lightning anyway so I don’t think having a mobile unit will be of any help to me or the lads.
Then there’s the cost, gonna be a good $200 more after shipping VS the PCI with the same detector.
Probably going with the PCI since it’s pretty much the same device and costs a good few quid less . Which one are you guys using??

Snowbie

I have both myself.
The ld-250 i did use out on the chase with a compatible NMEA GPS unit and laptop. It gave me good direction but have found the Spark.clk (on nexstorm site) uploads to my mobile phone all from my desktop PCI detector and should eliminate the need for ld-250(but wheres the fun in that) The ld-250 detects strikes but cannot distinguish the polarity of that strike. There is an ld-350 in the making but when thats released??? will capture all polarities of the strikes eg -CC CG and +CC CG

I use the PCI stromtracker (no problem in detecting polarities) used on the desktop here and find it very useful but takes along time to calibrate. The Nexstrom 2 software should be out sometime in 2009 eliminating the many years of calibrating that can be required.

Danno

I have the PCI one. It is in an old PC box - 1ghz, 128ram, 10gb hdd, XP Pro sp2. Needless to say, my next investment will be a newer PC box as the current one is soooo slow that any calibrating that needs to be done would be a torture.

I am on the look out for a DELL Optiplex. Very quiet machine.

CIDK

Jez Snowbie you've got some setup. From what your saying I think the PCI is probably a more suitable initial purchase for me. I work for a computer company so its no hassle getting a dedicated box for the for the task. I allready use a StrikeAlert and laptop with 3G / GPRS access to the net for the (very) odd chase over here. Good to know I can access the client from a mobile too!

CIDK

Hi Danno / Snowbie,

I was just wondering where you would recommed buying the Boltek PCI. I was thinking of buying from theukweathershop.co.uk, but just foind an old PM from Paul in Netweather advising not to be tempted to buy from Ireland or the UK and to import from the U.S instead. Just wondering what your guys thought?

Snowbie

I got mine where the exchange rate saved me the most on my pocket at the time and that was on both detectors from the US. But you will be collared by customs for the VATand Duty on top aswell as shipping charges regardless. So what could turn out to be a handsome buy at the dollar or sterling exchange, its the extra VAT etc that can put a higher final sum when you receive the goods. I got the detectors from Provantage in the US btw.

Danno

With the Euro/Stg rate the way it is at the moment it might be just as cheap. Importing from the USA will attract import duty tax.

Danno

LOL! We're on the ball tonight Karl!

Snowbie

Got there before you in miliseconds

CIDK

Thanks Guys

CIDK

Ordered it this morning and NexStorm also. Gonna be a fun weekend setting up. Went with Skyview Systems in the UK afterwards.
Stupid question , do I have to wait for a storm to be relatively close by to start calabrating???

Danno

You can...

For example, at 4pm on a hot summer's day a storm breaks out over Limerick City. You arrive home at 5.30pm from work and notice that the detector has the majority of strikes mapped as being over Galway City.
You need to get rainfall radar maps of the storm to get a jist of the movement of the whole storm. Then you need to adjust the ranging within NexStorm in the playback mode. This involves adjusting sectors...
i.e. everything in a 25mile by 25mile area, that is currently ranged at 50 miles away, might need to be "pulled" in closer to the station.
Kind of hard to put it into words, but when you get it going, you will see what I mean. A little tricky to get your head around at first, but myself and Snowbie can help out.

Danno

Just to add, Snowbie said somewhere that a new NexSTORM is due out sometime in 2009 which will not require calibrating or not require much...

CIDK

Detector was delivered today. Just took it out of the box just now after coming back from work. They've actually sent me the LD250 by mistake, although I've its says PCI on the invoice and thats what I was charged for etc. Reckon I should shut my mouth and say nothing?

