NZ Weather Forum

On my quest to get a boltek I decided to hit the ground running by making my own enclosure for it.

Instead paying $120.00 US for bolteks version I paid $90 NZ and made my own, LOL

PVC is not cheap here! if I was going to use a curved cap (used in most US installations) it would cost a whopping $40 for just that part!

To cut a long story short, I got my parts at plumbing world and at a price way less than quoted at bunnings!

I am thinking of siting the boltek (once I have it) on top of the UHF arial (around 1.5 meters from metallic parts underneath it)

It shouldn't need guide wires (as we hardly ever get a gale here) but would like to know if it would be advisable.

Here is some pics of the proposed siting and enclosure.

Tim, i cant remember if you have seen where mine is but i have mine on the TV arial it it works fine.

Oh and to let you know i should be back up and running on Tuesday. They have replaced the faulty parts and will be running more tests this weekend to be 100% sure. Sure has taken a long time though

Looks great! mine's only about 600mm above the metal pipe so I dont think you'll have a problem. Screws or other metalic items within cms of the antenna box can problematic.

Jamie, No I didnt think you showed me but good to know that place is good for it

Yea Ricky, I have to find a place to get some nylon screws, numerous ppl have told me dont get metallic screws as they can cause havoc with ranging and reflections.

Jaycar in Hamilton will have a few sizes of nylon nuts and bolts..

how far away are you from having this running tim? we are probably too close eachother to have a great effect on having better correlation of NZ strikes but the more the better i suppose

Id say 3 months or so, need more $ to be saved

I wont be using Nexstorm however, I will be using Lightning 2000.
This means I wont be of use in the correlation network.
I chose Lightning 2000 as I was speaking to kaimaikid and I couldn't believe how the developer of nexstorm would disable your nexstorm copy (one that you pay around $150 for) if you dont sell your copy of nexstorm and the boltek together. Which means he can disable your copy at anytime (for whatever reason).

I have already made a display script for the lightning data (data will be ajaxed and the map will be automatically updated 1nce per min)

The display script will be publicly available soon once I have some documentation for it

Excuse my ignorance here as i know little about Boltek Lightning Detectors but can they detect sleet lightening

Is that an orange or lemon tree behind the detector with fruit on the ground?

JohnGaul
NZThS

Richard wrote:Excuse my ignorance here as i know little about Boltek Lightning Detectors but can they detect sleet lightening

Should be able to detect most forms of lightning.

It scans the lower frequency range of the radio spectrum and picks up any disturbance that happens when a strike occurs.

Is that an orange or lemon tree behind the detector with fruit on the ground?

Thats a tangelo tree, there are way way too may atm, I have been juicing them.
A Lemon tree is behind the tangelo tree too

NZ Thunderstorm Soc wrote:Is that an orange or lemon tree behind the detector with fruit on the ground?

JohnGaul
NZThS

you after some cuttings John, lol

Tornado Tim wrote: Thats a tangelo tree, there are way way too may atm, I have been juicing them.
A Lemon tree is behind the tangelo tree too

Nice one Tim, thanks

JohnGaul
NZThS

Tornado Tim wrote: I paid $90 NZ and made my own, LOL

That's a bit extravagant isn't it? I stuck mine in a $3.00 tupperware type container!

That's it just below the wind gear, which is on a wooden extension to an aluminium pole.Boltek would be about 8m above ground level.

iomkiwi wrote: That's a bit extravagant isn't it? I stuck mine in a $3.00 tupperware type container!

That's it just below the wind gear, which is on a wooden extension to an aluminium pole.Boltek would be about 8m above ground level.

I didnt have anything non metallic to stick it on so i had to get a good length of PVC pipe to get it to a height that will give more scope of the area.

I'm lucky - coming from a boating/building background, and being a hoarder, there is always something somewhere that will do the job.

One thing Tim, you may want to sleeve the pvc pipe with either a inner or outer piece to strengthen it from bending/warping in the hot summer sun.

Can't remember what I did with my enclosure.

Boltek just gave me an email saying if I were to buy a Boltek PCI they said it will cost me $86 US to ship!
At the current exchange rate thats: $113 just for shipping the thing!

Yet Provantage have it at $38 US for shipping.