Okay I am in, the biggie for me is where I will find the time but it looks like a good device and the price is right
Hello,
Yesterday evening, I fitted the new housing/amp… well I did find I had over looked that the power connector needed a large amount of room to clear the PCB… ahh, simple change, I relocated the PCB further back, just a case of drilling three new holes. I also shortened the internal cables, makes it a bit neater. After completing this I installed the amp on the antenna, and ding dong, it works… I now have to start tuning the system.
The waterproof case seems very good, turning the four locking screws takes quite an amount of pressure, seems a much better box than my first box.
One issue I found was how much gain to set by shorting out the resistors on the amp it’s self. You are meant to run the inline volume at maximum, well if I do this the LR software goes bonkers… so I feel a tad more adjustment is required. Maybe later this eve…
Here are a couple of picys of the new install.
arthurhh where abouts are you? I assume NZ somewhere but your profile doesn’t seem to say.
So we have 3 and maybe 4 which is great! I’ll wait a few days to see if anyone else pops up 
Many thanks for your interest in this project.
Colin.
he is in Tokoroa area 
Hi Brian - thanks just looked a little closer and found the website link. Sorry about that Authur :oops:
Actually I did say… “Actually, my friend here in town …” from TokKiwi - who ummm, lives in Tokoroa :lol: and is in my profile by the avatar. Arthur’s post was the very next one after I emailed him as soon as i psoted. Never mind… I’m sure Arthur will enjoy the project when he has a chance and I will be enthralled in it as well! I’ll be happy to get involved and assist and watch the progress.
Graeme
Hello Chaps,
Just to let you know all the wiring is back in place and it’s all working . I have also changed which feed back resistors are being used by the op amps. On Daniels design, you can change the gain by removing (shorting out) various feed back resistors. I have now only allowed the 100k to be used, which is the same as Franks design, this now allows me to set the input volume to the max, which Frank suggests in his documentation. By having, say the 470k resistor in the feed back, this meant that I had to set the volume, very close to the bottom of it’s range, but this also caused the volume adjustment to be very sensitive, not practical.
I hope these little ‘notes’ are of use…
John
What can I say - it was a senior moment :lol: #-o
What can I say - it was a senior moment Laughing d'oh!
Ahem, 
I am the guy who mentioned to you once I also am in Stratmore but quite a few Km’s away from your Strathmore
Now to start reading up and see what Ideas I can come up with for the Antenna since her in doors who must be obeyed might not be too happy with a sticks and wire version sitting around
Colin I felt more embarressed a day later by my remark :oops: but thanks for all you are doing - a bit stressed with work at the moment (annual plant shutdown) so not as considerate as I should be… #-o
Cheers
graeme
John - thanks for those tips on set-up. Anything else will be greatly appreciated, so please keep us posted with your progress!
I’m going to order 4 ready-built amplifier cards today from Daniel. I’ll post here with updates.
Graeme - no worries
Cheers
Colin.
Hello, I have started changing the connectors on the PSU I used with the single RJ45 cable… as I have now moved over to a two cable system, a twin individually screened cable for the audio signal and a seperate power cable, thus the fittings on the PSU box needed changing. I have made up a new plate to go on the front with the 4 pin (video S, type) connector and some leds. There are three leds, one to monitor -ive, one +ive, both these are after the fuses, thus if a fuse blows then they will go out. I have also fitted a led before one of the fuses, so it both blow, there will be still some indication that the PSU is on. The following pictures show the leds, but not the connectors on the PCB. However the PSU is still operational.
Hello everybody
While I was checking the hit statistical visit of the lightningradar.net site, I found this forum.
I would to come back to a question posted on the LR forum about the minimal distance between 2 stations.
You must not think to the distance but to the angle.
Since 2 years we came to the conclusion that the minimum angle must not be inferior than 15
Is Rotorua then at least 15o degrees on the angle further east than Wellington 41South?
might be?..would need to get out a map!
I think he probably means the triangulation angle between station 1, the strike, station 2.
There is a “Blind” area at the 15 deg. angle of the strike to the station position, but with a good fine tuning it can be less. A third station outside the “blind” area does fix the problem since you have the ability to connect to two stations. The further apart the stations the better range and accuracy.
Peter
It looks like we will have Wellington, Rotorua and Tokoroa at a minimum. With another station in Taranaki we surely have great coverage. Of course a south island station would also be a bonus. 8)
I had a comment from the LR forum that it should be possible for us to correlate data from Australian stations too 8O
4 boards are on order so I will either hold a spare or have 1 to supply a 4th station.
Cheers
Colin.
A spare board is a good idea, you can never be sure where water can get in, as for correlation with Australian stations yes no problem at all, especially if they are on the east coast.
Peter
Hi Peter and others. I just had this message from a user based in the USA, which kind of blew me away…
[i]I would sure encourge you to put up at least one good station to try this out. Im still looking for a station in your area to connect with. You would open up an emese area of the world. The nearest station in that part of the world is on ReUnion Island. Which you could connect with by the way. With stations soon to come in Australia, that whole part of the world will light up! To give you an idea of what is possible, I’m in Texas, USA, conneted to Peter in Syros Greece. (An excellent station by the way!) Doing that, I can see strikes deep into Africa. This is where the real power of this system proves its self. I have had strikes near Brisbane Aus, working with a station in Europe. Dont be timid, come on in the water is fine!
I dont believe with a 10 kHz system you will ever get good close in results because the wavelength is 30 Km for one cycle. This poses problems. However working with a station in Australia you will see strikes as close as the system will allow… One other close in problem however is the emense RF generated by close lightning. This floods the frontend making it very difficult for the system to work good. Having said all that, the system is inexpensive, and the hobby is very interesting… Please put NZ on the map, we need you![/i]
Peter - I guess this is your station he is talking about ?
Cheers
Colin.
Brian,
I am lat 38o long 176o
you are lat 37o long 174o
Wellington lat 41 long 174o
certainly not 15o but with Australia it will work realy good I think
Thanks Colin for placing the order for us, I am starting and get the Aerial sorted
Cheers, Rolf.