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Comment by anigbrowl | Hacker News Reader

For the more forensically minded, this Reuters story [1] has a surprising amount of medium-res but closeup photos of bomb component fragments, for example enough to identify the kind of battery employed [2].

1. http://www.reuters.com/article/slideshow/idUSBRE93F06T201304...

2. http://www.amazon.com/Tenergy-3000mAh-Battery-Tamiya-Connect...

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Unfortunately there's nowhere near enough resolution to identify anything beyond the battery and wire labels. Do those bozos think they're saving useful amounts of bandwidth by using postage-stamp size images in 2013?

Part of photo 16/28 looks somewhat like a ferrite loopstick from the AM radio portion of a portable radio, but again it's hard to be sure. The distinction is important because if that's what it is, then this PC board is probably from a benign device that just happened to be carried by someone nearby.

They probably want other media outlets to pay for the high-resolution photos. They're not postage-stamp sized, nor are the people bozos for not making your life maximally convenient. You could try searching for larger-resolution versions with Tineye or so, though chances are the FBI are way ahead of everyone on this since they employ specialists in this sort of thing.

As for the ferrite loopstick, it occurs to me that if the battery pack is from an RC device (which is what it's marketed as), the bomb maker have used the RC interface as a trigger. But that's just a guess.

They're not postage-stamp sized

Yes, they are, on my monitor.

nor are the people bozos for not making your life maximally convenient.

Yes, they are bozos. The FBI released those photos to the press for a reason. What do you suppose that reason might have been?

Well, we can't all size things for your small monitor Bob. They're about postcards-zied on mine, but perhaps larger-resoltuion versions will show up on Google images in a day or two. I don't know whether the FBI intended for them to be released or not, according to CBS the pictures were obtained from a leaked intelligence bulletin to local forces. If the FBI really wanted them widely available I imagine they'd put hem up on FBI.gov, and who knows, maybe they will.

I just don't see the value in insulting people for having their systems run to your specifications. It makes you sound like a dick. I suggest you write to them and offer to host the high-resolution versions or something.

I suggest you write to them and offer to host the high-resolution versions or something.

Yeah, I'll write to Reuters and see if they need to borrow some bandwidth from some random guy with a cable modem. There's a plan.

Seriously: why are you defending the all-too-common practice of posting miniscule images in important news stories?

I'm not defending it Bob. I'm objecting to you whining about people being bozos, and I wish now I had just ignored you the first time.

I'd certainly not try to discourage you.

I believe you're linking to the wrong battery. Looking closely at the electronic speed controller PCB in the (cruddy, low res) pictures, those look like Traxxas connectors still attached to the ESC and you linked to a Tamiya connector battery. Whatever glob of plastic is on the ends of the ESC cables, I've done enough RC over the past decades to tell thats not tamiya connector, not even a heat damaged one, and enough ham radio stuff to tell its not a powerpole or remains thereof. The orientation of the connector does not look Deans connector like either. There really are not many popular RC battery connectors out there. One interesting point to note is the Tamiya connector battery is Amazon's 3rd best seller and although I haven't figured out which Tenergy battery w/ Traxxas connector this is, I'm sure its sales rank is way below 3rd.

You can trivially google for RC car traxxas connector and compare the pics to the pix of the ESC used.

Of course the overall "project" was probably kit bashing a ready to run full kit, not buying bits and pieces off amazon one at a time. Of course if you google for ready to run RC cars sold with traxxas connectors and tenergy batteries there really aren't that many possibilities. So that is interesting. If they find the remains of the RX that should probably narrow it down to like, one model of car or something. At which time things will likely get exciting for retailers of that ready to run model...

You're surely right. I just searched on the brand name of the battery itself, and didn't even try to guess at the PCB/connector type, I'm not an RC guy.

The zipper pull tab looks like a Fox logo - like from Fox Motorsports.

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