Launch of System Blue delayed

[CF20852]

Yesterday I finished test of a new 30cm loop antenna

It performs better than my 90cm Möbius copper loop antenna for System RED.
I use the new Differential Preamplifier in front of a RED H-Field amplifier

Differential preamp in front of the H-field amp! And here I thought I was the only one who thought that was a good idea...

[HamelGre]

I think that I see some ground stitching vias other improvements in the main board layout. One thing that is needed over RED is improved EMC layout, and it looks like things might be headed in that direction. Based on circuit density, has the board gone to multi-layer? If so, that is a good thing despite the increased cost. Impedance control and grounding should be better.

Keep up the good work and thanks for the teaser pictures!

Greg Hamel

[Donar]

What about pre-orders with pre-payment?

Cheers,
Herb

[Tobi]

What about pre-orders with pre-payment?

We can not accept that!

If you are interested, then enter your email address at the bottom of this page here: http://www.blitzortung.org/Webpages/index.php?page=3

[Donar]

What about pre-orders with pre-payment?

We can not accept that!

If you are interested, then enter your email address at the bottom of this page here: http://www.blitzortung.org/Webpages/index.php?page=3

Thanks Tobi, I know. It was just a way of saying that we're impatiently waiting

I already registered a while ago, and am eager to get started.

Also, while I am writing here: thanks to all participants making all of this possible!

[johnfl68]

You should think about partnering with Adafruit in the US.

They often work with hobbyist and makers to help make open source hardware available to more people. They have hardware people, pick and place machines to populate boards, etc.

At least not in the immediate future, at some point down the road perhaps.

John

[Plasson]

really could have used that detector today. had a 20km wide cell moving right overhead. was following the track but it was way off. By the time it rolled in over land on the track. it had already passed well inland in reality.

Sitting just east of Kristiansand in a deadzone of sorts. only stations near are around Oslo and Stavanger, plus those in Denmark all around 250km or more away

[Sharpew]

Hello, 

Looking for information in USD on what it will take to setup a receiving/broadcast station in terms of terrain requirements.  I'm in a 2 story home with little room for detecting antenna (and I see there are choices available), but wonder if height over other homes, trees, hills makes any difference. 

In order for me to join in on this audacious project, (read that as fun), I have to pass some criteria.  

Primary one is due to lean times, affordability of a detector. I am versed in assembling electronics as I go back to numerous projects with the name Heathkit on them.  So now some of you know my age 8^)   Therefore if best pricing requires assembly, no issues. 

Second obstacle is a basic understanding of connectivity needs.  I have a multi-port cable modem, but only one computer which is owned by my employer. Not sure if the computer is required to act as an interface for this to work.  Can do so, but would limit provision of strike reports to when the computer is in use, (approx 14hrs/day).  

Third obstacle which has the most weight is the house spouse.  She will not want exposed antenna duct taped to a window like pressed ham on glass, or wires visibly connecting part a to b, to c, etc.   

I have been a super fan of electrical storms since I was born - almost struck twice, to the point of feeling the pre-hit warnings. Just love mother nature during furious moments, and stumbling upon this site and it's detection map make me one happy fella.  With this, I would like to eventually become a provider of lightning strikes with detection from New Hampshire, USA.  I'd be the only one from NH. 
   

Any insights of obtaining a strike detection kit to the basics of connection and hints on how to hide antennae would be most appreciated.

[W3DRM]

Hello, 

Looking for information in USD on what it will take to setup a receiving/broadcast station in terms of terrain requirements.  I'm in a 2 story home with little room for detecting antenna (and I see there are choices available), but wonder if height over other homes, trees, hills makes any difference. 

In order for me to join in on this audacious project, (read that as fun), I have to pass some criteria.  

Primary one is due to lean times, affordability of a detector. I am versed in assembling electronics as I go back to numerous projects with the name Heathkit on them.  So now some of you know my age 8^)   Therefore if best pricing requires assembly, no issues. 

Second obstacle is a basic understanding of connectivity needs.  I have a multi-port cable modem, but only one computer which is owned by my employer. Not sure if the computer is required to act as an interface for this to work.  Can do so, but would limit provision of strike reports to when the computer is in use, (approx 14hrs/day).  

Third obstacle which has the most weight is the house spouse.  She will not want exposed antenna duct taped to a window like pressed ham on glass, or wires visibly connecting part a to b, to c, etc.   

I have been a super fan of electrical storms since I was born - almost struck twice, to the point of feeling the pre-hit warnings. Just love mother nature during furious moments, and stumbling upon this site and it's detection map make me one happy fella.  With this, I would like to eventually become a provider of lightning strikes with detection from New Hampshire, USA.  I'd be the only one from NH. 


Any insights of obtaining a strike detection kit to the basics of connection and hints on how to hide antennae would be most appreciated.

