Hi Dan, I greatly modified the python code that I got from here https://github.com/pcfens/RaspberryPi-AS3935/tree/8f624b1588ba54977a596c1409800a286ea445b0 I also think it is the basics for the weewx extension. I do not use the weewx extension since I wrote my own program to control the detectors since I run three of the them. But IMHO if I was using the weewx extension I would comment out the code in the interrupt handler for changing the noise setting and just log that it happen or write code that lowers the setting after a couple of minutes. I also would comment out the code for setting the disturber mask and again just log them when they happen. In my code I actually just log every 10 disturber interrupts to cut down on the log entries. The device real weakness is disturbers and handling them makes all the difference in how well the device will work. For tuning I looked at a "c" program but then wrote my own in python that tries to handle dealing with measuring timing using a RP and python and the device. Also when I talk about heat swings i mean from 70 to 130 degrees since my system has direct sun on it. Thanks Jerry
On Thursday, September 19, 2019 at 4:50:22 AM UTC-7, dan Forster wrote: > > Jerry, > > Sorry for not coming back sooner, I have been traveling with work. > > Many thanks for your comments. You are far ahead of me with regards to > working these little lightning detector boards out and getting the best > from them. > > A quick question, what code do you use/alter to cause a re-tune and > disable the noise threshold (like squelch I suppose in amateur radio)? I > noticed the board does get warm and slightly deaf due to the 500Khz tuning > cap being affected by this heat. > > Cheers, > > Dan > > > > On Saturday, 14 September 2019 14:16:14 UTC-4, J D wrote: >> >> Hi Dan, >> Nice write up of your work. >> >> Here are a couple items to help with the correctness of the device. >> If you are using the very common python code found on the net there are a >> number of issues with it. >> The big one is the disturber mask part. In the specs when a disturber is >> detected the device turns off for a 1.5 seconds. It also sends the >> interrupt. If you are using the python code the interrupt handler turns on >> the mask interrupt bit in the device. So now no more interrupts but the >> device still turns off and this is bad. Also to make things worse very far >> away lightning is sometimes detected as a disturber. So IMHO I would >> disable the setting of the mask bit and if you are having a lot of issues >> with disturbers either move the device or change the Watchdog setting, or >> the AFE setting or the Spike setting or the Noise setting to reduce the >> number of disturbers. This is not a perfect solution since changing the >> settings reduces the device sensitivity but at least it does not turn it >> off for a 1.5 seconds. >> The next problem is the Noise threshold part of the python code. The >> problem here is noise can come and go but the code only raises the Noise >> Threshold there is no code for lowering it. Again IMHO I found that it is >> best to disable this code and if the noise is truly an issue manually raise >> the Noise threshold or put in timer code that lowers it to see if the noise >> is still high. >> Another code issue is that there is no auto calibrate of the tune cap. >> There does exist a "c" version for auto tune and I have written my own >> python version of auto tune. Auto tune IMHO is only needed if you have the >> device outside where there are large temp swings. I have found that as the >> devices get hot the tune cap value needs to go higher to keep it as close >> as possible to 500khz. The specs state that the other oscillators are temp >> compensated but nothing about the 500khz oscillator. Usually the change is >> just one or two steps up or down. So I run the auto-tune 3 times a day >> (morning, noon,night) and if the device is detecting lightning then I skip >> the auto-tune for that time. >> Thanks Jerry >> >> >> On Saturday, September 14, 2019 at 8:21:02 AM UTC-7, dan Forster wrote: >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> Sorry I have not been about and replying to board messages. Started some >>> DIY project which turned out larger than expected... >>> >>> This is how I got my AS3935 to work in Weewx. It may not bee 100% >>> correct, but it is now working on two pi's really well. Note if you