Cloud Charge Monitor

Charles Wenzel

Did you ever wonder how the charges were changing in the clouds directly overhead during a
thunderstorm? Does an early-warning voltage exist right before a strike or do the charges jump from
cloud-to-cloud too quickly? Is the polarity of the charge always the same? Build the Cloud Charge
Monitor and watch the charges ebb and flow for yourself!

The Cloud Charge Monitor is an extremely sensitive device capable of detecting subtle (and not-so-
subtle) changes in the accumulated charge overhead. The device consists of a charge-sensing antenna,
a 60 Hz notch filter, a self-zeroing integrator, a signal limiter, and a leakage zero adjustment. The
monitor is a fairly sophisticated device with a few special construction requirements and beginners
may wish to solicit some help with construction and testing. For the more advanced experimenter each
circuit function is described along with possible variations and performance enhancement ideas.

ANTENNA
The overhead charge is sensed by an antenna fashioned from a large aluminum-foil pizza pan or
similarly large metal sheet. An insulated wire is connected to the pan in any convenient way including
the following technique:

1) Strip back several inches of the wire’s insulation.

The pan is mounted at the end of a short piece of 1/2” electrical conduit PVC pipe. It may be secured
by cutting small washers about 1/4” tall from a 1/2” PVC coupling. Glue one washer about 1/3” from
the end of the pipe, slip on the pan (with a hole punched in the center just large enough for the pipe),
then glue on another washer on top. Press the two washers together as the glue sets to firmly secure the
pan. The insulated wire is now threaded down through the pipe. The pan may
now be insulated by gluing two round pieces of trash bag plastic cut to be
slightly larger in diameter than the pan. The bottom piece will need a hole for the
conduit. (Satisfactory operation is possible without insulation.)

The other end of the pipe may be secured to a metal box in a similar
manner. An ordinary electrical outlet box is a good choice since there is a
center punch-out just the correct size for the conduit, there are mounting
ears that may be used to nail or fasten the box to a board, and there is
plenty of room for the amplifier. A bottom cover is not necessary.

CIRCUIT CONSTRUCTION
The circuit is built on a piece of copper-clad circuit board using the “dead
bug” technique. The amplifier IC is mounted upside-down (leads pointing up) and will look a bit like a
dead cockroach. Bend the ground pin (pin 4) back to the board and solder it directly to the foil. The
other leads may be air-wired or little “islands” may be made be cutting small pieces of copper-clad
board. The “bites” that come out of a typical nibbling tool are about the correct size! They may be
soldered in place if the board has copper on both sides or they may be glued. Make sure to inspect the
edges to insure that no metal sliver is shorting the island to the ground plane. Other construction
techniques are also fine but there are a couple of points in the circuit that should be wired in a special
way. R6, R7 and pin 2 should be air wired and should not be allowed to touch anything. The base of
the IC must be clean and free of solder flux. Use alcohol or lacquer thinner to clean the package if
necessary. ( The “dead bug” technique makes inspection easy!) The input filter is built on a separate
piece of board which may be mounted on the main board but the foil is biased to 6 volts instead of
ground. R4 and R5 connect directly to the foil which is indicated by a dotted-line in the schematic.
This bias helps to reduce leakage current from the input circuit to ground. If the builder has access to
Teflon-insulated terminals then the input circuit may be air wired between terminals without concern
for leakage. The insulated wire from the antenna should not rest against the metal box so cut it short
enough that it is stretched from the conduit to the circuit board. It is a good idea to solder a ground
wire from the circuit ground foil to the metal box and to strain-relieve the power and signal cable.

OPTIONS
The output of the circuit may be connected to a variety of readouts including a simple 1 mA current
meter with a 5.6k series resistor or a multimeter. The output voltage will read about 6 volts when no
charge is present. R14 is adjusted to zero any offset due to leakage and it may be remotely located with
the meter and power supply, if desired. Leave R13 in the metal box, however. Remember, this circuit
has a VERY long time constant on the autozero circuit so the effect of any adjustment will take several
minutes.

