Build Your Own HERF Gun

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."

Comments

Unfortunately

[Anonymous Coward]

After learning about his device, the US military used their larger HERF gun to deactivate his HERF gun.

Re:Unfortunately

[lewp]

It was funny until you felt the need to explain it :(

No More High Speed Pursuits

[the-dude-man]

You know...this would put an end to high speed pursuits

What will fox air....guess they will have to resort to hardcore porn

Re:No More High Speed Pursuits

[mrbrown1602]

Well actually if the car is older than 1980, it probably won't stall due to the lack of computerized components in the car. That's why I love driving a '56 Chevy. :-)

Re:No More High Speed Pursuits

[marbike]

No, There still is the as yet unaired "Who Wants to Marry a Middle Aged Producer?" or "When Shopping Carts Attack!: The Wallmart Files".

The hardcore porn will have a little time before it gets plastered over Fox.

Re:No More High Speed Pursuits

[antiquark]

I regret saying this already, it shows my age, and possibly my viewing habits.

In the brief remake series of Knight Rider, Knight Rider 2000 I think it was called, Kit could disable cars from a distance presumably with a similar device. I beleive the bad guys then did something to their Porsche Carerra 911's which made them impervious to this attack.

David Hasselhof's hair was similarly insulated from the radiation.

Re:No More High Speed Pursuits

[macdaddy]

They already have made one of these deals. It's like a spike strip but is really a mat that you position on the road. IIRC the officer that laid it out waits for the fleeing vehicle to drive over it and then activates the mat. He hits the button right as the car's engine is over the mat and it's jacks up the ignition system. The car dies instantly and rolls to a stop. The problem with any system like this is that 1) it's expensive and 2) it can only be used on vehicles moving slowly. You don't dare use this mat, spike strips, or the pitt maneuver on a vehicle going highway speeds. The car could easily lose control and cause a major accident. You have to do it when they are going slow like when they take a turn of some sorts. Yeah, they've built these gizmos already but they are expensive. Last I heard they were only being tested in the UK. Good idea though. I wonder how much damage (in $$$) this does to the car though. It's relatively easy to destory the computer system in a car. 9 times out of 10 you can do this by hooking jumper cables up backwards (yes, some people don't know how to use them properly. most people don't know which vehicle you should hook them up to first either). Frying the computer system in a car is essentially totaling the car. The replacement parts almost always cost more then the vehicle is worth. :-(

Re:No More High Speed Pursuits

[PissedOffGuy]

You know...this would put an end to high speed pursuits

i wonder if they consider it riskier than the strips of little hollow tubes that puncture and slowly deflate your tires.

without your electrical system and your engine spinning down you could lose power steering, power brakes, your lights would go out (at night at high speed most probably), various automatic transmission problems, etc.

i guess its still safer than the PIT maneuver.

Re:No More High Speed Pursuits

[Cyclometh]

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:No More High Speed Pursuits

[Rolo Tomasi]

You know...this would put an end to high speed pursuits

So would this (scroll down to Carl Gustaf). Probably much more fun to watch, too.

Re:No More High Speed Pursuits

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, the loss of power steering and the loss of reasonably effective brakes. Best hope the driver doesn't have a pace maker either cause you just killed him. ;-) Actually, that makes me wonder. Given our rather sensitive internal electrical system, I wonder what a HERF gun fired at a human would do? Out autonomous system relies on electrical signals from the brain. That's why people with serious head trauma sometimes can't breathe on their own or their heart has to be forced to beat manually. The autonomous system shut itself down thanks to brain trauma. Hmm... that makes me wonder. Surely someone has answered that question though.

Re:No More High Speed Pursuits

[haystor]

Hell, I want to be throwing harpoons manually from a flatbed trailer. Then winch the car closer, secure the rigging and I'll be first across in the boarding party. Think Road Warrior...that was a good start.

Re:No More High Speed Pursuits

[Grishnakh]

Simple: just embed some encryption software in the gun. The criminals then wouldn't be able to copy it since that's illegal under the DMCA.

Re:No More High Speed Pursuits

[Mika_Lindman]

Where's the 'add this to cart'-button? I hate those site designs where you can't find the functions you're looking for.

Re:No More High Speed Pursuits

[fucksl4shd0t]

Other than the loss of power steering there is no danger to just stopping the engine in a high speed persuit

You also forgot the fact that the power brake booster in your car is likely powered by engine vacuum. In some exotic cars, it's hydraulically powered. In either case, it requires a running engine. At low speeds, failure of these components isn't dangerous because under federal law they're required to have enough boost stored in them to provide for stopping in case of failure. However, at higher speeds, you can easily drain the system of it's reserve and find yourself having to stand on the brakes to stop.

