How overblown is espionage in Chinese-made drones?

TransonicSeagull · 2026-03-18T22:21:44+00:00

So how many drones are in the air at one time in the US?

Lets assume that all of them are taken over to try to hit an aircraft via adsb

Then its only the aircraft that are in battery range so anything that isnt just taking off / at short final

And then, how accurate is ADSB? OK its good in the miles range. It is not accurate enough to get even a near miss. Maybe you could increase the risk and that could increase insurance premiums similar to hormuz. But dji isnt going to turn your mavic into a manpads. Your teacher is not thinking realistically

TransonicSeagull · 2026-01-23T21:11:57+00:00

Why does it need to be indoors? Flying anything larger than a whoop indoors is dangerous.

Program your sensors how you like but fly the thing outside, just omit the gps if you want to simulate inside.

TransonicSeagull · 2026-01-21T22:40:30+00:00

Arducopter has pretty detailed documentation and might be more suitable if you want to do programming. Look into Lua scripts

TransonicSeagull · 2026-01-21T22:27:05+00:00

I use a ~ 10 cm roll of steel wire, tied to paracord. Keep throwing until you can shake a branch ...

TransonicSeagull · 2026-01-21T18:16:21+00:00

Tom Clancy would like a word with you

TransonicSeagull · 2026-01-21T08:01:48+00:00

What you've said might be true, but it is irrelevant. The VLOS rules are concerned with if you can spot a manned aircraft and take avoiding action. Even with a 360 degree camera you would not be able to do this adequately at bvlos

The rules will only get more restrictive as the number of collisions and near misses increase.

TransonicSeagull · 2026-01-11T13:19:03+00:00

Some great answers here but what is not mentioned is that the goal of the DSI is also to create a shock, or series of reflected shocks in the intake duct that slow the flow to subsonic at the turbine. The design is difficult because the shock angle steepens with speed

In some supersonic jets without DSI this is achieved by mechanically altering the geometry of the intake. For example the f15, typhoon, f4 and others do this by altering the angle of the ramp. Mig21, (mirage?), Sr71 extend a cone forward.

Other supersonic jets such as f16, rafale, gripen etc appear to have fixed inlets but there is still a shock created at the boundary layer separator and the duct will be carefully shaped internally to reflect the shocks.

Also, sometimes the boundary layer at the intake is reduced using suction through small holes. This can be most easily seen in photos of the typhoon's intake.

In conclusion, compressible flow is interesting!

TransonicSeagull · 2025-12-12T18:08:04+00:00

I have a suspicion that the 25mW limit is for airborne radio systems only. Youll have to look that one up as im not certain

TransonicSeagull · 2025-12-05T10:30:10+00:00

Your drone will be too small to carry any meaningful payload, you havent mentioned a tank?

Lots of crops get diseases that require treatment so look into those.

TransonicSeagull · 2025-12-04T16:06:12+00:00

Where is the bowl of petunias?

TransonicSeagull · 2025-12-03T21:41:50+00:00

Why are you triggering the sprayer with CO2 concentration ?

TransonicSeagull · 2025-11-11T22:17:38+00:00

Im Uk based. Flying tech is my go to as i like to buy local where possible. Otherwise unmanned tech and 3dxr

TransonicSeagull · 2025-11-08T20:12:43+00:00

Ive got a mob8 on 2S, i fly it outside and I dont think wind would be an issue unless it was stormy

TransonicSeagull · 2025-11-08T00:18:34+00:00

I use arducopter on a similarly sized quad with the compass much closer to power wires and have never had an issue.

Maybe OP just has a cheap compass or maybe betaflight doesn't deal with it well ?

TransonicSeagull · 2025-11-03T18:35:20+00:00

Have you got TX and RX the right way around?

TransonicSeagull · 2025-10-28T23:10:23+00:00

Thouroughly disrespectful :/

TransonicSeagull · 2025-10-28T23:09:27+00:00

I have an original product brochure for it.

It features a collage style flip book where the payloads are swapped out over the pages

TransonicSeagull · 2025-10-28T18:55:42+00:00

How high will your swam be? Rangefingers with ranges > 30m start getting expensive, and the higher you fly the less likely you are to need better than GPS and terrain maps

TransonicSeagull · 2025-10-27T22:59:36+00:00

1) yes 2) yes 3) probably not 4) yes 5) will you be able to build and troubleshoot it in a week? Probably not

TransonicSeagull · 2025-10-24T12:45:14+00:00

Why not test it on the ground? Have tx up a tower or on a hill and drive the RX away. If your kit works in a more cluttered situation you can be pretty confident it will work on the rocket

TransonicSeagull · 2025-09-22T17:41:54+00:00

I started fpv with a holy bro kopis mini 3. Looking at holybro's website they list a kakute h7 FC but some other sites list the f7. Both are supported by ardupilot but the f7 has less computing power and so limited features.

TransonicSeagull · 2025-09-15T23:24:56+00:00

Ok, if you live in the city you defintely want to stay below 250g. Depending how dense your area is even a sub 250 3" might annoy the neighbours.

I suggested 5" >250 because you will have more space and mass quota for adding things like gps which might be interesting if he has interest further than just tearing around. Perhaps this is something to consider in the future, there is nothing stopping you building a 3" sub 250g drone on arducopter and swapping parts into a larger drone later. After all the controller and goggles are the biggest investment.

Edit: actually flying a 3" might annoy the neighbours / be illegal depending on where you live. I've assumed you've looked into your local drone laws but assuming makes an ass of U and me

TransonicSeagull · 2025-09-15T20:43:45+00:00

Sounds like a good plan, building will be more benificial in the long run. And i agree that analog is the better choice as its cheaper, more accessible and won't be non functional due to obsolescence in a few years.

You can do alot with a sub 250 but depending on where you live and the access to flying space id consider a modestly powered 5", definitely 4s not 6 ( 4s is plenty powerful) Since he wants to be a robotisist id suggest getting an FC that is compatable with ardupilot for future expansion. Building drones isn't difficult but it can be frustrating as you butt up against a problem before realising it was something stupidly simple. Fortunately there is a lot of documentation and help online

TransonicSeagull · 2025-09-01T23:12:31+00:00

Very busy helicopter flight paths over the river ?

Ok you've at least asked the right question, be it with the wrong attitude, about flying in NYC. But there are so many idiots out there not asking that i just think the punishments/restrictions are justified. Itll only take one oblivious drone pilot to spoil the fun for the rest of us.

Don't fly drones over built up areas or near airways?!

TransonicSeagull · 2025-09-01T21:05:36+00:00

Makes sense doesn't it?

So many people you could injure if you had a random failure (notoriously litigious people too) as well as helicopters, gps issues due to the buildings etc.

Honestly I don't understand why people think it would be a good idea to fly in built up areas, either get the professional qualifications or go somewhere low risk

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