A Cute Sentry Scans Your Net For Scullduggery

July 4, 2024 by 9 Comments

As long as we get to make our own network security tools, why not make them look cute? Netgotchi may not be much more than an ESP8266 running network scans and offering up a honeypot service, but it smiles while sits on your desk and we think that’s swell.

Taking inspiration from a recent series of red-team devices that make hacking adorable, most obviously pwnagotchi (and arguably Flipper), Netgotchi lives on the light side of the Force. Right now, it enumerates the devices on your network and can alert you when anything sketchy joins in. We can totally imagine customizing this to include other network security or health checks, and extending the available facial expressions accordingly.

You might not always be thinking about your network, and if you’re like us, that’s probably just fine. But we love standalone displays that show one thing in an easily digestable manner, and this fits the bill, with a smile.

Automated Sentry Turret For Your Secret Lab

June 6, 2021 by 1 Comment

There are few things as frustrating when you’re trying to get some serious hacking done than intruders repeatedly showing up without permission. [All Parts Combined] has the solution for you, with a Kinect-based robotic sentry turret to keep them at bay.

The system consists of a Microsoft Kinect V2 connected to a PC, which runs an app to do all the processing, and outputs the targeting information to an Arduino over serial. The Arduino controls a simple 2-axis servo mount with an electric airsoft gun zip-tied to it. The trigger switch is replaced with a relay, also connected to the Arduino.

The Kinect V2 comes with SDKs that really simplify tracking human movement, and outputs the data in an easy-to-use format. [All Parts Combined] used the SDK in Unity, which allows him to choose which body parts to track. He added scripts that detect a few basic gestures, issues voice commands, and generates the serial commands for the Arduino. The servo angles are calculated with simple geometry, using XY coordinates of the target received from the SDK, and the known distance between the Kinect and turret. When an intruder enters the Kinect’s field of view it immediately starts aiming at the intruder’s heart, issues a “Hands Up!” command, and tells the intruder to leave. If the intruder doesn’t comply, it starts an audible countdown before firing. [All Parts Combined] also added a secret disarming gesture (double hand pistols), which turns the turret into an apologetic comrade. All it needs is a Portal-inspired enclosure.

It’s a fun project that illustrates how the Kinect can make complex computer vision tasks relatively simple. Unfortunately the V2 is no longer in production, having been replaced by the more expensive, developer focused Azure Kinect. We’ve covered several Kinect-based projects, including a 3D room scanner and a robotic basketball hoop.

Continue reading “Automated Sentry Turret For Your Secret Lab” →

Sentry Water Gun Relies On LIDAR

June 24, 2020 by 5 Comments

As we head into summer, Super Soakers and their ilk become de rigeur ways to cool off in the heat. Not content with chasing targets himself, [Marcel] instead built a sentry water gun to do his bidding.

The build is one that leverages typical 3D printer components to get the job done. A Minitronics 2.0 board is used to run the show, packing a 40 MHz SAMD21 microcontroller for plenty of grunt. It’s Arduino compatible too, making it easy to program. It’s combined with NEMA17 and NEMA23 steppers and an external driver board to slew the gun towards a target. Target detection is via a RPLIDAR A1, which detects the range of nearby objects. This data is used to calculate the pan angle and tilt required to hit the target with a stream of water, fired by a relay-controlled solenoid.

It’s a fun build that does a good job of soaking those playing by the pool. [Marcel] aims to do further work to improve performance by reducing backlash and increasing slew speed. Sentry guns are a forever popular build around these parts. Video after the break.

The HackadayPrize2020 is Sponsored by:
Supplyframe
Digi-Key
Microchip
Arm

Continue reading “Sentry Water Gun Relies On LIDAR” →

Autonomous Sentry Gun Packs A Punch And A Ton Of Build Tips

June 10, 2020 by 17 Comments

What has dual compressed-air cannons, 500 roll-on deodorant balls, and a machine-learning brain with a bad attitude? We didn’t know either, until [Leo Fernekes] dropped this video on his autonomous robot sentry gun and saw it in action for ourselves.

Now, we’ve seen tons of sentry guns on these pages before, shooting everything from water to various forms of Nerf. And plenty of those builds have used some form of machine vision to aim the gun onto the target. So while it might appear that [Leo]’s plowing old ground here, this build is chock full of interesting tips and tricks.

