added motor brakes for woodworking tools

Heard that there was some development for motor brakes for woodworking tools to retro fit existing tools. Sort of like a poor man's SawStop technology. Anybody know anything about this?

Heard some rumors but all involve issues with working around someones patents.
Bosch is the only one I know that so far seems to have done it, as the patents they use are connected in with their automotive division and air back tech (some are out of patent).

There was a guy a while back demonstrating a box you plug your tool into and a blade guard that had little foil tape edges to sense if you touched it. The box would do some electricity voodoo (shove DC into the motor maybe?, not sure) that would stop the blade fairly quick (2-3 seconds, iirc). He had no interest in developing the product himself - the last i saw he was trying to entice licensing or sale of the concept. The name of the product was called The Whirlwind -- something or other. Haven't heard mention of it in a few years now, though.

My TS has a braking system that stops the blade once you press the stop button, so that it doesn't keep spinning for ages freely whic is also dangerous. But I guess that this is not what you are referring to, but rather an emergency safety breaking system similar to SawStop.

Actually Toni, that I exactly what I was referring to. I was thinking about adding a brake to a band saw to bring the blade to a halt quickly upon pushing the 'off' switch. Students walk away from a spinning blade no matter how many times you tell them to wait until the machine stops. They also routinely fail to place safety guards back in place.

So, NOT flesh sensing triggering, but 'off' switch triggering.

http://www.midwestbrake.com for some of the types.

I think you can also build it into the motor by having it reverse the current (maybe only with three phase motors).

Some of the grizzly tools come with this. The 513x2b and 514x2b (actually all their bandsaws that end with b) come with them. I believe that the saw brake Toni has is a euro standard and is (if I recall correctly) supposed to stop the motor within 10s. Mostly useful to kill residual spin so you don't have accidental contact while adjusting things between cuts.