think >>> you are going to run this on 6" pieces of cable, so its close to the pi, >>> indoors, next to all your gizzmos, the lightning will bite your bum for >>> this thing sees it. Its best run in a low noise environment (away from >>> power supplies, cheap LED lights, computer screens, etc). From what I can >>> gather, its a 500khz receiver and some clever logic, so like any radio, it >>> likes to be able to see the sky. I will start from scratch so you can get >>> going from a new pi sdcard/AS3935 board >>> >>> This is the detection board I use - >>> https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AS3935-Lightning-Strike-Storm-Distances-Detector-I2C-SPI-Sensor-Programmable/333265065400?_trkparms=ispr%3D1&hash=item4d982555b8:g:VWUAAOSw1NNdKCt2&enc=AQAEAAAB4BPxNw%2BVj6nta7CKEs3N0qX6knsPaWu2HyFk9u1VHKBpz81ghsTUEAWuMAkGOyv6nDm%2FfHF6ZNRVWUmyw6fMizGZ%2BYp4db2m9KpEC601RxylniwLIMm1Yna7V1VtB3WNTdeLsrOFmUXb8ykzBxZK2B3hLzfgKkhHP80k%2BXuEpKA7AgDyaSN%2FJluRWLSOUQ88THmlkf3DW0W6wL2mUZW5Sp9gkMFWxvt2OpppfyNs2YHI%2B2C%2Ftbi5YMd%2BCv5q6K300H7lsatLWwQEkE6kv1YXLLis4zt4NUw58qFrTss5O%2B%2FnahobycDwpibwG%2B%2Bj8LZ5Hn3HJgTc8sQFNyhu%2Bm6M2RUolopnAvcJu%2BWCVgM%2Fz3fr0O7l1u%2FZ1cd64SuOKVm%2FvCNIDddFrgZNW0gbMjAVxwlS11mmQuiIowAqFlf6d16f7t1yrCXjHYPZyTEqdNhTNpycb1IGseu6FoaXpJquvoB4nZrnPvn0qe7P1xPdyHVfNXh224r8jd4NDdC0jCDVDJlJD8ilWZKXe6%2Fb5sNQIoJqw5tWlPbv5gbq%2FC%2BdpTM%2BJMKdeeAPfLpHN%2FpirKMAKcbKuW6wydhGa7aa%2BRk6SnCsySeIvixE2%2Fet4FPn%2BRvEQVFVNg2M1L4tkPkpFW6bdA%3D%3D&checksum=333265065400e9f0e246d5364032ab0e55b879590ef8 >>> >>> - they seem fairly tough little things to be honest and can seemingly >>> withstand lots of abuse - (I must have changed every wire ((not power pins >>> of course)) in my experimentation's). >>> >>> >>> Using RPi 3 board - using this image >>> https://downloads.raspberrypi.org/raspbian/images/raspbian-2018-11-15/. >>> Its not the latest - I prefer something tried and tested and sort of bug >>> free. NOTE - once the image is burnt to sdcard ( >>> https://www.balena.io/etcher/ makes prepping sdcards a cup of tea - >>> DONT buy cheap sdcards, they will make the system crawl like a snail), >>> eject card, then reinsert to the same MAC/WIN PC you just prepped card on, >>> then add a little file called ssh (make with a text editor) with no >>> extension (so thats no full stop after ssh file name - just a file called >>> ssh) to the bootable partition (the partition you see when you insert this >>> rpi OS ready sdcard into a MAC/WIN machine). This enables ssh access as >>> default. I dont use a desktop on the pi, just ssh. >>> >>> Put new card in pi - boot - log in via ssh >>> >>> run sudo rpi- config = enable IC2 and expand filesystem, change your >>> locale and give the pi a hostname that makes sense (then it can be any IP >>> it wants to be, you can easily look up on your LAN using hostname - easier >>> to remember than IP addresses. Reboot pi. >>> >>> Update the pi when its rebooted (sudo apt-get update - and sudo apt-get >>> upgrade). I also change the default pi password, just to be safe (note to >>> use this new password when you reboot pi!). >>> >>> Reboot pi - ssh in (I run everything from my home pi directory unless >>> otherwise stated) >>> >>> Install apache2 - sudo apt-get install apache2 -y (I like this to be >>> on the pi so weewx sees it on install). >>> >>> Install weewx as follows (or any other way that you like, this adds the >>> repository to the pi so updating and installation is real easy). >>> >>> wget -qO - http://weewx.com/keys.html | sudo apt-key add - >>> wget -qO - http://weewx.com/apt/weewx.list | sudo te e >>> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/weewx.list >>> sudo apt-get update >>> sudo apt-get install weewx >>> >>> Now when you do a sudo apt-get update/upgrade, weewx gets updated too. >>> >>> Power down you pi >>> >>> Wire up your as3935 module (earth yourself first for a few seconds, the >>> little pcb is static sensitive). >>> >>> Board VDD = 3.0VDC - PIN # 1 - RED >>> Board GND = Ground - PIN # 6 - BLACK >>> Board SCK/SCL = SCL - PIN # 5 - GPIO 3 - WHITE >>> Board MOSI/SDA = SDA - PIN # 3 - GPIO 2 - GREEN >>> Board IRQ = Pin #11 - GPIO 17 - YELLOW >>> Board SI = 3.0VDC - Pin #17 for i2c - RED >>> Board A0 and A1 = 3.0VDC - Pin #17 >>> >>> I use a soldering iron to make the last 3 connections above to pin #17 >>> (modify some push on connections with the soldering iron rather than solder >>> anything