Lightning early warning detection

#1

I’ve been asked to add a lightning early warning system to my wind monitoring service.

The hobbyist/maker solution seems to be the AS3935 lightning sensor, I’ve ordered three different types of modules with these on to test. I also ordered a lightning simulator to help test them. There are mixed results reported online for these, but I think that if they are calibrated properly then they will probably work. I’ve also ordered some EMI tape to help shield them from my radio gear.
More info on them here:

The ‘professional’ solution seems to be something like this:
https://www.boltek.com/product/erl10-kit2-rs485-lightning-alarm-package

Or this, which looks really good as an early warning system.
https://www.campbellsci.co.uk/cs110

I just wondered if anyone knew of anything between really cheap and expensive, or had any other ideas?
I realise that this is very specialised, but you never know…

Thanks

#2

I was/am considering getting a board from Blitzortung, a project that maps lightning around the world, and multiple contributors’ boards are used to triangulate them. I think those boards can be used to feed into your own projects too . They are a bit pricey at around $300 or something.

https://map.blitzortung.org/

https://www.blitzortung.org/en/cover_your_area.php

I don’t know if they’re any better or worse than what you’re looking at but I just liked the idea of the project to map lightning.

1 Like
#3

That’s great, thank you very much.

I’ve had a quick look at their forums and it doesn’t look like they have any stock of any of the parts at the moment.

I’ll look into it further and will consider getting some circuit boards made and get to making some.

#4

Getting there with the Thunder Click boards

Got them working with the LoRa modules, had to switch to an ESP32-S3 module with more io pins available.

Couldn’t work out whether to mount the sensors horizontally or vertically, the only solution was to test…!

IMG_20240222_120511_1|375x500

#5

@Gawain, I saw your post here

I’d like to machine some prototype boards but have never done it successfully.
I did make on a few years ago on a home-built CNC but the scale was wrong and I never went back to it.
So I have a stock of double-sided blanks and a selection of CNC bits.
I do need quite a few modules (not components on the boards) so it’s a little tricky.
My current project needs a mainboard with the following:

Heltec Wireless Stick Lite V3
12V to 3.3V buck module
Solar MPPT module (this is currently separate and I might keep it that way)
TTL to RS485 module
SDMMC module
Ethernet W5500 module (only on one board)
9 pin connector to go to a daughter board with 2 Thunder Click lightning sensors.
3 pin ttl connector

Nearly all of the connectors are 2.54mm pins, so this probably isn’t too hard.
I’m currently building a pre-prototype with perfboard and jumpers all over the place!
The next perfboard will have better routing.

#6

Hiya,

I’ve made quite a few using the cnc. I have actually decided to go back to having them manufactured as it was taking a long time to make them and i would then have to spend time double checking all the traces and it just felt counter-productive.

The best I was able to to was using 0.4mm stubby end mills. I have quite a few of them and can give you a couple.

You will want oversize pads in your design to allow for any inaccuracy in the milling process.

In KiCad double click on a pad for pad properties and change size X and size Y to make them as big as you think you can get away with while still allowing space for the tool inbetween them.

Then click on board setup in the file menu and go to net classes change the clearance to 0.5mm and the minimum track width up to 1mm.

Then you’re good to go really!

Good luck i’d be interested to hear how you get on

2 Likes
#7

Thanks
I’ll go back to wrestling with KiCad.
I need to make the custom footprints first.
It looked easy in the videos, but harder in practise.
I’m sure that I’ll get that sorted soon, but also still working on software.
Progress will be posted on this thread.
Jem

1 Like
#8

Screenshot_20240516-132402
Screenshot_20240516-132402.png720×1560 55.4 KB

Screenshot_20240516-130742
Screenshot_20240516-130742.jpg720×1560 394 KB

I’ve got three wind nodes up at Shindig, each node has two lightning detectors in it. One optimised for cloud to cloud lighting and the other optimized for cloud to ground lightning.

A storm is nearby and they appear to be working!

1 Like