1-wire lightning detector issues

I have recently sited a 1-wire lightning detector.

I tis mounted inside 1.5" plastic piping on the side of my shed away 30’ away from the nearest building. While I had it setup to test in my study I didn’t get any false triggers. But now I am getting several an hour, I had 78 since 2am last night to 9am this morning!

It is connected via 33m of cat 5 down the side of a fence, under a slate and through my loft, going into the back of a computer rack into the 1-wire adapter. (The same rack it was tested INSIDE with no issues, so I don’t think it is that.

Any idea what I should look for to track down the false readings.

The cable run is the same cable run that my anenometer connection takes, as well as a cat5 data cable to the neighbours house and, maybe most importantly, a mains voltage power cable to the shed. Could that be it?

Any ideas?

Trevor

Hi Trevor. You are not alone with this little problem. Mine does exactly the same. Turn anything on or off in the house and it hears is. I tried shortening the antenna but that only resulted in it not hearing the real thing.
Today I did some testing. I disconnected everything, including power from my laptop. Had a fresh install of WD and the only thing connected was the 1-wire lightning. It still hears the falses. #-o
I have learnt to live with them. It lets me know it is actually working. Even with these falses, there is no doubt when the real thing is about though.

[quote author=trevor link=topic=12560.msg96084#msg96084 date=1132909566]
I have recently sited a 1-wire lightning detector.

I did, well at least the ground on the circuit board, although there are two, I have only grounded the one nearest the antenna input. Is that right?

Also I am not really happy with my ground, I have a 2.5m length of copper pipe, but it is only about 30cm into the ground at most, I have extremely hard clay based soil and can’t get it in any more, the pipe is folding in on itself as I hammer it. I might try some rigid galvanised steel about 60cm long I got with the mast I have mounted my anenometer on.

Trevor

Trevor have a look at the circuit diagram http://www.hobby-boards.com/catalog/links/ld3.6-r1/Lightning%20Detector%203.6%20Schematic.pdf
Not sure exactly which terminal that Earth Ground is on the strip.
For an earth I bought an earth rod. Same as installed by electricians. They are not very expensive and can be purchased from any of the electrical wholesales places. 1.6 metres long, and includes the clip to attach the wire with. It should go into your hard clay without a real problem, and without folding/buckling.

[quote author=trevor link=topic=12560.msg96094#msg96094 date=1132913750]
I did, well at least the ground on the circuit board, although there are two, I have only grounded the one nearest the antenna input.

Actually it’s soaking and hard.

I have just bought and using a sledgehammer, inserted about 2m deep an earth spike for earthing electric fences this is now connected but making no noticeable difference, I connected it up 45 mins ago and have had 22 strikes since.

If only our weather really was that interesting, that’s about a years worth round here.

You can make a salt solution to pour around ground rods to make a better earth connection.

http://www.harger.com/catalog2004/1_2_11.pdf talks about decreasing the resistance in the soil. You might be able to find other internet articles that discuss lowering the resistance in the soil for a better earth ground.

Any electrical devices around the detector?

No nothing :?

Well this could be part of the culprit.

If I turn off the trip for the outside power I only had 4 false strikes in an hour, not good but better.

When I turned it back on I get 7 strikes in 5 minutes. Now I do have electrical things running in the garden, just forgot. Firstly there is a 180 watt pump in the pond, but on constantly, also a 75watt UV, but that’s the same.

However there is also a heater in the pond plumbing, which will be turning on and off. So that may be my biggest culprit. I’ll have to isolate that sometime over the weekend. Although what I can do about it I have no idea. Still a number of other false triggers though so please keep ideas coming.

Trevor

[quote author=trevor link=topic=12560.msg96194#msg96194 date=1132965516]
Well this could be part of the culprit.

If I turn off the trip for the outside power I only had 4 false strikes in an hour, not good but better.

When I turned it back on I get 7 strikes in 5 minutes.

I’ve been having similar problems with my 1-wire lightning detector, mine got worse after I earthed it. I know mine is not ideally sited yet so I will try to move it to a better position sometime soon, currently it’s in the roof space. What I dont understand is that if it is currently something in the house causing problems why do I get false hits during the night when the only thing running is the refridgerator and that does not turn on or off several times a minute - and it’s not that close either.

Stuart

I’m really confused by mine. When I set it up to test it I connected it all up inside a computer rack with two high power UPS’s, 2 commercial servers and two PCs, an amp, loads of switching kit, etc. And earthed it against the rack chassis. I “knew” it wouldn’t work properly but just wanted to test. I left it like that for 3 weeks.

I didn’t get a single false trigger, once it triggered from real lightning, and every time from my little electric lighter test, but no falsies.

Now it’s all mounted properly and non stop false triggers, very strange. The only differenecs between the two time periods are;

The length of the data cable
The location
Other 1-wire items on the 1-wire cable (it was on it’s own in the rack)

Trevor

Trevor it’s interesting to see that we are not alone with this problem.
My latest tests involved completely isolating my laptop form everything else. I installed a second instance of WD and had it only connected to the 1-wire lightning detector.
Removed the power lead from the laptop, and turned everything else off, and disconnected it.
So all I had was the 1-wire lightning detector connected to the laptop, and it still picks up these falsies.

My thinking was that when switching something on/off it may be transmitting though the power wires in the house, but that didn’t help at all.
When I first tested mine I didn’t have it earthed at all. Just a length of wire in the earth terminal and it would work. I have tried disconnecting the earth but that makes it too deaf when the real thing is around.

This is a really strange issue and I will try to investigate it further. The only reports of false counts that I’m aware of are coming from people who’s electrical systems are 240v and 50hz so I’m wondering if there is something sensitive in the circuit to that frequency.

I will do a bit of research and let you know what I come up with.

Eric

Thanks Eric

The only reports of false counts that I'm aware of are coming from people who's electrical systems are 240v and 50hz so I'm wondering if there is something sensitive in the circuit to that frequency.
thats what we have here too, 240v and 50 hz and yes i get lots of false strikes with the lights going on and off :wink:

Morning all,

Just a daydream but 240V (higher voltage / lower current) could be more likely to produce an arc on switching contacts than 110V (lover voltage but conversely higher current) ?

The example assumes the same loading on the circuit.

Cheers,

Richard…

OK but that does not account for my many many falsies during the night when the only thing switching on and off in the whole house in the refridgerator which does not go on and off as much as the number of false hits. In the last 12 hours I have had 260 hits. I have had 2186 hits in the past 2 or 3 weeks! I know my sensor is not ideally sited yet but at this rate it is excessive, if I were getting just the odd falsie I’d be happy to spend time trying new positions to improve it but right now I dont feel its worth the effort because of the huge numbers of hits ALL of which in the past couple of weeks have been false as we have had no lightning within 100 miles of us AFAIK.

Stuart