I am being flooded with ads for MIOP brand lightning trigger. Apparently google figured out I was interested. I actually do want one. But it's not likely to get a lot of use. I want to catch lightning off one of the great lakes nearby.
The catch is this thing is (sale price) $259.00. I suspect that they spent more on the futuristic plastic case design (looks like a radar detector) than the electronic trigger itself.
No, the "catch" is that WHEN this company folds, and disappears, and stops updating the app you rely on to control the device, and you can no longer download it from app stores, and its security certificates to run on your smartphone expires, you'll have a paperweight.
I bought one of these things myself - a "Cambuddy" by Joopic - a dodgy kickstarter company operating out of China, which required you to register your device with a China-based server when you first used it (and disable any VPN software to do so). A couple of hundred dollars to purchase, and much the same featureset.
Company's shut down, no longer listed on the iOS App Store, can't even get the app from "previously purchased" and so it's a piece of eWaste.
Are there any inexpensive units out there?
If you're going to buy something for this purpose, buy something that has no smart connectivity, no software upgrades, and is just a self-contained device. That way it'll at least have secondhand value if you decide you don't want to keep using it.
