Instructions for building an autonomous sentry gun

Here are complete instructions (software, source code, build manual, hardware) for an autonomous sentry gun that will shoot anything that moves.

DIY autonomous sentry gun

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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MadMolecule

@Scuba SM: What does case law say about less-than-lethal versions?

I don’t know off the top of my head, but it’s still a very bad idea. There’s a principle in (U.S.) common law called the Eggshell Skull Rule: If your tort causes harm to someone, even if the harm is far greater than one would normally expect because of a physical condition existing in the person that you didn’t know about, you’re still just as liable.

In other words, if you set up one of these traps with a (normally nonlethal) beanbag gun, and the person who gets shot happens to have an abnormally thin skull and dies as a result, then you’re on the hook just as though you’d set up a shotgun full of buckshot.

So: Not recommended.
johnny_action

I see nothing that can go wrong with this…

I would love to see this hooked up to a big super soaker..
Freddie Freelance

Note to self: do not crash any of Mark’s parties…
trr

Shoot anything that moves.

With what, a beam of infrared light?

Yawn.

Show it firing off a few rounds from a .45 ACP at a piece of cardboard on a stick or something.
Anonymous

I was looking at your website (http://members.upc.nl/a.kutsenko/downloads.htm) and I was wondering if your open source software is compatible with Windows 7. I know how much you emphasize the fact that you’re not a programmer, however, my computer encounters errors when I run the installer. Is the software old, or am I doing something wrong?
Anonymous

“If you build one does it count as manslaughter or murder?”

If you kill someone with it, yes, absolutely. Deadly force cannot be used to protect property, and people have been convicted for killing others with various types of booby traps, including trap guns. So far as I’m aware, this holds true in every jurisdiction in the United States.
- akassan
  
  Not in Texas!!
theawesomerobot

erectin’ a sentry!
Waldo Jaquith

They’re called “spring guns,” and they’re rightly illegal in every state in the union. If somebody is killed by your spring-trap gunâ€”it doesn’t matter who or what the circumstances areâ€”you’re facing a murder charge. It doesn’t matter how many warning signs that you put up, nearly every state will lock you up for life. You’d have to be six kinds of stupid to deploy one of these.
Sparrow

“Reason reboots with no problems. That’s to be expected. It’s also to be expected that later, probably when he most needs Reason to work, it will crash again, the way it did for Fisheye.”
paradoxcycle

Neat. Weren’t these used in “Alien 2″?
- 2k
  
  IT’S ALIENS!!!!!
  phew.*cries a little*
  Also, I beleive Ridley will be coming out with Alien 2 fairly soon.
  Sorrysorrysorry.
dculberson

Extra lulz with a squirt gun and neighborhood kids.
Omir the Storyteller

Cue the bullet-shaped case and childish voice saying “Who’s that?” and “I really don’t blame you.”
Brainspore

If you build one does it count as manslaughter or murder?
nanuq

Just the thing to keep meter readers and squirrels out of your backyard.
akassan

Bookmarked for the future zombie invasion.
Daemon

As I recall, some time ago somebody built a sentry watergun to reduce the number of people using his yard as a shortcut. I think I read about it here, actually…
Seg

Great, but how do I keep it from being sapped by spies?
djnrempel

Is it within normal policy for BoingBoing to post instructions on how to build illegal and highly dangerous weapons?

Next maybe you can post a friendly guide to hijacking a plane. Hey, it’s only information!
Scuba SM

So, everyone’s saying about the laws and cases against people who made these sorts of things with firearms. What does case law say about less-than-lethal versions? Beanbag shotguns, mace/pepper spray, tasers, that sort of thing.
vamidus

I can see how this could bring Lasertag and Paintball to a whole new level.
Xeno

LOOK OUT! It’s using Windows! Surf to one bad webpage and we’re all DOOMED!
t3hmadhatter

Finally. A proper use for nerf rifles.
Doug Nelson

Here are the voice files to add
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKVuPUY9D-A
Anonymous

Interesting, but highly illegal. And dangerous. My law school case books have several cases involving contraptions like these, and none of the cases ended well for the people who made them.
ill lich

I believe part of the Patriot Act allows the authorities (whoever that is) to enter your home when you aren’t home and they don;t even have to tell you afterward (I know landlords have to let them in for searches and are prohibited from letting you know they had been there). So, if an FBI agent enters my home whilst my robot is there with his finger on the trigger. . . .
archanoid

What if you set one of these up to shoot something akin to a small paintball only instead of with paint in it you’d put something foul-smelling like skunk spray?