HOT WHEELS .. Radar Gun .. How fast can you go? 100mph?
BRAND NEW
HOT WHEELS Radar Gun
Measures speed up to 100 mph!
How fast can you go?
Parenting Media WINNER Award
Age: 7+
Tracks objects coming toward you or moving away!
What does Hot Wheels scale speed mean? Hot Wheels cars are 1/64 the size of a real car. So if a Hot Wheels car goes 10mph/16kph calculate 10mph x 64 = 640 mph.
Digital readout MPH/KPH .. 1/64 scale speed! .. Real Speed
Mattel's Hot Wheels Radar Gun (HWRG) is an ingenious toy with a businesslike design. Able to measure scaled miniature Hot Wheels speeds along with real-world speeds (mi/hr or km/hr) at the flick of a switch, the radar gun uses an impressive but inexpensive component set to create a true Doppler radar measurement device. I had a couple of my kids put it to the test, and the results were close to indicated speedometer speeds. Not bad!
The gun's case is a two-piece shell enclosure, and the screws holding it together have formidable cover plugs. After a small injury, a little sweat and a some frustrated muttering, I got at the gun's internals: an emitting/receiving microwave assembly and a separate board holding all control, signal-processing and user interface circuitry.
The Doppler principle employed is straightforward. An emitted microwave signal is bounced off the object whose speed is to be measured and the frequency-shifted return signal is mixed with the transmitted signal to produce a difference frequency proportional to relative velocity. With the 10.5GHz microwave signals used in Mattel's gun, the mixing product provides a low-frequency difference signal used as a proxy for speed; the 21GHz doubled frequency output from the mixer does not appear to be used in any way.
Starting at the emitting element, an inexpensive soldered metal tube waveguide focuses a pulsed microwave signal generated from a dielectric resonant oscillator (DRO) and launched from a patch antenna. The same waveguide and a second set of patch antennas pick up the return pulses. Others curious about the HWRG operation have measured an 8kHz, 10 percent-duty-cycle, 4.75V signal hitting the DRO.
The generated microwave bursts are sent out the antenna/waveguide and simultaneously over to an input on the mixer, whose other input is the return (shifted) pulse signal. As with the antenna elements, signal traces on the microwave board are carefully designed RF distributed structures, providing inexpensive, etch-based filters and impedance-matching networks.
An Atmel ATMega88 provides almost all logic and processing for the HWRG, monitoring switch inputs, implementing the LCD interface and processing the mixed-down return signals for translation to a speed readout. An STMicroelectronics MC33078 dual op amp presumably provides front-end amplification of the mixer's output before going to the Atmel part, which has memory and an ADC on board.
Hot Wheels Radar Gun (7+, Mattel, $40, requires 4 AAA batteries)
From role-playing to racing, this authentic-looking radar gun provides a unique play experience. It clocks the speed of things in kilometres or miles, as well as in real time or Hot Wheels time, so you can imagine just how fast those little metal cars would go if they were real sized.
It looks soooo real! Brighton (7) took stance, aimed the radar gun, pulled the trigger and loudly announced Pull over, Ive got you on radar! He uses this to clock everything from a brother running at him to the speed of the floor fan, and even a car driving through the school zone. Denise Leuchter
Now you can read the speed of your favorite Hot Wheels racing vehicles with this Hot Wheels Radar Gun. With point-and-read real-life styling, and a sharp, streamlined design, you'll prove once and for all who's king of the road.
* Sleek red and silver design
* Cool graphics
* Simple point-and-read real life styling
* Not for use with some Hot Wheels vehicles
* Uses 4 AAA batteries, not included
A Brief Hot Wheels Overview
Manufactured by Mattel, Hot Wheels are die-cast model vehicles that were first introduced in 1968. Originally the Hot Wheels cars and trucks were manufactured to about 1:64 scale and designed to be used exclusively on the Hot Wheels track sets, but by 1970 a full series of 1:43 scale Gran Toros were released and more recently a range of highly detailed even larger adult collector 1:18 die cast scale vehicles, including replicas of Formula One and Nascar cars, have found success. Hot Wheels still remains most famous for the extensive range of small scale free wheeling customized models of Muscle Cars and Hot Rods that it has produced from the inception in 1968.
The Hot Wheels product line has also included various Hot Wheels tracks, Hot Wheels accessories, and other kinds of Hot Wheels vehicles such as Hot Wheels Sizzlers rechargeable electric cars, Hot Wheels Hot Line trains, Hot Wheels R-R-Rumblers motorcycles and Hot Wheels Hot Birds airplanes, and these days a number of Hot Wheels branded computer based games, music and videos, including the popular Acceleracers series.
Ever wonder just how fast you get your favorite Hot Wheels car to go? Or how speedy you are on your own bike? You dont need to be pulled over by a cop to find out. The Hot Wheels Radar Gun does the job for you, using all sorts of state-of-the-art technology.
Just set the scale to 1/64th or real speed, and MPH or KPH, aim the gun at objects coming toward you or moving away, squeeze the trigger, and check out the digital readout. Simple as that! Now you can set new speed goals, and actually find out if youve attained them.
The 1/64th scale speed reflects the fact that Hot Wheels cars are 1/64th the size of a real car. So if a Hot Wheels car goes 10 MPH, the calculation is 10 MPH X 64 = 640 MPH! Now we begin to understand why those wheels are so hot! Requires four "AAA" batteries (not included).
