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17 comments to "Microwave Ray Gun Turns Off Car Engines From a Distance"
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Ashley
December 10th, 2007 at
9:29 am
Is it safe to shoot microwave radiation at people? Especially for the through-the-wall thing, which will be used indescriminantly of crime.
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Lasse
December 10th, 2007 at
10:17 am
Another great weapon for terrorists. Now they don’t even need explosives.
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Josh
December 10th, 2007 at
11:24 am
I wouldnt want to be in the helicopter when there is a backfire.
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Sid Morrison
December 10th, 2007 at
11:37 am
I think the pulse duration is VERY short — like maybe milliseconds, so the risk to people is pretty low.
It’s a good idea that’s been ripe for development for a long time. Yeah, there is the potential for some mayhem if (when) the devices fall into the wrong hands. Not developing it will just mean somebody else does, though… Think of the pfun hackerz will have when somebody cooks up a homebrew version!
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Vonskippy
December 10th, 2007 at
11:53 am
Wow, you’d have to be a rocket scientist to figure out how to put a $3 Faraday cage over your car’s electronic to be able to stop that.
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DCer
December 10th, 2007 at
12:11 pm
while the faraday cage idea is true, quite often people are fleeing in car-jacked cars with seconds to spare.
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priscilla
December 10th, 2007 at
1:34 pm
Not cool.
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k
December 10th, 2007 at
4:22 pm
say no to cannibalism
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Jonn
December 10th, 2007 at
9:07 pm
Yeah, even with a 1ms pulse time, a microwave pulse strong enough to disable a car’s engine from appreciable distances will harm people. Even if the rays only penetrate the skin, in 10 years, that’s skin cancer.
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notjohndoe2
December 10th, 2007 at
10:54 pm
ugh
thats just scary
im not sure why but this disturbed me -
Tom B
December 10th, 2007 at
11:01 pm
Yea, and, like , you have a pacemaker. Or a digital camera that might get fried? This is one of those things tht might sound OK on paper, but is phenomenally stupid in real life, like the Taser.
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Sid Morrison
December 11th, 2007 at
8:51 am
You guys with the Faraday cage idea are talking out your asses. Yes, you can put a tin foil hat around the vehicle’s ECM (engine control module) itself, but there are dozens (often well over 100 nowadays) wires going into and out of that ECM from all over the car. Add to it the other 3, 5, or 10 control modules on the vehicle all linked through a CAN bus and it will be pretty difficult to make your vehicle immune. The pulse only needs to be strong enough to burp the controller a little — the engine won’t run on its own like cars of old or your weedwacker. Haven’t you ever had your PC reset on a slight power droop or surge?
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Vonskippy
December 11th, 2007 at
2:01 pm
@Sid Morrison
Luckily, my ass has a PhD, so I’ll stick to my first post.
But even Gomer could figure this one out. For your criminal type activity - or just for those days when you want to have some fun out running Boss Hog - use a car with a carburetor instead of FI’s (and maybe that trunk mounted SAM).
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Sid Morrison
December 12th, 2007 at
8:58 am
@ Vonskippy-
Yes, as long as the crooks are driving a non-computer controlled car, the device should be ineffective. But isn’t just the fuel system that will need to be old-tech — you’ll need a non-electronic ignition system, which takes you back a long ways. Your Phd ass may recall that fuel, air, AND SPARK are needed for combustion. Anyone watching helicopter chase scenes will observe that ‘69 Chargers don’t pop up all that often. -
jan
December 12th, 2007 at
1:02 pm
If the car is already running why do you need an ignition system? Just asking..
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PetShark
December 12th, 2007 at
1:19 pm
Because the ignition system keeps the spark plugs sparkin’.
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Sid Morrison
December 12th, 2007 at
4:34 pm
@jan-
PetShark is right, but to elaborate a little… I think you are either more familiar with diesel engines (which indeed don’t use sparkplugs!), or are mixing up the car’s starter (powerful little electric motor that spins the engine over while you “crank” it) with ignition system (fires spark plugs to light the gasoline-air mixture.
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