New Blitzortung Power Supply

Due to my previous blogs about a dodgy power supply unit (PSU) used for Chatteris Weathers Blitzortung lightning detector, I ordered a low electrical noise PSU off ebay.com, I ordered the 5v PSU on the 5th January, I received a mail confirming dispatch on the 7th January and on the 10th January it arrived from Hong Kong!

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I plugged the unit in the detected signal quality is excellent, the PSU was quite expensive, but well worth the money as the performance of the unit is considerable better than before.

Spot the spelling mistake 🙂

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5v USB at 1A and an output of 8.5v which I have used to power thermostat controlling the temperature in the small equipment room.

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TeraDak unit next to my NAS.

TeraDak PSU


Although ‘smoothing’ is on, the trace is considerably better than anything before it.

signal2


Lightning detection trace, picked up from Scotland, so not that far away.

CCTV Pan/Tilt Controller – Part 2

This is Part 2 from this previous thread, the remaining parts have arrived so I could complete the circuit which (hopefully) will give a relatively accurate positional indication, the circuit uses two LM3914 (one for Pan the other Tilt) with a potential divider signal being derived from the potentiometers (Pots) within the Pan/Tilt head, I have mounted the reference resistors slightly proud of the Veroboard as I’m not convinced that the values are correct, so I will be able to modify these from the top of the Veroboard.

Pan_tilt Leds
Circuit diagram of positional indication for the Pan element, for Tilt I have used three LEDs and so the wires from each LED will go to the appropriate leg of the IC which has the correct voltage when aligned to the correct position, a mod to make is to convert the mode of the LM3914, so instead of a ‘spot’ led indication used as in the direction indication, where each LED follows each other and then fades out, the tilt will show the LEDs staying on as the platform transitions from zero degrees to ninety degrees.

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Veroboard showing resistors raised for ease of modification should it be needed as the accuracy of the Pan/Tilt pots has not yet been confirmed.

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The Veroboard has been temporarily secured using a cable tie, this arrangement will be replaced with something more permanent when the unit has been proved in service.

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Connector block with two sets of three wires for the Pan/Tilt positional feedback Pots, followed by the Pan and Tilt motor drives and at the end, the brake release feed.

The supply is 24vDC which is reduced and regulated to 12v via board on the right, this is fully adjustable and will be used to tweak the voltages to make allowances for any external cabling voltage drops that are incurred at installation.

Lightning Analysis Reinstated

I have tweaked and restored the lightning analysis pages records_summary.php with the websites menu bar link taking you to the records summary page, at the base of this page is a number of further links which drill into the details, (at the time of writing no new events have been generated since 2014).

The base program is called ‘Discharge’, a link to download this is on each lightning analysis page displayed.

PayPal Button

Chatteris Weather is a non-for-profit community interest site, a number of users have asked how can they contribute to the sites running costs which I really appreciate, in response to that I have placed a discrete ‘Donate’ button at the base of the web sites left hand menu bar, clicking will take you the secure PayPal area where an amount of your choosing can be entered.