Quick start
Connect the station, find its address and check its readings. Each step links to the full explanation in the chapters.
You need: a System Blue controller running the DENKO Blue firmware, its amplifier/antenna head, the GPS antenna, a wired Ethernet network with DHCP and internet access, and the power supply. The board has no Wi-Fi.
1. Place it
- Keep the antennas as far as practical from electrical equipment: power supplies, chargers, computers, routers, LED lighting. Distance helps a lot, because this kind of interference weakens quickly as you move away from it.
- The GPS antenna needs a view of the sky. Near a window usually works; outdoors is better. Without a satellite fix the station still measures, but it cannot complete its registration with the lightning network (see step 6).
- The controller itself must be within cable reach of your network and power.
2. Connect it
- Connect the amplifier head to the controller. Inputs 1–3 are the RJ45 (H-field) channels; input 4 is the coax (E-field) channel.
- Connect the GPS antenna. The standard antenna is passive and needs no power; an external antenna with an amplifier (an active antenna) is powered through the same cable.
- Connect the Ethernet cable.
- Connect the power last. The status LEDs come alive: in the default magnitude meter mode the base LED of the signal-strength bar starts breathing gently — that says the capture path is running. (In the classic LED mode the mode LED blinks instead; the modes are covered in section 7.)
3. Find its address
Each start includes an automatic signal-path delay check on all four inputs. The station sends no lightning reports during the check, then lets the inputs settle before detection begins. It checks each input's filter separately: fitted filters remain in use by default to reject noise, and inputs with no working filter detected use the bypass. An input whose filter the check could not confirm also uses the bypass.
The board asks your router for an address by DHCP. Its MAC address begins 70:B1 and stays the same after a restart. Find the board in your router's client list, or in a network scan, and note the IP address.
No DHCP? After about 15 seconds without an answer the board falls back to a board-specific address in the 192.168.6.x subnet, and keeps asking for a DHCP address in the background. Unless your network uses that subnet you will not reach it there. Give the board a network with DHCP — it is the normal way to run it.
4. Open the web interface
On a phone or computer connected to the same network, open http://<IP address>/. The Live page loads: a health line at the top (Receiving · GPS locked, then the channel and gain, on a healthy station) and the trace area below it, refreshing by itself. The trace area opens on Last captured event and reads Waiting for signal until the station has captured one; choose Live signal in the View selector to watch the inputs (chapter 1). No app is needed. The six pages are described in chapters 1–8; the language selector at the top of every page offers fourteen languages (chapter 1). The Manual link in the station navigation opens this manual.
5. Survey the inputs and check the health
- On the Live page, press Survey inputs. The station measures the enabled inputs' offset and noise. Detection pauses while the survey runs. survey requested means the request has been sent; check the results on Diagnostics.
- Open the Diagnostics page. The Verdict line should read healthy (everything it can show is in chapter 7), and Amplifier inputs should show a small offset and a plausible noise figure for each connected input.
- If an input you use shows , enable it on the Signal chain page.
6. Understand the station number
Until the station registers with the lightning network it reports with a local number in the 8xxx range (8000 unless configured otherwise) — the Diagnostics page shows it as Station, marked or remote. Registration happens by itself once three things are all true: registration is enabled (register, on by default), the GPS receiver has a 3D fix, and the board's processor ID is linked to an account on the lightning network. The server then assigns the station's public station number, shown on the Diagnostics page in the Lightning network row. A board without a satellite fix keeps its local number, because the firmware refuses to declare a position it does not have. The whole story: chapter 6.
7. Check that it is working
The station has three LED modes. The default is the magnitude meter: the status LEDs form a bar that jumps for each lightning event Denko confirms (chosen by the Lightning indicators setting, chapter 7), the bar's base LED breathes gently while the capture path is alive (a frozen or dark base LED means the capture path has stopped), and the fault LED lights steadily when the station reports a fault. The classic mode gives each LED its own meaning — that is what the table below uses. Blind switches every controllable LED off; only the hard-wired power LED stays lit. Change the mode on the station's Live page with the LEDs selector (it lasts until the next remote configuration fetch), or in the remote configuration (led_mode: 0 classic, 1 meter, 2 blind).
| Look for | If not |
|---|---|
| Base LED breathing gently (meter mode), mode LED blinking (classic mode) | Either no power, or the board is in its recovery image (network still answers, a plain-text page saying it is installing its firmware, all LEDs dark — leave the power on; it restarts by itself when the installation is done, usually within about 5 minutes, chapter 7, section 9), or nothing starts at all. Only the last case needs the USB recovery in the firmware chapter, section 3. |
| Network LED on (classic mode) | No Ethernet link. Check the cable and the switch port. |
| Verdict healthy on Diagnostics | Look up the reasons shown after not healthy or healthy · now: in chapter 7. |
| GPS LED on (classic mode), GPS locked in the Live page's health line | Normal for the first minutes. If it never locks, give the GPS antenna more sky and watch the GPS page. An antenna status of open is normal with the standard passive antenna; only SHORT is a fault (chapter 3). |
| Traces moving with Live signal selected on the Live page | Run Survey inputs, check the input is enabled on the Signal chain page, and check the amplifier cable. |
8. Leave it running
- The station fetches its remote configuration regularly (
interval: 5 minutes by default; 60 seconds in the fleet settings) and applies what it finds. Most changes you make in the web interface are temporary and the next fetch wins — see chapter 6 for what lasts and what does not. - Self-updating firmware is on by default; the fleet's remote configuration can switch it off for an individual board. When an update does run, keep the power on; if the new firmware fails, the board's recovery image takes over by itself, keeps the network up and tries again (chapter 5).
- The LED bar (meter mode) jumps and the Signal LED (classic mode) flashes for each lightning event accepted by the Lightning indicators choice, a short while after the stroke. Dark between events is normal — except the base LED, which should keep breathing in the meter mode.
- Curious what the station is doing? The Diagnostics page refreshes itself every two seconds and shows everything.
DENKO Blue uses wired Ethernet. There is no Wi-Fi setup network or setup QR code.