December 2006

DREAD: The Silent Weapon System

  Looks like the DREAD could be a popular future weapon. “Imagine a gun with no recoil, no sound, no heat, no gunpowder, no visible firing signature (muzzle flash), and no stoppages or jams of any kind. Now imagine that this gun could fire .308 caliber and .50 caliber metal projectiles accurately at up to 8,000 fps (feet-per-second), featured an infinitely variable/programmable cyclic rate-of-fire (as high as 120,000 rounds-per-minute), and

Drill Zapper

  Don’t know much about this, Targit posted a link to his creation in this Hackaday article (comment #16). If anyone knows about some construction plans I would be interested!

ETCH CNC

If you have an Etch a Sketch in the closet collecting dust, the Etch CNC may be an interesting project that could put it back into use. “I am using a retrofit machine that fit within my budget. It’s a 2-axis machine with approximately 170x130mm travel. The circuit board is my own design, using a ULN2803 per motor to supply approx. 0.3 amps per winding. The power supply is a

Electromagnetic Pistol

Once you have a look at this EM Pistol, and watch the video you will probably want to get in line to buy your own! “# Two coils are precisely pulsed in sequence (350 Amp peak) to fire a steel projectile # Two infrared sensors detect the projectile position within the firing tube # Controlled by a PIC microcontroller # Powered by 8 AA NiCd battery pack # Built-in battery

RGB LED Alarm Clock

  You probably remember the Shock Clock from a while ago. Well this Zedomax RGB LED Alarm Clock is the oposite of that concept, I think it would be soothing to wake up to this clock… “Okay, we have seen some really cool Light Orbs while trying to make this Music Syncing Light Orb Alarm Clock. We started with Tod’s creation and soon realize that 1 LED will not be

Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR)

  This Automated License Plate Recognition system makes short work of looking up massive numbers of license plates. I wonder if there is a system that will make the plate appear fine while looking at it but cause a mis-read when read in using the camera system? “Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR) technology is made up of several elements. Platefinder – Sophisticated firmware continually searches the camera’s field of view