JaxWeather
That seems to be the easiest and least expensive way. I’m going to get my stuff the first of March.
and welcome Eric to the board.
Eric Welcome to the Board 
Cool deal Ed1 and I would imagine you will get yours first, maybe by a couple of weeks so… You can make all the mistakes first 
LOL
-Bob
Yep… I think I might as well go with assembled board from Hobby-Boards
As far as the Antennae itself what do we use ? Would a piece of solid 12 guage copper wire work ?
Like if I have some 12 or 14 indoor romex wire…couldn’t I get a piece out of that and strip off the insulation and use that wire for an antennae ?
yes, that will do as an antennae 
Thanks Brian and all for the suggestions in these LD projects
Ok Jaxweather’s post makes the cheapest route. Assuming you get the antennae setup correctly, the next question is getting data to WD. How do you get WD see the USB adapter? Still not sure here.
you go to setup, control panel, com port setup
then tick to use the dallas 1 wire adpator as well, and select the com port
then tick, no temperature, etc
then go to the control panel, dallas 1 wire setup, then set the 1 wire switch i button ROM ID found in the space provided in the lightning tab window, and tick you have a lightning counter
then go back to the main 1 wire setup tab, click on save/reset, then it should find it and say allocated as lightning
Suppose you use the 1-wire USB adapter. Does the 1-wire driver map it so that it looks like a COM port to WD or is the setup different?
once you tick you want to use a dallas 1 wire, then another settings show, and you tick usb
and the the com port to use is the number assigned to that usb adaptor…after installing the drivers for it…check with the i buttn viewer
most likely will be 1
I hope this selection works. That’s what I ordered last weekend except I ordered the kit version.
plus some assorted connectors for antenna, external power and connection to 1-wire USB adaptor.
The kit is supplied with a 3 way screw terminal connector for 1-wire (data and ground) and the earth wire connections. The only external power is the 9v battery, for which the connector is also supplied.
Let us know how your project goes Chaz
Hey guys,
This talk of anyennas is interesting. I have in the barn a brand new Whip antenna (menat to have been used on the tractor for AM?FM radio)…this would look quite nice mounted to the top of my WX mast (most professional! :D)… is there any reason why this would not work? I envisage soldering the single copper antenna feed wire to the centre pin of the radio antenna. The other pin is normally used for the coaxial cable sheathing…
What do you guys reckon? #-o
I do have a question
The DS9490R USB 1-Wire Adapter looks like it uses a standard RJ11 phone wire connector for
wiring. Phone wire I think has color-coded red green yellow black wires. Which colors
of that make up get connected to the Hobby-Board LD3-R2 at link
http://www.hobby-boards.com/1wireboards/ld3-r2_lightning_detector.html
I envisage soldering the single copper antenna feed wire to the centre pin of the radio antenna.......What do you guys reckon?
Absolutely no problem at all. In fact someone on the list has done exactly that. The only problem I can see is that perhaps an ‘open’ antenna like that may attract a lightning strike more than something housed in plastic
I have a whip antenna for my 1-wire lightning detector. The whip is actually a VHF radio whip and base ( made by pacific aerials ) for vehicles .
I have no problems at all ( works great ) . I use to have a piece of copper pipe ( but got rid of it )
The whip is much more professional looking .
make sure you drive a seperate earth peg ( for you lightning detector only ) . I suggest you don’t hook onto you main electrical earth from the house ( keeps it all seperate and safe ) .
I’ve also added a solar panel to my setup recently ( with a 7 amp/hour GEL battery ) . I’ve got 12 vdc available up on top of my weather station frame . I 've current got my leaf sensor running on this . I’m going to change-over my lightning detcetor as well . Probably end up adding my wireless spycamera ( with night vision ) up there as well .
I've also added a solar panel to my setup recently ( with a 7 amp/hour GEL battery ) .
Hi Vinay, likewise with the power. I found a good Dick Smith kit to do the charging regulation for about $5.00. PM me if you are interested in further info.
Hi Colin ,
Yes , I got a kit from Dick Smith about two months ago . 
As the detector is detecting radio signals rather than directly attracting a static charge, you don’t even need to strip the insulation. Insulated wire picks up radio signals just as well as bare wire.