Build Your Own Handheld Radar to Nab Speeding Neighbors
Show those speeders exactly what they’re doing wrong by building your own handheld radar system.
That car you don’t recognize sure is driving fast through your neighborhood! Don’t they know that there are kids playing in the area? Now you can show those speeders exactly what they’re doing wrong by building your own handheld radar.
This is a DIY doppler radar system that you can use to monitor the speed of vehicles, along with other interesting information like: distance, angle, and direction of travel. It is similar to what the police use to identify speeders and provide documentation when issuing tickets.
You can build this on a surprisingly small budget. The four main components are an ESP32 development board, an HLK-LD2451 24GHz doppler radar module, an SSD1306-based 128×64 OLED screen, and a lithium battery with IP5305 charging module. Those components all fit into a 3D-printable enclosure that looks like what you’d see in the hand of a cop on the side of the road.
The HLK-LD2451 does most of the heavy lifting. It emits and receives the radar pulses, performs the calculations, and sends the resulting data over serial to the ESP32. From there, the ESP32 simply displays the relevant information on the OLED screen.
This is the perfect weekend project for aspiring HOA presidents and anyone who wants to know how fast things move.