The Live page
The station's front page at http://<IP address>/ (also reachable as /scope): the station's health in one line, the live signal from all four inputs, the last captured event and whether it was confirmed as lightning, the spectrum views, and the controls that retune the detector.
1. The lines at the top
Two lines sit above everything else and update by themselves:
| Line | What it says |
|---|---|
| Health line | Receiving or ADC not ready (whether the measurement converter is running), GPS locked or GPS timing lost (whether the clock is locked to the satellites), then the viewed channel and its gain. It turns amber when either half is not healthy. Connecting... means the page has not reached the station yet. Connection lost; retrying appears only after three failed reads in a row, so a single slow answer does not trigger it. |
| Last capture | A quick first look at the last captured event: Lightning-like impulse — brief concentrated pulse; unconfirmed, Diffuse signal — sustained activity / possible interference, Clipped — ADC rail reached or Unclassified — insufficient evidence, with the peak-to-background ratio. This is a shape judgement made in your browser, not a confirmation — that comes from the network (section 2). No captured event means nothing has been captured since the station started. |
2. Lightning confirmation
While the Live page is open, your browser asks the Denko lightning service whether each of the station's recent captures matches a located lightning flash. The panel appears once there is at least one capture to ask about, and shows one of:
| Shown | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Waiting for Denko lightning confirmation | The capture is recent; the answer is not in yet. Normal for the first minutes after a capture. |
| Yes — this station helped locate lightning | A located flash matches this capture, and this station's report was used to locate it. |
| Lightning was detected at the same time; this station was not used in the location | The capture matches a located flash, but the location was computed without this station. |
| No matching lightning was found before this capture expired | No located flash matched. The capture may have been local interference, or lightning too weak or too far away to be located. |
| Lightning confirmation for this capture failed: the service did not answer or was unavailable. This page keeps asking. | The service could not be reached from your browser, or answered that it was unavailable. The page asks again by itself; the station is not affected. |
For a confirmed capture the panel shows the time and position of the flash and how many stations located it. Show this waveform opens its saved waveform when one is available; otherwise the panel reads waveform no longer available. When the service provides a map, Open event map opens it and the map is also shown below the panel. The Confirmation history selector lists the captures checked so far (up to 32, newest first); Latest capture follows the newest one. The history is kept in your browser, not on the station, so another computer starts with an empty list. The check needs internet access from the computer viewing the page; the station's own work does not depend on it.
3. The three views
The View selector chooses what the trace area shows:
| View | What it is |
|---|---|
| Live signal | A free-running snapshot of every enabled input, captured as one shared window across the four channels at 500,000 samples per second each, and drawn on one common scale. This is the view that matters on a quiet channel that never triggers. |
| Last captured event | The last window the detector actually captured and sent, with its pre-trigger history — exactly the samples that went to the server, with the threshold drawn dashed. Only the channels whose thresholds were exceeded appear. |
| Confirmed lightning waveform | The waveform of a capture from the confirmation history (section 2), shown with Show this waveform. Showing it pauses the automatic refresh; press Resume auto to go back. |
The View selector offers all three: Live signal, Last captured event and Confirmed lightning waveform. The page opens on Last captured event. Until the station has captured an event since it started, the note beside the View selector reads Waiting for signal; choose Live signal to watch the inputs.
In the Live view, the channel buttons ch1–ch4 choose which of the four traces are drawn. This is a display choice made in your browser: each refresh fetches one shared snapshot of all enabled inputs and draws the ones you picked. It does not retune anything, and it is not the same as enabling or disabling an input — that lives on the Signal chain page. A disabled input's button reads chn disabled. At least one trace stays selected.
The table under the controls lists each drawn channel's baseline, peak-to-peak size in counts and referred to the antenna, and its minimum and maximum. In the event view it shows the capture number, channel and total gain, trigger level and timestamp instead.
When the detector high-pass is on (hp_hz, chapter 6), each channel is drawn twice: the solid trace is the raw signal exactly as the station sends it, and the dashed trace beside it — in the same colour — is a reconstruction of the signal used for detection, with steady low tones filtered out using the station's filter settings. It approximates the detector input, especially near the beginning of a captured window. A key at the foot of the trace names the pair (solid = raw (as sent) · dashed = detector input, high-pass n Hz). The station captures and sends the raw samples; the dashed trace is a display aid.
4. The buttons above the trace
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Pause auto / Resume auto | Stops and restarts the automatic refresh of the view. |
| Capture now | Fetches one fresh snapshot immediately. It is passive: it neither retunes the amplifiers nor restarts the acquisition. |
| Survey inputs | Runs the input survey: the station measures each enabled input's offset and noise. Detection pauses while the survey runs, which is why the survey can only be started by pressing the button, never by opening a link. The results appear on the Diagnostics page under Amplifier inputs. Run it after connecting, moving or changing an antenna. survey requested acknowledges the request; check Diagnostics for the results. |
| Input polarity ch1–ch4 | Inverts or un-inverts each input. A channel wired so that its signal arrives upside down should be inverted here rather than ignored. The choice is stored on the board and survives restarts; the note reads polarity saving... while it is being saved and polarity saved when done. polarity save failed; retry means the save failed — press again. After a restart, station restarted; polarity reloaded means the saved choice has been reloaded. |
5. Spectrum and time-frequency analysis
Below the trace, the page computes a spectrum and a scalogram (a time-frequency picture) of the shown signal in your browser. The buttons:
- Peak hold keeps the highest value seen at each frequency.
- Average smooths the spectrum over time.
- Reset clears both.