Loosing power steering at high speeds is relatively safe, on the other hand. Most/all power steering systems kick off anyway over 35 mph, some kick off even earlier. The only purpose power steering serves is to counteract the wheels gripping the road at a stop or at low speeds. THe reason why your steering gearbox (or rack-n-pinion) is designed to work without power assist isn't a safety issue, it's because the power assist automatically cuts off during regular operation.

Finally, back to brakes, some newer ABS systems behave in a fashion that can be dangerous in a high-speed failure. Once again, they're designed not to fail in these cases, so the risk is relatively low. However, the assumption made in these cases is that the valves will be able to close. If the valves were unable to close (and this proposed device could cause that, but it'll take a real engineer to tell me), then it's possible that the 2000 psi stored up in the accumulator would be applied in the regular brakes, causing the wheels to lock up. At a high speed, this could be fatal to more than just the people in the crime car.

Now, blowing up the motor somehow would be more effective. Of course, I'm using the slang "blowing up the motor" which doesn't resemble explosives at all. A laser burn through the radiator, and then it's a race of attrition. Get the guy to overheat the engine and his electrical system will keep working. Better yet, a laser burn through the block. Of course, a laser that powerful would probably be a lot more dangerous than it sounds. Keep his tires, brakes, and steering intact, and burn the radiator. If his transmission is automatic, you might be able to target the tranny cooling system instead, but it'd be a harder target to hit then the engine. But if you could hit it, you could leave him with a running engine but not torque to the wheels. Then he's still got ABS, vacuum assist, AND power steering, and still can't move.

Re:No More High Speed Pursuits

[Blymie]

This is the way it used to be, but no more :(((

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

[Dun Malg]

My most vivid memory of it is still that it is really heavy and a bitch to carry long distances.

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:No More High Speed Pursuits

[dattaway]

Some engines built for performance do not rely on an electrical "system," but use a magneto for spark. Any high voltage potential induced by a disruptive force may cause the engine to misfire momentarily in the worst case.

The answer to my prayers!

[Robber Baron]

Now will it fit behind the front grille of my Crown Vic?

Cut me off will you you asshole!!!

Re:The answer to my prayers!

[EvilTwinSkippy]

The EMP will fry the anti-lock brakes. ABS systems are designed to lock the wheels in case of system failure. (Ironic in a way...)

Re:The answer to my prayers!

[theLOUDroom]

The EMP will fry the anti-lock brakes. ABS systems are designed to lock the wheels in case of system failure. (Ironic in a way...)

Bullshit. It would be totally stupid to design the system that way. If it fails while you were going down the road at 70MPH you'd have a very good chance of dying. I can't even imagine what would make you think it works this way.


From http://www.abs-education.org/faqs/faqindex.htm:

What if the ABS fails? Anti-lock brake systems are designed to be fail-safe. Nevertheless, they are equipped with a diagnostic feature that automatically activates and tests the major components each time the car is started and monitors them throughout the journey.

In the rare event of a failure, the ABS would be deactivated by its own safety circuit. A warning light goes on indicating to the driver that the vehicle is now in conventional base-brake mode.

Logging.

[Daleks]

It's nice that this webpage says in caps "IP LOGGED" followed by your IP. I guess this way he can tell who's HTTP GET broke the webserver's back.

Best contraceptive

[aerogeek]

I was just worrying about not meeting my recommended daily allowance of EF radiation with this cellphone in my pocket and 10 PCs near my desk. Now I can build a HERF gun -- problem solved!

Cataracts

[Anonymous Coward]

And radiation burns await those who wish to play with the innards of a microwave.

MTV??

[Anonymous Coward]

Since when did MTV become the authoritarian reference on Slashdot? Are we supposed to be in awe? What's next - a story submitted by a guy who once in high school dated Britney Spears?

mirror (google cache)

[bumby]

Here it is: mirror

weapons

[DNS-and-BIND]

So, what would this do to an airplane? One that's, say, in the takeoff phase, heavily loaded with fuel and hundreds of passengers on board?

Re:weapons

[John Whorfin]

Probably the same thing as one of those old-fashioned gas-expansion lead accelerators would do.

Re:weapons

[aerogeek]

Even hydraulic actuators have electromechanical servo valves, which I assume could be affected. For a large plane without pulley-and-cable backups, this could be catastrophic. The only kind of plane that would potentially be immune would be a small piston-engine, which does not require electricity of any sort -- not even in the ignition system (magnetos).

Re:weapons

[afidel]

The Boing 777 does not have hydraulic backups, it is 100% fly by wire, the Boing studies showed that well done redundant electronic systems were less likely to fail then a mechanical backup was to cause problems. I doubt a simple 1KV gun would do any damage at even a hundred feet to an airliner as the electronics are already hardened against the severe amounts of radiation they are exposed to at cruising altitude (a cross country flight would expose you to more radiation then a full body xray if it were not for the planes skin).

