Hummer

does any one know of any guides to make a mini CROWS

i want to make a mini CROWS the thing on top of hummers in the Army that allow you to fire a machine gun off of a machine controlled by a laptop computer. I want to make a smaller one, a lot less elaborate. i plan to control it by an RC control, i have the basic idea for it, a lot of servos, motors and gears but if there are any plans that would leave out a lot of trial and error (BTW this is just and experiment and not meant for use with any real firearms)

Public Comments

1. First decide how you want to control it. You obviously can't do it like a real CROWS (via wires), since the laptop won't be travelling with the weapon (or will it?). Radio or IR are pretty much the only options, and I wouldn't go for IR since LoS may be a problem. With radio control, you could use any kind of custom interface you want, but why bother? Take an existing technology like Bluetooth or 802.11x, this way you save time on development, plus you can buy your interface hardware off the shelf pretty much. Really, what you need to do is break your project into 3 parts: 1) Design and build the CROWS mechanics 2) Design and build the wireless interface -> CROWS mechanics integration 3) Design and write the software to control the CROWS (firmware + PC interface) Once you've done that, you can implement each step independent of any other.