Boltek lightning Detector Advice

[daveq]

That one would work fine I believe.  The only thing I do different is get at least 1 gig of memory.

Julian's suggestion sounds good also.  I didn't know they made such a thing.  Docking stations seem to cost a lot for what they are in my opinion.

--Dave

[Shaggy]

Its a good idea about the docking station.  But just having a quick check and its actually the same price as the desktop I posted.

I will probably do the desktop, as keeping the Lappy on 24/7 scares me

[N7XSQ]

Hi Shaggy;

What are you going to do once you get a big honking instantly updating web site going, with a large following, and you want to take your laptop with you somewhere? Most people who get seriously into this weather hobby, and from your recent posts I'd say you definitely fall into this category, wind up with a dedicated weather machine. You can get it set up to run all the things that require 24/7 availability and then leave it to percolate in the corner. Then you can boot your main machine up and down, install some weird shareware, open e-mail attachments, and visit questionable web sites without having to worry about hosing up your weather data when you have to rebuild your hard drive.

For the Boltek card, you will need to make sure the machine you get has some regular PCI slots, and is not all PCI-express. I would also suggest getting a machine with a full size motherboard, which has more expansion slots. Some of the mini-atx motherboards only have 2 or 3 slots, possibly all or mostly pci-express. Once you have a stable 24/7 system, you will most likely find other things down the road that you will want to put into it. By now you should have realized that this stuff grows exponentially.

Steve

[Snowbie]

Hi Shaggy,i have both the boltek 250 and the pci stormtracker.
The 250 in conjunction with a cheap laptop and gps,i use for the chase.
Obviously the pci is in the desktop running with every other weather prog i have.
now the two differ in some ways.
Firstly the 250 plots every strike it captures with CG and cant decipher the stroke type.
The pci is opposite and is also alot more sensitive picking up even the weakest of strikes and types.I noticed this when installed the pci it picked up on the dimmer in my bedroom even though i had the same settings and also the same antanna location.I had to move the antanna location and all noise problem cleared.

Also i capture signals using pci card from over your location which has never done before using the 250 and your nearly 600km to my SE.
So basically the ld-250 is built for the chase(even though it has served me well for the last 3 years running off desktop too) but the pci is a great piece of work and cheaper.
I use nexstorm software with both and never had a problem.(apart from calibration but thats the norm)

Karl.

[dburson]

I too am about to purchase Boltek PCI StormTracker. I am going to purchase the Boltek PCI from Ambeint weather in the weatherunderground package (which also comes with NexStorm) for $508.00.

My position can be viewed on wunderground KKSNEWTO2 http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KKSNEWTO2

or the map on CWOP - AS619 http://weather.gladstonefamily.net/site/AS619

I think StrikeStar would improve for Kansas lightning with my prime S. Central Location.

[Phil Holmes]

A comment on the laptop versus desktop debate.

I run my weather station on a laptop for 2 reasons: 1) it's smaller, and so fits neatly on a shelf, and 2) it draws much less power (an average of 17 watts) so is much cheaper to run.  My current laptop has been running 24x7 for almost a year, and the previous one lasted over 20 months until a lightning storm killed it.  So I can't see any reason for wanting a desktop.

Except for the PCI slot for a Boltek...

[Shaggy]

I will go for the desktop i think.  but something struck me from out of the blue last night.  Sitting on top of my wardrobe in my Computer room is an old PC. Of the GeFroce 6800 era.  Some kind of Athlon if memory serves me correct.  I am gonna by a cheap case from PC world today and have a go at making it work

[broadstairs]

I will go for the desktop i think.  but something struck me from out of the blue last night.  Sitting on top of my wardrobe in my Computer room is an old PC. Of the GeFroce 6800 era.  Some kind of Athlon if memory serves me correct.  I am gonna by a cheap case from PC world today and have a go at making it work

Depending on where you are going to keep it you may find it a bit noisy. For my WD PC I got a really quiet power supply, it already had a reasonably quiet cooler for the CPU. The main problem with it noise wise is the graphics card, a Radeon 9500 I had left over so I have just ordered a silent fanless cooler for it. I keep this PC in the bedroom you see so it has to be quiet. Also depending on what you intend running I think you would not want less than about 1.2ghz cpu.

