Boltek lightning Detector Advice

[Shaggy]

I might give up with this PC and go buy a crappy £200 jobby from PC world tomorrow.  Every time I have to reboot it its taking sometimes 20 Power Offs on the PSU for it to start.  Its taken all day to load XP on it.

How does WD run with Vista?  Cos if I get a cheapy box its gonna come with that on it.

[JaxWeather]

There are a couple of Vista related threads...

My personal recommendation is to install WD to C:\ NOT C:\Programs or C:\Program Files...  But it may be one of those YMMV...

-Bob

[looney2ns]

My 2 cents is to stay away from Vista. 

[JaxWeather]

Not to take this off topic or anything

I would have said that a couple of months ago but have really come to enjoy Vista, especially since both Zone Alarm and AVG provided Vista compatible versions, allowing me to dump McAfee.  I have yet come across any thing I couldn't find  a Vista compatible application for my needs...

Just as an aside, when I was finally able to remove McAfee (which I still had a 9 month subscription remaining) everything worked Faster and I do mean noticeably Faster, I was so happy to get rid of that PITA application... 

All the above is of course Just In My Humble Opinion "IMHO" and Your Mileage May Vary "YMMV" 

-Bob

[TokKiwi]

And don't add NAV or the Norton Internet Security Suite - very hard to remove....  grrrr!!

Yes i agree, ZA and AVG make a happy combination, just ensure you turn off any auto scans and only do them while you are with the machine - esp if you have a webcam running - mind you that is with a slow machine on XP.  I have lost 2 hrs data with ZA doing a deep scan, before I realised it was stalled because of the scan...

[Marklin]

If one is looking for a antivirus program that is rather effective and light on the resources then have a look at NOD32 by eset.  I have been using it for over a year now and find it to be a really good product even for vista.

[stuartturrell]

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...

Same as you here, i have been running my weather station on a laptop for a fair while now.

Its quieter, out of the way, (it does also now have a PCI stormtracker too!!!) and as well as lightning and the weather, i monitor its own temperatures.

I can say for sure the system runs as cool as my bigger PC!

Obviously, if i start doing intensive work, the temperature will go up, but so would you!
Funny as the harddrives run cooler in my laptop than my desktop, strange!

Lightning software, i have gone for lightning2000. Too many people have nexstorm, i wanted to be different, but i feel the software provides better detail on the strikes.

[GBpeter]

electrif fences do cause false strikes with the Boltec unfortunately

Brian

Any more info on this - I run beef and sheep therefore I have electric fences within about 10m of my potential Boltek installation point.

[IT Farmer]

Brian

Any more info on this - I run beef and sheep therefore I have electric fences within about 10m of my potential Boltek installation point.

what he means is that the energizer of the electric fence causes the Boltek to think it is a lightning strike. I have the same problem as you, however there might be an answer and that is lower capacity energizers.

I have two paddocks near the house, if I put them both on one energizer it causes the boltek to think it is a thunderstorm but if I have one paddock on the same energizer it works ok.

Perhaps the wire is sparking somewhere and that causes the boltek to record a strike, I do not know yet.

[looney2ns]

I don't think Brian was ever able to completely cure his neighbors fence affecting his Boltek.

[stuartturrell]

Yeah i had the exact same issue 2 years ago, that why i sold it back then.

I thought i would give it another go and bought a new system this year.

I was getting strikes plotted at around 800 miles, so i knew that the signal must be weak, so i bought longer cable, moved it further, moved it higher (about 5 meters higher!) and ensured i had a few walls blocking LOS of the energiser.

Not sure if the type of cable made any difference, but i got shielded cable (STP) too, not standard patch cable(UTP).

I am currently running the system with 0 squelch and its running fine (though this time i am running lightning 2k) as nexstorm keeps coming up with loads of noises or strikes, lightning2000 seems to know what they are and ignores the fence.

My advice, try giving the detector some more height, try and block the LOS of the device causing the issues. Maybe give L2K a go, see if that helps, if not come back here and ask.

Looking at windy's current nexstorm page, think he may need to try those(if not done so already) (that what mine used to be, 58-60 strikes a minute though)
http://www.weather-display.com/windy/gb/nexstorm.png

Stuart

[stuartturrell]

what he means is that the energizer of the electric fence causes the Boltek to think it is a lightning strike. I have the same problem as you, however there might be an answer and that is lower capacity energizers.

I have two paddocks near the house, if I put them both on one energizer it causes the boltek to think it is a thunderstorm but if I have one paddock on the same energizer it works ok.

Perhaps the wire is sparking somewhere and that causes the boltek to record a strike, I do not know yet.

Reading your post, i was once told you you go outside with a medium wave radio (around 600khz) range, find a region with no station then walk along where the fence is installed, (obviously keeping some distance).
When you do come across something that maybe causing it to spark, you will hear it on the radio

I found a electric fence near me with some bushes close by. There was one particular leaf fairly close to it and when it was wet, you could see the leaf move with the pulses as it the current was crossing the gap over to the leaf. That could cause strikes or noise i guess.

[TokKiwi]

Interesting reading - I wanted to follow this line of thought up as I and the neighbours have electric fences for stock - two systems within 50m of the house.  It sounds like L2K has some intelligence and ability to distinguish between real lightebning and some el fence sparks...??  Amazing.

Graeme

[IT Farmer]

Reading your post, i was once told you you go outside with a medium wave radio (around 600khz) range, find a region with no station then walk along where the fence is installed, (obviously keeping some distance).
When you do come across something that maybe causing it to spark, you will hear it on the radio

I found a electric fence near me with some bushes close by. There was one particular leaf fairly close to it and when it was wet, you could see the leaf move with the pulses as it the current was crossing the gap over to the leaf. That could cause strikes or noise i guess.

I might just try that one day, the neighbours will think that I "really lost it" this time. (LOL) But in theory it should work, my strikes are between 300 and 400 km mark so see how we go.