Look out of a window, ask yourself the question, “Has a nuke gone off?”. Maybe, maybe not, and all of us here at Hackaday need to know the answer to these important questions! Introducing the hasanukegoneoff.com Indicator from [bigcrimping] to answer our cries.
An ESP32 running a MicroPython script handles the critical checks from hasanukegoneoff.com for any notification of nuclear mayhem. This will either power the INS-1 neon bulb, indicating “no” or “yes” in the unfortunate case of a blast. Of course, there is also the button required for testing the notification lights; no chance of failure can be left. All of this is fitted onto a custom dual-sided PCB and placed inside a custom 3D-printed enclosure.
Hasanukegoneoff.com’s detection system, covered before here, relies on an HSN-1000L Nuclear Event Detector to check for neutrons coming from the blast zone. [bigcrimping] also provides the project plans for your own blast detector to answer the critical question of “has a nuke gone off” from anywhere other than the website’s Chippenham, England location.
This entire project is open sourced, so keep sure to check out [bigcrimping]’s GitHub for both portions of this project on the detector and receiver. While this project provides some needed dark humor, nukes are still scary and especially so when disarming them with nothing but a hacksaw and testing equipment.
Thanks to [Daniel Gooch] for the tip.
Wasn’t this already covered this past week?
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/18/bhangmeterv2-answers-the-question-has-a-nuke-gone-off/
There’s always place to show another 3D-printed enclosure.
like the recurrent bento.
Handy if an unexplained chest X-ray shows up.
Neutrons are not generated in conventional photoelectric range x-rays. You’ve got to get above 10 MV to generate neutrons. Energies at or above that range take horrible pictures unless you are looking a welded seams.
This gizmo reminds me of the infamous “Weather Rock”– a stone, dangling from a string, tied to a tree branch.
If the rock is wet, that means it’s raining. If it’s covered with snow, it’s snowing. If it’s swinging, then it’s windy.
A better nuke detector would be one with a light that’s always on, but extinguishes when a nuke is detected. Not only does the light become a metaphor for all of civilization, a detector configured this way is failsafe: It will correctly indicate bad times ahead even if the EMP fries the whole thing.
The detector is interesting, and I hope it’ll never have to detect anything. The indicator is a bit odd as it relies on quite a bit of infrastructure which can’t be guaranteed. I can see how you can have one detector, but many (less expensive?) indicators.
As I was curious about the data handing, l’ve taken a brief look at the code. There seem to be several ways in which the indicator can stay stuck in the ‘no’ state. For example, the indicator does not verify if the JSON has been recently updated. The indicator also doesn’t seem to have code for reconnecting to Wifi if the connection is dropped. While it is a novelty until it’s not, it’s not too difficult to handle these exceptions and indicate that the data is unreliable.
The minimalist website and reporting and the nice enclosure is something I can learn from.
Think about it for a few picoseconds.
The message is never going to make it through the network before the networking infrastructure is destroyed.
From the article earlier this week:
“The gamma ray pulse occurs at the beginning of a “nuclear event” precedes the EMP by some microseconds, and the blast wave by perhaps many seconds, so the HSN-1000 series seems be aimed at triggering an automatic shutdown that might help preserve electronics in the event of a nuclear exchange.”
Microseconds could be enough.
There was a tektronix oscilloscope, the type 519, made in the 1960s for fast, single shot events, primarily used for nuclear testing. Apparently they’d put the scopes some distance from ground zero, close enough to get a good signal off the detector, point a TV camera at the screen, then record the output at a safe distance, because you could push video a lot farther than you could the fast risetime signal from the detector. The video signal was quite literally outrunning the blast as it traveled down the wire.
A lot of them got destroyed or hopelessly irradiated, only to record one single shot event, and they weren’t cheap! I’m lucky to have a working example.
Interesting proof of concept project but also a very depressing one.
Something weird though : no detection range is provided.
Best part is the “SAFETY NOTE” about 91V that “might kill you”…
“IF YOU CAN READ THIS THE ANSWER IS NO”
While the look of a neon bulb is cool, I’ve had very bad luck with their longevity, especially the ones you can get cheap on eBay these days. A neon-colored LED would be preferable, although I suppose the “Yes” bulb would only be used when tested, hopefully.
I am not sure, but what If pressing the “Test” button launches a nuke? Also where is the “nurse” button?
Superman where are you now?
I like the idea and the way “to the point” approche without taking it too seriously.
I would like to have an Home Assistant integration (or other) of this.
And it would be nice if other people could add data to the site, so range and direction would be possible.
≈ 2 × 10⁵ to 2 × 10⁷ rad(Si)/s, so… it needs to be close enough to a nuclear event that you’ll definitely know anyways (if you survive)
Interesting. My comment about the appalling front panel layout seems to have disappeared.
So THEYRE the one who bought that HSN-1000L that that electronics surplus website had for like $200 all those years back, and I’ve been kicking myself for not buying…
(And no, there’s almost zero chance of getting another one, I tried… the manufacturer didn’t QUITE laugh at me, it was more of a “oh, you sweet summer child” type situation when I sent an RFQ lol)