[s]I have acquired a Boltek PCI lightning detector, and it includes Nexstorm Lite, which lacks many many many features needed to publish to the web. Are there other (cheaper) alternatives, or other ways of pulling data from Nexstorm Lite? I’m trying to determine if there are enough feature rich alternatives out there before jumping on buying Nexstorm for $$$.
I’m not so much worried about the maps as I can generate my own bitmap map using a custom script for each of the zoom levels.[/s]
Nevermind. I had to return it because of some other stuff that came up. Oh well.
For comparison I use this software
http://www.aninoquisi.com/Lightning_2000_p/l2k-v6.htm
with my Boltek unit. Very happy with it for my uses. Yours of course may be different but worth checking as a comparison.
Mike
Its a long story, but I did get Boltek back. I also went ahead and bought NexStorm to use. I have some work to do to tweak it because the antenna is in the basement with a bunch of metal and appliances nearby.
That’ll take some “tweaking”, the higher the better for the antenna.
My own one is in the roof space, others have them on a mast above the roof line.
I recommend joining the Astrogenic Forum as there’s a wealth of info on there about setting up Nexstorm and associated software, including getting the ranging right.
i plan on creating an enclosure for the antenna and attaching it to the tv tower we have. I can safely get it to nearly 20 overhead. I registered on the astrogenics forum and have been reading many details and stuff to help out.
I have also got the CVM map, and spent the last part of an hour or so assembling a list of cities and towns for my places file. After some thought, I decided to stick with state capitols that are in my range… Then I decided to go ahead and do all 50 states.
Here is a list of US state capitols to add to your “places.txt” file. It makes use of the multi-point star icon using the wingdings. You can append this data in your places.txt file
# US State Capitals
Albany;42.652553;-73.757322;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Annapolis;38.978611;-76.491111;750;M;0xAD;L;1
Atlanta;33.749272;-84.388261;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Augusta;44.307236;-69.781678;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Austin;30.274722;-97.740556;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Baton Rouge;30.457072;-91.187406;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Bismarck;46.820814;-100.782742;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Boise;43.617697;-116.199614;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Boston;42.357708;-71.063564;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Carson City;39.164075;-119.766292;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Charleston;38.336389;-81.612222;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Cheyenne;41.140278;-104.819722;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Columbia;34.000433;-81.033147;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Columbus;39.96118;-82.99879;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Concord;43.206747;-71.538128;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Denver;39.739094;-104.984897;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Des Moines;41.591178;-93.603869;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Dover;39.157306;-75.519722;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Frankfort;38.186778;-84.875333;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Harrisburg;40.264444;-76.866667;750;M;0xAD;L;1
Hartford;41.764136;-72.682778;750;M;0xAD;L;1
Helena;46.5857;-112.0184;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Honolulu;21.307342;-157.857267;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Indianapolis;39.768611;-86.1625;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Jackson;32.303889;-90.182222;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Jefferson City;38.579119;-92.172992;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Juneau;58.302197;-134.410467;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Lansing;42.7336;-84.5467;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Lincoln;40.808089;-96.699586;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Little Rock;34.746758;-92.288761;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Madison;43.074444;-89.384722;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Montgomery;32.377447;-86.300942;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Montpelier;44.262222;-72.580833;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Nashville;36.165833;-86.784167;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Oklahoma City;35.492281;-97.503372;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Olympia;47.035278;-122.906389;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Phoenix;33.448097;-112.097094;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Pierre;44.367167;-100.346353;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Providence;41.830833;-71.415;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Raleigh;35.780278;-78.639167;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Richmond;37.538758;-77.433594;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Sacramento;38.576572;-121.493411;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Saint Paul;44.9553;-93.1022;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Salem;44.938731;-123.030097;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Salt Lake City;40.777222;-111.888056;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Santa Fe;35.682281;-105.939658;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Springfield;39.798517;-89.654889;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Tallahassee;30.438111;-84.2816;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Topeka;39.048008;-95.678156;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Trenton;40.220436;-74.769903;750;M;0xAD;R;1
Ranging can be a pita…i had a hard time with it intil i managed to save the ranging kernel in the MY DOCUMENTS folder…cuz of administrator rights i presume…
in fact,ive re installed the whole nexstorm software in my documents hehehe
now its getting better and better
I’m running nexstorm on server2003, and it all has its 30GB partition to store whatever it needs.
Haven’t had much actual local thunderstorm activity, most of it has been 300+ miles away, and the system was waaaaay wrong. We’ll see how it does when we get a storm. Hopefully my back will recover fast enough to get the antenna moved before a good storm rolls through.