Why? Because it’s funny and creative. This blog is Hack-A-Day — not Law-A-Day.

“Having red and blue lights in a vehicle is illegal in most, if not all states.”

“its illegal in the usa ”

You people do know that there are other places than the USA, right?

@Whatnot

preach brother.

Awesome HAD project. Creative use of the GPS module +1. If it were just the red and blue lights I would have said “meh”, but the fact that you also added the white LED’s to simulate the headlights is +1. Doing it “just because” is +1. Documentation, schematics, and posting the code, also +1.
As far as legality, whatever. There are so many stupid laws on the books anymore, all of you whinners probably broke a dozen laws before you finished breakfast this morning and didn’t even realize it. But some of you did, and we know who you are.

IT’S… BEAUTIFUL

@LordDominoTwain
speeding = misdemeanor
impersonating an officer – felony

speeding – ticket
impersonating an officer – you car is seized and you face up to a year in jail

i am not sure how legal that is.

They have these integrated into normal speed limit signs at fort Rucker Al. They really freak you out until you realize that’s its a sign flashing red & blue and not a cop. Its a very effective reminder, you DO NOT want to get caught speeding on BASE.

I’m glad at least some HAD readers think my project is interesting or humorous. For all of you with the legality comments — yeah, I *get it* — it’s illegal to have the red and blue blinkenlights in the car. This wasn’t installed permanently – just for a few days. I drove around one night with my son and we had a great laugh.
All you wannabe lawyers — sheesh, I bet you’re real fun at parties.

Hey fartface-lets do cut off peoples fuel pumps. I’m sure that will be absolutely genius on I25 during rush hour when everyone is doing 80. One guy all of a sudden slows down because his fuel pump shut off and you’ve got 3000 cars piled up in a big tangled mess behind him.

Ummm…guys? Imagine you are a state trooper, and you pull some guy over because you notice a dim, flashing blue and red glow in his back window. Once he explains that it is a simple hack to warn him that he has gone over the speed limit, would you be more inclined to arrest him, or give him a pat on the back? Personally, I like it, especially if it was made completely portable and you tossed in the back window of a buddy’s car; as soon as it went off, his first reaction would be to hit the brakes, dropping his speed and turning it off. This would probably happen fast enough that he would have already dropped back below the limit before he had a good look in his rear-view mirror…where no patrol car exists. He would most likely catch on after a couple of times, but, until then, a hidden dash cam would make for an /awesome/ YouTube video!

side note, maybe you coulda hooked this up to a computer game to mimic when PRETEND COPS are coming to get you. It’s a nice hack but maybe just an AMBER Light would just as good. You say “You and your Son had a great time with it a couple of nights” Quote: “. I drove around one night with my son and we had a great laugh.”
Soooo You yourself have just confessed to Impersonating an Officer of the Law. Great role model your presenting yourself to be.

We like hacks that do good not bad….

This guy came up with something creative to help him stay safe while driving and it seems like everyone is just putting him down with these ‘legality’ issues…

I don’t think he deserves it!

I mean, you all know that normal LEDs aren’t bright at all! How would someone outside the car even be able to see this?

HAD–Best comedic website ever.

Wow, after an entire day of one legality post after another & people bashing the wannabe cyber police for doing so repeatedly, people are still pointing out the obvious. HAD trolls are out in force and just as dim as the LEDs in this project. Seriously its not like he is using Luxeon or Cree LEDS… I’d expect more from HAD readers. The laughs gained were undoubtedly derived from glee in seeing their project worked and not from “illegally flashing lights in their vehicle” as much of a thrill as that would be I’m sure. Get mad and bash more creative thinking and just for fun projects because you don’t have the brain power to pull it off, or… before you get a chance to retort go make something better and post it else stfu & gtfo, thx bro!

This is a good hack. While its true that the blue lights can get you pulled over its usually the meth pipe that gets you in trouble.

I don’t think this device is about the lights. It looks like the builder wanted to demonstrate how easy it is to have a device put into a vehicle that could monitor speed without having to connect it to the vehicle’s speedometer, and alert authorities to the fact that it’s speeding.
This device is likely intended as a warning to us how easy this is, and to be on the lookout for lobbyists or legislators pushing to have such a device installed in every vehicle, ostensibly to protect us from speeders, but in reality, to provide an excuse to monitor everyone’s location.

I made something like this ages ago with a mate for his shoes, it was just 555 and a decade counter with a few diodes. It only flashed the lights to mimmic cop lights. One shoe was a racecar, the other was the cop. Indicators headlights and all :D

At least it doesn’t use Arduino. Oh, wait… [scratches head]

If the technologically-challenging part of this project is making a GPS unit talk to a microcontroller, why is the photo of a few resistors and LEDs? Very disappointing.

@Life2Death

Wow man you did some great research and offered up valuable information cause obviously all blue LEDs are of the same ridiculous brightness as the ones used in computer cases. The poster of the project said himself that they are barely visible in the day. I particularly love the “500 posts on every computer case” factoid… good job man.

@pickpocket

“use at your own risk. something like this is illegal and can get you in serious trouble.”

-Said the pickpocket… lol, thanks man for yet another post on this we almost forgot.

@JAGAK

Jokes aside, a device of this nature could potential land a hacker in hot water.

If the readers of hack-a-day can’t figure out how to attenuate the brightness of the LEDs used in this project, or mount their DAYGLO bright tinted HIDs in such a way that they are “impersonating police” then they deserve the felony.

I think a (bright enough to be noticed by the driver- yet under the instrument canopy) alternating blue and red light on the tach/speedo would be quite useful-

But I have a lead foot and run trapster when I’m driving…”spiritedly.”

sorry for double post , its too bad that i can’t edit my own posts
—–
to make it legal , i would tint all of the the car’s windows pitch black so no one can see whats over there unless he has a infrared eye-vision

for everyone saying they are illegal – you wont see these unless you are speeding, which you would get pulled over for anyways. so double incentive to not speed, 1) to stop these annoying ass lights, 2) you will get an extra fine ontop of your speeding for the blue/red lights :D

Side note: Oh, a video demonstrating the lights working during the day and night probably would’a helped… Then we could have saw how bright, and if this was really a legality issue or not. ha ha, but like i said before… Thumbs up yo!

First Off… Fuck the Law! Go out and have some fun for christ sake.

Wow..

@Dongler: I totally agree, anal retentive is the key phrase with all these comments.

these are the kind of people who call and report their neighbors for breaking exotic pet bylaws for having a pet snake or for letting their grass grow to 2.5 inches when the community bylaws say 2.2 inches is the maximum.

It’s not your concern, it’s not harming anyone. The lights aren’t even visible from outside the car. Stop the mindless knee-jerk reactions already.

Note: Don’t have red/blue LEDs, Snake, or a lawn.

I love how everyone get’s all upset about this being potentially illegal but no one comments on the legalities of RFID spoofers and the likes or the posts detailing how to sniff ATM card information from an ATM.