Portable zappers emit but don't shoot...
Think physical contact or at best close proximity (close and personal as the SF like to say) required...
The militaries beamed weapon is a far better crowd controller, since who wants to hang around if they feel like their skin is on fire...
If 150,000 volt stun guns aren’t enough to deter criminals, law enforcement might want to give Rob Flickenger a buzz.
The IT expert, who also has a bit of a reputation as a DIY mad-scientist, has a shocking new invention: a real-life lightning gun. Built over a period of at least 10 months, the zapper is the end result of combining the aim-and-shoot functionality of an aluminum-encased Nerf gun with the electrical power supplied by an 18V drill battery.
The gun, which some of you might have guessed, is essentially a weaponized version of a Spark Gap Tesla Coil. To generate a high-voltage discharge, Flickenger designed a system that channeled the power drill’s 18V of power into a ZVS driver circuit, which in turn drives a flyback transformer, thereby raising the voltage to about 20,000V. All of this is admitted pretty technical, so if you want a detailed explanation of how it works, check out his site Hackerfriendly.com, where he goes through the finer points of the technology.
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A fully functioning “death ray,” as it was dubbed by the press, is considered one of the major unrealized dreams of legendary innovator Nikola Tesla, who failed to convince the military to invest in developing such a weapon. Interestingly enough, it was after reading about Tesla’s struggles in the book “The Five Fists of Science” that Flickenger felt inspired to build an actual working prototype. And though he admits the weapon is “functionally inferior” to Tesla’s design, the inventor reminds readers on his blog that it’s still an improvement in that it’s battery-powered and most importantly that it “actually exists.”
As of right now, the lighting gun is nothing more than a homemade novelty. While there are photos and a video purportedly demonstrating that it indeed works, Flickenger hasn’t mentioned any plans to have the invention independently tested nor possibilities for practical applications.
In any case, he’d be well-advised to do whatever he can to avoid having it labeled as a death ray.
More high-tech guns:
- Semi-automatic pistol fires two bullets at once
- Vortex gun can shoot pepper spray at 90 mph
- Video: U.S. soldiers to get ‘punisher’ super rifle
- ‘Laser rifle’ is latest U.S. weapon against enemies
- Navy shows off supersonic railgun, fires test shots
- ‘Super bullet’ can guide itself, hit targets a mile away [video]
