Lightning detector online

TonyT · Unread post by **TonyT** » Thu 23/09/2004 14:13

Email Ambient and request shipping via USPS rather than courier. They usually oiblige.

Manukau heads obs · Thu 23/09/2004 14:52

i would love to get one here ricky
might take abig of convincing with the wife

then once we get the real time macromedia flash (every 5 seconds or so) lightning info data done with weather display, then it would be great

maybe i could take dontations from interested parties

(as after we pay for spring fertiliser, there wont be much money left in the piggy bank)

Thunder · Unread post by **Thunder** » Thu 23/09/2004 15:08

Strikes are beggining to happen on the west coast. I even see two on this side of the divide, at Springfeild by the looks of it or just SW of the township. Horay lightning detector!

spwill · Unread post by **spwill** » Thu 23/09/2004 15:32

Looks like some storms from the foothills out to the WestCoast.

NZ Thunderstorm Soc · Thu 23/09/2004 20:55

Aaron J Wilkinson wrote:Strikes are beggining to happen on the west coast. I even see two on this side of the divide, at Springfeild by the looks of it or just SW of the township. Horay lightning detector!

Yes, I saw those strikes.More sfrerics this evening on the radio

Things are hazy, cant find the sourse

JohnGaul
NZTS

Thunder · Unread post by **Thunder** » Thu 23/09/2004 23:30

Those lows on the 6pm metservice map must've just passed as the wind direction was going around in circles at one point. Some ok rain fell earlier but then it went calm, now the rain is back.

Yes Stephen, regarding the other thread. I see those strikes off the coast but that bit of cloud looks like it's moving NE so no more there tonight. I saw those strikes off the west coast to, but it seems to of stopped now.

Raining hard here now, 11:30pm. Off to bed.

03Stormchaser · Unread post by **03Stormchaser** » Sat 25/09/2004 22:19

What im planning on doing it running either the Boltek StormTracker Lightning Detector or Boltek LD-250 Lightning Detector. thru a desktop computer but in my van.
Now this is were im having some problems, The LD-250 would be ideally because you are able too run a gps with it to plot were you are etc, but this system is alot more expensive, do any of you now how i would be able to run the StormTracker in a car, how would you plot it on a map? etc

I need some help on this as im finding it hard to find much on the net. Brian whats ur thoughts?

Manukau heads obs · Sat 25/09/2004 22:25

weather display works with a GPS, and you can get that data out into a web page as custom tags...upload that data (cor-ordinates) to a web page, etc...
along with the strike info from the feed to nexstorm with weather display....
its all doable.////

Fujita Phil · Unread post by **Fujita Phil** » Sun 26/09/2004 13:16

03 Stormchaser wrote:do any of you now how i would be able to run the StormTracker in a car, how would you plot it on a map? etc

Ask these guys on the gps forum, especially Gazza from www.wherearewe.co.nz with his Moving Map software or BrentC from www.nzgpsmaps.com. I loaded Brent's beta version maps on my gps and I pretty much have every road in NZ. His latest version maps look even better with more detail, rivers, coastline etc. Brent has/had a weather station uploading to a website too

Try this thread? But there are plenty of threads on the topics of maps.

The GPS is must if you're chasing on the Canterbury Plains

.

GraemeWi · Unread post by **GraemeWi** » Sun 26/09/2004 14:12

Fujita Phil wrote: I loaded Brent's beta version maps on my gps and I pretty much have every road in NZ. His latest version maps look even better with more detail, rivers, coastline etc. Brent has/had a weather station uploading to a website too

If you would like coastlines, rivers, lakes, and some POI ready to download to Garmin GPS http://www.powerlink.co.nz/~graeme/GPS/GPS.htm

I'm hoping to kickstart a 'open map' project for NZ - not doing the full street level maps (because they have already been done and are a commercial product) but more regional and tourist orientated. Having said that it's open-source so anyone can build any map!

Cheers,

G

Thunder · Unread post by **Thunder** » Sun 26/09/2004 14:55

This all sounds like pretty cool stuff. Oh well Stephen, with my ability to get wholesale computer parts (which is bugger all price difference compared to prices in the shops, but it's slightly cheaper

) and your van we'll be on to a winner!

I look foward to when this is all going to be set up!

Fujita Phil · Unread post by **Fujita Phil** » Sun 26/09/2004 15:28

Nice Graeme

Well broken down instructions. I might even give map building a go now.

