Lightning Detected by WeatherPi Solar Powered Weather Station

May 28, 2015 3D Printing, Sensors, Software, Solar Power, SwitchDoc Products, Weather, WeatherPiArduino, WeatherRack
Lightning Detection Event

Lightning Detected by WeatherPi Solar Powered Weather Station

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WeatherPi with Lightning Detector in Pylon

On Friday, May 22nd, 2015 a thunderstorm finally blew through the SwitchDoc Lab offices.  This time, WeatherPi was ready.  WeatherPi picked up the lightning storm as it passed about 6km away and reported it through RasPiConnect as seen below.  The long term plan here is to email  and tweet anytime there is lightning detected in the area.

What Lightning Detector are we Using?

We are using the Embedded Adventures AS3935 Breakout Board – MOD-1016. This is a great I2C breakout board with all the nasty little analog parts and circuitry that make the AS3935 work.

What is the AS3935 and How Does It Work?

The Austrian Microsystems AS3935 is a programmable Lightning Sensor IC that detects the presence and approach of potentially hazardous lightning activity in the vicinity and provides an estimation on the distance to the head of the storm. The embedded lightning algorithm checks the incoming signal pattern to reject the potential man-made disturbers and various noise sources.
The AS3935 can also provide information on the noise level and inform the Raspberry Pi of high noise conditions.

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MOD-1016 I2C Breakout Board prior to mounting in Pylon

Not surprisingly, this device is very sensitive to RFI (Radio Frequency Interference) sources. If you have your device next to a monitor, it will not work well. If you have it next to a cell phone, it will not work well. As you see in the WeatherPi picture to the right, we had to mount the detector well away from the Raspberry Pi and Solar Power Controller to get it to work well.WeatherPiSensorPylon

The Lightning Detection Event

Here is the RasPiConnect control panel showing the lightning storm as it passes by.

Lightning Detection Event
Lightning Detection Event

What is WeatherPi?

WeatherPi is a solar powered Raspberry Pi WiFi connected weather station designed for Makers by SwitchDoc Labs. This is a great system to build and tinker with. All of it is modifiable and all source code is included. The most important functions are:

  • Senses 20 different environmental values
  • Completely Solar Powered
  • Has a full database containing history of the environment (MySQL)
  • Monitors and reports lots of data on the solar powered system – great for education!
  • Self contained and monitored for brownouts and power issues
  • Can be modified remotely
  • Download your data to crunch it on your PC
  • Can be modified to do SMS (Text) messaging, Twitters, webpages and more
  • Has an iPad Based Control Panel