A new Raspberry Pi powered wireless drone disabler system has been created and showcased this week over on MAKE.
The handy drone disabling system is fitted with a directional antenna constructed from a can and uses two scripts that are ready to use, allowing you to start taking out those bothersome drones with ease. Just be aware the owner might not to thrilled with your actions is they are not doing anything wrong.
Quadcopters capable of transmitting high-quality video are making it possible to affordably record unique perspectives. But these “unmanned aircraft systems,” as the FAA calls them, have posed new challenges in security, safety, and privacy, and many experts caution pilots to consider the implications of increased drone usage. In addition to the concern of constant surveillance, there’s the possibility that businesses (or hackers) can collect location information from mobile devices by using roving drones.
As a result, a cottage industry is forming for anti-drone technology. These devices come in a range of sizes, from plane-mounted to handheld tools. I will show you how to build our own rig to execute a particular network-based attack against one type of quadcopter control: Wi-Fi.
For full details on the Raspberry Pi powered wireless drone disabler jump over to the MAKE website for full instructions and everything you will need as far components.
Photo: Lady with hairdryer tries to blow away a Parrot
Source: Geeky Gadgets
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The jammer in the article, while illegal to use, is unlikely to work because of the low power of the Pi WiFi.
In order to disrupt the control of a drone you have to overwhelm the flight control receiver in the aircraft with a really strong signal. (The technical term to Google is “desense”). If just transmitting on the same frequency were enough to disrupt communications, then can you explain how hundreds of teenagers at a concert can use their cellphones to tweet about the entertainment, all on the same cellphone frequency bands. The microwave control link used in drones is that robust.
The aim with the cantenna in this article has to be very precise, and you have to be closer to the aircraft than the controller. As soon as the aim from the cantena is off by a few degrees, the controller resumes control.
Most drones that use a 2.4 GHz control link have to lose the signal for a preset time before deciding that it needs to go into a failsafe mode. Usually one or two seconds. This accommodates the occasional signal dropout that is normal in controller-aircraft links. It’s not unlike listening to a weak FM radio station in your car that is occasionally interrupted with a burst of static.
If the aircraft is flying a pre-programmed route, such as in a land survey flight, the aircraft is not depending on maintaining a control link. It will continue to fly the programmed route even if the controller is switched off.
As with most other “anti drone” technology, besides being illegal to use, it’s unlikely to work except in very controlled conditions and with a very small subset of drones.
Notwithstanding that interfering with an aircraft in flight is a federal offense (18 U.S. Code ยง 32), there will always be venture capital money to throw at a non-existent problem.