TV-B-Gone police edition!

Tvbgonekit Lrg-1

Steve writes in…

A local maker bought some kits from me while ago, including a TV-B-Gone. Turns out he’s also a local cop.

He started raving about how great it would be to have a TV-B-Gone packaged for cops. He said that often they arrive at a house and there are one or more TVs blaring and people screaming, especially in domestic abuse cases, and he would love to have a way to shut down all the TVs. He also said they see porn playing with kids in the house and usually make a point to shut it down, but this takes attention away from the rest of the situation.

The problem is that cops already have a lot of stuff to carry around -radio, gun, taser, cuffs, flashlight, etc.

So I thought what about building a TV-B-Gone into the base of a maglite? You could machine a replacement base that would house everything. These would have to be sold fully assembled, not a kit.

You can have the idea. I could help develop this if you want, but I’m just too busy to do it all. I can probably get the machining aspects of the replacement base worked out and some samples machined, as I know some CNC friends. And my friend would be happy to deploy some for testing with the local police.

Makers, go for it!


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8 Comments

  1. Yanno, when I read the headline it made the lightbulb go off in my head too. I am not with my tools for a few more months, but plan to look at something when I get back to the mainland. First thoguht (without looking at schematic) is that there’s probably redundancy in the 4 LEDs? Removing that, a 1 or 2 LED system may be useful added to a current LED flashlight inplace of 1 or 2 of the organic LEDs.

  2. If you could extend the flashlight base by an inch or so you could use a double sided board with SMD IR LEDs and an opaque acrylic (don’t know if its opaque to IR or not) to form a window in the bottom. As to activate it, you could have the end cap made of some kind of non-conductive material, but have a small metal patch, such that anytime an officer would touch it with their hand it would sense and activate the chip. This way it remains off until use, saving battery power, and they can activate it with out having to use a switch.

  3. The first thought that popped in to my head was to add the function to the base of the flashlight, but if you think about WHY maglites most often have a very heavy base (at least the police/military ones ive gotten my hands on), it becomes a bad idea : The heavy base is the so that you can whack an attacker in the head in case he steps out infront of you while youre searching for him with the flashlight, so adding something to the base would mean removing the one reason why maglites are used, and not something else.. Attaching something to a gun would be bad aswell, since it could decrease aim, and you would have to retrain your weapon for the new attachment.. Best idea would probably be to somehow integrate the tv b gone into the flashligt part itself (into the head part) .. Just my 2 cents –

  4. May I suggest making it -larger-

    Ok, this sounds like a fail on first thought, but if you make it larger, about the size of an automatic pistol clip, it can be carried in a clip pouch on the belt (or in a flashlight holster). The clip pouch and flashlight holster are already there and in the case of a visit to a house full of kids and TV sets, the extra ammunition can be left in the car.
    Making it bigger allows for it to use “standard” CR-123 batteries, which most Surefire, Streamlight and other flashlights carried by police are designed for… again, resources already on-hand. (few police actually carry Maglight, don’t get me wrong… they are great flashlights but big and underpowered)

    My 2-bits

  5. Mmm… yeah… tasers usually don’t work on TV’s, and hauling off and just shooting the TV with one’s sidearm does kinda’ make the locals mad… O.o

    Yeah, I think a modified headpiece for a D-cell maglite would be best; just have the LED poke thru a small hole in the reflector, and have a tactile pushbutton that pokes thru a small hole in the main reflector housing to activate it. Wouldn’t even have to do any CNC work on it; a drill press with a suitable fixture to hold the parts would to the job just fine.

  6. I’m not from US so I don’t really know the rules in terms of uniform; but, don’t they have caps or any type of hats?

    Putting the TV-B-Gone in the peak would be one of the best solution in my opinion. While saying "hi" and making a kind of "hat4s off" movement they would also be able to keep the situation as calm as possible (and I think it could help in a lot of situations)

    A button should be located at each side of th cap as depending the situation, the cop may have to use it’s right or left hand.

    And these are my two cents 🙂

  7. The TV-B gone, remote control, made by Confield, are’nt small enought ? They have keychain.

  8. LawrenceSeattle

    Yea, a maglite extension might not be a good idea. Maybe turn it into a pin that could be worn star trek style?

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