The Aimbot V3 Aims To Track & Terminate You

April 11, 2024 by Richard Baguley 18 Comments

Some projects we cover are simple, while some descend into the sort of obsessive, rabbit-hole-digging-into-wonderland madness that hackers everywhere will recognize. That’s precisely where [Excessive Overload] has gone with the AimBot V3, a target-tracking BB-gun that uses three cameras, two industrial servos, and an indeterminate amount of computing power to track objects and fire up to 40 BB gun pellets a second at them.

The whole project is overkill, made of CNC-machined metal, epoxy-cast gears, and a chain-driven pan-tilt system that looks like it would take off a finger or two before you even get to the shooty bit. That’s driven by input from the three cameras: a wide-angle one that finds the target and a stereo pair that zooms in on the target and determines the distance from the gun, using several hundred frames per second of video. This is then used to aim the BB gun stock, a Polarstar mechanism that fires up to 40 pellets a second. That’s fed by a customized feeder that uses spring wire.

The whole thing comes together to form a huge gun that will automatically track the target. It even uses motion tracking to discern between a static object like a person and a dart fired by a toy gun, picking the dart out of the air at least some of the time.

The downside is that it only works on targets with a retroreflective patch: it includes a 15 watt IR LED on the front of the gun. The camera detects the bright reflection and uses it to track the target, so all you have to do to avoid this particular Terminator is make sure you aren’t wearing anything too shiny.

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Coming Back To Curving Bullets

June 10, 2018 by Brian McEvoy 23 Comments

What do you do when you have time, thousands of dollars worth of magnets, and you love Mythbusters? Science. At least, science with a flair for the dramatics. The myth that a magnetic wristwatch with today’s technology can stop, or even redirect, a bullet is firmly busted. The crew at [K&J Magnetics] wanted to take their own stab at the myth and they took liberties.

Despite the results of the show, a single magnet was able to measurably alter the path of a projectile. This won’t evolve into any life-saving technology because the gun is replaced with an underpowered BB gun shooting a steel BB. The original myth assumes a firearm shooting lead at full speed. This shouldn’t come as any surprise but it does tell us how far the parameters have to be perverted to magnetically steer a bullet. The blog goes over all the necessary compromises they had to endure in order to curve a bullet magnetically and their results video can be seen below the break.

Here we talk about shooting airplane guns so they don’t get mislead after leaving the barrel, and some more fun weaponry from minds under Churchill’s discretion.

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This Maglite Is A BB Gun

March 6, 2013 by Eric Evenchick 49 Comments

This innocent looking Maglite houses a piston and barrel, making it into a functional pneumatic BB gun. A Maglite was chosen due to its high durability, and easy access to the internals. A schrader valve sticks out of the battery cap, which allows the gun to be charged using a standard fitting. A brass tube is used as the barrel, and a piston controls firing.

Firing the gun is simple. First, the whole thing is charged up to the desired pressure. Then the ammunition is inserted into the barrel. At this point, the rubber piston is held against the end of the barrel by the pressure in the gun. By pushing the pin of the valve in, the piston is able to move back slightly. This acts as the trigger, and causes air to rush into the barrel, firing the BB.

The results are fairly impressive. Using a chronograph, the speed of the BB was measured at 850 feet per second. Using the Gas Gun Design Tool simulator, it was estimated that the gun could fire at over 1000 feet per second, and maybe even break the sound barrier.