Richard had a flash of inspiration

Now he’s got the power to cut lightning down to size People have always been fascinated by the fury of the heavens. Electronics prodigy Richard Hodgkinson created a lightning distance timer so he would no longer have to manually calculate the approach or retreat of a thunderstorm. He recycled a 70 KHz crystal from an old device for the oscillator. “Let there be light,” he declared as two HP 45MGC670 surface mount LEDs were attached to allow him to see measurements in the dark. And his project wouldn’t be complete without two 1.5V AA cells which are the heart of his timer. Now his creation is alive, all he needs is a wicked thunderstorm. For complete build instructions and to hear how Richard came up with his design, listen to our Gadget Freak Podcast at

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Richard had a flash of inspiration is an episode from Gadget's podcast.

This episode is 5:09 long.

This episode was published on Jan 18, 2008.

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