Tech question

[kristen999]

I'm in the middle of a scene and need to know. Is there a set norm for the range of hand held life signs detectors?

I need them to be limited, but I don't want to step over canon if we've seen them spot life signs for a long range.

Is 50 to 100 meters too limited?

Thoughts?

EDIT

Answer is 100 meter range. :D

www.gateworld.net/wiki/Life-signs_detector

Thanks melagan!

Comments

[sholio]

Hmm. I honestly don't know; all the times I can specifically remember the LSD's being used, it was very short-range, but I'm not actually prepared to go through all the episodes trying to figure it out. :D I'd say go with whatever works for the story; it's not as if canon is at all consistent (they can't even seem to keep straight whether or not people without the ATA gene can use them!). 50 meters might be too short, but 100 sounds flexible enough to encompass what we saw on the show.

[kristen999.livejournal.com]

Okay. I've seen them used to scout ahead rooms and off-world, it seemed limited, but if I had them searching a large sprawling building, I didn't want to step over canon when I had them not being able to see--say a few floors up, etc. Or at the other end.

Thanks!

[patk.livejournal.com]

There's "Vengeance" where they do exactly this. They use the LSD to scan for life signs in the corridors above, below and around them. It starts fairly early in the ep when they look for the Taranans and Rodney detects one single life sign in the underground facility "quite a way below us" without announcing the distance exactly - but I think that 100 meters is quite enough to justify this remark. 100 meters below *is* quite a way. *G*

[melagan.livejournal.com]

http://www.gateworld.net/wiki/Life-signs_detector It doesn't say anything about distance, but you could always have interference of some kind

[kristen999.livejournal.com]

HEE! You know, I normally use the wiki for such things, but wasn't thinking. it says the range is 100 meters so I'm golden!

Thank you :D

[neevebrody.livejournal.com]

I actually looked this up once for a story and I seem to remember I arrived at 100 meters, but for the life of me I can't find notes or a source or anything. This was for use off-world and I seem to remember that was about top range. I wish I could put my fingers on the actual data though. Sorry.

eta: Ah, I see it must have been the wiki!

[kristen999.livejournal.com]

The answer is 100 meters! Updated my entry, but yeah, love those pesky details.

Thank you hon!!

[patk.livejournal.com]

Well, I did a word search for "life sign" on the transcripts to check the context - the range of the hand hold devices seems never to be mentioned and there doesn't seem to be a situation where the range of a hand hold LSD has to be more for the scene to make sense or is obviously more from how the scene is constructed. Seems you're good with the 100 meters maximum mentioned in the gateworld wiki. :-)