Re:weapons

[Alioth]

The magnetos DO produce electricity. The spark is an electrical one. The mags are basically self-enclosed generators/coils/points/distributors. The main thing is that they are separate from the aircraft's non-ignition electrical systems (unlike a car) and there are two ignition circuits per engine.

Having said that, I doubt EMP unless it was *really* powerful would have a noticeable effect on the mags.

Re:weapons

[Beryllium Sphere(tm)]

There'd be some protection from the fact that the airplanes are designed to withstand a lightning strike. A tube of aluminum thick enough to carry its own weight is a really good conductor, better than most electrical connectors. Windows and antennas are all that keep it from being a Faraday cage.

I would never forgive anybody who tried it outside a lab, though.

Re:weapons

[Rolo Tomasi]

Erm, probably as much as the radar at the airport, which has a power output more than twenty times than the magnetron of a microwave oven. You know, the magnetron thingie used in microwaves was invented by the British for use in radars. It's not some magical death-ray or something.

Re:weapons

[DNS-and-BIND]

Negative...putting a bullet into a plane's skin would not cause the widespread damage that this electrical weapon would cause. It's quite possible that the bullet would pass through and not be noticed until landing. Plus, hitting a plane at a few hundred feet altitude moving 150 mph is not an easy feat. This weapon hits instantaneously and merely needs to be pointed and clicked at its target. I'm actually surprised applications such as this have not been adapted to air defense.

Re:weapons

[MythMoth]

That's, uh, Boeing. The Boing 777 would be made of rubber.

Re:weapons

[Unregistered]

CARDIVORE SYSTEM: ALERT
POST CONTAINS HIT WORDS:
-DO TO AIRPLANE
-LOADED WITH FUEL AND HUNDRED OF PASSENERS

SUSPECT NAME: DNSANDBIND
SUSPECT FOUND AT:
11:50 EST 5/10/2003 - WWW.SLASHDOT.ORG - KNOWN SUSPICIOUS WWW SITE
ACTION TAKEN: LOGGED, SUSPECT TO BE MONITRED, 3 FBI TEAMS DEPLOYED

Re:weapons

[IdahoEv]

So what would a Bong 777 be made out of?

-Ev

Re:weapons

[Exatron]

Nobody knows for sure. The project was cancelled early in its design phase after the engineers started saying things like "They call them fingers, but they don't fing."

This is already used by Police in Europe.

[rxed]

Similar, more powerful, device has been used by German police during hot pursuits. I'm not sure if its still used (because of the EU rules etc). Stop sticks are cheaper, although not as safe, and also don't kill the car as the EMG gun does. Oh yea, besides your dead engine/car you can say bye bye to all electronic equipment in the car; even your watch!

Re:This is already used by Police in Europe.

[CrazyDuke]

I remember something about this I saw a few years ago. While the damage from EMP is permanent, some of the other EM style weapons -specifically the ones one could make at home- would only take down electronics for a few minutes (the car battery and radioshack parts type). They mentioned military HERF guns, but didn't say if the damage from those was permanent.

The HERF004..

[EinarH]

..looks like a great way to fry those RFID-tags for the paranoid of us. 1kW with high directinality should do the job.
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...

Re:The HERF004..

[EvilTwinSkippy]

They are actually designed to withstand massive magnetic fields. RFID's don't have any internal power, they operate by leaching off the magnetic field of the reader.

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.

FCC Notice

[dracocat]

FCC Notice
This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions:

1. This device may not cause harmful interference.

2. This device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation.

Re:FCC Notice

[StarKruzr]

Can someone explain the second provision of this to me?

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?

Re:FCC Notice

[EvilTwinSkippy]

The second provision it means your device cannot adopt a strategy of sending out cancelling radiation, or try to jam an interfering device.

Its designed to keep dicksize wars off of the airwaves.

You can shield your device all you want.

From the site, moments before the Slashdot effect

[Anonymous Coward]

64.105.67.47> u guys are gonna get slashdotted any minute now
67.118.175.173> bah
64.216.0.81> surviving slashdot very well

Good to see progress

[certron]

I'm glad to see someone is working on perfecting the HERF gun. After all, they have to keep up with the progress made since Slashdot perfected the website-killing HREF gun a few years ago. Just point and click, webserver goes down. :-)

rf can do strange things to cars

[ratfynk]

Reminds me of the Volks Rabbit, when it first came out with electronic ignition. Some cops I knew back then told me that the earliest ones off the assembly line didn't have much shielding on the electronic unit. If a cop pulled up behind one and keyed his mic the Rabbit would crap out.

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?

Re:magnetron?

[chill]

Magnetrons are the main component of microwave ovens. Beware -- unshielded units are dangerous. You can end up sterile, or dead... or both.

