Like a lot of us [Liam Kloppers] had a problem with doomscrolling. Unwilling to go cold-turkey because he does find some utility in social media. He tried a number of things before deciding to say “Screw it” and just go full Pavlov on himself with some old-fashioned classical conditioning. Who needs willpower when you have electric shocks to dissuade you?
The key here was finding an electric-shock dog collar that could be controlled via a smartphone application, which meant he could reverse-engineer its Bluetooth protocol and get it linked up to his own software. The initial implementation ties his quick-and-dirty Python control program with a web server living on his laptop, which he’s configured MacroDroid to call on when his personal criterion for ‘doomscrolling’ is met.
With the shock collar wrapped around his leg, [Liam] was ready to test. It turns out dogs are a lot tougher than people, because even when set to a low level, the shock from the device made him toss his phone across the room and had him hesitant to even pick it up again.
Since he couldn’t bring himself to put the shock collar back onto his leg, he’s now thinking of an audible alarm, something we’ve seen work before. If you’re as unhappy with your habits as [Liam], perhaps consider a device like Commodore’s social-media-free phone before resorting to self-electrocution.
Torture is bad, m’kay?
Hassan the (censored) guy on Twitch disagrees.
Sounds like Pavlok https://pavlok.com/
This is pretty appalling that Hackaday are even sharing this, Shock Collars no matter the use shouldn’t be covered. “It Turns out dogs are a lot tougher” No, it’s just pure cruelty and torture for them.
Modern man yearns for absolutely pointless censorship
We need less censorship and more mental asylums.
and needed if a dog is mauling you, or your child/dog/cat/etc..
This is what happens when we don’t legalize ADHD medication
ADHD medication is legal…
And so over-prescribed that we have shortages of it..
Here you go https://ryansultan.com/adhd/statistics
Nothing like some facts to douse the propaganda, assuming one is willing to adjust their perspective based on information available to them.
Btw medication saved my life. I wouldn’t wish the 40 years of trauma and abuse of not being diagnosed and supported on anyone.
Good for you.
Meanwhile it’s also being over diagnosed.
Both things can be true.
It’s non binary.
I don’t think you understood my point
Shortages are from the DEA dictating what can be made. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRPeU1DYOWA
My wife has a legitimate diagnosis and has been taking it for years. We live in a college town and all the pharmacies are sacked and pillaged and out of product every time there’s an exam coming up. It’s over-prescribed and used as a performance enhancer instead of medicine by many people, which impacts people who actually need it.
Of course the DEA has to limit supply, they can’t let the factories dump mass quantities of amphetamine salts into the world, especially considering the problem mentioned above.
Most dogs have more fur than most humans. Calibrate the shock voltage according to the expected insulation present on the recipient.
Building an unregulated electric stimulation device is trivial. You just need a 9V boost DC-DC, an H-bridge driver, and two adhesive TENS electrodes. Then, all you need is a GPIO to generate a pseudo-sine wave. Obviously, keep it far away from your heart.
not even that. My first one (8yo) was a motor in series with a transformer, quite some decent sparks on the HV end of the transformer. I doubt there is simpler circuit than that.
Or just lick the battery.
I’m not sure it would be legal to own such device in the EU. It’s probably illegal.
It’s illegal to use the collars on animals, not sure if such thing is still illegal for concenting adults. PiShock and OpenShock are what you could look up if interested.
incorrect
AFAIK, there is no EU-wide law banning them and owner ship legality differs from country to country. In the Netherlands for example buying and ownership are not illegal, usage (on animals) is.
I find it very hard to believe that the Germans have banned kinky sex electrodes. No, not buying it
Hah, good point! That’s really hard to believe. 😆
You’re right about this fetish stuff, there used to be lots of sax shops that sold wild stuff. 😂
Makes me wonder if kinky dog and horse masks are still a thing or if that’s now considered a form of animal abu… Ahem. 🥲
But seriously, I vaguely remember that once upon a time electro shockers used to be legal (to buy) in Germany..
Not sure about nowadays situation, however. 🤷♂️
Germany nolonger exactly is “good old” W-Germany as most may remember it, obviously.
Even in early 90s, everything felt modern, fresh and open, still.
The country had developed latest telecommunications (ISDN, microwave links etc), advanced engineering and computer technology.
But many things have changed in the past decades,
things became more strict, bureaucracy is more and more paralizing daily life, infrastructure is aging.. 😮💨
The sad condition of the Deutsche Bahn is such a thing, I guess.
It’s a mirror of the country, sort of.
It got a running gag and people have resigned mentally.
While things slowly and silently fall apart, without many noticing.
On other hand, German police is now testing those tasers known from the US..
Makes me feel sorry for those poor people with heart problems and pace makers.
Despite being seemingly “harmless” or mild on surface level compared to known alternatives,
electro shocks are violent to the nervous system.