The scalogram is drawn for every frame, and skipped while the browser tab is hidden. The analysis follows the viewed/diagnostic input when it is shown, otherwise the first drawn channel; in the event view it follows the channel that triggered. A steady narrow line that never moves is interference, not lightning; the alias survey can tell whether such a tone is really inside the measurement band.
6. The detector controls
The control row reads the station's current configuration and posts changes back when you press Apply:
| Control | What it sets |
|---|---|
| viewed / diagnostic channel | Which input the station watches as its primary channel (channel, 1–4). |
| gain pre / gain post | The two programmable gain stages (gain_pre, gain_post) on the ×1, ×2, ×4, ×5, ×8, ×10, ×16, ×32 ladder. What they multiply is drawn, block by block, on the Signal chain page. |
| trigger | The detection threshold (trigger), in ADC counts either side of the baseline, chosen from 20, 40, 60, 99, 130, 250, 500, 1000 or 2000. One count is about 0.79 mV at the converter. Lower is more sensitive; too low and the station triggers on noise. While the noise floor may raise the threshold (trig_auto, on by default), the value applies at the default total gain of the two gain stages (×8 · ×2 = ×16) and is scaled with the gains actually programmed, so a gain change alone does not make the station more or less sensitive (chapter 6). |
| protocol | The stock-compatibility profile the station speaks on the wire: Stock 9.4 compatible, Stock 10.1 compatible or Stock 11.x compatible (protocol). Leave it as the remote configuration sets it. |
| LEDs | The LED mode (led_mode): Classic, Magnitude meter or Blind (LEDs off). What each mode shows: chapter 7. |
| Lightning indicators / Buzzer | Lightning indicators chooses which lightning events light the LEDs and sound the buzzer: Our timestamp used by the locator (the default) or Network lightning within 250 km (chapter 7). Buzzer switches the buzzer on or off (off by default); it beeps once per magnitude-meter step of the same event, up to seven times. These two controls apply as soon as you change them — Apply does not send them — and the note beside them reports the outcome (below). The next remote configuration fetch replaces the local choice. |
Changes made here apply at once but are temporary. The note next to the button says it plainly: applies now; the next remote fetch wins. The station fetches its remote configuration regularly (interval: 5 minutes by default; 60 seconds in the fleet settings), and the values in that file replace yours. Seven settings — register, station, send_gap, verified, pick, gnss_mtk_plan and channel_mask — cannot be changed this way at all. The full precedence story, and what does survive: chapter 6.
The station works best on its configured settings. Change them only if you know what they do.
Apply and readback outcomes
Apply sends a change once and then checks current settings. If current settings cannot be read or the reply is invalid, the button becomes Check current settings; pressing it reads settings without resending the change. Once a valid readback succeeds, the button returns to Apply, even if the earlier write outcome is still unknown. Pressing Apply again sends a new change, so review the current settings first. Your edits stay on the page. Acceptance is not proof of application, and matching readback does not prove which request produced those values. Review the following outcome before another change.
| Message | Meaning and next step |
|---|---|
| applied | The station accepted the request and current settings match these edits. |
| Accepted, but current settings differ. Review before applying again. | Acceptance and readback differ; review the current settings before another change. |
| Outcome unknown. Current settings match these edits. | The outcome is unknown even though current settings match. This does not prove this request applied them. |
| Current settings checked. Edits are kept; review before applying again. | A readback completed. Your edits remain; compare them with current settings before applying again. |
| Settings outcome is unconfirmed. Check current settings before applying again. | The outcome is unconfirmed. Read current settings before another write. |
| Check current settings | The button now reads current settings; it does not resend your change. |
| Checking current settings… | A readback is in progress; wait for its result. |
| Applying settings… | A settings request is in progress; do not send it again. |
| Not applied: log in, then review your edits. | The request was not applied. Log in and review retained edits. |
| Not applied: this login cannot change these settings. | This login cannot make the change. Check your permission. |
| Settings outcome unknown. Checking current settings… | The write outcome is unknown; a readback is being attempted. No write is retried. |
| Accepted. Checking current settings… | The request was accepted; readback is being attempted. Acceptance alone does not prove the settings changed. |
Lightning indicator outcomes
After you change Lightning indicators or Buzzer, the station's current settings are read back and the controls show them. The note beside the controls says how it went:
| Message | Meaning and next step |
|---|---|
| Applying settings… | The change is being sent. The controls stay disabled until the current settings have been read back. |
| applied | The station accepted the change, and its current settings match it. |
| Accepted, but current settings differ. Review before applying again. | The station accepted the request, but the settings read back are different. The controls now show the current values; review them before changing them again. |
| Outcome unknown. Current settings checked. | The station did not confirm the change — its answer was lost, or it refused the change (for example, a login is needed, or it is still waiting for its configuration after a restart, chapter 6, section 5). Its current settings were read back and are shown; check them before changing them again. |
| Settings outcome is unconfirmed. Check current settings before applying again. | Neither the answer nor the current settings could be read, so the controls are disabled. They come back with the current values at the page's next successful status read; check those before changing them again. |
7. The language selector
Every page of the station's web interface carries a language selector in its top navigation bar. It offers fourteen languages: English, 日本語, Español, Français, Deutsch, Русский, 简体中文, العربية, Italiano, Português, 廣東話, ខ្មែរ, עברית and ไทย. Arabic and Hebrew pages are laid out right-to-left. The choice is remembered in a cookie for a year; until you choose, the pages follow your browser's language. The translation covers the pages' labels, buttons and fixed text — numbers, and any text without a translation yet, stay in English.