BOLTEK - What's New at Boltek

The Institute of Power Engineering of Tampere University of Technology (TUT), Finland has developed the "TTYtutka" Lightning Detection Network based on Boltek lightning detectors. Custom software by Astrogenic combines the output of five LD-250 Lightning Detectors with four EFM-100 Electric Field Mills to produce a wide area lightning map. GPS data timestamps individial lightning strikes. Additional details can be found here. Contact Ilkka Lilja for more information.

Astrogenic Systems has developed the StrikeStar Lightning Detection Network based on Boltek lightning detectors. StrikeStar detectors are operated by Boltek owners around the United States and Canada. These detectors send their data to the StrikeStar central server where the software triangulates their data and presents the results in near real-time. Visit www.strikestarus.com for more information

Two new accessories for the LD-250: the LDGPS-1 GPS Receiver and the LDCMP-1 Fluxgate Compass. Both can provide heading correction information to the LD-250 when used in a mobile installation. Click here for more information on the LDGPS-1. Click here for more information on the LDCMP-1.

StormTracker and LD-250 are now shipping with Astrogenic's NexStorm Lite software. NexStorm Lite has the same easy-to-use user interface as Astrogenic's popular NexStorm software but does not include some of the more advanced features such data sharing, Internet connectivity features, nor any of the bonus software which are included with NexStorm.

Upgrading from NexStorm Lite to NexStorm is simpler than ever since the background maps are compatible.

Detailed information on NexStorm Lite is available on Astrogenic's web site.

Updated software for the EFM-100 is now available on the Downloads Page. EFM-100 Display Software V1.06 adds a Mute Speaker icon to each field mill and corrects some inconsistencies in event logging.

Boltek's new LTS-2 GPS Timestamp Option Kit allows software developers and researchers to timestamp each detected strike to within a few hundred nanoseconds. Combining the timestamped data from three or more StormTracker Lightning Detectors allows cloud-to-ground strike positions to be calculated to within thousands of feet. Detailed information is on the Developers page.

Lightning/2000 now has one more display option for your lightning data. View lightning strikes in Google's popular Google Earth virtual globe software. Click here for more information from Aninoquisi's web site.

Astrogenic has released a free lightning viewer Java applet for your Java capable cell phone.
Visit Astrogenic's SPARK web page for detailed infomation on this exciting new software.

Danny Knaggs is administering StormForce, a new open source data viewer for the Boltek LD-250 Lightning Detector. Written in Python this application can be run on most platforms, including Linux and FreeBSD. More information on downloading or contributing to StormForce can be found on sourceforge.com and code.google.com

A Linux Programmer's Toolkit is again available for StormTracker. This toolkit has been updated for the latest kernals and Linux technical support is available. See the Developers page for more information.

An inverted downward-facing mount is now available for mounting your EFM-100. Mounting your field mill inverted will help shield the sense plates from the rain to reduce precipitaion noise. The EFM-INV Inverted Mounting Kit can be found on the Accessories page.

Updated StormTracker/LTS-2 Developers Toolkit software is now available for customers interested in developing their own software for the Boltek StormTracker Lightning Detector and LTS-2 Timestamp kit. This version includes bugfixes as well as a somewhat simplified programming interface and improved example program. The StormTracker/LTS-2 Developers Kit software can be downloaded from the Downloads page.

A new version of LDN Detector is available for download. This version fixes a few bugs from the V1.0.3 version. Click here to download. Requires the V9.01 StormTracker PCI Driver.

LDN Detector is a system tray application (runs in the background) that delivers StormTracker's LTS-2 GPS timestamped lightning data to a lightning detection network server.

A new version of LDN Detector is available for download. This version includes support for 64 bit versions of Windows. Click here to download. Requires the V9.21 StormTracker PCI Driver (64 bit)

LDN Detector is a system tray application (runs in the background) that delivers StormTracker's LTS-2 GPS timestamped lightning data to a lightning detection network server.

A 64 bit Windows driver is available for StormTracker and StormTracker/LTS-2. This PCI driver is only for use with 64 bit versions of Windows. Click here to download. 32 bit Windows users should continue to use driver V9.01 available here.

A new version of the EFM-100 display software is available for download. This version adds a lightning distance target display and fixes several minor bugs in the previous version. This software update can be downloaded from the Downloads page.

A new version of LDN Detector is available for download. This version fixes a bug in V1.0.4 version which caused NexStorm to occasionally lock up.

LDN Detector is a system tray application (runs in the background) that delivers StormTracker's LTS-2 GPS timestamped lightning data to a lightning detection network server.

Updated StormTracker/LTS-2 Developers Toolkit software is now available for customers interested in developing their own software for the Boltek StormTracker Lightning Detector and LTS-2 Timestamp kit. This version adds support for the StormTracker PCI Driver (64 bit). The StormTracker/LTS-2 Developers Kit software can be downloaded from the Downloads page.

A new version of the EFM-100 display software is available for download. This version fixes several minor bugs in the previous version. This software update can be downloaded from the Downloads page.

Stanwyck Avionics Inc has developed the SAI AWOS/ASOS Graphical Display Software for airports. Their software accepts data from the Boltek LD-250 Lightning Detection System and Boltek EFM-100 Atmospheric Electric Field Monitor to provide lightning advisories to airports across America. Click here for live data from the Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD). Press F11 to toggle full-screen display.

The LD-250M is a ruggedized version of our popular LD-250 Lightning Detector. Fully IP67 compliant, with MIL spec connectors it is optimized for situations where a lightning detector needs to be repeatedly deployed or where the environment can be unfriendly to unprotected electronics. Basic installation instructions for the lightning sensor are printed on the top of the unit to aid in deployment for those unfamilliar with the system. The LD-250M is functionally identical to Boltek's LD-250 Lightning Detector. Contact Boltek for more information.

Danny Knaggs has announced an upgrade to his open source lightning display software StormForce. New StormForce XR has been split into two components, the server side and client side, allowing completely headless operation of the software. The new software communicates using XMLRPC which also allows third-party software to talk to the server side. For more information on StormForce XR see the StormForce Project home page: http://code.google.com/p/stormforce/

The Boltek BGW312 Ethernet Serial Server allows an EFM-100 and/or LD-250 to be remotely located any distance from the display computer using Ethernet to relay the data. Adding a long-range Wi-Fi Ethernet bridge also makes wireless operation possible up to several miles.
See the BGW312 web page for more information.

A new version of the EFM-100-100kV display software is available for download. This version fixes an intermittent problem with the digital readout only in the 100kV version of the EFM display software. This update is ONLY for customer who are running the 100kV software version and have installed the appropriate attenuator jumper for this version of software. This software update can be downloaded from the Downloads page.

The EFM-100 Inverted Mounting Kit is now available in either 2 foot tripod, 3 foot tripod or pole mount versions. See the EFM-100 Accessories page for details.

An updated version of the popular LD-250 long-range lightning detector, the LD-350 includes built-in USB and Ethernet along with a faster processor. The LD-350 enables the strike-type classification feature (CG-CC-IC) built into NexStorm and Lightning/2000 software.