Thunderstorm Warning!

[DKS302]

Hi Folks,
here a little Project of mine.

Take the ELV Gewitterwarner GW1 and the Remote Control HOME easy HE841.
Solder 3 Cables at the ON/OFF Contacts from the HE841, and connect them with Ground, "Warnung" and "Entwarnung" of the ELV GW1.
Learn the Switch at Domoticz, set up a Prowl Account, and you are all ready to receive the Storm Warning at your IPhone!

At your Prowl Client it will look like this:

[DKS302]

This is a Look at the Dashboard:

[gizmocuz]

sweat ! .... does this device really work ?

Where do you place this device? Close to the window or could it be in the cellar ?

how does it work? (i found a german site... but could not understand 100% what it does... something about detecting thunderstorms 40km away )

Where did you buy this? on the elv site it says 12 weeks for delivery ?

[DKS302]

Yes it is really working! I put the Device outside on a Pole. The Powersupply is an 8.4V NIMH Accumulator bufferd with a Solarpanel and a constant current of 18mA.
The Housing is a Waterdrain with two Endcaps.

The GW1 receive the Signals of the Lightningstrikes at 500KHz, an internel Algorithm divide the real Strikes form other distrubtions like Machines, Lightswitches etc. You can define different Modes with the DIP-Switches inside (this is al little bit Tricky).
You can set the Squech, how many Strikes must receive before warning, the Spike Rejection and many more.
Search for the Franklin-Blitzsensor AS3935, this is the Chip inside. You will find Pages in engish for the Discription.
Normaly the Device will work inside to (because of the 500KHz) but inside the House are many distrubtions from the electrical Devices like TV Computer Lamps etc.

Yes mine is from ELV!

[Yihaaa]

Looks great! Is the power supply of the HE841 also connected to the solar panel? And do you have a link of the used solar panel? Thinking of making the same.

[DKS302]

Hello Yihaaa,

the HE841 is powerd by an 3V external Lithium Cell. Perhaps it is possible to power the HE841 from the Solarpanel with a Voltage Devider and a Goldcap, but I did not try this. It could be a problem with the Open Collector Outputs of the GW1. Such kind of Problems I have had by my first Tests with two Doorbell Switces. If I close one of the Contacts booth Switches were activ. The Solarpaneel is an old one and is out of Stock. But it is an 16-22V 125mA Paneel. The constant current source is simple for LED´s with two Transistors. So you get enough current by indirect Sunlight. But never disconnect the Accumulator, then the full Voltage of the Solarpaneel will demage the GW1! This charging methode is not the best way, but very lossless. The GW1 will use ca. 2mA of current, the Accumulator I use has 250mA/h, the chargeing current is 18-20mA. This is enough for a few Days with a coudy Sky.

For Info at all:
The GW1 is a warning Device, not a Strike Detector!
Many People in other german Communitys want to count the Lightning Strikes...
...not with the GW1! The Controller inside is Programmed to devide the Strikes from the man made Distrubtions. So it is impossible to get all the Strikes because the Signals of the Strikes are very different. If you programm the GW1 with the DIP Switches in this way that you can see every Strike, you will get false alarms!
Allso use a Powersupply with Copper Windings, the new Switching Powersupplys made Interferences in the KHz Frequencys. This will distrub the GW1!

[DKS302]

Update:

This System is running since 2014 without problems!

[Abbadon]

blitzortung.org - maybe some API will be better way than sensor XXX sensors are better than one ;p