Using a conventional stunning gun with an poisoned arrow etc might been less harmful, not sure. 🤷♂️
Or maybe just using some sort of net shooting gun ?
The EU rarely bans specific products. Unless there is an approved bill for protecting animals, which would never get passed due to Spain, then it could be banned. Banning specific items is up to countries.
That’s nonsense but OK if it suits your pro EU agenda.
Many many maker related products on sale in the USA and elsewhere are banned by the EU.
Spray paint for starters.
I remember that the Baofeng UV-5 (original model only?) was banned in Germany for a reaon, for example.
Radio amateurs can keep using it, however, if they make sure the transmission is clean (by using external filters, fixing the radio etc).
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/05/is-the-game-up-for-baofeng-in-europe/
Then there are various toys and other items from China which are poisoned (lead, harmful plastic softeners)..
They’re being banned, too and for good reasons.
I don’t have a pro EU agenda. I don’t even understand how you got to that conclusion from what I said. I think that the EU is a horrible (and illegal as my country voted against it) trade agreement that got out of control. Just because I live in a EU member state doesn’t mean I approve of the EU, because I absolutely don’t. The fact that I’m unable to vote for any EU politician, should say enough.
I don’t know what spray paints would be banned here. I got about a hundred cans at home, both water and non water based versions. Besides that I got filler sprays, zinc based sprays and so many other specialty sprays. It might be that they banned some specific product used in the sprays in a large environmental bill for example, but it’s not normal for the EU to ban products specifically. That’s for countries to do.
I don’t know any maker related USA made products that are banned here, but buying US products is a huge problem because it’s just too expensive. Depending on what it is, tariffs (and the fake tariffs on top of it, like customs handling that differ per country which are just added tariffs) are about 50-80% on top of price+shipping costs. At least that was the case the last time I bought something from the US. I think that was 3 years ago, maybe longer (Volty multimeter for the Leatherman, absolutely wonderful product that every maker should have). A friend of mine goes to the US every year to shop for clothing. She bring a suitcase with junk to fill it up, throws everything away after landing, then fills the suitcase back up with clothing. She used to go to NYC for shopping, but nowadays she goes to Miami for obvious reasons. She does a short trip, 3 or 4 days, just to buy clothing, then comes back. She then has the latest fashion and if you include buying all the clothing in the US, air travel, hotel costs etc, is much cheaper than buying it all here. I sometimes ask her to bring something with her.
I love buying USA made products because the quality is just better. It’s sadly too expensive. If I had the chance I’d buy the entire collection of countycomm.
US→EU B2C imports are expensive because US sellers rarely use the EOSS procedure and volume is too low for freight companies to offer EOSS handling as a service for US sellers.
Hi, I’m not much into poitics, but I think, that the EU, who basically replaced the European Community (EC), has both a positive and negative side.
The negative one is the complex and sometimes nasty bureaucracy and overregulation, maybe.
(-I’m still sad about the ban of ordinary incandescent lamps,
because they were much more than light bulbs; they could be used for electrical trick circuits, too.-)
Though it also protects its citizen from strict laws being passed by some of the member countries.
On the positive side, it’s another “power” (an economic power) next to US and China (and Russia).
It prohibits, for example, the import of gene-manipulated food or poisonous products (lead-containing China stuff etc).
Without the EU, the world would likely be a playball between those super powers.
The existing human rights could be in serious danger, for example.
Negative forms of nationalism in good old Europe might be on the rise again, too, without a common EU identity.
Diplomacy and mutual respect among nations would also loose its weight.
So please let’s don’t fall for populism, let’s keep trying to keep critical thinking.
That’s all that comes to my mind right now.
I have to add some things that often get lost in the high noise level from anti-EU agitators in the media.
The EU isn’t an emperor-like entity. There is not a single person who can act like a dictator and create or nix a law by decree. The EU was concieved to not let a Führer, Duce, Generalísimo or Χούντα happen again and also to avoid the pitfalls of the US and the Soviet political systems.
The members of the EU Parliament are directly elected by all EU citizens.
EU laws are a consensus amongst all member states. The lawmaking process is completely transparent and all EU citizens can participate and are encouraged to do so. Also EU laws do not cover all and everything, their scope is mostly trade related.
This is so wrong on so many levels.
Dogs have an entirely different threshold for pain, especially around the neck – I’ve watched our vet enlarge and clean a deep incision without the dog reacting at all without any attempt to numb the spot.
There are commercial devices designed for actual human beings that do this safely — https://pavlok.com
Get a rubber band around your wrist and snap it when you want to give yourself pain, the way grandma suggested.
Maybe look at what’s driving your behavior and address that before using techniques that are, frankly, bad tools even for animals with about a million years difference in cognitive evolution.
The only thing that would be worse than this guy trying and reporting this is as a failure would be if he tried it and reported as a great success.
Total idiot.
