Ecowitt Wireless Lightning Detector Sensor, Accessory Sensor for Ecowitt Weather Station Ecosystem, WH57

I received the Ecowitt WH57 lightning detector sensor today and had it installed within minutes. I kept the default dip switch settings, inserted the battery, and my console picked it up immediately with no extra configuration needed. Installation was just as easy, as it comes with all the necessary screws and bolts, and I was able to mount it straight onto the existing pole holding my WS90 without any hassle. The build feels solid and and everything worked exactly as expected.

I must say, I’m surprised at just how well this lightning sensor works. I was lucky enough to have a major thunderstorm forecast in my area within 24 hours of setting it up, so I was able to see it working! See the photos of the display console and the graph from the app. I installed the lightning sensor with Energiser lithium batteries and the switches in default setting. Installation was easy. I already had an Ecowitt HP2564 weather station and display console (which discovered the new sensor immediately), so I attached the lightning sensor to the plastic mounting pole (see attached photo). During a thunderstorm the following day, I saw a lightning flash, followed some seconds later by thunder. About a minute later, the weather station recorded the strike at about 5 miles distant, which seemed right by my calculations. The most distant strike recorded was at 27 miles. I am very pleased with my purchase. It performs as well as I had hoped.

Firstly I'll cover the physical side of this sensor, because it isn't 100% clear from the product description. The actual sensor itself is the white thing that looks like a TV remote, and it goes inside the louvred housing for outdoor protection. It comes with U-bolts to clamp onto the same pole as your weather station. It runs on alkaline batteries which should last 1-2 years before replacement. The louvred housing is a bit questionable - each layer is a separate piece of plastic which clips loosely together to form a stack. The end result is a bit rattly and I couldn't find any way of tightening it. I'm not fully confident that it would keep water out in a storm, but we shall see. This sensor requires an ecowitt gateway (such as the GW1100) to receive the data. It is not compatible with the weather station base units (such as the WS2910) - even though the WS2910 is capable of acting as a gateway for every other sensor I've tried (including remote temperature sensors, air quality sensor, pool thermometer, etc). However once you do have a compatible gateway to relay the measurements to ecowitt.net, the Ecowitt app quickly shows the statistics, namely number of strikes per day (or per minute) and distance of the strikes. There is no indication of the direction. I've included a couple of screenshots of the app. We have had one storm since I fitted the sensor, and the data it collected seems to tally pretty well with lightningmaps.org. So far, I haven't figured out if it's possible to submit data to lightningmaps.org - I suspect not, because that is a near-realtime service, while this sensor transmits its data once per minute to the gateway, and the gateway uploads its data once per minute. So it could lag up to 2 minutes. Overall, I'm happy with my purchase because I'm a nerd, but I'm not sure what value it actually adds, apart from slightly vague historical data.

Item fitted today and the set up instructions weee very easy. Connection to the Ecowitt mobile app was done automatically and so was the connection to my Ecowitt WittBoy Pro weather station. I will update this post once I’ve had the opportunity to monitor its performance. So far so good and if it matches the weather station then it’s worth buying.

Tried every setting and still gets false readings. Customer services never replied. Can't recommend until I get a replacement which doubt will happen! Well i got a replacement, thankyou ecowitt, but I'm in the middle of a storm, and the sensor is not going off... So have change settings from default to to high and still nothing. But it still false triggers during the day when there is no lightening. Very disappointed.

Compact unit with outdoor weather protection kit. Bracket can be fitted to a pole or wooden fence post. Once assembled easy to remove the sensor itself for adjusting or battery replacement. It connected easily to Ecowitt 2000 hub. The sensor itself is small and about size of a small TV remote control. Dip switches to adjust for it's location. It came factory set for outdoor location. However instructions imply it can be used indoors (without the weather protection shield) but it seems outdoors away from home electrical interference is preferable. I cannot as yet verify it's accuracy as no storms in this area to prove it works! It seems well made and does connect to the Ecowitt Web pages on PC and app on Android phone. Time will tell if it does detect lightning within 25 miles of my location. It seems costly but if you want more detailed information linked to Ecowitt weather stations, mobile phone app, maps and Wunderground etc then worth considering.

Set up was easy and installed in the garden away from the house and neighbours houses as best possible to avoid false detection from things like the boiler igniter and motors. I was able to test it by using a piezo electric lighter next to the sensor to trigger a detection. The problem arose when we had a thunderstorm overhead recently where the day before the sensor had detected lightning about 11 miles away when we had a thunderstorm overhead and lightning struck the road about 30m away from the house the detector showed nothing! Strange it didn’t detect close by lightning perhaps it’s a calibration issue with the sensor thinking it was noise from man made devices? Shame as it was pretty much plug and play for me using the new colour display as ws90 no actual pairing was needed but the iffy detection is a big problem considering it’s the reason for its existence!

My husband is really pleased with this item. He said the weather station recognised it straight away. There is a lightning icon on the ECOWITT Weather Station with Outdoor Sensor HP2564, and an icon to show battery status. No lightening since we've had it so can't comment on how it well it works.

Detecta perfectamente las descargas eléctricas de la atmósfera. Empezar por configurar el sensor al máximo y si este da falsos positivos ir bajando la sensibilidad hasta que no de lectura de falsos positivos. Alejar de piezas metalicas 20cm usar un cable conectado a tierra si el mástil es metálico y usar siempre el brazo y la jaula para instalarlo en el exterior. Después de casi dos años FUNCIONA A LA PERFECCIÓN, muy contento 😀

Seems to work better than the lightning detector built into the Tempest weather station.

Cette appareil via le site Ecowitt permet de recevoire des alertes de niveau de batterie à 80%, 60%, 40% et 20%, et branché en parallèle avec la station météo (qui elle donne seulement une alerte de low batterie) permet d'avoir un niveau de batterie plus précis pour l'ensemble de la station.

Connected to my GW1100 as soon as I put the batteries in. No lightning in the area as yet, so cannot verify that. Also showed up on my Weewx weather station automatically.

fonctionne tres bien mais consomme un peux de pile , cela aurait été parfait si il y avait la possibilité de brancher un petit panneau solaire pour recharger uen batetrie comme sur les webcam d'extérieur