Stuart

[Shaggy]

Well i bought a new screen today and a case.  Worse comes to worse then I will just order the bits and build myself a PC.  i will begin the build today

[Shaggy]

The PC is built.  its actually running Windows 2000.  Does WD and the like work under WIN2K or do I need to upgrade it to XP?

Got through the whole process of finding the bits I need, found a case that looks like an Alienware case in black, put it together and after some tinkering she span into life, and to my suprise its loaded with WIN2K   Bought back memories.  Anyhoos, after all this work I realised I needed a network card.  So, work has stopped on this little project tonight

[Weather Display]

windows2000 is good to go for WD

[TokKiwi]

Depending on where you are going to keep it you may find it a bit noisy. For my WD PC I got a really quiet power supply, it already had a reasonably quiet cooler for the CPU. The main problem with it noise wise is the graphics card, a Radeon 9500 I had left over so I have just ordered a silent fanless cooler for it. I keep this PC in the bedroom you see so it has to be quiet. Also depending on what you intend running I think you would not want less than about 1.2ghz cpu.

Stuart

I agree on CPU there Stuart - my 1.1Ghz Duron is it?? is at 100% for up to 14secs at the 5min mark each time, and I have to shut spy and virus scans down - I'll do the short one to check the base system but I don't let them scan too much of the hard drive.  Last time I had to shut the whole m/c down as it stopped WD completely...  Scanning just the system and win32 etc is enough.  I still surf on it but try not to open Opera when close to the 5min timing

Talk about noisy cpu fans though - you can hear it from 30m away...  I have to inverstigate that one...  its out in the laundry anway!!  Keep up with the project Shaggy...

[Weather Display]

i see you stopped raining tag is sorted now
pouring with rain here, and thunder and lightning

[Shaggy]

With regards a Monitor, I got myself one of these.....http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-050-SA  Its actually very good.  So i have 2 x 22" Wide Screens side by side now and a 21" wide screen ready to be used on the Weather PC once I get a Network card installed.

This is the case I got to house my old PC parts http://www.jeantech.com/nix.htm

The PC itself has 1GB of RAM, the processor speed is 1.7Ghz and its using a Radon ICE 9800 with to IBM Deskstar HDD's.  I left out sound card and DVD drives as they were old an not needed, I wanted as much airflow through the PC with little noise as possible.  I can always chuck one in if needed, other than that I will share my main PC's DVD drive.  I got rid of the Enermax 500W PSU and replaced with a Silent Jeantech one.

Tom deleivered WXSIM to me tonight although he has forgotten to include the custom Zip files, so just waiting for him to get back to me on that one.  very impressed with the forecast it generated that he included in the email, I have attached that below.

Next Boltek me thinks

 Tonight: Partly cloudy in the evening, becoming mostly cloudy to cloudy after
 midnight. Low 15. Wind south-southwest around 14 kph.
 
 Saturday: Partly to mostly sunny in the morning, becoming sunny in the
 afternoon. High 28. UV index up to 7. Wind south-southwest around 15 kph.
 
 Saturday night: Clear. Low 14. Wind south around 10 kph.
 
 Sunday: Sunny. High 28. UV index up to 7. Wind south-southeast around 18 kph.
 
 Sunday night: Mostly clear in the evening, becoming partly to mostly cloudy
 after midnight. Low 17. Wind southwest around 10 kph in the evening, becoming
 west-northwest after midnight.
 
 Monday: Mostly cloudy to cloudy in the morning, becoming cloudy in the
 afternoon. A chance of rain. High 23. Wind west-northwest around 10 kph in the
 morning, becoming 4 kph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation 40 percent.
 Precipitation mostly between 2 and 5 mm.
 
 Monday night: Partly to mostly cloudy in the evening, becoming partly cloudy
 after midnight. A slight chance of rain. Low 14. Wind west-northwest around 4
 kph. Chance of precipitation less than 20 percent. Precipitation mostly less
 than 2 mm.

[Weather Display]

Next Boltek me thinks

your wife really must have been ubducted by an alien!