Railguns: Making Metal Go Fast Using the Lorentz Force

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://hackaday.com/2026/02/24/railguns-making-metal-go-fast-using-the-lorentz-force/

Railguns: Making Metal Go Fast Using the Lorentz Force https://hackaday.com/2026/02/24/railguns-making-metal-go-fast-using-the-lorentz-force/
#Engineering #OriginalArt #Science #WeaponsHacks #CoilGun #Lorentzforce #Railgun

POP! Goes The Hydrogen Howitzer https://hackaday.com/2024/02/04/pop-goes-the-hydrogen-howitzer/ #WeaponsHacks #3dprintedgun #artillery #hydrogen

The World’s First Microprocessor: F-14 Central Air Data Computer https://hackaday.com/2024/01/30/the-worlds-first-microprocessor-f-14-central-air-data-computer/ #microprocessor #WeaponsHacks #avionics #History #F-14

Teardown Of FGM-148 Javelin Missile’s Guidance Computer https://hackaday.com/2023/12/21/teardown-of-fgm-148-javelin-missiles-guidance-computer/ #missileguidance #WeaponsHacks #Teardown #avionics

Retrotechtacular: The Gunsmith of Williamsburg https://hackaday.com/2023/12/05/retrotechtacular-the-gunsmith-of-williamsburg/ #Retrotechtacular #HackadayColumns #WeaponsHacks #longrifle #gunsmith #rifle

The Moment a Bullet Turns Into a Flashlight, Caught on Film https://hackaday.com/2023/07/22/the-moment-a-bullet-turns-into-a-flashlight-caught-on-film/ #chemistryhacks #WeaponsHacks #ballisticgel #dieseleffect #slowmotion #gunpowder #firearms #flash

Trebuchet Sends Eggs Flying https://hackaday.com/2023/07/14/trebuchet-sends-eggs-flying/ #WeaponsHacks #competition #trebuchet #catapult #distance #contest #design #weight #egg

Gun Safe Made Safer With Lithium Battery Upgrade

A proper gun safe should be difficult to open, but critically, allow instant access by the authorized party.[Dr. Gerg] got a SnapSafe and discovered that, while it was quite easy to use, it would also lock the owner out easily whenever the batteries would run out. Meant to be used with four AAA batteries and no way to recharge them externally, this could leave you royally screwed in the exact kind of situation where you need the gun safe to open. This, of course, meant that the AAA batteries had to go.

Having torn a few laptop batteries apart previously, [Dr. Gerg] had a small collection of Li-ion cells on hand - cylindrical and pouch cells alike. Swapping the AAA battery holder for one of these was no problem voltage-wise, and testing showed it working without a hitch! However, replacing one non-chargeable battery with another one wasn't a viable way forward, so he also added charging using an Adafruit LiPo charger board. One 3D printed OpenSCAD-designed bracket later, he fit the board inside the safe's frame - and then pulled out a USB cable for charging, turning the battery into a backup option and essentially creating an UPS for this safe. Nowadays, the safe sits constantly plugged into a wall socket, and [Dr. Gerg] estimates it should last for a few weeks even in case of USB power loss.

When you read about hacking gun safes, it's usually because of their poor security, with even biometric models occasionally falling victim to prying fingers. There's talk about moving the locking features into the guns themselves, but we remain skeptical. "Powering an electronically locked box with internal batteries" is a fun problem, and just recently, we've seen it solved in a different way in this intricate voice-activated lockbox.

#weaponshacks #firearm #gunsafe #liion #lithiumionbattery #pistolsafe #safe

Beautiful Engineering In This Laser Unit From a Tornado Jet Fighter

Those of use hailing from the UK may be quite familiar with the Royal Air Force's Tornado fighter jet, which was designed to fight in a theoretical nuclear war, and served the country for over 40 years. This flying deathtrap (words of an actual serving RAF fighter pilot this scribe met a few years ago) was an extremely complex machine, with state-of-the-art tech for its era, but did apparently have a bit of a habit for bursting into flames occasionally when in the air!

Anyway, the last fleet is now long retired and some of the tech inside it is starting to filter down into the public domain, as some parts can be bought on eBay of all places. [Mike] of mikeselectricstuff has been digging around inside the Tornado's laser head unit, which was part of the bomber's laser-guided missile subsystem, and boy what a journey of mechanics and electronics this is!

Pulse-mode optically pumped YAG laser

This unit is largely dumb, with all the clever stuff happening deep in an avionics bay, but there is still plenty of older high-end tech on display. Using a xeon-discharge-tube pumped yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) laser, operating in pulsed mode, the job of the unit is to illuminate the ground target with an IR spot, which the subsequently fired missiles will home on to.

Designed for ground-tracking, whilst the aircraft is operating at speed, the laser head has three degrees of moment, which likely is synchronized with the aircraft movement to keep the beam steady. The optical package is quite interesting, with the xeon tube and YAG rod swimming in a liquid cooling bath, inside a metal housing. The beam is bounced around inside the housing using many prisms, and gated with a Q-switch which allows the beam to build up in intensity, before be unleashed on the target. Also of note is the biggest photodiode we've ever seen -- easily over an inch in diameter, split into four quadrants, enabling the sensor to resolve direction changes in the reflected IR spot and track its error. A separate photodiode receiver forms part of the time-of-flight optical range finder, which is also important information to have when targeting.

There are plenty of unusual 3-phase positioning motors, position sensors, and rate gyros in the mix, with the whole thing beautifully crafted and wired-up military spec. It is definitely an eye opener for what really was possible during the cold war years, even if such tech never quite filtered down to civilian applications.

We've seen a few bits about the Tornado before, like this over-engineered attitude indicator, and here's the insides of an old aircraft QAR (Quick Access Recorder)

Thanks [Zane] for the tip!

#teardown #weaponshacks #laserrangefinder #optical #photodiode #tornado #yaglaser