Boltek lightning Detector Advice

[Shaggy]

Righto boys,

I am very close to ordering the Boltek Equipment.  Couple of questions though.

1. I run my weather stuff on my laptop at the mo.  Reading through some info on the Boltek site they say that the LD-250 has a few less features than the PCI version.  I have put the question to Boltek as to what these features are, but have had no reply.  Can anyone help?

2. I see from the user installations that people have installed the Antenna in the Loft.  Is this suitable? Or are they better installed outside?

3. What is the best software to use?

Cheers

[Tim Hanko]

I don't have one, yet....

I think most people are going to tell you NextStorm as I think that integrates with Weather Display.

But I may be wrong...

[JaxWeather]

Shaggy,

In the beginning I wanted lightning but couldn't ("The Boss" says I still can't) afford a Boltek so i settled for a 1-wire lightning detector. 

However after having a 1-wire lightning detector for over two years now I could not justify the cost for a Boltek any longer as there are a number of sites within 100 miles of me with Bolteks and my 1-wire lets me know what I want to know for local area strikes.

However I also have not had any of the false strike issues some have had with the 1-wire and it appears that issue is a YMMV.  I am not sure how false strikes affect Boltek users.  Just wanted to point out there is another option, for some.

-Bob

[Shaggy]

Fortunately for me my boss must have been abjucted my aliens and replaced with something from Mars.  Yesterday she told me to get MesoMap.  Today she asked me why I had not ordered the Lightning detector, this afternoon she said "why dont we get an attic convertion so you can have room for all your gadgets"

If she keeps this up we might even be having sex at the weekend

[JaxWeather]

If she keeps this up....

Righttttttttttttttttttttt   LOL   More likely, "leave me alone you got all the toys you need" 

-Bob

[Shaggy]

I wish I'd never found Adobe Fireworks.  I keep thinking I am the king of the logo

[daveq]

Shaggy, I have the Boltek and mine is a PCI card so won't work on a laptop.

I have mine mounted on a wall on the second floor about 10' above my computer.  Haven't had any problems with it located there.  The only thing I had to do was add an offset via software and in WDL because it doesn't point North.

Nexstorm was my choice as Tim suggested.  It intergrates very easily into WD.

It seems that countries with common voltage of 220/240 (or whatever you guys have) have more problems with false strikes using 1-wire.  I never had a false strike that I know of on the HB lightning detector.  Others with 220 report false strikes from motors and even light switches.  Only one person on the forum here, I believe, had problems with false strikes on the Boltek to the point it was useless

--Dave

[daveq]

I wish I'd never found Adobe Fireworks.  I keep thinking I am the king of the logo

You are damn close!

--Dave

[JaxWeather]

Shaggy I snagged that, very nice

-Bob

[Weather Display]

electrif fences do cause false strikes with the Boltec unfortunately

[Shaggy]

I;ve been speaking to Robert Boll today via mail.  I wanted the LD-250 as it will work with my Lappy, unfortunately that unit does not integrate with NexStorm or Lightning 2000, so I need to have a re-think.

they will be releasing an LD-350 though that will integrate.

So its either wait for that, or get myself a cheap desktop for the weather stuff.

[daveq]

So its either wait for that, or get myself a cheap desktop for the weather stuff.

That may be a better route for a number of reasons.  I don't but several people run a headless WD machine which would further cut down on the investment.

--Dave

[broadstairs]

That may be a better route for a number of reasons.  I don't but several people run a headless WD machine which would further cut down on the investment.

--Dave

I agree with Dave. I have run a separate WD PC for a couple of years now. First I used a mini-itx PC which granted was a bit slow but it worked, and has just been retired as I built an AMD based 2ghz PC from bits I had left after upgrading my main PC to dual core. Retired the old one just in time as the hard disk gave out the day after I moved WD over to the new PC. I use a KVM switch so I share monitor, mouse & keyboard actually between 3 PC's (used to be 4 until the mini-itx expired). Laptops are OK but do have drawbacks like expansion problems and often you cannot restart them from BIOS if the power fails like you can with most desk/tower PCs.

Stuart

[Shaggy]

This should be ok should it not?  Might get them to put XP on it though. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-037-OK&groupid=43&catid=781&subcat=

[SoftWx]

how about a laptop docking station with a pci slot?