GraemeWi · Unread post by **GraemeWi** » Sun 26/09/2004 16:58

Just make sure you have a backup copy of those beta street maps somewhere safe on your PC before you overwrite them on the GPS

Try the GPSTrackMaker / MapDekode method first - it seems more robust than GPSMapEdit... and it is way easier than it sounds!

Cheers,

G

TonyT · Unread post by **TonyT** » Mon 27/09/2004 14:42

One thing which irks me, is that according to the graphic, there are "only 400 strikes left". I am assuming this doesnt mean "left until the end of the world"

or "left in the atmosphere"

but rather "left until the demo software stops working"? In which case, half way through the first decent storm to come through we're going to lose our pretty picture

Steven, have you investigated any potential ways to prolong the life of the demo version until the real one comes along?

Skywatcher · Unread post by **Skywatcher** » Mon 27/09/2004 15:07

It's supposed to be 400 strikes left out of "600 per day" but it seems to be per session. The readme that came with it explains how to reset this be exiting, deleting (or moving) the data files and restarting.

I've just done that leaving today's file and it's back up at 586

Hopefully the full version should be here by the end of the week.

Thunder · Unread post by **Thunder** » Mon 27/09/2004 15:49

TonyT wrote:In which case, half way through the first decent storm to come through we're going to lose our pretty picture

Where is this storm!? Is it coming!!

TonyT · Unread post by **TonyT** » Mon 27/09/2004 15:57

Oh yes, one day, any day, dont blink you might miss it...

TonyT · Unread post by **TonyT** » Mon 27/09/2004 15:58

Steven Graham wrote:It's supposed to be 400 strikes left out of "600 per day" but it seems to be per session. The readme that came with it explains how to reset this be exiting, deleting (or moving) the data files and restarting.

I've just done that leaving today's file and it's back up at 586

Hopefully the full version should be here by the end of the week.

Cool, thanks Steven.

Skywatcher · Unread post by **Skywatcher** » Mon 27/09/2004 16:12

Just noticed that when you restart the program, the receiver isn't Enabled automatically

This is a sneaky limitation of the demo version

I'm fairly sure there wasn't a big TS in the last hour or so

03Stormchaser · Unread post by **03Stormchaser** » Mon 27/09/2004 18:20

what does it mean, Upload disabled, ? on your site steven

Skywatcher · Unread post by **Skywatcher** » Mon 27/09/2004 19:07

It just means I'm not using Nexstorm to upload the image. That's done by my own weather station software.

wino · Unread post by **wino** » Mon 27/09/2004 21:09

TonyT wrote:
Steven Graham wrote:It's supposed to be 400 strikes left out of "600 per day" but it seems to be per session. The readme that came with it explains how to reset this be exiting, deleting (or moving) the data files and restarting.

I've just done that leaving today's file and it's back up at 586

Hopefully the full version should be here by the end of the week.
Cool, thanks Steven.

Hi Tony
Are you still into grapegrowing area forecasts - saw some of your work (guess it was you) when I was growing for Grove Mill. Loved the presentation etc. Big problem now is that most viticulture forecasts are too general to be valid in the microclimates of an area - guess my problem is that I loved the met lectures too much while doing the Air force flying training!!
Regards

wino · Unread post by **wino** » Mon 27/09/2004 21:10

TonyT wrote:
Steven Graham wrote:It's supposed to be 400 strikes left out of "600 per day" but it seems to be per session. The readme that came with it explains how to reset this be exiting, deleting (or moving) the data files and restarting.

I've just done that leaving today's file and it's back up at 586

Hopefully the full version should be here by the end of the week.
Cool, thanks Steven.

Hi Tony
Are you still into grapegrowing area forecasts - saw some of your work (guess it was you) when I was growing for Grove Mill. Loved the presentation etc. Big problem now is that most viticulture forecasts are too general to be valid in the microclimates of an area - guess my problem is that I loved the met lectures too much while doing the Air force flying training!!
Regards

Skywatcher · Unread post by **Skywatcher** » Tue 28/09/2004 17:13

The full version of Nexstorm arrived today - 5 days by airmail isn't bad.

The Java viewer has been setup with maps and installed at: http://www.templeton.gen.nz/weather/StormVue.html Data is updated every 2 minutes and shows the last 60 minutes. The old image uploads will stay at 15 minutes showing the last 140 minutes.

Typical there's no activity now that I have something new to try after the storms on the West Coast overnight

While I was mucking about with maps I thought I'd create one for the combined detectors to see what coverage and overlap was like. The circles show 600km range.

03Stormchaser · Unread post by **03Stormchaser** » Tue 28/09/2004 20:15

Steven thats absolute brillant!! One of the best sites for storm tracking/chaseing!!