Talk:StunStrike

How it works?

Tesla coils aren't directional weapons; they arc to the easiest to reach object. Using one at range would be stupid and pointless. If we're going to have conjecture on this page, then electrolasers would be a far better guess.Fdgfds 02:29, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

• An electrolaser creates two plasma channels, resulting in two visible electrical arcs, not the many shown in the videos of this device from the manufacturer's website. The video shows a semi-random roughly conical discharge, which is consistent with a Tesla coil using a needle or similar for a terminal. The Tesla coil article includes a photograph of exactly that sort of discharge. I'm leaving the page as-is for the moment in the hope that someone with more expertise will set the record straight. Zwilson 20:33, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

I attended a presentation at Purdue by XADS owner Pete Bitar but it was mainly about LunaTrex, his X Prize team. He did bring some XADS demonstration equipment as eye candy and showed saw a few Powerpoint slides of XADS weapons; AFAIK it is not online. One piece did appear to be a Tesla coil mounted in a briefcase, with a thick needle (~1cm wide with tapered end) discharge terminal that put out a cone of purple streamers. He said it is better than a Tesla coil, but it sure looked about the same to me - inside the briefcase was a single tall cylinder of tightly-wound small-gauge copper wire, the hallmark secondary coil. There must also have been one or two high-voltage capacitors and a primary coil, but there was certainly nothing like a laser integrated into the briefcase demonstrator. It wasn't as loud as other Tesla coils I've seen, nor did it interrupt nearby cellphone signals; it may not have had a spark-gap(?). Supposedly, the distinction is in the tuning of the electrical discharge; the claim is that the energy discharge can be precisely targetted, though the briefcase demonstrator doesn't do much to establish that. He told us the devices would first be used for static defense applications such as to deny access to entryways (i.e. block doorways and alleys), and eventually larger systems could be used for a variety of applications; concept art included images such as a helicopter being struck by a lightning bolt.

It was not clear if the larger directed-energy systems have been substantially tested/developed yet, but he did show photos of a large Humvee-mounted system that is designed to explode bombs/IEDs by discharging into the ground. He also brought laser weapons, intended to be standalone or gun-mounted; they're simply high-powered wide-beam green lasers. They're marketed as an alternative to shooting (even if somebody can't hear or doesn't understand a soldier yelling "stop" or "put the gun down", you can bet they'll get the message if they have a big fat laser beam in their face), but they had nothing to do with creating a plasma channel for the discharge. (which is not to say the full-scale Sunstrike weapons won't/don't do precisely that... I just don't know)99.48.66.8 (talk) 04:47, 9 February 2009 (UTC)