OpenWarfare.org

This is a very cool project out of Stanford. It is a MAV that can land on rough surfaces and hang there.  The possibilities that come with this capability are far reaching.  Recharging, hiding, surveillance and seeking refuge are just a few.  Put an eInk skin on its back, weaponize it and you have a nasty little urban MAV.

via DIY Drones

I saw this article on Global Guerrillas this morning and had to comment on it. Apparently Iraqi insurgents have been using OTS hardware and some cheap software to intercept live video feeds from Predator drones. OMFG I can only hope that the control and telemetry links are encrypted. Once again hats off to GG for another great story. If you like this blog you should add Global Guerrillas to your list of dailies.

Slashdot had a good post about an this interview with the author the book Wired For War.  It is a good interview although they only briefly touch on the topic of open source weapon systems and then in a pretty negative way.  My main problem with these sorts of negative dialogs is that people immediatly look for ways to put the genie back in the bottle instead of dealing with the real issues at hand.  I just hope we don’t see a bunch of bad legislation as the concept of open source DIY weapon systems becomes part of the public conciouisness.  Openwarfare.org is not a huge community yet but I would like to start thinking about what we could do to start raising this issue in a positive and thoughtful way before someone raises it for us.

http://dev.emcelettronica.com/what-microcontroller-bootloader-and-how-it-works

Here is a nice little explanation on boot loaders.

I am hooked on Global Guerrillas.  John Robb consistently writes insightful, thought provoking posts that hit at the heart of ideas that have been bopping around in my head for the last 5 years.  Ideas that ultimately lead me to building this site.  I hope that OpenWarfare will be come a online gathering point for people who are interested in Resilient Communities and tactics, weapon systems and the like.  Anyway…I was reading this post on Entrepreneurial Hot Spots and found it interesting for two reasons.  One, my cousin used to live down the road from Buck’s so I’ve been there a few times.  It always struck me as an interesting location for a “hot spot”.  I always figured it gained it’s status because of it’s location (it’s across the road from a grocery store in one of the more affluent neighborhoods in the bay area.  Two, one of the comments provided a link to OpenFarmTech. 

At first it looks like farm nerds but if you start to poke around you will see they have done a TON of work laying out the blueprints for a complete resilient community.  From power generation to food production to machining, they have it all there.  Really smart people with great ideas and inspiring results.

What does this have to do with open source weapon systems you ask.  I think with a few changes you could take this plan and build a small, mobile weapons factory.  Imagine being able to drop a couple shipping containers in an area of conflict that when supplied with raw materials and power could spit out guns, drones, water, communications gear, force tracking software etc.  I know manufacturing guns is probably not what the OpenFarmTech people are thinking about but what good is a farm if you can’t protect your crops.  I’ll leave you with a video of the OpenFarmTch folks making Compressed Earth Bricks (CEB) with the help of their open source tractor.

Here is a really interesting video on the battle of Sadr City and the combined high and low tech tactics that were used.  I found the parts about UAV use particularly compelling.  Gotta love those UAVs

Watch CBS Videos Online

Here is a pretty neat article on wired about the rise of Open Source hardware.

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/startups/magazine/16-11/ff_openmanufacturing?currentPage=all#

http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2008/09/onward-to-a-hol.html

This is yet another great article from Global Guerrillas.

If you find this at all interested I’d suggest spending some QT there.  Awesome thought provoking articles.  If I can get to that stake with openwarfare I’ll consider it a success..

Any tinkerer knows that A/D (Analog to Digital) converters are the heart of many of their projects, especially if said project involves sensors.  Here is a great article about rolling your own using an FPGA.  Even if you never need to do it yourself there is a lot of interesting theory in there.  Well worth the read.

http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?page_id=21

Here is a pretty cool standard heli. The coolest part is that it’s pretty much all DIY. The plans and detailed instructions are on the site.

http://www.angelfire.com/blues/heli_project/index.html

via

http://gizmodo.com/5045844/indoor-r+c-helicopters-go-diy-use-spare-electronics-parts