A quick question for all you people who use Boltek Lightning Detectors…
I use an LD-250 with a serial connection for easily swapping between PC’s should I have a failure.
I can’t get it to run on any of my PC’s with WD, so I run it on another pc.
We have had some real good lighning activity this week, and even when the flashes were lighting up my dark office, nothing showed for miles on my Storm-Vue software.
I have made changes to the distance and direction, but if I get it to work in one direction, it is miles out the other ways.
Do any of you use LD-250’s, or do you use the PCI versions?
Currently running 2 Boltek pci-s (one is in test for Boltek’s GPS reporting) and the other is feeding the NexStorm program and is also running on the same PC as WD.
It’s possible the 250 has gone bad and suggest contacting Boltek. I know I had problems with the PCI card originally, went through two of them before they got the card correct and has been working very well for the last year and a half.
As a future purchaser of a Boltek I would be interested in more info on the differences between the 2.
What do you you calibrate yours against?
What are the calibration procedures for one of these things?
I’m wondering how the antenna knows what direction the strike occurred, and, how does it know how far away the strike occurred??
Can anyone calibrate one of the detectors? Do they require some other equipment or measuring device to be set up?
I am hoping it doesn’t require comparing against some other web sites data…
I am very disappointed with my LD-250. It only seems to be able to plot strikes of the (-CG) type, and either puts the others down as (-CG) or noise. I have never picked up any (-IC), (+CG) or (+IC). I have adjusted the plotting kernel, and adjusted the direction of the antenna to try and match others, but when one parameter is right, another becomes un-acceptably wrong.
My detector antenna is located on an aluminium pole fixed to the house, with 1.5m of plastic tube on top, with the antenna located there. I know the pole makes no difference, as I have tie-wrapped it up on the outside facia, and still have no luck with it.
I am using Astrogenic Systems Nexstorm v1.20.0.2049 software, with stormvue v1.52, and can not get the software to run on the same PC as my WD, so I am running it on another machine.
I have just ordered a PCI version, which should be here this week. As soon as it is, I will set it up, and see what it brings.
[quote author=NorCal Dan link=topic=5956.msg39262#msg39262 date=1099270958]I’m wondering how the antenna knows what direction the strike occurred, and, how does it know how far away the strike occurred??
Differences between Boltek LD-250 and Stormtracker PCI for NorCal Dan
I have just taken delivery of, and installed a Boltek StormTracker PCI receiver. Installation was quite straight forward, (I had to try two PCI slots before the hardware was recognised under XP). Drivers installed easily, and I copied all the data from my other files on another PC into my WD PC with no problems. WD instantly integrated with the Nexstorm software, and the StormTracker instantly started to recognise all four strike patterns.
I previously had a Boltek LD-250 USB / COM port version, which I was very disappointed with, for the following reasons:-
I could not get it to run on the same PC which I run my weather software on. It came with a USB / Com port adaptor to plug the RS-232 lead into. I tried it with the USB adaptor, and straight onto an RS-232, but if WD was running, the nexstorm software would start it initiation phase, but lock up before everything had loaded. I tried it on two other PC’s, and had the same problems, but when I un-installed WD, it would work fine. Not really much good to me, as I wanted to integrate my LD-250 with my WD software.
What ever PC I used with my LD-250, it would only record (-CG) strikes. I tried the antenna in different places with different mountings, but to no avail.
I could not get the LD-250 to record direction very accurately. If I set it up correctly in one direction, it would be way out in the other direction.
I could not get the distance correctly calibrated. Even with a thunderstorm directly overhead, it was logged at 100 - 200 miles away.
The downside of the PCI version is it is not quickly changeable from 1 PC to another, but the difference in price and the accuracy is a very worthwile trade off.
So in my experience, if you are looking to buy Boltek, steer clear of the LD-250, as it is really not worth the money.
I calibrate using 2 methods. I have a freind in Kokomo Indiana, running LD250 and I compare my stirkes with his. Also, I use the Nationwide Lightning strikes and get a general area of strikes and usually I well within the limits. What amazes me is the PCI’s ability to detect noise from a regular strike.
The key is set the antenna to due North. Once that is done, then it will provide very accurate information. Where I see a problem now/then is when lightning is right overhead or within a 1 mile raduis.
I use the PCI version, it works great with the nexstorm.
only problem is that i live close to the sea, and strikes(across the sea) from 1400km away are recorded as 700km.
I’m expecting plenty of thunder over the next fews days.
I have a PCI Boltek detector here and Nexstorm which uploads to my site www.islandstock.com/weather but have been having a nightmare with it lately and had to unplug it. I got local storms and noise which went up to about 18000 noises and 2500 strikes in a matter of hours. I was wondering if anyone else has had the same trouble or if its just me?
It was working fine until a couple of days ago and has been very reliable.
Yeah that was what I thought and I am just about to climb on the roof and see if its anything obvious! May try moving the unit and seeing if trouble dissipates. I did wonder if there was a short somewhere in the cable as it may have been damamged.
Found out what the problem was after I remounted the detector on a large piece of wood thinking it was interferance! It turned out there was a nic somewhere in the cable and water was leaking into it and down the cable to my machine! Really not good!
Sorted now and seems to be behaving itself after a night drying out!