Sharpew,

As stated in the opening post of this thread by Egon, availability is not known at this time. Additionally neither is the cost of system BLUE. All of that will come in time so we all need to sit back and wait for the announcement.

As far as connectivity, you do not need to be running a computer for Blitzortung to be operational. All signals are connected through your local router to the Internet. You will need access to a computer so you can make adjustments and view your signals. All of that is done via a standard web browser. No special equipment is needed, just an Internet connection.

As for hiding your antenna(s), that will depend on your particular location. Finding the "sweet spot" can be a challenge, as some of our users have discovered. There will be wires (coax and network cabling) attached to the devices and you will have to determine the best layout for your location. One prime requirement is placement of the GPS antenna which needs to have visibility to the sky so it can "see" as many GPS satellites as possible. If you have a metal roof, it could be challenging to find a suitable inside location. However, those are just some obstacles, all of which can be solved. It just takes patience to solve them.

And btw, I've got tired old eyes too and was able to build my RED system without any problems. The new BLUE kits will have more SMD components on them so higher level soldering skills will be necessary but easily learned with some practice and a steady hand.

Good luck to you and I hope you will be able to obtain the new BLUE system when they become available. Don't hesitate to ask questions.

[G3WGV]

Will System Blue have new amplifiers or is it just the controller that is changing? If the amps are the same, is Amp 12 available to purchase now? It would be interesting to be able to experiment with antennas and an amp with a 'scope on the output, to see, for example, what noise levels are like around here whilst waiting for Blue to arrive. A lot easier than sitting down and designing/building my own high gain/low noise baseband amp! Will fully understand if it's not possible.

Thanks.
John.

[Knickohr]

System BLUE is a complete new hardware, only the controller (STM32F4DISCOVERY) is NOT changing

Thomas

[RichoAnd]

System BLUE is a completely new concept
At the antennas is a pre-amplifiers adapted antenna and with balanced outputs to amplifier / controller

[G3WGV]

Thanks folks. I should have known it wouldn't be as simple as that.

DIY amp design time for me it seems!

[Tobi]

System BLUE is a complete new hardware, only the controller (STM32F4DISCOVERY) is NOT changing

We can not say that yet. The goal is to have the CPU directly on our board!

[RichoAnd]

Right now we are testing the analog part that's is placed on the controller board, including new filters and new digital filters. New Pre-amps are also tested at the same time.
In order not to make it too complex, we use the Discovery Board as controller.
When it works as it should, we can put the CPU directly on the controller board - this part is tested by TOBI.
which also are testing WiFI, color display, etc.
We call this concept System BLUE, but also expect a BLUE-II (BLUE too)  

[orion_jb2001]

Right now we are testing the analog part that's is placed on the controller board, including new filters and new digital filters. New Pre-amps are also tested at the same time.
In order not to make it too complex, we use the Discovery Board as controller.
When it works as it should, we can put the CPU directly on the controller board - this part is tested by TOBI.
which also are testing WiFI, color display, etc.
We call this concept System BLUE, but also expect a BLUE-II (BLUE too)  

All sounds good Richo.  Any time frame between Blue and Blue II versions????

Jeff

[RichoAnd]

No! .... and it's a never ending project with small stops between
System RED works great, but we thought it could be improved.
Even when BLUE arrive, RED still a good system.
Not everyone will benefit from the improvements.
We have improved noise immunity and the filters, but if you do not have the noise, the servers will not notice any difference.

[orion_jb2001]

NO????? Have you misunderstood me or have I misunderstood you.  I know the project is on going, but when you state to expect a Blue II, of course there will be a blue II and then a yellow and then a yellow II but you developers must have some time frame on when you hope the next version will be out.  If the Blue is released in say December, would you then expect the Blue II to be out December the year after.

I believe to be fair to purchasers, you should indicate possible time frames so one can plan to upgrade say this year and then wait for 2 years to upgrade again.  Is that clear?

regards,

Jeff

[Tobi]

@orion_jb2001: I know what you mean, but that's impossible for us. We can not provide any time frames, as we don't know them ourselves. We are not a company, but just a few guys with some special hobby, so the progress depends on our free time and motivation. Of course we will try to announce new hardware early enough.

About system BLUE: We have a lot of ideas and are still experimenting. At some time we have to decide what we need or don't need on the first revision. There's no final decision so far. Like with system GREEN and RED before, there will new revisions in the future. Likely not only for improvements, but maybe also with some additional or different hardware. This will be still system BLUE.

Best regards
Tobi

[kevinmcc]

Can we get any update on the status? Possible ETA?
Anything we can do to help with the design or testing?

There are some here wanting to help and many wanting to know how system blue is progressing.

I feel an open development process would be help for the community.