-Chas

Exactly!

[tomzyk]

I'll install one in the rear window of my vehicle and when the pigs start chasing me down, I'll zap 'em before they get close enough to read my license plate. :-)

Do we need more weapon ?

[aepervius]

What happen if you use it on an auto at 100mph on the quick road ? (yeah autoroute but I dunno how they call it). What happen if you use it on somebody with a peacemaker ? Did even the guy putting the to-do kit up think of that ?

Re:Do we need more weapon ?

[Snover]

We don't need peacemakers in this day and age, we need warmongers, to drive out the filth of the arab nations. Silly person. ;-)

Re:Do we need more weapon ?

[Cyclometh]

I suppose if you use it on someone with a Peacemaker, you'd get shot. :-) Not much electronics in those.

Road rage.

[rice_burners_suck]

The subject of mood altering audio signals is interesting to bring up. I have some interesting ideas about this.

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:

• The brain assigns attentional resources to things. For example, your eye can see pretty well all around but your brain assigns more attentional resources to the thing your eyes are pointing at. With so much to look at and notice in a big city, the brain works overtime. This causes stress, fatigue and frustration.
• While driving around town, there are a lot of noises going on, like the sounds of other cars or your own. My car shakes when it idles and barely runs when it does. In addition, things rattle and squeak, and my keychain, of all things, swings back and forth and makes little (barely audible but certainly there) metallic ringing sounds. These are all sounds that my brain processes and tries to put in the background.
• I have to accomplish a lot of things during the day, but traffic wastes a lot of time.
• But here is my favorite part: The *shapes* of cars, of all things, pisses me off the most. Seriously... it's as if all I look at the whole time is the ass end of ugly cars. When the driver in front of me pushes on the gas after being stopped, the back end of his car moves down a couple of inches from the "recoil" of his car suddenly moving forward. When he stops, the back end of his car seems to rise up a few inches. Pay attention to this as you're driving around and you'll see it too. Now the part that pisses me off is this: That rising of the back end that I just mentioned? It looks like a dog raising its ass at you as an insult. For some reason, my brain associates the shape and motion of the decelerating car in front of me with dogs that insult you by sticking their ass in the air, as dogs do when you want to put a leash on them, give them a bath, or anything else that the dog doesn't want. And it's almost true: It's as if the driver in front of you is insulting you by stopping instead of getting the fuck out of your way. I can't explain how much this pisses me off.

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:gyro guns?

[Un1v4c]

I'd love to shoot people with Greek food.

Not true...

[Eric_Cartman_South_P]

...I live accross the street from this guy and nothing unusual is going on. That 1-800-Flowers van has been parked at the end of the block for a few days, come to thing of it, but other thaH$^FHGHATDT^ATDT^h6[NO CARRIER]

The $64 million question.

[AnotherBrian]

All I want to know is will it fry the cell phone of thoes people who can't seem to STFU in the restaurant. Perhaps a hand held version of this could be wielded by ushers in movie theaters.

Re:The $64 million question.

[WhiteDragon]

I never will get why people talking on cellphones in a restaraunt is annoying, but people talking just as loudly to people sitting next to them is not a problem.

Re:The $64 million question.

[Phroggy]

I never will get why people talking on cellphones in a restaraunt is annoying, but people talking just as loudly to people sitting next to them is not a problem.

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:The $64 million question.

[EvilTwinSkippy]

Yes, but people sitting in resteraunts without cell phones don't tend to talk about their Colon Polyps, the results of a Pap Smear, or the content of their last bowel movement at the table either.

Re:The $64 million question.

[DennyK]

I've always found people talking on cell phones rather irritating. Maybe it's because of the way our brains process auditory data. When two people are having a conversation in person, their speech will follow a general pattern. Maybe they'll take turns speaking, maybe one always interrupts the other, or maybe they both trip on each other's sentences all the time, but there will be a pattern your brain can pick out, and then it can recognize that pattern as unimportant and dismiss it if you're not interested in their conversation. But when a person is talking to a phone, you can't hear the other end of the conversation, so your brain can't pick out the pattern. Instead of a flowing conversation, you've got one person speaking, then silence, then the same person speaking again at some random interval. It's very jarring, especially when people get LOUD as many tend to do on cell phones. Kind of like having a noisy, slow, irregular drip from your bathroom faucet. Because you never quite know when that next "plonk!" is coming, you find yourself anticipating it, and it really messes with your concentration...and of course, when it finally comes, it always makes you jump a little because you can't predict exactly *when* it's coming. In the same way, you can never anticipate when a cell phone user is going to start speaking again, and every time he/she does, it kind of startles you. This makes it harder to tune out cell phone users than it is to tune out a tableful of people chatting with each other...

DennyK

Re:The $64 million question.