And shame on you HaD for reporting on something that would be TikTok slop
For public speaking you want to train yourself to eliminate disfluencies, which are things like “ah, um, ya know” and so on. When we’re stuck for a word, proper speaking is to simply pause without any of these distracting noises. (Plus of a couple of other categories, such as saying “then” all the time, double clutch, and so on.)
The easy way to do this is to have someone go “ding” every time they hear you do it.
If it’s a habit you really want to change, it doesn’t take long. The problem is usually that you fall into the habit without realizing it, and the “ding” reminds you to be aware.
I do a lot of hiking, and see all kinds of people with poor posture and stride mechanism, and was considering building a posture reminder. A necklace with a battery and microcontroller in the fob, and a 3d orientation chip in the clasp that sits behind the neck. If the chip sees bad posture for more than 30 continuous seconds, it gives a short beep.
I’ve often wondered if that would be a saleable item. I see a lot of people, especially old folks, with awful posture.
You can get such things from most mail order companies, also many stores have them. Simple stuff, doesn’t even need a microcontroller.
Kaya would love this
We gotta rescue that poor dog from that weirdo
Came here looking for this comment, good on ya.
The good thing came out of that is that barely anyone still cares about him and people are aware of the horrors of shock collars. He was always a horrible person, but now even his followers see it.
I just wanted to get off the bed for a few minutes. My body hurts after eight hours sitting in one spot. My brain hurts listening to champagne socialist terrorist propaganda all day. A little walk boss? I’m tired boss.
Swing low….
You should start a special blog for Projects NOT to build.
Like the robotic enema project.
They probably bought a collar meant for a large dog which will have a pretty high tolerance for shock. If someone were to try this again, which I don’t recommend, they would want a collar meant for a small breed dog like a Chihuahua.
This would never work for me because I would procrastinate reverse engineering the shock collar protocol and never get that done, ensuring anything after that never happens
Even if i had done this for myself, I’d never post about it so that others could know just how weak minded of a person I really am. If he can’t control scrolling just imagine all the other things he cant control.
You don’t quite understand the idea of entertainment, I guess?
These collars are bad for dogs (you don’t have to search long to find examples as to why) and they’re a terrible idea for humans. I’ve seen plenty of similar projects for kink reasons, and most of them end up not seeing much use at all. I’ve also seen reports of nerve damage (tingling, numbness chief among them) after use. Things are often fine when starting, but skin resistance drops precipitously (and unpredictably) as sweat builds and the unit moves around a little with movement and suddenly things are not fine.
I can’t emphasize enough that this is a bad idea and these collars belong in the bin if you have one, or not purchased at all. If you REALLY want to shock yourself, buy an e-stim TENS unit like the Dungeon Labs Coyote or something. Still not 100% safe but at least designed around shocking a human being and with at least some amount of safety features built in.
Hilarious write up. Potentially Ill advised though this may be (it’s probably fine if you keep it on your leg), I’d love to hear how it went longer term. Did the habits change or did chucking his phone at the wall solve the problem tangentially?
Engineering a Rube Goldberg machine that stops be from drinking by having a bowling ball roll down a loop-de-loop straight into my nuts
‘stop smoking’ machine that forces you to chain smoke the whole pack if you light just one ciggie.
Reminds me of the Cheers episode where Cliff hires a psychologist to shock him every time he acts like a douche.
The original Ghostbusters movie had an electro shock scene, too.
The test candidates got a little shock when they failed to mentally “see” the correct test image.
Reminds me of ‘The Gamesters of Triskelion’.
They can certainly pack a whallop! For those unwilling to test one. It’s comparable to a cattle prod or a zap from 240ac. An electric fence or a taser are about half as intense. In my experience 🫠
I actually developed firmware for a similar electric dog collar. One day when I got bored, I put it on my neck and asked coworker to try it out. It was shocking but we had a great laugh.
Only the boss wasn’t very happy. That was a gross violation of health and safety something something.
Some people just don’t understand doing it for the lulz.
If your boss didn’t want you to try it on yourself, why would he allow it to be used on an animal?
These devices were estimated to represent a $346 million business in 2025 just in the USA.
So, clearly someone buys these shocking things for some purpose.
http://www.cognitivemarketresearch.com/electric-dog-collars-market-report
The design is very human.
Yes there real medical cases, but please add an additional A for acquired on this A-ADHD crap. It starts with pieces of soft plastic and their harmful plasticizers in oral placement causing unknown harm to infants. Any fiddling that follows just reinforces bad habits. Awareness is key to breaking the chains that binds us. I got a dose of liquid hot pepper on my thumbs that stopped that oral fiddling when very young. Kids chewing fingernails all the way to adulthood still need the pepper.
and here I thought the HaD comments restricted their fun-policing to “never let anything 3d-printed within 32 parsecs of matter that might be considered edible by any living being past, present, or future” + “all PVC will immediately turn into world-destroying shrapnel if exposed to more than 4.2 PSI”….