affordable lightning detector

[Chris Alemany]

Hi all,

Any recommendations on lightning detectors that work with weewx and maybe also Raspberry Pi?

cheers
chris

[Greg Troxel]

Chris Alemany <chri...@gmail.com> writes:

> Any recommendations on lightning detectors that work with weewx and maybe also Raspberry Pi?

I heve an Acurite 6045. It was $20, uses 4 x AA, and also measure T and
H. It more or less works. Occasionally it stops transmitting when it
is very humid (as in condensing humid), or at least I stop receiving it.
I'm using rtl_433. So of course you can put it outside away from the
house, because RF noise in houses is terrible. For a $20 solution, you
get your money's worth.

I also have an AS3935 breakout board from sparkfun, which I have
soldered headers into but not hooked up. I suspect that is similar to
what's in the 6045, but you'd need power, a case, and a transmitter and
to remote it, and it might not be any better.

EcoWitt makes detectors too; I haven't tried those.

[Eric K]

This post shows the AS3935 board setup I put together in 2021.

https://groups.google.com/g/weewx-user/c/TaLWUitdDmE/m/Zt7DPUMTAwAJ

I bought this board, which is cheaper than the Sparkfun board, but not as cheap as the Acurite 6045.
https://www.amazon.com/Lightning-Distances-Detection-Interfacing-Electronic/dp/B07SST5GDB

[Steven Sheeley]

I use the Ecowitt WH57, which retails for $ 55.99 USD, but it does require the GW1100 gateway, which retails for $29.99 USD. The GW1100 is USB which means you can plug directly into the Raspberry Pi and place the WH57 outside, away from RF interference.  The GW1100 runs perfectly with weewx using the Ecowitt Gateway Driver written by gjr80.

[Mark Fraser]

On 23/06/2023 22:39, Steven Sheeley wrote:
> I use the Ecowitt WH57
> <https://shop.ecowitt.com/collections/lightning-sensor>, which retails

> for $ 55.99 USD, but it does require the GW1100

> <https://shop.ecowitt.com/products/gw1100> gateway, which retails for

> $29.99 USD. The GW1100 is USB which means you can plug directly into the
> Raspberry Pi and place the WH57 outside, away from RF interference.  The
> GW1100 runs perfectly with weewx using the Ecowitt Gateway Driver

> <https://github.com/gjr80/weewx-gw1000> written by gjr80.

>
> On Saturday, June 24, 2023 at 6:24:32 AM UTC+10 Eric K wrote:
>
> This post shows the AS3935 board setup I put together in 2021.
> https://groups.google.com/g/weewx-user/c/TaLWUitdDmE/m/Zt7DPUMTAwAJ
> <https://groups.google.com/g/weewx-user/c/TaLWUitdDmE/m/Zt7DPUMTAwAJ>
>
> I bought this board, which is cheaper than the Sparkfun board, but
> not as cheap as the Acurite 6045.

> https://www.amazon.com/Lightning-Distances-Detection-Interfacing-Electronic/dp/B07SST5GDB <https://www.amazon.com/Lightning-Distances-Detection-Interfacing-Electronic/dp/B07SST5GDB>

>
> On Thursday, June 22, 2023 at 12:20:14 PM UTC-5 Chris Alemany wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> Any recommendations on lightning detectors that work with weewx
> and maybe also Raspberry Pi?
>
> cheers
> chris

I also use the WH57 from Ecowitt, but with a Nooelec RTL-SDR v5 and the
weewx_sdr driver.

[an oldman]

I use acurite 6045M and atlas with a 6075M lightning detector with weewx-sdr driver.