[Quixote]

Because when you listen to a cellphone conversation, you are listening to only one half of the conversation.

Hey, if *I* am taking the trouble to evesdrop, I want the full monty, dammit!!

:-)

Mood altering audio signals

[Eminor]

Mood altering audio signals, eh? You mean music.

Re:Is this really news?

[Realistic_Dragon]

"I would think car companies don't make these systems dependent on delicate electronics"

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 :o)

And his website was taken out by a HREF gun

[autopr0n]

How ironic.

"This Account Has Been Suspended"

[iamhassi]

wow won't he be pissed...

Re:"This Account Has Been Suspended"

[EvilTwinSkippy]

Or better yet, mirror the website in a cache.

What I used to do Philly2Nite's website I had a Tcl script that downloaded the first 3 levels of their lotus notes system to static pages under Apache. The apache system could deliver millions of page hits, the 1998 era NT system running Notes on the other hand...

My program would also transparently rewrite the links to look at a cached version when appropriate. The cache software would update the static content every 15 minutes or so. It worked well for years.

Re:"This Account Has Been Suspended"

[anubi]

Yeah, I looked up the terms of service from his service provider and retrieved this snippet:

How much bandwidth/traffic do I get with my Web site?

We allow 15 GB of transfer per month. This is an adequate amount to operate a bandwidth intensive website. If your web pages average 10 KB in size, you would be able to receive 1,500,000 million hits per month.

So it looks like we chewed up his whole month's allocation in a few minutes... wow!

No, you have it backwards.

[autopr0n]

It's not about stopping people who are fleeing the cops, it's about stopping the cops when they are chasing you.

On a completely unrelated topic...

[caitsith01]

...Dick Cheney has a pacemaker, doesn't he?

"This Account Has Been Suspended"

[blincoln]

The site now redirects to a suspension message.

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

[iamhassi]

http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cache:S-ATEsuhM_wC: www.voltsamps.com/+HERF+gun+voltsamps&hl=en&ie=UTF -8
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:magnetron?

[BigBlockMopar]

Magnetrons are the main component of microwave ovens. Beware -- unshielded units are dangerous. You can end up sterile, or dead... or both.

Oh my god.

Before the dot-com meltdown, I used to design radar equipment for a major defense contractor. Radar systems use microwave energy - which is just radio waves within an arbitrary range that we call "microwave", like we call some radio waves "VHF" and others "UHF".

A microwave oven is simply a ~500W unmodulated carrier wave at ~2.4GHz. Neither the power nor the frequency is terribly precise.

A magnetron is a vacuum tube used to generate microwave-frequency RF. It's a special kind of directly-heated diode surrounded by a very strong magnet, hence the term "magnetron".

It is utterly and completely harmless (except to magnetic media and the magnetic stripe on your security pass, from personal experience) until you apply power. Typically, a microwave oven magnetron wants about 6V to light the filament and about 6kV anode; in pulsed navigational radar, it's usually 6V to light the filament and about 10kV to pulse the magnetron in 25kW 12GHz pulses at 3kHz (think of AM modulation).

If you take a direct blast from a radar, it's unlikely to make you sterile, or to cause cancer. Those are caused by ionizing radiation (ie. nuclear and X-Ray). This is non-ionizing; essentially just a radio wave. In the S and X band radar ranges - and presumably everything in between - the primary damage would be to the corneas of the eyes. And it burns - I got it to my torso once, no permanent damage, just like a bad sunburn.

In other words, don't operate your microwave oven with the door open, and don't look into the waveguide.

Oh, and don't play with the power supply which runs the magnetron. Anything capable of supplying enough current to make 500W at 6kV (ie. power supply of a home microwave oven) is capable of setting fire to your skin. And the capacitors in a microwave oven hold a charge for a while - don't play with them.

The obligatory

[Duck_Taffy]

Imagine a beowuÂÂÂâ'uylsffj-esufASD;LO8FU£ÃÃÃZâÃÃ" £Ã[NO CARRIER]

HERF Gun?

[comet_11]

That's nothing, Slashdot has the HREF gun and it can take out an entire webserver.

More on actuators

[WegianWarrior]

Even hydraulic actuators have electromechanical servo valves...

Close, but not always true. Having worked with several kinds of aircraft, both old and older (F-16, F-5, Dassult Jetfalcon and C-130 to mention the fixedwings), I know for a fact that while a fly-by-wire system, ie; a system where the controllsignals are transmitted via electric signals, have electromechanical servo valves. Every fly-by-real-wire (aka fly-by-steelrope) system I've worked on however, have purely mechanical servovalves, operated by what we refers to as a 'quadrant' - a simple mechanical analog computer which takes it inputs from the strearingsignal, the position of the aerodynamic surface (this is known as the feedback signal) and other sources (gear down or not & flaps down or not in the case of the F-5's tailplane and ailerons) and sends a mechanical signal to the servo which then opens a valve to operate the hydraulic sylinder. As the sylinder moves, the aerodynamic surface move, which changes the feedbacksignal, until the aerodynamic surface is at the commanded position and the output from the quadrant is nil - ie; closing the servovalve.

