Drones and explosives and tin foil hats

Sporkin · Post by **Sporkin** » Wed, 23 Jul 2014 1:47 pm

While I thoroughly enjoy the possibilities that civilian drone technology brings, I'm rather concerned about the more sinister implications that it can bring. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's ever thought about what a mess it can be if drones are packed with explosives?

Should we stymie innovation in disruptive technologies because of the potential threat?

Post by **sundaymorningstaple** » Wed, 23 Jul 2014 2:15 pm

Wow! You mean that though just crossed your mind? That's one of the things the Predator drones were invented for. What cave have you been hiding in?

Sporkin · Post by **Sporkin** » Wed, 23 Jul 2014 2:29 pm

That's military tech, not "widely" available. Not something you can order from Amazon, strap some homebrew with ball bearings/nails to it and hover it around.

sundaymorningstaple wrote:Wow! You mean that though just crossed your mind? That's one of the things the Predator drones were invented for. What cave have you been hiding in?

Post by **sundaymorningstaple** » Wed, 23 Jul 2014 3:02 pm

So are ak-47's', UZIs, Armalite 15s, and so forth. easily obtainable by civilians. Druggies come up with bazookas, sparrow shoulder fired missles, 40mm grenade launchers and anything else. Go down to the shady part of major cities in the US and you can, with the right introduction, buy anything you want. Quad rotor weapons platforms? No problem..

http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/hobby- ... 1561981467

Sporkin · Post by **Sporkin** » Wed, 23 Jul 2014 3:19 pm

Cool site, I didn't know about the anti-drone laser. Last i read Boeing was doing some trials of a plane mounted laser based missile interdiction system a few years back, but there were some major obstacles like atmospheric dissipation and refraction that rendered it quite ineffective, this is much shorter range i suppose.

sundaymorningstaple wrote:So are ak-47's', UZIs, Armalite 15s, and so forth. easily obtainable by civilians. Druggies come up with bazookas, sparrow shoulder fired missles, 40mm grenade launchers and anything else. Go down to the shady part of major cities in the US and you can, with the right introduction, buy anything you want. Quad rotor weapons platforms? No problem..

http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/hobby- ... 1561981467

Post by **nakatago** » Wed, 23 Jul 2014 7:59 pm

Imagine x9200 going rogue.

Post by **sundaymorningstaple** » Wed, 23 Jul 2014 10:05 pm

Post by **x9200** » Wed, 23 Jul 2014 10:18 pm

I am heading in the right direction - bought recently 2 RC helicopters "for my son" and I am very tempted to buy a quadcopter Groupon has right now in their offer (ca S$70).

ecureilx · Post by **ecureilx** » Thu, 24 Jul 2014 12:46 am

x9200 wrote:I am heading in the right direction - bought recently 2 RC helicopters "for my son" and I am very tempted to buy a quadcopter Groupon has right now in their offer (ca S$70).

saw one near Sim Lim, the next block, a quad that can lift 400 grams .. but the flying time of 20 mins wasn't interesting ..

the guy claimed you can program pre defined flight pattern using GPS coordinates and up to 2 km remote control ... comes with stabilized turret ... remote viewing camera ...

tempting ....

Max Headroom · Post by **Max Headroom** » Thu, 24 Jul 2014 8:15 am

Just saw an ad on quad drones the size of a match-box. How fun is that? Well, before very quickly becoming dead boring of course. Still, at barely 20 bucks a pop, who cares?

Post by **x9200** » Thu, 24 Jul 2014 9:05 am

The problem with the cheappo ones is that they really require a bit of skills to fly them (at least the helicopters). They are typically meant for indoors with no air of any sort moving around. Simply too light and prone to any air movement.

I have a slightly bigger one (max span of ~50cm), with a camera on board (live video feed to android/ios) and yet have to learn how to fly it. But it is a very cool toy for the price ($94 from groupon SG).

For indoors I can recommend this smaller guy:

SYMA S107G, S$35 (including delivery) via ebay from a UK seller.
Ideal for a gift (target group vary).

Sporkin · Post by **Sporkin** » Thu, 24 Jul 2014 10:34 am

Are there any that are programmable? Not just the camera. If stability is an issue maybe with rotor and gyroscopic access one can rig a auto stabilization system to it. Or the more hardware savvy folks might be able to pair a Raspberry pi to it.

x9200 wrote:The problem with the cheappo ones is that they really require a bit of skills to fly them (at least the helicopters). They are typically meant for indoors with no air of any sort moving around. Simply too light and prone to any air movement.

I have a slightly bigger one (max span of ~50cm), with a camera on board (live video feed to android/ios) and yet have to learn how to fly it. But it is a very cool toy for the price ($94 from groupon SG).

For indoors I can recommend this smaller guy:

SYMA S107G, S$35 (including delivery) via ebay from a UK seller.
Ideal for a gift (target group vary).

Max Headroom · Post by **Max Headroom** » Thu, 24 Jul 2014 11:29 am

I've bought and totaled 3 of these choppers, in varying sizes. They're flipping fragile, which is exactly what you don't want while learning fly these things.

Oh yeah, forget about flying them outside.

Them quad-types are better because they self-orientate and can auto-hover. Way easier.

Post by **Strong Eagle** » Thu, 24 Jul 2014 11:32 am

x9200 wrote:The problem with the cheappo ones is that they really require a bit of skills to fly them (at least the helicopters). They are typically meant for indoors with no air of any sort moving around. Simply too light and prone to any air movement.

I have a slightly bigger one (max span of ~50cm), with a camera on board (live video feed to android/ios) and yet have to learn how to fly it. But it is a very cool toy for the price ($94 from groupon SG).

For indoors I can recommend this smaller guy:

SYMA S107G, S$35 (including delivery) via ebay from a UK seller.
Ideal for a gift (target group vary).

This is really crappo stuff... very little radio distance, poor equipment... I had one... upgrade.

zzm9980 · Post by **zzm9980** » Thu, 24 Jul 2014 12:37 pm

ecureilx wrote:
x9200 wrote:I am heading in the right direction - bought recently 2 RC helicopters "for my son" and I am very tempted to buy a quadcopter Groupon has right now in their offer (ca S$70).
saw one near Sim Lim, the next block, a quad that can lift 400 grams .. but the flying time of 20 mins wasn't interesting ..

the guy claimed you can program pre defined flight pattern using GPS coordinates and up to 2 km remote control ... comes with stabilized turret ... remote viewing camera ...

tempting ....

His claim is right. Check this one out:
http://www.dji.com/product/phantom-2

Amongst its many possible add-ons and options, it has a bluetooth capable flight controller. You plot out an entire flight plan (speed, altitude, rotations and even banking for the camera) on your iPad (and android? don't know). You then send it via bt to the flight controller and let it fly on its own. The thing is GPS guided so it compensates for winds and everything. They're really quite amazing.

And 20 minutes is pretty decent considering some can reach ~100km/hr. The flight time is mostly constrained by weight. If you strip it down you can hit 30 minutes, but that would likely require removing the camera. Not as much fun.

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Drones and explosives and tin foil hats

Drones and explosives and tin foil hats

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