Dragon Radar

Dragon Radar (called Bleeper in the Ocean Group dub) is a tracking device designed, and built by Bulma to help locate Dragon Balls. This made finding the Dragon Balls more efficient, compared to conventional methods. Dragon Balls emit a faint electromagnetic pulse,^[1] which the Dragon Radar can detect. It then points arrows in the directions of nearby Dragon Balls. Pressing the button on the top can cause the view to zoom out and show more and more of the planet.

Story

DragonRadar(PtP) — Dragon Radar redesigned in *The Path to Power*

In Dragon Ball, Goku accidentally breaks the Dragon Radar on the Muscle Tower. So, he goes to West City to repair it. He breaks it again while fighting General Blue in Penguin Village. During his search for a capable mind to fix the radar, Goku meets Arale from Dr. Slump, who asked her father/creator Senbei Norimaki to fix it, but Senbei could not make heads nor tails of it. Senbei's genius baby boy Turbo fixed the radar while nobody else was looking, but General Blue stole it, so Turbo builds a new one using material from Senbei's airplane.

Before the Fortuneteller Baba Saga, Emperor Pilaf creates a box that disrupts the electromagnetic pulse given off by the Dragon Balls, which obliged Goku to visit Fortuneteller Baba in order to find Pilaf's Dragon Ball and revive Bora.

DBLocationsOnNamek — Bulma using the Dragon Radar on Namek

The Radar is used frequently by Goku and his friends in Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, but in Dragon Ball GT, the Dragon Radar is assimilated by the robot Giru, giving him the ability to find the Black Star Dragon Balls for Goku and the others.

Unfortunately, the usage of the Dragon Radar has severe consequences; due to the massive overuse of the Dragon Balls, the negative energy within them accumulated and resulted in the birth of the Shadow Dragons.

Other Radars

Main article: Global Dragon Radar

GiruRadar — Giru's Dragon Radar function

Bulma's Dragon Radar is not the only device capable of locating Dragon Balls. Throughout the series, many other devices that work much the same way are also seen. One often seen is a Global Dragon Radar.

Red Ribbon Army

During their hunt for the Dragon Balls, the Red Ribbon Army had their own version of the Dragon Radar, but it was rather primitive and could only give a general idea of where the Dragon Balls were. Large groups of soldiers had to be dispatched to the location, resulting in many man-hours of backbreaking labor and invading of innocents' homes.

Emperor Pilaf

Emperor Pilaf eventually built his own, superior version of the Dragon Radar. It was shaped like a globe in order to minimize map distortion. It was installed in his floating airship, and was able to show the Dragon Balls' exact location on the planet.

Other Z Fighter Radars

Koreandragonradar — The Dragon Radar as it appears in the live action Korean Dragon Ball film from 1990

Along with radars invented by villains, the Z Fighters also had many different Dragon Radars. Although these radars did not differ in form or function from one another, they were still different items. In fact, the Radar used in the majority of Dragon Ball Z is actually not the one Bulma introduced in "The Secret of the Dragon Balls" (that one having been stolen by General Blue, and given to Colonel Violet and later to General Copper).

Turbo Norimaki created a new radar for Goku when the old one was stolen by General Blue.

Bulma created a new radar at Master Roshi's prompting during the King Piccolo Saga.

In the movies Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn, Dragon Ball Z: Wrath of the Dragon, and the beginning of the Shadow Dragon Saga, the Z Fighters split up into seven groups, each tasked with finding one Dragon Ball. It is presumed that Bulma made Dragon Radars for each of them, otherwise, they would not be able to find the Dragon Balls so quickly.

Video game appearances

Trivia

There is an iPhone/iPod Touch application that emulates the Dragon Radar. It's named DRadar.
The Dragon Radar in the Live Action Korean film is an old handheld LCD game. Possibly a Nintendo Game and Watch.
In the Dragon Ball episode 84 entitled "Rivals and Arrivals", the man running the registration for the World Martial Arts Tournament is looking at a clock that closely resembles the radar.
Although the Z Fighters' Dragon Radar was developed by Bulma, Bulma was not the one who developed the concept of a Dragon Radar, as Pilaf, as well as the Red Ribbon Army, possessed Global Dragon Radars that were implied to have been invented before Goku and Bulma met each other.