So yes, an HERF gun could possible mess up the servoactuators in modern aircraft - but it wouldn't and couldn't affect the servoactuators of a non-fly-by-electric-wire aircraft. It can still play merry hell with the avionics though.

Re:magnetron?

[Muhammar]

I agree-Microwaves have only heating (non-ionising) effect on tissue. (Bad things happen though around metallic objects - like rings or wire-framed glasses - you could see some serious scoarching around these.

I do not understand how you can get radiation cataract (like from UV) - by time you start microwaving your eyes, your brain will probably have problem too. But testicles are extremely sensitive to heat damage, so the old myths about radar crews getting infertile from the exposure may have some basis. Certainly the radar people used to heat(microwawe) food attached to a stick in front of their radar dishes.

About home microwave repair: I heard a legend about a family man who fixed a broken microwave. And he blocked out the door sensor, turned microwave on, briefly sticked his hand in - and when he felt little warmth on his hand he said - now it works and turned off the microwave. But his hand hurt after this a bit and got swollen later at night. He ended up having it amputated - deep heat damage meesed it up beyond salvage. The heat sensors are on surface of the skin, but microwawes heated his hand from the bone, so it was too late for him when he finaly registered something.

not 6 KV, more like 2 KV

[nietsch]

The output voltage of a microwave oven transformer (MOT) is more in the range of 2KV than 6 KV. Just as lethal (500mA) but a bit cheaper to manufacture. Otherwise BigBlockMopar told a good story.

Re:not 6 KV, more like 2 KV

[BigBlockMopar]

The output voltage of a microwave oven transformer (MOT) is more in the range of 2KV than 6 KV. Just as lethal (500mA) but a bit cheaper to manufacture. Otherwise BigBlockMopar told a good story.

I think I was talking about the A/K potential applied to a magnetron, not the output of the transformer itself. And indeed, that is in the range of 6kV.

How?

First off, notice that the diode and capacitor in most microwave ovens are not set up as a typical half-wave rectifier? They're actually configured as a voltage doubler. It's cheap and it depends on the diode action of the magnetron to work, but indeed, Vout = 2*Vin.

Now, remember also that we're rectifying AC, which is almost universally measured as RMS. Vdc = Vacrms * sqrt(2).

Therefore, an expression for our magnetron's anode voltage is closer to Vmag = 2 * Vtrans * sqrt(2), which we can simplify to Vmag = 2.828 * Vtrans.

Which, with a 2kV transformer, is 5.6kV. Near enough to 6kV.

In actual practice, I've seen microwave oven transformers rated for everything from 1800V to about 4000V. The 4kV one was in a Litton commercial microwave oven... very nice.

My god...

[floydigus]

My god - what I wouldn't give to get my hands on one of these things.

Where I live, streets that contain straight stretches of longer than about 10m are a target for the local petrol heads with their turbos. The only thing is, that in order to get the turbo to fire (which they like - it lets people know they can afford turbo - even if they only have a hatchback and they work in the local supermarket), they need to over-rev the engine even when they're taking they're mum to the shops. The sonic effect is something like;

"BRRRMMM!! (phssh) BRRRRRMMM phsssshhh BRMMRMRM phssh"

I would like to hear something like;

"BRRRMMM!! (phssh) BRRRRRMMM ph...ZAP! SHAZAM! phsszzzppt. put...put......put."

Show those suckers.

Re:My god...

[Zakabog]

The turbo isn't controlled by the ECU though. You can put a turbo on anything with a timing belt and exhaust. You don't really need to over rev the engine but turbo boost comes in at a higher RPM. Which means that if you're taking your mum to the shops, you're probably not getting any turbo boost (why would you need high rpms going to a place that's nearby.) Now if they're racing it's a different story but if you totally killed their car it'd be like

"BRRRMMM!! (phssh) BRRRRRMMM ph...ZAP! SHAZAM! phsszzzppt. put...put......put. Oh shit I have no control over my car *smash into a tree, burst into flames, set the entire neighborhood ablaze*" and it'd be all your fault for killing some idiot's car.

Re:My god...

[sik puppy]

Just wait for haloween >:)

A friend dealt with a local hot-rodder like this one year...

Take pumpkin and remove seeds, etc.
Fill with concrete
Set out by road in front of house (his street didn't have sidwalks)
Wait

ba-ba brump ba-ba brump...bwaaaaaaaaaaa-CRUNCH!!!!!

It was a LONG time before that car was able to terrorize the neighborhood.

