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A local made liightning trigger on Ebay

Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 6:21 pm
by mick
There is a bloke selling triggers on Ebay from Aus for $99 delivered. I couldnt resist. I know they cost $30 to build plus a housing, so a good price, he has sold plenty and no complaints but no oh yer I just captured this posts either.

DSLR Trigger should find it. I just ordered, so will let you know. They come with a waterproof shroud that pretty much waterproofs your entire cam, an absulute bonus! gotta be worth $20-40 easy.

Re: A local made liightning trigger on Ebay

Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 11:43 pm
by daviescr
Thanks a million Mick, I've been looking at getting one recently and this is the best value one I have seen. Hmmm... maybe

for the record, here's the link

Re: A local made liightning trigger on Ebay

Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2012 12:50 am
by Rivergirl
That's awesome! Thanks so much Mick and Chris for the link :)

Re: A local made liightning trigger on Ebay

Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 5:46 pm
by mick
Well it arrived yesterday from South Australia, well packaged.

The vinyl type camera cover actually looks pretty robust and handy. I would say it would sell for $30 on its own. The unit itself is just a black box with on/off switch, red green lights and a sensor on the front. The sensor does not fill the hole completely, but if you were so inclined a bit of blutak would fill the cracks. The unit itself is about 10% wider and longer than a pack of cards.

It takes a nine volt battery which is not supplied and pretty miserable of the seller. Its like the old days getting toys at xmas but no batteries to make them work. For the sake of $1, I cant see why no battery, maybe the postal rules allow an out, but who follows them?

There is no magic to the hot shoe fitting, its pretty basic flat plate with a couple of tactile round nuts to ensure a snug fitting to the shoe at one end and the camera at the other. The supplied cord does all the work.

Id reckon after everything, including free postage and ebay fees and paypal fees, the seller would make about $40-50 per unit which is probably not enough long term but good value for us.

I see no reason why it shouldnt work, but have to wait for lightning.

Now that I have this:

There will be no lightning in s/e melb except when I am away or asleep!

Re: A local made liightning trigger on Ebay

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 2:03 am
by Thunder
Pretty cool find Mick. Looks like it's a bit better quality build than the Patchmasters(what I have), I do like in the description "Extremely sensitive LDR type sensor to detect lightning events in any light conditions with full microprocessing optocoupler conrol" That's one complaint with the Patchmaster, daytime it isn't the best...in fact if the storm is usually 50km or more away forget it. It does depend alot on the prevailing conditions but I have missed clearly visible bolts because the overall change in luminosity was nonexistant locally. Ie I had the sun to my W storm approaching from S @ 100km in clear skies therefore the photodiode didn't react.

A young guy I know from Cairns on WZ forum had a similiar idea to one of my own...radio based triggering. His idea though is better than mine(I just wanted to use a LF radio reciver basically), his idea is basing the trigger around one of these: http://www1.futureelectronics.com/doc/A ... AS3935.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The limitation is triggering during non visible bolts when using a radio approach although some extra work could develop a directional arieal system which would help combat some of the falsies but not all.

On a side note he is making/developing an at home lightning detector based on the above chip, obviously it has distance limitations but according to some of what he has said about it the detector should be able to resolve(roughly) distance/direction/storm approaching/departing.

If anyone is interested in either give me a PM and I will pass on his details. :)

I am meaning to get around to my own...but I have about 4 million things in front of it on the development table! Always way too many things to do and just not enough hours in a day! ;)

Re: A local made liightning trigger on Ebay

Posted: Wed Sep 04, 2013 8:00 pm
by mick
Im still waiting for a storm.