Rock and hard place really. I wont be disconnecting the LD250 every time there is a storm near and go chasing, as one of my intentions was to be able to add some data to the network in realtime this side of the pond. On the other hand, it costs about £100 more than what I payed for it, so its tempting to hang on to it. I suppose it all comes down to, is it a big deal that it cant tell the polarity of the stirkes in relation to the data I'm providing to the network? Any feedback would be greatly apprecaited guys.

CIDK

Looke like from a bit of reading around, I'll probably be sending it back. Seems the LD250 has some serious drawbacks in terms of signal processing, mainly down to the data throughput of a PCI interface vs Serial. Pity, I was looking forward to a weekend project.

Danno

Oh, I don't know CIDK. Snowbie would have the answer on that one as he has both the USB and the PCI ones. [Lucky fecker]

I wonder would it not be USB 2.0 therefore eliminating any problems about throughput? As I've said though, Snowbie would probably be the better one to answer it.

Try and post the EXACT model number of the USB one they sent.

CIDK

Thanks Danno. The unit itself only has an RS232 interface by the look of things (no USB). It shipped with what I think is a Serial to USB adapter so it doesnt look like native USB. There is no model number specified on the unit other than LD250 Firmware V 1.3.

I suppose if it isn't as good of a detector as the PCI version that you guys use and since my requirements right now aren't to go mobile I'll probably send back. Would be interested to hear what Snowbie thinks.

Thanks again

Danno

Aha, RS232 (COM 1 Port) is slow... I remember in 1999 I had a digital camera 1 Mega Pixel that ran over 9 pin COM 1 and jaysus it was slow to download a clatter of photos!

CIDK

I remember those days too mate. And that was if you were lucky to have the right UART chip on your IO board!! God how things have changed.

Snowbie

Only saw this now. Right to answer the question originally about the wrong detector sent to you. If you are using the detector for standalone use, the PCI version is best. The LD-250 is built primarily for the chase but can also be used for standalone use. As Danno described above the RS232 transferes by way of the 9pin D sub and converter to USB. This is really built for laptops with the USB ports.

Using this method the LD-250 detector cannot detect the polarity of the strikes and misses some strikes also. This is true of a storm which is either strong or weak and as the majority of storms on this island are pulse type storms, a % of strikes are not recorded and projected onto your BMP map from the weak storms.

When i use to chase them, the LD-250 seemed to more accurate from distance to strike (as strikes tend to be closer and more accurate) in this case, the polarity didn't matter as it's your own vision that can tell the difference. The detector points you basically in the right direction with NMEA GFS, lappy and also Doppler radar.

The PCI obviously runs off your BUS on your PC motherboard and to cut a long techy story short, detects the polarity and plots each strike more accurate on map. As with detecting the more strikes, the accurate the plotting becomes and is therefore better as a standalone piece of hardware. The LD-250 is more expensive as it costs more to develop and build and has a heftier price tag.

It really is your own decision to keep or return it or buy the PCI stormtracker down the line. There be bugger all storms until at least April (or if your lucky some thundersnow over the next few weeks:D) Each has their own pros and cons, PCI has to be used on desktop but the LD-250 can be used on both lappy and desktop but does not detect polarity. Hope this helps

CIDK

Thanks for the advice Snowbie, it does help. I was just finishing a reply to this and then accidently hit the browser back button. Idiot! Anyway short version... I'll probably go with the Stormtracker PCI but It would be nice to have the best of both worlds (which I cant afford right now). If it suites the supplier for me to hang on to the LD250 and sell me the PCI at cost or a significantly reduced price for the inconvienence to me and it saves them a bit of hassle I might entertain that option. Otherwise its the PCI for now. Hope the supplier isn't reading this:eek:

Snowbie

Yeah go ahead and try that, or they can either collect the LD-250 with them footing the bill for shipping charges and sending you the correct item if that doesn't work out.
Is the supplier UK or US based?

Danno

CIDK wrote: »

Hope the supplier isn't reading this:eek:

Don't worry, we wont tell!

Hope you get the PCI one at a knock down price - Remember, it's a buyers market!