Anyone else think Slashdotting is criminal?

[BobTheWonderMonkey]

/. has willingingly just exceeded this guy's bandwidth. He now owes his ISP money (and probably lots of it) because /. linked.

Now, does anyone else think that the Slashdot Effect is getting to be criminal? C'mon, people, we GAVE IT A NAME. It's not like we don't know what posting to /. is going to do to someone's servers.

Editors of Slashdot: you guys are getting criminally negligent. If no one has sued you so far, you better start getting the lawyers ready.

Re:Anyone else think Slashdotting is criminal?

[reemul]

The difference between Slashdotting and a DDoS attack is simple but critical: the page requests in Slashdotting are legitmate, from users around the world who genuinely wish to see the site content. What is wrong with that? It's the difference between a store being swamped by customers---so much so that they can take no more until some leave---and that same store being overrun by squatters who just take up space without having anything to do with the business of the store, chasing out the real customers.

You're the network admin, if your site cannot gracefully handle a traffic spike due to sudden popularity it's YOUR PROBLEM. Fix it, don't complain about the cause of the increased page views. With a properly configured system, you should correctly see the influx of new visitors as a potential good, not something to be avoided. What can you do with the 24 hour notice, that you should not have already done? If configuring your server to handle a easily forseeable event can be done in a day, it should be done before the box even goes online, just like you would correct any other known potential problems. No, resources are not free, but that doesn't mean you have no options short of getting fatter pipes and bigger iron to handle load.

What you are really complaining about is that your system is poorly designed to start with but your bosses hadn't noticed yet, and that new traffic from Slashdot gave your laziness away and forced you to do some of the work you already get paid for. Suck it up and get busy, you've got the whole weekend.

Hmmm

[Querty]

Slashdotted already...

I'd say /. pretty much performs as "a device like EMP but directional" for web sites.

Re:magnetron?

[00_NOP]

Cavity magnetrons were invented in the Second World War by the Brits (iirc, apologies to the Yanks if I am wrong) and were used to hunt and kill German submarines in the Battle of the Atlantic. They blast electrons over small cavities and create microwave radiation - which was good enough to detect, by radar, submarines in the Atlantic swell. That, plus the combination of longer range bomber aircraft, finished the job started by Station X.

Cached Page

[randomErr]

SITE URL 01: www.VoltsAmps.com
SITE URL 02: www.VoltageLabs.com
SITE URL 03: www.SVBxLABS.com

Purpose:

This project is a continuation of the HERF003 project. It will be just like the HERF001 but many times more compact and efficient due to optimization and better calculated design. The actual device (excluding the horn antenna) will be about 50 times smaller in volume than HERF001 while having the same output power yet even better antenna efficiency and low VSWR. I hope to get much more detailed tests done on the effects and range of this device. Results and test images/videos will be posted allong with data sheets, radiation patterns and videos of test shots on dummy PC's.

Materials:

- 800W 2.458GHz Magnetron
- MOT
- 2kV @ 1.2uF capacitor
- 12kV piv microwave oven diode
- Sheet metal
- Sheet copper
- Other small parts

Details:

This is the basic magnetron coupling design. It is designed after the WR340 waveguide and can allow 1.70GHz to 2.60GHz to pass through with low attenuation. Of course my RF output will be within this range being 2.458GHz. The full dimentions of the waveguide are 4.318cm x 9.147cm x 8.636cm. The horn antenna is not as small as pictured. The magnetron feed will be inserted 1/4 the wavelength from the back of the waveguide.

a = 86.36mm
b = 43.18mm
c = 91.47mm

For a 15dB horn antenna:

p = 152.5mm
a1 = 320.6mm
b1 = 237.5mm

For a 18dB horn antenna:

p = 365.9mm
a1 = 452.9mm
b1 = 335.5mm

These are the dimentions of the plates that must be cut out in order to form a 15dB horn antenna.

These are the dimentions of the plates that must be cut out in order to form a 18dB horn antenna. Of course two of each plate must be made in order to make a complete horn antenna. The back end is then welded to the waveguide.

This is the circular waveguide and conical horn and its dimentions. The distance between the magnetron feed and the back waveguide wall should be fine tuned and adjusted as needed. The waveguide diameter is 3/4 the 2.458GHz wavelength and the distance from the magnetron feed and the base of the horn is 1/2 the wavelength.

This is the schematic of the HERF004 if powered from a 120VAC (or 240VAC) source. The circuit consists of a transformer and a voltage doubler cap/diode setup. A filiment heater is also needed.

This is the schematic of the HERF004 if powered from a 12VDC battery source. This design will provide less average RMS output power but will provide the same if not higher pulse peak power. Most magnetrons have the markings F, FA, C, or K next to the leads of which F, C and K are the magnetron cathode. Most microwave oven magnetrons will be marked with FA and F while radar magnetrons will only have one lead marked with either a K or a C. Since the magnetron I am planning to use is not a pulsed magnetron I will not construct a pulse forming network although it would help.

