LIDAR ( laser radar ) brute force jammer

Laser radar (or LIDAR) is becoming a much more common these days. The weakness of LIDAR is that 1) The LIDAR user must be outside of their car, aiming at their target and 2) it is subject to atmospheric conditions.

LIDAR uses a 904nm laser, pulsed at either center of mass or on a reflective surface to bounce a laser signal back to the receiving unit.

Current technology generally uses pulsed LEDs which are what are called "non-coherent" light sources and do not exactly match the spectrum of the LIDAR gun. Using direct 904nm laser energy in a non-stop fashion, this project attempts to overwhelm the LIDAR receiver with a greater laser source giving the target time to take corrective actions before having its speed measured.

Step 1 Needed Equipment

There are a lot of ways to construct this project, we will discuss two versions of the "inside the car" portable type unit.

You will need:

1) An AA battery box, these units were acquired from Radio Shack for about $2.50. You will want a unit with a built in on/off switch to make the unit easy to operate.

2) Laser mounts. The aluminum ones shown are very sturdy can could easily be used for outside the car, front grill type installations. As an alternative, we also show the plastic PVC sleeves which make mounting multiple lasers easy on a portable battery pack.
The mounts can be found at http://www.aixiz.com/store/product_info.php/cPath/27/products_id/99
The sleeves can be found at http://www.aixiz.com/store/product_info.php/cPath/27/products_id/194

3) 904nm lasers. You have multiple choices here from 5mw to 35mw units (with accordingly increasing costs). The least expensive build is with one 5mw 904nm laser and you can add as many lasers at various power levels as you like. We will demonstrate this with a 35mw unit. The lasers are available at: http://www.aixiz.com/store/index.php/cPath/23_40

Comments

[HarveyH44]

Is this safe, or even legal? The human eye doesn't register IR, so doesn't blink or take any defensive action. Pretty sure most any jamming device is illegal in America, detectors are in some areas. Most every digital camera sees IR, kind of an easy bust, Red Light or Dash Cameras in the police vehicle. Cool concept though, had some thoughts about putting a bunch of IR LEDs around my license plate, to avoid being photographed. I don't speed (yeah, right), but don't trust the Red Light Cameras. Figure if the LEDs were pointed toward the license plate, they would be the brights and dominant light off the reflective surface. Never got around to doing it though.

[Kiteman]

It is completely illegal, on the grounds of with-holding evidence in the event of a crime. You could potentially also face prosecution on the grounds that fitting the device could be interpreted as conspiring to commit an offence, or conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

In the UK, fitting devices like this invalidates your insurance (you're fitting the vehicle out with a view to committing an offence), and driving without valid insurance gets your car seized and crushed.

[drchuck]

Safe? Yes, although if there are an concerns one should stick to the 5mw lasers (Class IIIR). The beam dispersion is such that it goes well under safe limits in a very short time, Legality? Well, the FCC does not regulate it since it is not a radio device. Some states have banned laser jammers and the best list I have found is at http://www.guysoflidar.com/usa-radar-jammer-laws.html

You will need a bunch of LEDs to wash out a license plate, that is for sure.