BOLT Engineering Fair Criteria and Constraints

The device that I developed is called BOLT, which stands for Battery Operated Lightning Tracker. I decided to have my prototype flash different colors for different distances. However, I also considered other methods besides just visuals. When I was first brainstorming, I considered creating an app that checks a verified weather channel website and sends alerts to your phone, but I realized that it had already been done. I also considered creating an alarm that connects to a lightning tracker, but after doing some research I decided that sound wasn't the way to go. I borrowed an idea from emergency vehicles lights. The lights on police cars and firetrucks were designed in such a way that it is impossible for your brain to ignore them, and I kind of wanted to go the same direction. Introducing BOLT. Powered by Arduino, this device flashes green if there is lightning 30 to 45 miles away, it flashes yellow if lightning is 15 to 30 miles away, and if there is any lightning within 15 miles of the user, it flashes red. Testing it is the hard part. When I was researching lightning trackers, I came across a set of a lightning tracker and a lightning simulator. I decided that it would be perfect for testing, and it ended up working really well. To test BOLT, I programmed the AS3935 lightning simulator to generate random frequencies that correspond to the distance a "lightning strike" is. I wasn't sure how well it would work because the setup for the two devices is very specific. They have to be 8 inches apart, which I discovered is about the length of my elbow to my wrist. I needed to remain in my budget, because if the device is too expensive, nobody will want to buy it. Originally I was going to make BOLT waterproof, but even water-resistant containers increased the total cost of the device by almost 45%.