Videos:

herf004-test001.mpg (8.03MB)

This clip shows a series of herf004 shots at different distances. The video clip contains both video and audio. In the audio you can hear the 60Hz hum as it was induced into the camera via 2.458GHz carier wave.

herflight01.mpeg (0.98MB)

This clip shows HERF004 exciting the gas within a flourecent light tube causing it to glow.

herfmotion01.mpeg (0.97MB)

This clip shows HERF004 triggering the driveway motion detector of my home and the house next door.

Images:

This is the horn right after its construction. I cut it out of sheet copper and then welded each sheet together. My welding skills weren't that great so the plates may be misaligned by upto 4mm. The horn was designed to be 17dB since my sheet copper wasn't large enough to make an 18dB horn. I will probably make a conical horn after this one though and use it instead since this one turned out to be quite large.

First HERF004 victim, me. As I was drilling a hole for the magnetron feed the

CNN

[psyconaut]

Monday May 12th 2003
CNN is reporting that there have been a huge number of HERF gun attacks on telecom and financial systems installations in the United States in the past two days. The attacks have seriously impacted the ability of Americans to conduct day-to-day life, knocking out many telephone, TV, and radio stations and forming large lineups at banks where customers desperately try to withdraw money from stressed teller staff.

CNN has learned that the attacks were performed by the Linux fraction of al Queada which is referred to as "al Tux" in CIA circles. Apparently the group learned of concise plans to make HERF guns from a story on the geek website "Slashdot.org".

Editors at Slashdot could not be reached for comment as they had suffered malnutrition from not being able to eat microwave burritos or pizza pockets for the past 48hrs.

Great for Noise Pollution

[nurb432]

Just zap those idiots with their car stereos blasting crap at 2am.. Problem solved, peace and quiet again.

Too bad the site is toast.. slashdot effect or 'homeland security' ???

how is it that /. never gets /.'ed ??

[pair-a-noyd]

I think that prior to a story release /. could mirror the piddly little site and do us all a favor. Apparently /. has the pipe to cope.

Secondly, I want to see a device that will cook these assholes with that 400db, 6hz THUMP THUMP shit. These punks drive past my house and split my skull with that horrid shit. It's an invasion of MY PRIVACY. I don't want to hear that, I don't want to FEEL THAT. I want QUIET in my house. These sorry assholes think it's cute to thump that shit into my house and make ME suffer that trash..
I hope that it's causing them brain damage, like brain tumors and other nasty things.

I would pay BIG MONEY $$$$ for a device that I could aim at them and totally fry their stereos as they drive by, and I mean fry it beyond repair.

They deserve it. They are breaking the law and they deserve to be punished.

Re:I hope they make this illegal

[Dr Reducto]

It is sad to see that you look at a technology and only see what could be wrong about it. Every piece of knowledge has the power to be used for good or evil, not just this. Fo example, knowing how to blow up a building might help a potential criminal pull off the technical aspect of blowing it up, but the police officers investigating use the knowledge of how to build a bomb to seek out the places where he got his materials, and in general, where to start thier investigation. In fact, the final exam for a high-level government bomb-squad school, is to build a bomb, detonate it, and then investigate each other. I saw this on the Discovery channel a while back, so I can't remember what school it was though (Maybe ATF?).

Dont you mean...

[Codex The Sloth]

Don't you mean the Flowers By Irene van?

The Gentle Soldiers Shopping Cart

[mrmeval]

To kill or not to kill is this the answer?

http://liun.hektik.org/hightech/herf/shopping.ht ml

Most of these ideas need a feedback system and highly intellegent processing to work, especially the ones that work on live humans.

The 'sticky' stuff would need to be 'intellegent' as well so as not to suffocate the victim.

The various pulse and sound weapons would need some sort of life sensor as feed back so that they would 'know' enough is enough.

That's been the problem with non-lethal wepons, as an aside a simple net doesn not generate federal funding.

Damn, I'm wrong about the net, here's a gov't shopping cart:
http://www.govexec.com/features/0501/0501s4 s1.htm

Some comparisons of non lethal weapons between Hollydood (includes the news spews) and reality:
http://www.aele.org/technology2-01.html

Re:magnetron?

[istartedi]

I saw something about this on Discovery or something. It was a joint effort. The Brits invented it, but it was too labor intensive to manufacture in sufficient volume. They took a unit to MIT, and a top engineer there made the military types very nervous taking this top secret device home to study it. He came up with a way to make them using laminated metal. In retrospect that seems like a simple idea. Maybe there was more to it than that. So, the Brits invented it, but the Yanks figured out how to make them cheaply by the truckload.