It started when [Leo] saw a video on TensorFlow basics from our friend [Edje Electronics], which gave him the boost needed to jump into an AI project. The controller he ended up with looks for humans in the scene and slews the turret onto target, where the air cannons can do their thing. The hefty ammo is propelled by compressed air, which is dumped into the chamber using a solenoid valve with an interesting driver that maximizes the speed at which it opens. Style points go to the bacteriophage T4-inspired design, and to the sequence starting at 1:34 which reminded us of the factory scene from RoboCop.

[Leo] really put a ton of work into this project, and the results show. He is hoping to get an art gallery or museum to show it as an interactive piece to comment on one possible robot-human future, presumably after getting guests to sign a release. Whatever happens to it, the robot looks great and [Leo] learned a lot from it, as did we.

Continue reading “Autonomous Sentry Gun Packs A Punch And A Ton Of Build Tips” →

Well-Built Sentry Gun Addresses The Menace Of Indoor Micro-UAVs

June 13, 2019 by 21 Comments

What is this world coming to when you can’t even enjoy sitting in your living room without some jamoke flying a drone in through the window? Is nothing sacred? Won’t someone think of the children?

Apparently [Drew Pilcher] did, and the result is this anti-drone sentry gun.  It’s a sturdily built machine – one might even say it’s overbuilt. The gimbal is made from machined steel pieces, and the swivels are a pair of Sherline stepper-controlled rotary tables with 1/40 of a degree accuracy selling for $400 each. Riding atop that is a Nerf rifle, which is cocked by a stepper-actuated linear slide, as well as a Kinect for object tracking. The tracking app is a little rough – just OpenCV hacked onto the Kinect SDK – but good enough for testing. The gun tracks as smoothly as one would expect given the expensive hardware, and the auto-cocking feature works well if a bit slowly. Based as it is on Nerf technology, this sentry is only indicated for the control of the micro-drones seen in the snuff video below, but really, anyone afflicted by indoor infestations of Phantoms or Mavics has bigger problems to worry about.

Over-engineered? Perhaps, but it’s better than letting the menace of indoor drones go unanswered. And it’s far from the first sentry gun we’ve seen, targeting everything from cats to squirrels using lasers, paintballs, and even plain water.

Continue reading “Well-Built Sentry Gun Addresses The Menace Of Indoor Micro-UAVs” →

Teardown: The Guts Of A Digital Sentry

April 18, 2019 by 6 Comments

I have a home alarm system that has me wondering if I can make it better with my maker Kung-fu. Recently we had to replace our system, so I took the time to dissect the main controller, the remote sensors, and all the bits that make a home security system work.

To be precise, the subject of today’s interrogation is a Zicom brand Home Alarm that was quite famous a decade ago. It connects to a wired telephone line, takes inputs from motion, door, and gas sensors, and will make quite a racket if the system is tripped (which sometimes happened accidentally). Even though no circuits were harmed in the making of this post, I assure you that there are some interesting things that will raise an eyebrow or two. Lets take a look.

Continue reading “Teardown: The Guts Of A Digital Sentry” →

Auto-Tracking Sentry Gun Gives Deer A Super Soaking

January 26, 2018 by 29 Comments

Things rarely go well when humans mix with wildlife. The problems are exacerbated in the suburbs, where bears dine on bird feeders and garbage cans, raccoons take up residence in attics, and coyotes make off with the family cat. And in the suburbs, nuisance wildlife can be an intractable problem because the options for dealing with it are so limited.

Not to be dissuaded in the battle to protect his roses, [dlf.myyta] built this motion-activated sentry gun to apply some watery aversion therapy to marauding deer. Shown in action below against a bipedal co-conspirator, the sentry gun has pretty much what you’d expect under the hood — Raspberry Pi, NoIR camera, a servo for aiming and a solenoid valve to control the water. OpenCV takes care of locating the intruders and swiveling the nozzle to center mass; since the deer are somewhat constrained by a fence, there’s no need to control the nozzle’s elevation. Everything is housed nicely in a plastic ammo can for portability and waterproofing. Any target that stands still for more than three seconds gets a hosing; we assume this is effective, but alas, no snuff films were provided.

We’re not sure if [dlf.myyta]’s code can discern friend from foe, and in this litigious world, hosing the neighbor’s kid could be a catastrophe. Perhaps version 2.0 can include image recognition for target verification.

Continue reading “Auto-Tracking Sentry Gun Gives Deer A Super Soaking” →