Backyard Challenge Update.

12 Sep 2014

Hi All,

Just a short update. My head is still fuzzy, but we have a cold front coming through, so I hope to get something done this weekend.

I did sketch out a design for the lightning and flash detection circuit using a LM324 chip.

I should get it working soon and test it out.

Still not able to follow the start up procedures. It is so frustrating to read something over and over and still not be able to do the simple steps.

I did receive my surprise package, more on this later.

I hope to get a better update next week.

DAB

DAB over 7 years ago in reply to shabaz

Hi Shabaz,

Yes, I use the AM radio when I am out taking lightning photographs.
I did think about using an AM radio, but I found a circuit where I could us 1/2 of an LM324 OpAmp chip and use the other for the flash detection. So I can reduce both detectors with one chip.
Plus I might be able to take advantage the signal crossover due to the lightning spikes.

Thanks
DAB
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shabaz over 7 years ago

Hi DAB,

I hope you're feeling better.

As an idea, for the lightning detection, one idea might be to use an off-the-shelf small AM radio. If you hear any crackles, then chances are it is lightning maybe.
We don't get enough lightning here for me to know for sure though. The crackle spikes could be picked up with an RC LPF as integrator on the output, feeding into the microcontroller. It could be tested with an AA cell and a piece of wire, to simulate broadband RF.
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DAB over 7 years ago in reply to mcb1

Thanks Mark,

I will keep that in mind if my plan A doesn't work.

DAB
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shabaz over 7 years ago

I just noticed a post here that says energia works with CC3200 now.
This might be an option to accelerate CC3200 adoption, but all you guys are on the leading edge currently, since this is still relatively new hardware.
I've yet to try out the CC3200, so I'm not sure which is a better or quicker approach yet.
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mcb1 over 7 years ago in reply to BigG

cheers
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