Review: LimeFuel - Limeade Blast 18000mAh charger

I was asked "what piece of gear do you think you'd be pissed, if you went out and left behind?" and I had a hard time coming up with a single item, as I have a lot of redundancy in my EDC. However, one thing that I have found that I really don't like realising I have left behind, or lent out, is my external power source. My personal go-to power-pack is an item I originally backed as a Kickstarter, and have now moved into full commercial production, the LimeAde.



This is the Limeade BLAST L180X, their 18000mAh high-capacity option at the time of the Kickstarter campaign. It has been with me since July 2013 and faithfully charging my devices every other week or so.

Read the rest of the article on Breach Bang & Clear, here.

I've had very good service out of my Limeade Blast, and when I go on adventures, or even just have solid days away from my desk off-site or in meetings, it's an invaluable addition to my loadout, and one that is appreciated by anyone else who wants to sponge Amps off me.

Review: MrGhost EMR detector

Adding to my list of sensors and scanners, if you recall the APOC Radiation Detector I reviewed some time ago, here's another one that I've had for a while and then came across it again recently.

I had backed this on Kickstarter, specifically because I wanted to add to my list of spectrums I could detect, surpassing the Gamma and x- rays, and the occasional Alpha particle. It was for a detector that would connect to an iPhone or similar product and an app to drive the detection process. The app and Device go by the funny name Mr.Ghost, and takes a page from the PKE Meter from Ghostbusters although it's fundamentals are based on the material world rather than the preternatural. The creator goes to lengths to state the app is intended for entertainment purposes only and does not provide true ghost detecting functionality.

EM radiation stands for "electromagnetic radiation" is a wave-like form of energy like microwaves, visible light, and x-rays. EMF stands for "electromagnetic field" and is the near field part of EM radiation. Any time you have electrons moving through wire (like in the power supply of your appliances), it generates an electromagnetic field. Mr.Ghost acts to detect this field and is specifically tuned to detect AC electricity.

MrGhost is the companion app for the Mr.Ghost EMF detector that plugs into the headphone jack of your device. I've used it for both my iPad and iPhones, and never had any trouble. For those without the peripheral, the app will still work as an advanced sound level detector with your regular microphone so it is fun to use either way.

The readouts of the app show both the strength of the signal at the top, listed in RMS,
typical readings are 12-60 for fluorescent lights, 20-30 for wall-adaptors, 100-200 for dimmer switches, 200-400 for flatscreen TV's and 2000-4000 for old CRT tv's.

The second window shows either a spectral analysis of the emissions  or its waveform, giving you an impression of the nature of the emissions. The spectral analysis starts at approximately 10hz on the left and moves up to 22,000hz on the right.

The third window gives a sliding record of signal strength over time, based on the RMS reading from the main window.

The control sliders at the bottom control sensitivity, and the one below that allows you to set an offset, to baseline the device you are scanning with the Mr.Ghost from. There are also "record" and "send memory" options to capture your particular observations be email.

There are in fact three "modes" to the MrGhost app: primary scanning, gyro-mode and glow-mode. These are accessed by swiping left or right from the main window.

In gyro mode, the main window gives a block of the same scaled-by-colour signal strength as with th primary mode, blue being lowest, through grey to yellow, orange and red to white. It also gauges strength by proximity. The app ties into the iPhone gyroscope to giv you a real time, directional signal.  Adjust the sensitivity all the way left, and swing your phone back and forth in gyro mode and see the direction of high powered emitters. Very good if you're trying to pinpoint a obfuscated power source, like faulty wiring, a secreted transmitter or perhaps whatever spook keeps moving the remote control. .


Glow mode fills he entire screen with the signal detection colour of the gyro-mode, but without an extra data, just full screen colour. It glows brighter/hotter based on emission level, it also allows recording of your detected signals if you can film or time-lapse your detection to paint a light-picture of signal strength.

One thing that Mr.Ghost will not detect is the mobile phone you use to drive it and capture the signals. It was designed such that the EMF coming from the iPhone is generally above the 22.05khz cutoff that the detector senses. This means you can use it without having to turn on airplane mode, and without contaminating your data capture. Mobile devices do cause a tiny amount of baseline signal which the offset feature can handle easily. It does not affect functioning. 

This does mean however that you can't use it to find your lost phone ...

Overall, his is a fun peripheral and well or together app. It is a bit tricky to get the settings right so you can capture meaningful data, and it's not a professional industrial espionage signal detector, but for what it is, it's totally worth getting and waving around to gauge what all the trappings of modern life are radiating at you. 

Events: Security Expo 2015

I had the good fortune to be invited to attend the 2015 Australian Security Exhibition & Conference a couple of weeks ago, which shows it pays to stay in touch with local industry events, so I took a long lunch one day and attended.

The Security Exhibition Conference is the most highly recognized security industry event in Australasia. This year was its 30th anniversary.   The event is billed as the must-attend event for all security professionals from installers and integrators to end users. It's not exactly my comfort zone, and it was great to see what other new industries show themselves to their peers.

The Security Exhibition showcased  170 leading brands in one place and allowed visitors to identify the newest and brightest industry innovations. My best explanation for what I saw, is that there were cameras. Lots of cameras. 3/5 of the expo was camera or camera related.

Thermal cameras, low light cameras, super hi-def cameras. Cameras in does, cameras on poles, cameras on drones. All the downstream systems to process all of that, facial recognition systems, networking, storage, scanning systems. A lot of camera stuff.

About 1/5 of the expo was access-control: ID badges, doors, code-pads, RFID scanners, readers and writers, and the like. Some locks and barrier systems too.

One thing I noted that was curiously absent, from my way of thinking was any counter-technology. There were no lock-picks, code-breakers, spoofers or any other sort of bypass tools, but I suppose that kind of thing might be at an even more secret expo.

Even then, getting into the Security Exhibition & Conference isn't that easy. I had media-type entry, but otherwise they accept professionals in the security industry and end users responsible for sourcing the latest products, services and technologies to manage security threats and protect vital business assets. Entry is otherwise restricted to industry professionals only. People not in this category are not be admitted at any time. Proof of identity and industry involvement may be requested at the door, I had my patches on, and cards at hand, but wasn't challenged, having been invited.

It was a very interesting event to visit, and I made a couple of contacts that I will be following up, such as with Defence Systems Australia, so stay tuned for a post about them. If you are interested and actively in industrial and corporate security I'd heartily recommend attending.

Probably not too useful to the backyard prepper and urban scavenger, unless you're into grey-hatting.