My new module - Bolt v1.0 (Lightning Detector)

Archive
21

It supposed to work indoors too :wink:

22

@ Architect Put me down for a couple please.

23

How far away will it detect lightning?

What would create false positives?

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Iā€™d be interested, whatā€™s the estimated price?

Whatā€™s involved in setting up an emulator for an end user?

Thanks!

25

@ sq77

40km radius.

Let me get back to you on that one.

@ mhectorgato

~25 (not final, yet)

Lightning emulator will be open source. I might be bale to offere more, but let me finish it first.

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[quote=ā€œArchitectā€]@ mhectorgato

~25 (not final, yet)

Lightning emulator will be open source. I might be bale to offere more, but let me finish it first.
[/quote]

Please, add my name to the growing list!

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yeah it has my attention too Architect, +1 me.

28

Absolutely!

Here is the final design that I am sending to fab.

I have added solder jumpers for two address lines. These two lines control I2C address of the device.

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Me likeyā€¦nice work!

What does the antenna look like, or is that up to the user?

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Antena is specifically designed for that chip and looks like the one in the attached image

31

Nice. We have some good thunderstorms going on as I write thisā€¦many close enough that I have no present need for a detector.

OTOH, as I start working my way towards a pilotā€™s license, I can see a pocket lightning detector being a very useful thing to have around. :slight_smile:

32

Do we need to order the antenna separately and if so do you have any recommendations from where? Iā€™ve been looking at lighting detectors and this is perfect. Like I said put me down for 3 please (the more I think about this module the more I want :))

33

No, everything will be on the board. I am going to work on my reflow setup while waiting for the PCBs. So I should be ready to make enough for everybody.

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ā€œCircuit Inventorā€ - is that your new handle? Nice logo.

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Yep! Thanks! :slight_smile:

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Architect

Now that is different. How did that come to mind?

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@ willgeorge - I have actually started working on a different module. I still have to find sources for two non-electronic parts for it. While working on it I have come across this IC and decided to do that module first.

38

Sigh - If only we had decent lighning storms over here. All we get is Light rain followed by heavy rain, bit o sun, rain, rain, more rain, some heavy rain, cold, oops there goes summer now for winter to comeā€¦ and have some more rain just in case the reservoir is getting a bit low.

1 Like
39

We have a lot of storms! In fact last summer a lightning hit a tree in my front yard. We had a light under that tree. The switch is in the house. After the hit that switch was blown away into pieces. Scary stuff.

40

eek