Air detects Lightning, but it was beautiful weather!

I didn’t put my topic in the “Owners section” because I don’t own anything yet :sob:

I’ve read alot of topics and some are about AIR detecting false strikes.
(Also found the possible solutions;)

But still many nearby Air detect lightning/strikes, despite very nice weather!

Just curious; didn’t those owners adjust their AIR as advised?

The above fixes may help with the Air (the Franklin Lightning Detector chip) in detecting some “false lightning”, but sometimes even the spark created by say a small switch opening or closing can produce a signature that the chip thinks IS lightning. But overall for the cost the chip does a pretty good job. If there is something locally which is “fooling” the detector, you can use an old AM radio (tuned to the low end of the band) to listen and maybe correlate the “static” to the false signal. That is what the detector chip is tuned to.

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Placement is the key. I have not had a false report all year.

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Not surprising.

Where in the unit setup instructions (quick start guide) does anything say that you need to do more than pair the devices with the hub ?

That said, yes the (troubleshooting) guide says to point in another direction, but it does ‘not’ say the current best-practice of trying 90 degrees adjustment first.

FWIW, I had a couple/few before re-siting the hub and getting it rotated N/S which caused a zillion false positives, probably because there’s a cell phone tower about 50 yards north of the house. Rotating the Air 90 degrees fixed that problem. I’ve had ‘one’ false positive in the last couple days since then.

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Don’t exactly know where to put this question.

But is this normal for the Air when you didn’t catch any lightning since installation?

smartweather

From what I’ve seen from different stations there are 3 options;

  1. certain amount of lightning (normal working)
  2. N/A
    3 the - - you see

Couldn’t figure out the difference between 2 and 3 yet.

But would like to learn also.

(@WFmarketing seems listing is not working?)

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When I go to my station via the weatherstation map it also gives N/A.
Look likes it’s oké.

We haven’t got any lightning around here since installation. We could get some tonight or tomorrow.
So let’s see if the Air begins to count strikes then.

Mine has given each day 1 strike today 2 (all not true ) I’ve just turned my station 90 degrees let’s hoping it stays calm now.

Looking forward too thunderstorms tommorow with real lightning and a lot off rain (LOL since when do I like rain)

I turned it also with the hole to where the most breeze is comming from.

My temperature readings are fine now.
It could be interference of something @spacesnow?!
Never had any interference with my Acurite lightning detector, and also no untrue detections with the Air untill now.

Only got 2 rain popups from the Sky. But no precipitation to see in the App and graphs.

Wobbling of the pole… But gonna do something about that this weekend. :grinning:

I can’t find a source or think about a source that gives interference with my lightning sensor, well its near a great barn from my neighboors (a bakery) maybe it can happen when they turn on the lights in there :thinking:

Anyway its not on the position I want it, I have to build some sensor hut first , my pole didn’t detect false rain the day I set it up in the evening I was lucky and got 14,4 mm rain I thought it detected too much but the other day I looked up the raincharts from the KNMI and guess what in my area was the most rain fallen in that period the amount was 14 mm on the chart so I guess thats quite accurate. The charts are composed every morning at 8 UTC I think the data are measured by hand by volunteers and handled over to the KNMI https://www.knmi.nl/nederland-nu/weer/actueel-weer/extremen

The most painfull are the UVI measurements but we’ve said that before :sunglasses:

Yes. Everything works fine… But hopefully dsj will also get to our stations.

Had my first lightning strike alert today. :grin:

Far away. But it could be because there are thunderstorms above the North sea. Or a storm that’s buiding up.
Don’t think it’s a false alert.
Think mines working fine. To bad I can’t see if my Acurite detector also picks it up.

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Yes. If your lightning data history = null, then the system has nothing to report…until your station detects the first strike.

smartweather

Had the first strikes today.
Detector works great. Never had any false strikes. Thunderstorm was indeed at that range.

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I seem to be suffering with false positives at a rate of 3 to 4 a day. I thought it might have been my PC fan used for aspiration. However, it has been switched off for 4 days, as my DIY radiation shield is working fine without it. I’m not sure what is causing it, as it’s quite open with nothing electrical close by.

I completely understand that it’s bound to happen occasionally, but I cannot go more than 9 or 10 hours without one registering. I suspect i’ll end up ignoring the notifications when lightning is in the vicinity due to the repetitive false positives. :persevere: