Description

Description

LPS Local Lightning Detector

Protect your valuable radio equipment from lightning strikes.

The LPS Local Lightning Detector continuously monitors lightning activity in your local area and automatically safeguards your station when dangerous storms approach.

When lightning is detected within about a 25 mile radius, the unit automatically commands the LPS to disconnect up to FOUR coaxial feed lines.

Helping protect your radios and equipment from nearby lightning events. At the same time, LPS will email notification so you know your station has been secured. Once the storm has moved away and no lightning has been detected for your programmed "all clear" time, the system automatically reconnects your coax lines so you're ready to operate again... no manual intervention required.

FEATURES

* Monitors real-time local lightning activity by receiving radio waves in the 500 khz range and analyzing the received wave form for identification

*Communicates with LPS by WiFi to disconnect/connect coax feed lines

*Can be remotely located within your WiFi LAN and powered by a USB wall charger (no control cables used)

*Ideal for amateur radio stations and remote installations

*Totally automatic (hands free) operation

*Designed and built by True Ladder Line

WiFi Connect Procedure:

1) Press and hold the reset button located in the middle of the receiver module (above pix) until the blue led (see through hole in bottom of the unit) flashes quickly.

2) Find "LightningDetector-Setup" SSID in your WiFi connection window of your PC.

3) Click on "LightningDetector-Setup" SSID and click on "connect" to connect "LightningDetector-Setup" to your WiFi LAN

4) This page will pop up in your browser:

5) Enter your WiFi Network (ssid) exactly as it is (respect upper & lower case characters)

6) Enter your WiFi Network password it requires

7) Enter MQTT IP Address (this is the address assigned to your LPS, no port)

8) Leave MQTT Port as is-1883

9) Click "Save & Connect". You should see the following page pop up:

10) Note that your LPS browser address is shown at the bottom of the page.

11) With your browser, enter the shown address in your address box and click on hamburger

to the left of the home (top left of the screen):

12) You should have a green button in the "Local Lightning Detector" box (top one above screen shot)

13) Enable "Local Lightning Detector to Control Antennas" slider (2nd box down)

Your Local Lightning Detector should not have control of your LPS (if you have chosen Local Rx as a detection source)

14) Select (click on) your selected mode: "Indoor" or "Outdoor" depending on your application

Fine tuning your Local Rx:

These parameters need to be setup for your particular location due to variabilities in the received noise floor.

1. Noise Floor (0–7)

Controls the minimum signal level the chip will respond to. Think of it as the volume threshold — below this level, signals are ignored entirely.

Value	Sensitivity	Use When
0	Maximum	Very quiet rural location, no interference
1	Very high	Low interference environment
2	High	Default — good for most locations
3	Medium-high	Some household RF interference
4	Medium	Moderate interference (LED lights, switching PSUs)
5	Medium-low	High interference indoor environment
6	Low	Very noisy environment
7	Minimum	Extremely noisy — only very strong signals detected

Signs you need to increase it: Constant noise events flooding in with no storm present. Signs you need to decrease it: Missing distant storms that Blitzortung shows nearby.

2. Watchdog Threshold (0–10)

Controls the spike shape detector — how closely an incoming signal must match the expected lightning waveform shape before being considered for further processing. Think of it as a bouncer checking IDs at the door.

Value	Strictness	Effect
0	Least strict	Accepts almost any signal shape
2	Balanced	Default — good starting point
5	Moderate	Rejects signals that don't look much like lightning
10	Most strict	Only very clean lightning-shaped pulses pass

Signs you need to increase it: Too many disturber events from appliances, motors, or switching supplies. Signs you need to decrease it: Missing real lightning strikes that Blitzortung confirms.

3. Spike Rejection (0–11)

Controls the interference rejection algorithm — a second, more sophisticated filter that analyzes the signal pattern over time to distinguish lightning from man-made RF. Works after the watchdog passes a signal.

Value	Rejection Level	Effect
0	None	Everything that passes watchdog gets through
2	Moderate	Default — filters most common interference
5	Strong	Aggressively filters non-lightning signals
11	Maximum	Only signals that very closely match lightning patterns pass

The key difference from Watchdog: Watchdog looks at a single pulse shape. Spike Rejection analyzes the statistical pattern of multiple pulses over time. Together they form a two-stage filter.

Signs you need to increase it: Disturber events from nearby electronics even with watchdog raised. Signs you need to decrease it: Real storms not being detected.

4. Minimum Strikes Before Alert (1, 5, 9, 16)

Controls how many lightning strikes the chip must detect internally within a 15-minute rolling window before it raises the IRQ pin and reports to you. This is the chip's built-in confidence system.

Value	Behavior	Use When
1	Reports on first strike	Default — maximum responsiveness
5	Waits for 5 strikes in 15 min	Reduces occasional false positives
9	Waits for 9 strikes in 15 min	Only reports during active storm cells
16	Waits for 16 strikes in 15 min	Only reports heavy lightning activity

Important: This counter is internal to the AS3935 chip. The Clear Stats button resets it. At value=1 you'll detect the very first strike of an approaching storm. At value=16 you'll only know about it once a full storm is underway.

Note: These are the only four valid values — the chip's register uses 2-bit encoding so only these steps are available.

Recommended Settings by Situation

Situation	Noise Floor	Watchdog	Spike Reject	Min Strikes
Normal storm monitoring (outdoors)	2	2	2	1
Noisy indoor location	4–5	3–4	3–4	1
Lots of false disturbers	3	4	5	1
Missing distant storms	1	1	1	1
Only want confirmed storms	2	2	2	9–16
Gulf Coast storm season	2	2	2	1