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
OpenWarfare.org
It had to happen sooner or later…
-
I came by this at Trossen Robotics. It looks like a pretty nice little microcontroller. It reminds me of the arduino but with a LOT more IO pins (55 in all). Definitely looking into if your project is outgrowing PICish setups.
http://www.societyofrobots.com/axon/axon_datasheet.shtml
Axon Wiring Demo
-
I was checking out Freshmeat just now and I came across the OpenISIS project. I must say they could have picked a better name…or maybe I just have a juvinle sense of humor, but I digress. Apparently CAD is also an acronym for Computer Aided Dispatch. OpenISIS is meant to be used for emergency unit dispatch but I can see it being used as an quick to set up troop dispatch and communication tool. Kind of a poor man’s BFT (Blue Force Tracking)
Tickets Screenshot
-
I stumbled upon this site today and found it quite apropos.
It seems to be centered around the Arduino, which has become quite en-vogue these days. I kind of feel like the guy who was listening to a band long before it became mainstream…but I digress. Check them out. I’ll be going through the site with a fine tooth comb.
-
I just came across this little tidbit. I’ve been messing around with writing an embedded python app for the Gunstix that uses a spatial database. Until now I had been compiling a stripped down version of postgres with postgis but, as you can imagine, it’s not ideal for my purposes. Anyway I just found this fine fellow which looks like a spacial extension for SQLite (grin).
-
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#
-
So how does the aspiring weapon system developer go from plans to prototypes. One way is Ponoko. They are a laser cutting service that will turn your 2d eps drawing into a real piece of wood or plastic. I’m hoping that they will add metal soon as that would make it far more useful for my purposes. I think I’ll start looking into fabbing up a replica reciever for a gun. An AK would probably be the easiest to start with.
-
Here are a set of a pretty cool screen casts of somebody laying out a guitar pedal on EagleCAD. I have not played around with it to much, though I have read many a schematic produced by it. I’m sure I’ll be using it soon enough.
You may or may not be interested in guitar pedals but it seems like a nice overview of EagleCAD
By way of LadyADA’s rantings:
http://www.ladyada.net/rant/2008/10/learning-layout-by-looking/ -
Here is a cool Instructable on how to build an XY table with low power hobby servos.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Low_Cost_Hobby_Servo_XY_Table
Hobby Servo XY Table at TeleToyland
-
I was reading articles over at Global Gorillas and Mr. Robb mentioned the 2008 Boyd Conference. I checked it out but it was not obvious who (or what) Boyd is/was. I did a little Googling and found this Wikipedia page. A really interesting guy who came up with some basic ways to approach warfare, weapons and dynamic systems in general.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Boyd_(military_strategist)
