[hpv] Re: Gadgets, Tools and Toys
____Armchair Nomad In Action____
On 99-10-10 13:00 -0700 asks Joseph Ventimiglia:
> Has anybody come across a motion detector that links to
> a pager. I was thinking along the lines of a sort of digital
> walkie talkie. If someone started diddling around with the
> your machine, the motion detector could sort of "buzz" you
> for help while you were in the grocery /bookstore /bakery/
> pub. A distance of less than a quarter of a mile ought to
> be more than adequate for range. [...]
> If anyone knows how to build or where to find such a device,
> I would be very interested in follow up.
and Jean Seay responds:
JS> [...] y'all might want to go digging around in Steve
JS> Roberts' archives. He used to use a quite ingenious
JS> alarm system that included a voice recording and, as
JS> I recall, a system to alert him when anyone tried to
JS> fool around with BEHEMOTH (or at least one of his
JS> earlier bikes). See http://www.microship.com/ or
JS> ask Steve at wo...@qualcomm.com
Wish it were true... unfortunately, those perusing the MicroShip
archives looking for easy to implement plans for such a device
will come up empty-handed, and much frustrated besides.
Steve Roberts has indeed built an advanced multi-trigger-level
motion-detect system for the BEHEMOTH, but because it is so
deeply integrated with the multiple cross-over data networks
on the bike, it would prove a major undertaking (and much
knowledge) just to decouple it logically (on the drawing
board), let alone implement it apart from the framework. And
even then it's not certain it'd function.
I *think* there may exist a Technical Manual for the BEHEMOTH
listing all the umpteenth electronic subsystems of it, among them
that motion detect/ onlooker-proximity-warning radar (no joke),
connected to both a short-range Citizen's (or Business?) Band
radio in a manpack --for quick "Stand back or you'll be vaporized"
spoken warnings and two way exchanges through a microphone--, and
to onboard satellite transmitter. The latter set up, if need be,
to contact the closest police station with either faxed or syn-
thetized voice report "Hi, I am a bike and I am being stolen.",
complete with location coordinates etc. All pretty visionary
stuff and oh-so-applicable to mere mortals.
This, in short, is the sad non-legacy of Roberts' 10+
year Nomadic Research Labs "project": unless one wants to
retrace the steps of the Master and build another showcase
BEHEMOTH, his knowledge, experience and "lab results" are
of no use to anybody. Strange as it may sound, all that,
at times pretty hectic, hundreds of man-years NRL activity,
has not resulted in a single generally usable technomadic
product or problem solution (say D-I-Y power management
unit for rechargeable lights, horn and/or other subsystems;
never mind anything as exotic as a paged motion detector).
__Ian