I’d like to reopen this thread for further discussion. I’m using this sensor in the ‘PlayingwithFusion’ package since last year. Results I get are great for the price of the package.
I have two sensors connected to:
- Raspberry Pi through I2C
- Arduino Nano through I2C
For both I’m using the publicly available code which differs in a small detail that calculates the energy. The set with a RPi works reliably with almost no false lightning detections. I was not really believing the distance that the sensor reports so I just use the energy of each strike for plotting. The output is reasonable and shows how the storm approaches and leaves. One can also tell if the storm was just passing nearby.
The set with an Arduino board is connected to the same RPi which provides the power to Arduino and logs the lightning from Arduino. The code I use there provides the distance and the energy. Sometimes both values are a bit confusing. My question is if the distance and the energy values can indeed be trusted to some extent or is it better to rely just on the energy that the sensor reports? Same sensor is used in the Weatherflow station and they output the distance only. My feeling is the distance is not to be trusted (but maybe they have a more sophisticated algorithm implemented).
I tried to link the sensor with WD. It would work but by writing a “bridge” from simple 1-value output to a Lightning2000 compatible format.