The interface

If you have an old portable computer you can use it to keep a log of the date and the time of each lightning strike detected.
The configuration of this computer is not very important (I use an i386SX with 2 Mb of RAM and an hard disk of 20 Mb), but it must be a battery powered one with external AC adapter, because during storms the main voltage often drops and a normal PC could reboot loosing all data. A battery powered computer can still work for a while (depending on battery age, but some minutes are usually enough, so even old portables work fine).

I've written a small program (using Borland Pascal 7.0) that runs under DOS and polls a specified serial port. It is sensible on the falling edge of the counter pulse (high to low) that must be connected to the DCD line. On the RTS line and of the TXD line of the same port a positive and negative voltage is supplied for powering the pulse switch interface.

Here are the command usage and the command line arguments:

Use:      LIGHTNIN COMx [/P]
 or:      LIGHTNIN COUNTER=x

COMx is the COM port where the C.I.G.R.E. lightning flash
counter is connected. Valid COM ports are 1..4.
If the /P switch is specified a copy of the log is also sent to
the printer (on LPT1).

The COUNTER option is used to set the counter to x.

Download lightnin.pas (17,137 bytes): the full pascal source.
Download lightnin.exe (13,280 bytes): the compiled program.

Read my disclaimer.

	Back to the index.		Back to the home page.
	Previous page.		Next page.

Questa pagina è disponibile anche in italiano.