directly to the pi) - ditto push on connections for the AS3935 >>> board. >>> >>> The reason to put 3V on A0 and A1 is to give it an address that can read >>> by by ic2-tools. >>> >>> Power up your pi and ssh in. >>> >>> Type - sudo apt-get install i2c-tools >>> >>> Type i2cdetect -y 1 >>> >>> You should now see the module show up as address 03 (if you don't use >>> the address pins of the module A0 and A1 - you leave then unconnected for >>> instance - the module will have an address that wont show on ic2detect). >>> >>> I then install the python library using - sudo pip install RPi_AS3935 >>> this makes the module directly accessible by python. >>> >>> I then install smbus - sudo apt-get install python-smbus >>> >>> I then run the Weewx installer for the AS3935 using this link >>> https://github.com/weewx/weewx/wiki/as3935 >>> >>> I then edit weewx.conf like this - sudo nano /etc/weewx/weewx.conf >>> >>> Go to the end of the file, I then alter the AS3935 section at the end >>> like this >>> >>> [AS3935] >>> bus = 1 >>> indoors = false # set to True if indoors >>> noise_floor = 0 >>> calibration = 6 >>> pin = 17 >>> address = 3 >>> binding = archive >>> >>> Save this file >>> >>> Reboot pi (some say just restart weewx service but when I fiddle lots I >>> like to reboot) >>> >>> Once pi has rebooted, as quick as you can type sudo tail -f >>> /var/log/syslog >>> >>> The pi will now display services etc. as they start, including weewx. >>> Look carefully for the 'noise level too hi' line >>> >>> If its running all OK, move to the next part... >>> >>> Now its time to alter the weewx schema so the two new variables are >>> recorded in the weewx database (two new variables being lightning_strikes >>> and avg_distance) >>> >>> For this I followed this page >>> https://github.com/poblabs/weewx-belchertown/wiki/Adding-a-new-observation-type-to-the-WeeWX-database >>> >>> Read it through a couple of times until it makes sense. Dont forget, you >>> are substituting [('appTemp', 'REAL'), ('windrun', 'REAL')] with >>> [('lightning_strikes', 'REAL'), ('avg_distance', 'REAL')] >>> >>> Now you can alter one of the default skins (I use Seasons and played >>> with this so it shows both the new values in text and graph format) >>> >>> >>> NOTES - My first port of call for all help with weewx is the forum. If >>> you get stuck, post a message. I have used many web sites to help me make >>> the list above so many thanks go to all the clever folk I leanrt from. >>> >>> >>> >>> On Monday, 8 July 2019 04:48:22 UTC-4, dan Forster wrote: >>> >>> Hi, >>>> >>>> I bought one of these from eBay - *MA5532 AS3935 2.4V to 5.5V >>>> Lightning Fulmine Sensor Breakout SPI/I2C Antenna*. I have connected >>>> it all up and have it working fine, confirmed by using the demo script and >>>> install instructions supplied here >>>> *https://github.com/pcfens/RaspberryPi-AS3935 >>>> <https://github.com/pcfens/RaspberryPi-AS3935>.* I can see that a few >>>> people had problems connecting the module, so I have attached a picture of >>>> how I have wired to get it working perfectly (note one address line has to >>>> be set to common ground and the address is 00x0 *NOT 00x3)*. >>>> >>>> I then followed these instructions >>>> *https://github.com/weewx/weewx/wiki/as3935 >>>> <https://github.com/weewx/weewx/wiki/as3935>* in order that it can be >>>> used within my weewx weather station. I have managed to do everything as >>>> it >>>> says on this page, including the part at the bottom of the page with >>>> regards to the extra sqlite database holding the lightening detector data >>>> (which I confirmed exists in the same place as the weewx db). >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> Now I am using the Seasons skin and would like to get help on adding >>>> the two new lightening detector values (lightning_strikes and >>>> avg_distance)into the Seasons skin web page (at the bottom of the >>>> Current Conditions list). I think the file I need to alter is >>>> /etc/weewx/skins/Seasons/current.inc. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> I am OK with electronics and getting better at Linux, but I am terrible >>>> at HTML. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated... >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> Dan >>>> >>> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "weewx-user" group. 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