Hopefully the PNG file won't cause problems - I've only tested it with IE6 and Netscape 4.7.
I've set it so that strikes are displayed for 3 hours and the colour gets darker every 30 minutes. I'll probably reduce the displayed range when we get something interesting happening in Canterbury.
Boltek quote a range of 300 miles (480 km) but the 3rd party software people suggest it can manage further than that. That could be on the wide open plains of the central US !
At least it's not picking up a lot of noise from my PCs even with squelch set to zero
5 strikes allready!! Not near us but if there is going to be any lightning today, according to the sat pics that's where it'll be. This is awsome info to have!
I think PNG should be supported by most browsers these days. I can't understand why other online examples of Nexstorm use a lossy JPG when the 8 bit PNG is much clearer for the same size file
It will be interesting to compare your results with what the Met Service pick up. If the Boltek performs favourably, I'd like to get one.
I might do some reading on this system.
How will it perform with lightning activity on the other side of the Alps?
Direction is supposed to be very good but range can be a problem. At the moment I have it set to show "all uncorrelated strikes" instead of only allowing it to track "storms".
I think it will detect West Coast strikes OK (the simple pulse detector managed that) but it might think they are further away with a weaker signal. The software allows you to tweak the ranging for different sectors so that might help.
It'll be interesting to see how it does with a local storm.
A Boltek is on my "if I win Lotto list" nd I have to say it looks very nice on your site!!
I have had a good read on the Boltek and related review sites (and allowing for their own advertising spin ) te system always to get excellent reveiws!!
I was wondering tho, how did you find the support from Boltek? And, how did you get on obtaining the map for plotting the strikes? I found this info on the Boltek site to be a little vague!
Well done on getting one set up!! I am extraordinarily jealous!!
Four Oaks Farm - West Taratahi AWS
RD1 Carterton (Wairarapa), Amateur Weather Observation Station
Davis VP2+ with Solar, UV and 24hr FARS and complete 1-Wire WX System http://www.cartertonweather.org.nz
Shepherds Valley WX wrote:I was wondering tho, how did you find the support from Boltek? And, how did you get on obtaining the map for plotting the strikes? I found this info on the Boltek site to be a little vague!
Well done on getting one set up!! I am extraordinarily jealous!!
I knew from reading info online that the Boltek software is really only good enough to test that the hardware is installed OK and my attempts to make my own map didn't seem to work properly for it.
They want $149US to create a set of background maps for the 3rd party Lightning/2000 software they also sell
I've had TUMONZ (http://www.tumonz.co.nz) for a while and so it was fairly easy to generate scaled maps centred on here. The NexStorm software also has a utility to make this a bit easier.
The colours might need a bit of work but it's a start.
Yeah that USD149.00 is the same rather exorbitant figure I read on there site. I'm glad that a locally availble product is able to works so well with the Boltek. I'll be a regular vistor from now on!! Pity you can't extend your range tot he Nth Island!!!
Four Oaks Farm - West Taratahi AWS
RD1 Carterton (Wairarapa), Amateur Weather Observation Station
Davis VP2+ with Solar, UV and 24hr FARS and complete 1-Wire WX System http://www.cartertonweather.org.nz
Well done Steven, I will be keeping a keen eye on your page.
Must admit, the map is at a much better scale than the one on MetService's site, so the lightning strikes won't appear as bunched. I hope it will reach up to the Manawatu
Questions: how is it color coded?? The redder it is the more recent it is I take it?
And your total cost that the project will cost, including the full version of Nexstorm (believe thats what the program is called)?
Yes, now we need a North Island one and we'll have everything covered!
Steven G, I understand you might refine the area down a bit once you get the new software so the map is from say Blehnim to Dunedin? is that right?
Is it possible to have two maps, one focused on a broad area and the other focused for the general area that the detector is in, in this case.........Blennim to Dunedin or something like that.
But I don't really care, it's great how it is! Thanks!
The strike starts yellow and then uses darker colours as it gets older. I'll add a key to the background images.
With the software it will have cost about $1300 but if I'd bought it from Ambient then I would have saved about $200
There are 5 different zoom levels with ranges 200-600 km and you can increase the image size from the current one which fits on 800x600 to one for 1152x864.
The full version of Nexstorm comes with a Java applet which allows replays and a zoom control to switch from 600km to 300km. See http://ipswich-city.com/weather/java.php
Wow! I had a look at that site (then relised I had to download the JAVA thing, which I now have) and it works great. So would the user actually be able to control the zoom level for your detector, if so, that is all that will need to be done...
Thats so cool, cant wait to see some storm action on it...
I'm all set to order one.. well I was going to until I saw the shipping cost geesh! theys cheaper from ambient but it seems their smallest shipping is US$144 the shipping it says is actually available is something like $200+ USD.. I can get a 1KW broadcast transmitter shipped here for that!
Boltek at least will ship for $40ish ..
Anyone know of any better options for getting one to NZ?
Would be great to get one set up somewhere like Brians place way out in the open...
After kicking myself about Ambient's better price, I hadn't realised their ripoff shipping costs until I was about to order Nexstorm from them today. They wanted $200 ($130US) for UPS which is unbelievable for software that costs $280 and is just a CD and manual when I'd expected about $60 ....
I'd checked UK based Meteorologica's price for the Boltek and it isn't good but when I looked at Nexstorm it's only about $150 and shipping by Airmail is $15
American Weather Enterprises seem to be next best at about $44US less than Boltek for StormTracker. They say:
"For special shipping arrangements or to ship orders outside the Continental U.S., contact us for a shipping quote. You can also complete your order online and choose "Email Shipping Cost" as your shipping option, and we will contact you before charging your credit card to work out shipping arrangements."
