Build Your Own HERF Gun 512
James writes "Rostislav Persion from Voltage Labs has successfully constructed a HERF gun (a device like EMP but directional) in his home that is capable of stalling cars at a distance and crashing computers as well. He has videos of the device in action as it lights up LED's at a distance and triggers motion detectors. Theres also a bunch of other security stuff and science stuff which is quite interesting and controversial, such as cell phone tracking, mood altering audio signals, gyro guns, and other things of this nature. The site owner was also featured in US News Magazine and MTV for some of his work."
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
This is already used by Police in Europe. (Score:5, Interesting)
The HERF004.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Yeah, you can use a microwave oven but putting tires inside the oven is kind of hard.
This would probably work on those automatic traffic controller systems with digital cameras that take pictures of speeding to...
rf can do strange things to cars (Score:5, Interesting)
Just a little history repeating itself.
Another tool, that when in the hands of the wrong people could be very dangerous! However to end a high speed chase, before someone gets killed?
Exactly! (Score:5, Interesting)
Road rage. (Score:3, Interesting)
I am certain that a lot of things affect moods. Audio is one of them. But I also believe that visual characteristics have a lot to do with mood. What's that Chinese art of interior decorating that is supposed to bring harmony? I forgot the name.
Mexico City (for those of you who don't know what D.F. stands for) is a heavily populated place. I've heard different accounts that it is the biggest city (or the third biggest) in the world, and I don't know if this means by population or by physical size. In any case, there is a LOT of traffic here. I have found that I am quite affected by "road rage," or let's just call it frustration behind the wheel, when I'm driving around town: Traffic moves along slowly. Going ten miles can take between 30 minutes and an hour, depending on the circumstances. It's just such a pain, and it is frustrating. Now, in my case, my frustration behind the wheel is caused by a number of factors:
Now all of this might sound totally psycho to you but I'm serious... people can't explain why they are the nicest people but turn into total bastards when they get in a car. It's not just sound waves that can piss you off... it's everything that your brain has to assign resources to, like motion and shape. I think this is why we associate certain feelings with certain faces, colors, shapes, body language, etc.
P.d., the worst road rage I've ever had was yelling profanities at the top of my lungs, and that only happened once when I was three hours late to work because I slept too long at my girlfriend's house and couldn't get to work fast enough. But that's how life is in the big city... I just go home in the evening and have some tequila. Because Denial is a river in Egypt.
Re:No More High Speed Pursuits (Score:3, Interesting)
Hmm, let's see- a 500V harpoon that, if it misses, impales some hapless bastard on the sidewalk, or takes out a bus or something. Can you imagine the fallout the first time they used something like that and missed? :-)
It's probably doable, but it would only be able to be used if there were no pedestrians/buildings/other cars about.
Re:weapons (Score:1, Interesting)
Comms and avionics would be damaged.
Flight control wouldn't be too affected, even if it's an aircraft using a fly-by-wire control system as they're equipped with hydraulic backups (non-military).
Engine control might be lost. Not something like an engine failure of any type, just loss of control.
Landing gear control might be lost, though gear could be brought down manually by a member of the flight crew going below deck.
Re:No More High Speed Pursuits (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:weapons (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Is this really news? (Score:3, Interesting)
You would think that, wouldn't you?
In modern cars an electronics failure means that the car will stall, power assissted steering and brakeing will revert to manual, the ECU will fail (not exactly critical that one), traction control will drop out, ABS will stop working and several other problems. If you have an automatic the gears will stop shifting.
If you are used to driving a power assisted car, then the termination of power steering alone will probably be enough to send you off the road, especially when the lack of power assissted ABS/traction control brakes puts you into a skid.
In my car electronics failure means that the lights no longer work. Not exactly a disaster
"This Account Has Been Suspended" (Score:5, Interesting)
Fortunately for the owner, it looks like his host cuts off traffic after 30GB. A lot of them will simply keep jacking up the bill. Maybe Slashdot should direct some of the money from their banner ads to the owners of the sites they link to?
Google cache (Score:2, Interesting)
not much there though, looks like most of it was pictures and google doesn't cache those.
My own question is why don't editors post the google cache along with the real link? It's very rare a site can survive a slashdotting, so it only makes sense to post the cache along with the actual link.
Re:The $64 million question. (Score:2, Interesting)
People talking on cell phones often talk louder than people talking to someone across the table from them, plus you can't eavesdrop on the other half of the conversation. Remember those Sprint PCS commercials with the guy in the trenchcoat helping the poor soul who always yells because he's so used to talking on cell phones?
Re:FCC Notice (Score:2, Interesting)
I've NEVER understood why a device should have to "accept interference received that causes undesired operation." This means the device cannot be shielded against interference? What on Earth for? Is this a way to let the gubmint cheat?
not 6 KV, more like 2 KV (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:FCC Notice (Score:3, Interesting)
Its designed to keep dicksize wars off of the airwaves.
You can shield your device all you want.
Re:The answer to my prayers! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:The HERF004.. (Score:3, Interesting)
With the right design, electronics can survive an EMP. Most of the crud that goes into consumer-grade electrinics is not designed to survive much more than its warrenty.
Re:The $64 million question. (Score:5, Interesting)
DennyK
Re:magnetron? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:This is already used by Police in Europe. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:No More High Speed Pursuits (Score:3, Interesting)
This isn't a flaw in your logic, just a change in the way car manufacturers are putting together the braking system. In the old days, ABS was just slapped on top of a normal, mechanical braking system. If ABS failed, you'd have normal brake pressure, in fact, just a normal braking system.
These days, however, they have changed to a completely electronic braking system. In this case, the brake pressure applied to _each_ wheel is different when breaking. It is all controlled by the computer, and when that computer shuts off, the braking system reverts to equal pressure to all 4 wheels.
As you most likely know, cars are designed to brake with less pressure to the back brakes, usually it's about 70% to the front brakes, and 30% to the back brakes. It makes sense because of the engine weight.
So, now that these boneheads have gone to full electronic control of the braking pressure, it means that when ABS is killed, you have rear brakes that almost always lockup when you try to brake with any sort of power. 25% power to each wheel is _not_ good for braking. Not at all. Not a good thing.
I have to wonder how long it will before this sort of "drive by wire" stuff causes a death. Look at BMW and the problems they had with their systems. Now we have ABS braking that is useless without power to the engine. Soon, we won't have a steering shaft, and it will too be controlled by wire.
I tried different car manufactureres, from Subaru to Toyota, and all had a newer braking system like this in place, or next year's model had it.
This pisses me off so much, that I've taken my 1987 Jetta (which I was about to replace with a 2003 Jetta or GTI), and decided to retrofit it with a new V6 engine. After the body work, an extremely high quality paint job and interior work, and the new engine is fitted, I will still pay less than HALF the price of the new car. I also won't end up with ABS brakes and quite a few other annoyances.
Ah well.
Re:No More High Speed Pursuits (Score:3, Interesting)
Heh. Yeah, as I recall from my Army time, when we trained on a new weapon/radio/etc the phrase we most hated to hear was "man-portable". All that meant was that some damn fool put a shoulder strap on it or squeezed it into a box small enough to jam into a ruck or strap to a pack frame. Of course, nothing compares to the sinking feeling that comes with the realization that "light infantry" means "no vehicles-- you carry it".
Re:I hope they make this illegal (Score:2, Interesting)