Detect RF signal of the Lightning Flashes

[chandana]

I am going to detect RF signal which generated because of Lightning Flashes. In this I will plan to use antenna. How can I detect RF signals in the atmosphere? Is it possible to use RF detector ?

What are the possible ICs of RF detectors?

Please help me.

Thank you.

Best Regards,
Chandana Peiris

 

[(*steve*)]

Google is your friend. Look here.

 

[davenn]

Thats brilliant Steve,

did you scroll through the 2 pages of all the photos of versions other people created?
some of them are serious works of art !!

I have been inspired to make my own one

Dave

 

[(*steve*)]

did you scroll through the 2 pages of all the photos of versions other people created?
some of them are serious works of art !!

I certainly did.

I have been inspired to make my own one

Likewise. Although I don't know if I'd get time to do it.

I noted in particular the one with the interface to a camera. Could be very cool.

 

[chandana]

Thanks

I certainly did.



Likewise. Although I don't know if I'd get time to do it.

I noted in particular the one with the interface to a camera. Could be very cool.

Thanks.

I am a PhD student. So I am very interesting to build more advance new circuit. So please advice suitable web sites.

 

[(*steve*)]

I know it's tricky, so LMGTFY.

 

[davenn]

Hey Steve,

had a little spend up at Altronics yesterday. Bought one of their Flexible counter module kits (K-2505) something to play with and could be used to count the pulses from the lightning detector.

The counter is a little bulky, discrete CMOS IC's, 7 segment LED displays etc
could be made smaller with a PIC I suspect, but am not into writing programs for them

Also got one of their Digital Audio Osc kit. (K 2543) sick of borrowing the one from work. Nice to have one at home for use at a moment's notice



Dave

 

[chandana]

Hey Steve,

had a little spend up at Altronics yesterday. Bought one of their Flexible counter module kits (K-2505) something to play with and could be used to count the pulses from the lightning detector.

The counter is a little bulky, discrete CMOS IC's, 7 segment LED displays etc
could be made smaller with a PIC I suspect, but am not into writing programs for them

Also got one of their Digital Audio Osc kit. (K 2543) sick of borrowing the one from work. Nice to have one at home for use at a moment's notice



Dave

PIC can not use in this application, because of the low speed. First we have to detect the RF signal by usinf RF detector. Now I am planing to use LTC 5507. Freuescy range of LTC 5507 is 100 KHz to 1 GHz. Output signal of the LTC 5507 is a analog. Then we have to convert analog signal to digital signal. Digital signal can transmit to the base station. How about my project plan.

 

[davenn]

PIC can not use in this application, because of the low speed. First we have to detect the RF signal by usinf RF detector. Now I am planing to use LTC 5507. Freuescy range of LTC 5507 is 100 KHz to 1 GHz. Output signal of the LTC 5507 is a analog. Then we have to convert analog signal to digital signal. Digital signal can transmit to the base station. How about my project plan.

A PIC chip is ideal for counting strike pulses and then driving a display.

The LTC 5507 is ok but it will detect local strikes only it has a very insensitive input, ony -34dBm. The ccts in that link that steve gave you gives much better receiver ideas.
Included are ccts for pulse observation/counting

what sort of didtance do you intend to transmit over ? keep in mind that the receiver of your data link is also going to be subject to static crashes of the lightning strikes.

There is no real need to remotely locate the detector, why do you want to do that ? A resonable detector will pick up strikes up to 500km

Dave

 

[davenn]

You do know there are commercial lightning detectors available that will, when interfaced to a computer, plot the location of a strike on a map ?

here's one well known example http://www.carterlake.org/lightningdetector.php there are a number of others.

A number of my fellow stormchaser friends use these systems.

Dave

 

[(*steve*)]

You do realise that a lightning strike lasts for quite a long time don't you?

Even if you were actually wanting to count pulses at 500kHz it would be relatively easy with a PIC (I've seen a circuit that can count pulses at over 50MHz using a PIC)

I'm not sure why you want to use an LTC5507 since it is a wideband device and the conventional wisdom seems to be that you want to concentrate on VLF, but I guess it could work.

 

[chandana]

You do realise that a lightning strike lasts for quite a long time don't you?

Even if you were actually wanting to count pulses at 500kHz it would be relatively easy with a PIC (I've seen a circuit that can count pulses at over 50MHz using a PIC)

I'm not sure why you want to use an LTC5507 since it is a wideband device and the conventional wisdom seems to be that you want to concentrate on VLF, but I guess it could work.

Yes LTC5507 is a wideband devive. I want to analyse RF signal which generated beacuse of lightning. I am interesting at least 1 GHz. So I use LTC5507. Do you know any suitable ADC to sampling the 1GHz signal

 

[chandana]

A PIC chip is ideal for counting strike pulses and then driving a display.

The LTC 5507 is ok but it will detect local strikes only it has a very insensitive input, ony -34dBm. The ccts in that link that steve gave you gives much better receiver ideas.
Included are ccts for pulse observation/counting

what sort of didtance do you intend to transmit over ? keep in mind that the receiver of your data link is also going to be subject to static crashes of the lightning strikes.

There is no real need to remotely locate the detector, why do you want to do that ? A resonable detector will pick up strikes up to 500km

Dave

LTC 5507 input power range is from -34 dBm to 14 dBm. In other words we can detect any RF signal power from 0.398 uW to 25.1188 milli watts.I think LTC 5507 is more sensitive. I can not agree with your argument. Please explain it.

 

[chandana]

You do know there are commercial lightning detectors available that will, when interfaced to a computer, plot the location of a strike on a map ?

here's one well known example http://www.carterlake.org/lightningdetector.php there are a number of others.

A number of my fellow stormchaser friends use these systems.

Dave

Yes I know there is a commercial lightning detectors available. But they detect location using distance and angle.

But in my project I will plan to use interferrometry techniques to indentify the location of the lightning. Also I am going to analyze RF signal which generated because of lightning.