My DIY radar speed camera: Mullet Edition—Business in the front, party in the back.

[u/nutstobutts]

I've found a nice way to hide my radar speed camera on the street so I can start testing it. From the front, it just looks like every other slow down sign. In the back, is where the party is at.

I cut a small hole in the sign for the camera and attached it all (radar, camera, wifi, and solar panel) to the back. Of course the solar panel looks way out of place. Without it no one would ever see the radar unit, so I think I will power it with a long cable instead. Right now I'm using a second sign to hide it from the rear.

Performance wise, it's working far better than I expected. The radar has a range of about 130ft-180ft (about 40-55 meters).

Attached are 2 photos it took automatically. One is of a white SUV driving from left to right which is about 180ft away.

The second is a white sedan driving towards the camera, this car registered 14 MPH when the photo was taken.

I still need to figure out the best speed and timing for the photos to get the car much closer to the camera. A video would be nice but I think images will be easier to manage.

Of course this thing is nowhere near ready and still needs quite a bit more work. I'll open source everything in a few weeks once I fix some glaring problems. I'm also combining all the dev boards into one board, so it'll be about 3 times smaller than what you see in the photos.

[u/MattyFettuccine]

Cool idea, nice execution. Curious about the legality of it, though. I know public spaces generally have no expectation of privacy, but you can’t set up a camera on your property that points exclusively at the road/sidewalk/the park beside your house. Probably different rules per location, but I’m curious.

Edit: love the downvotes for asking a question. I never said it was illegal, I simply asked if it was. I don’t live in the US, the rules are different where I am.

[u/Dan000 → u/MattyFettuccine]

You can film public spaces all you want.

[u/ankole_watusi → u/Dan000]

In US. Openly, not under stealth.

You’re demonstrating Reddit US-centrism.

[u/Dan000 → u/ankole_watusi]

The context of my reply is based on the questioning of the legality of the radar camera the original poster posted about. Which is in the US...

[u/ankole_watusi → u/Dan000]

OP is open-sourcing his design and sharing it with the world.

Thus, others might use this in any country of the world.

The discussion is relevant, laws vary, even within the US, and anyone deploying this should carefully consider both the law that applies, and common courtesy and decency.

[u/Dan000 → u/ankole_watusi]

Fair point.

[u/Dan000 → u/ankole_watusi]

Get your shit straight. You can film anyone inconspicuously in public. 

You're thinking of wiretapping or “two-party consent” laws that make it illegal to secretly record audio without consent, and this is only in certain states. And that only applies in certain situations, not everywhere in public. A confidential communication is a conversation where any of the participants have an objectively reasonable expectation that no one else is listening or will overhear it.