Ambient Weather WH31L Lightning Detector for Models WS-2000, WS-5000

I purchased this to add to my WS-5000 weather station. It seems amazingly sensitive and from what I can tell, pretty accurate. It will start registering lightning strikes before I can hear the thunder and when I check the radar I see the storm on the radar approximately where its reporting. I do notice that its less sensitive when storms are to the northwest of us but assume that's because we live on the side of a mountain and there's a mountain range between us and the storms.My only complaint (and this may be with the WS-5000 console and not the detector) is that I cannot see individual strikes when they are happening so fast. I can watch the console and see the counts click up, but can only see the last strike. So I can never really see how close the strikes are unless I just happen to be at the console when the closest strike occurs.

I own the Ecowitt HP2560 base station and WS90 weather station. I tried the Ecowitt WH57 lightning detector and experienced the dreaded false positive strikes that didn't stop regardless of dip-switch settings. I just figured my urban setting just had too much EM interference. However, I learned that this Ambient Weather lightning detector would be recognized by the Ecowitt base station work seamlessly, so I decided why not and purchased it. It's more expensive than the Ecowitt and doesn't come with the radiation shield, but the shield can be purchased separately.After installing this into the radiation shield that came with faulty Ecowitt WH57 I sat patiently waiting for false strikes. They didn't come. About two hours later, a thunderstorm passed about 15 miles north. It registered the strikes from 14 miles away. I'm currently getting a storm and it's registering every strike. No false strikes at all! This thing is a keeper!Maybe it's just a crap-shoot on these units, I don't know. But perhaps the QA on the Ambient Weather version is a little better perhaps. They are made by the same manufacturer as the Ecowitt cousins, but for whatever reason the Ambient Weather version has better ratings and less reports of false strikes.So, if you have an Ecowitt station and are hesitant of the Ecowitt lightning detector due to the ratings, give this one a shot.

Accurate!

As someone who writes technical things nearly every day, reading a manual written by others seems to slip my mind usually. As was the case here. Received the lighting detector and immediately put it next to my new array. However, I was just receiving garbage data from it. Decided it was time to read the manual and then look at the DIP switches. Oh lookie there, incorrect 'default' from the factory. Setting them in the proper position, all switches down, and I was suddenly receiving data.Today I've been watching a storm move across the state and was waiting for some strike detection. Nothing. A quick trip up the ladder to configure switch 3 up so it increase the sensitivity and suddenly I was receiving strike data on my display. Current count on the storm that just moved thru is 204 strikes. Looking at some other weather arrays around the area I see they are recording maybe 1/2 of what I'm seeing. Might have to drop it down to the default setting and see how it behaves. Either way, it's at least sending data.Image of my setup is attached along w/ the page in the manual outlining the DIP switches. One thing the manual doesn't say is if the sensor is direction dependent. I have the face of my sensor pointing due south. Don't know if it matters.

I added the WH31L to my Ambient Weather WS-2000 weather station. If you read the documentation it suggests not placing it inside of a building because it will attenuate the detection range. (As an RF engineer I totally get-it, their statement is accurate). What I did was to double sided sticky-tape it to the center of a window pane in one of my upstairs bedrooms where the window faces west.I set the sensitivity to the maximum because there are no electronics nearby.. By the way, do not set it to maximum if you have something like a laptop or computer within five or six feet of it. That will make the detector go crazy from all of the RF interference and the little fogged out area on the detector will just turn solid red as if it was detecting one constant lightning strike.Today we had our first thunderstorm and I used the Ambient Weather app on my phone with alerts set for lighting detection turned on (It SMS messages me). As soon as I got the first notification I checked the Ambient Weather app and it detected lighting at 24 km (roughly 19 miles). I compared that to the Lightning detection network (you can use Weather Underground to see something really close to that) and the strikes were about that distance away.In the hour long thunderstorm I detected more than 422 lighting strikes. Some were very close (less than a km) most were further away. I did not see many beyond 24 km so that gives you an idea of what detection is like from a second story window with no metallic objects nearby.I am very pleased with the detector. It integrated easily and only required two Lithium AA batteries (not included with this sensor, some other Ambient Weather sensors come with batteries, this one does not).

I live in Northern Colorado and we have Thunderstorms and I am a Ham Radio operator so it is important to know when lightning is in the area to allow me to unhook my antennas to protect my equipment.

Had to buy the optional lightning detector to get my new ambient weather station to be able to detect lightning. I just hope it works now that it is Winter. I don't expect to see any thunder snow this year.

The detector connected flawlessly to the WS 5000 and detected lightning 10 miles away.