R7 may be a single resistor or several lower value resistors connected in series. The purpose of R7 is to
automatically drive the output toward zero charge indication (6 volts out) so that the user isn’t required
to constantly adjust an offset control. The rate of autozero is determined by the value of R7, the
integrating capacitor, C5, and the antenna capacity. The effective value of R7 is much higher than 220
megohms thanks to the bootstrapping circuit formed by R8 and R10. If R10 is decreased, the amount
of bootstrapping will increase and the feedback resistor will seem even larger. A lower limit of 10k is
recommended unless the experimenter is quite experienced! The effect of a larger feedback resistor is
to increase the autozero time constant. A similar effect is realized by increasing C5 but there will be a
proportional loss in sensitivity. Lowering C5 will increase the sensitivity, if desired, but the sensitivity
is sufficiently high for storm monitoring as shown.

The bootstrapping technique also amplifies the op-amp’s offset voltage and drift but the chopper-
stabilized ICL7650 has virtually no offset. Other CMOS op-amps may be used and might be more
desirable since they have better overload recovery behavior. If the experimenter has extremely high
value resistors in the junk box, R10 could be increased or even removed and the diodes eliminated
giving a circuit with less sensitivity to op-amp drift and excellent overload recovery properties. Try a
CA3160 op-amp or one of the numerous new CMOS amplifiers.

TIPS
It can be maddening for the beginner to work with circuits that have several minute time constants and
extremely high impedance but the experience can be quite educational. To slew the circuit back to the
center point after an overload, simply touch the ground or the +12 volts with one finger (depending on
which way the circuit must slew) and touch Pin 2 with the end of a 10 megohm resistor held in the
other hand. To verify that the circuit is working, rub a CD or other piece of plastic on your hair and
bring it close to the antenna. The meter should move up or down and then slowly drift back toward
center.

Use a voltage regulator for the 12 volt supply. An LM7812 or similar regulator is adequate.

Each homeowner will have different antenna possibilities. Don’t mount the antenna outside! It isn’t
necessary and it could invite disaster if lightning strikes! Place the device near a large window or hang
it from the ceiling of a porch away from the rain. A different antenna could be made by taping
aluminum foil to a clean window and covering it with plastic wrap. The edge of the foil should be
several inches away from the window frame at all points to avoid leakage. Ordinary roofs are usually
too conductive for an attic installation but a plastic or glass greenhouse roof or large skylight might
work well. Those experimenters who are experts at handling the threat of lightning strikes might wish
to build a Plexiglas “umbrella” for an outside antenna but make sure that there is not a discharge path
to ground when the Plexiglas becomes wet. The outdoor antenna should be mounted at ground level.
 Cloud Charge Monitor
pizza pan
antenna
R7: 220M
D1, D2: 12 VDC
R4: 100k R15: 470
C5: 1000 pF 1N750
Output
C1, C2: 250 pF
2 7 Ground
- 6
R6: 10M 3 7650
+ 8
R8: R9:
R1: 10M R2: 10M 1 4 R13:
10M 1M
1M
C3: C6: C7:
R3: 5M
500 pF 220 nF 220 nF R14:
R10:
C8: 47k 100k
100 nF R12: 100k

C4: 10 nF + C9:
circuit board biased R5: 100 k R11: 100k 10 uF
to 6 VDC

R1, R2, R6, R8: 10 megohm, carbon film or equiv. resistors C5: 1000 pF low leakage film, mica, or ceramic capacitor
R3: 5 megohm, may be two 10 megohm resistors in parallel. C6, C7: 220 nF (0.22 uF) ceramic capacitor
R4, R5, R11, R12: 100,000 ohms, carbon film or equiv. resistors C8: 100 nF or larger ceramic capacitor
R7: 220 megohm, may be 10, 22 megohm resistors in series C9: 10 uF or larger electrolytic capacitor
R9, R13: 1 megohm, carbon film or equiv. resistors D1, D2: 1N750, 5 volt zener diodes
R10: 47,000 ohm, carbon film or equiv. resistor IC1: ICL7650 chopper-stabilized op-amp. Other CMOS op-amps may
be used with some loss in temperature stability. Simply leave out C6
R14: 100,000 ohm potentiometer - any value above 5k is fine
and C7 to use a CA3160 or a similar amplifier.
R15: 470 ohm, carbon film or equiv. resistor
C1, C2: 250 pF made from 220 pF in parallel with 33 pF. Use low Antenna: a large pizza pan insulated with trash bag plastic or any
leakage types such as mica, glass, or ceramic capacitors. well-insulated sheet of metal of similar size. A larger size will give
increased sensitivity.
C3: 500 pF made from 470 pF in parallel with 33 pF. (low leakage)
C4: 10nF (0.01uF) low leakage film or ceramic capacitor Power: Well-regulated 12VDC power supply