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Lightning Sensor and Logger

A battery powered solution for logging lightning events via Austria Microsystems AS3935 and TI MSP430 FRAM

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This gadget is a stack of boards I constructed to evaluate the Austria Microsystems AS3935 chip. A tindie.com seller used to sell breakout boards including this chip, although he no longer sells them. The project includes a home-etched "BoosterPack" adapting the AS3935 breakout board's pinout to the TI LaunchPad form factor.

The MCU + power unit includes a TI MSP430FR5969 "Wolverine" LaunchPad running firmware written in Energia (an Arduino/Wiring port to Texas Instruments microcontrollers). Powering the unit is a stack of BoosterPacks underneath including the Element14 Fuel Tank BoosterPack with an adapter board (designed by me) in between to reroute some of the Fuel Tank's signals so they do not interfere with the AS3935's SPI operation.

On the software side, the firmware centers around the following features:

1. AS3935 chip operations with periodic monitoring and scaling/optimizing of noise floor parameters

2. RTC_B peripheral with FRAM time-saving to retain RTC data across momentary power loss

3. FRAM non-volatile byte-writable features exploited for logging events and storing present time info

4. Serial input/output (enabled/disabled via SW1 pushbutton toggle) for inspecting status and retrieving data

5. Energia support for Ultra-Low-Power sleep modes (used when serial I/O has been disabled) for dropping MCU power utilization substantially

  • Comment regarding data dump

    Eric04/06/2016 at 10:57 0 comments

    Something tells me the sensitivity needs loosening up... I would imagine a much smoother set of "distances" for the coming & going of the storm.

  • Data dump - lightning events

    Eric04/06/2016 at 10:56 1 comment

    Dumped data the other day after we've had some wicked weather (leading into freezing temps again, of which I hope last night was the last)-

    =~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~= PuTTY log 2016.04.04 06:17:37 =~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=

    0: 24 km - Thu Apr 1 2016 3:28:25 PM

    1: 24 km - Thu Apr 1 2016 3:31:32 PM

    2: Overhead - Thu Apr 1 2016 3:31:56 PM

    3: Overhead - Thu Apr 1 2016 3:33:38 PM

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    5: Overhead - Thu Apr 1 2016 3:43:00 PM

    6: Overhead - Thu Apr 1 2016 3:43:54 PM

    7: Overhead - Thu Apr 1 2016 3:45:10 PM

    8: 14 km - Thu Apr 1 2016 3:46:31 PM

    9: 12 km - Thu Apr 1 2016 3:46:50 PM

    10: 12 km - Thu Apr 1 2016 3:47:16 PM

    11: 12 km - Thu Apr 1 2016 3:48:20 PM

    12: 12 km - Thu Apr 1 2016 3:49:01 PM

    13: 12 km - Thu Apr 1 2016 3:49:24 PM

    14: Overhead - Thu Apr 1 2016 3:50:46 PM

    15: Overhead - Thu Apr 1 2016 3:51:23 PM

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    17: Overhead - Thu Apr 1 2016 3:52:25 PM

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    20: Overhead - Thu Apr 1 2016 3:53:35 PM

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    23: Overhead - Thu Apr 1 2016 3:54:31 PM

    24: Overhead - Thu Apr 1 2016 3:55:25 PM

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    62: Overhead - Thu Apr 1 2016 4:08:49 PM

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    93: Overhead - Thu Apr 1 2016 4:14:00 PM

    94: Overhead - Thu Apr 1 2016 4:14:53 PM

    95: Overhead - Thu...

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Mike Atencio wrote 05/17/2018 at 03:05 point

I was sent the very tiny AS3935-BQFT chip. I cannot figure out how to mount these incredibly tiny chips. I can't see anything on the bottom to solder. It's not a breakout board like I thought but the ic chip. Help is greatly appreciated.

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