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How To Shoot Down a Drone
gurps_npc writes: Popular Mechanics has a nice article about how to shoot down a non-military drone. Interestingly enough, a Super Soaker will do the job while a standard paint gun does nothing. It doesn't take much energy as long as it is concentrated. A BB gun can do it as well — if you can hit the the target. "Other good non-gun options include pretty much any other solid-projectile slinger. Slingshots will likely work—again, assuming you can hit." They add, "Last but not least, you never want to underestimate the power of just throwing crap. A rock, a baseball, anything you can fling straight, accurate, and fast. All it takes to down a drone is a bent propeller or enough of a jolt to flip it."
You gotta put all the nasty bits in a roll cage, and only one motor to fail
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A piece of wood or a rock, some string/rope tied to it, job done.
Much easier to 'hit' it, and once the string is tangled, its not going anywhere.
You can even pull it back for another 'shot' if long enough
Of course if its further away, not so easy.. but then its also probably not yours to 'shoot down' to say the least.
Leaving alone somewhat the question of if you SHOULD 'shoot down a drone'. I wonder how many people would walk
up to a stranger, grab their camera and throw it hard to the pavement - its much the same thing really.
They would have to be doing something pretty damn wrong...
Most "drones" are using carbon or plastic propellers. These do not "bend". Well, they might bend but then they go right back to normal.
Also, can we maybe, just maybe, call these things what they are? Remote controlled quad/hexa/octo-copters? Most of the time these are not "drones". Drones are autonomous and very few hobbyist fly autonomous drones (although it is actually very easy).
If it comes too close, a can of silly string would gum up the propellers quite nicely, even on large drones.
Water cannon is cheaper though.
'throwing crap' is effective? A marker can fire a paintball at 90 m/s....
Seems to me that a garden hose with a good high-quality nozzle may be your best bet. No questions about how close it is, no questions about using something dangerous, etc.
You still have the legal liability question, but I think the first thing to do on that if someone were to challenge you would be to subpoena any and all video, photo and GPS logs created by the person suing. Possibly (assuming you have a lawyer involved to write this up) with some sort of motion to compel or attempt to seize computers, smartphones, tablets, etc. along with flash cards, etc. to ensure that responsive materials weren't destroyed.
Of course, you might also look into the options of very low-powered (to avoid widespread damage, for safety, and for size) HERF guns. "Really, it just fell out of the sky! What the hell was the pilot doing dropping that thing on us? He could have hurt someone!"
fencepost
just a little off
If it was flying low enough, a garden hose will be perfect...
I wonder what a stream of Silly String would do - might be the best option of all, it probably wouldn't destroy or even crash it, but if it got into the propeller shaft area it'd gum things up enough to bring one down but the owner could still clean it out.
I can see the court case now "Your honor, he sprayed my drone with silly string!"
As for paintballs vs throwing things, paintballs don't actually mass that much, they're designed to splatter dispersing the impact, and they're not that dense. One of the animated GIFs in the article shows what looks like paintballs being fired at one but being slowed or stopped by the airstream from one of the propellers. A baseball isn't going to have the same problem, and if a propeller hits it the baseball isn't going to be sliced open and splatter.
fencepost
just a little off
A Super Soaker filled with salt water.
But what the heck, let's cater to our knuckle dragging redneck readers...
You gotta a problem with that? Their money is just as good as anybody's.
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If governments insist on considering quad/hex copters so dangerous they really must severely prosecute anyone who endangers people in the immediate area by trying to force a crash. In almost all situations an out of control quad/hex is orders of magnitude more dangerous than a controlled one.
Make one drone go after another drone..
[[I think the best response is a telephone call to the police]]
They will promptly ignore you unless they have literally nothing else to do. Even then, I would bet against them arriving before the RPV is gone.
Attached to end of a long rope and loaded into a harpoon gun....
Going along with the wisdom that bringing a drone down may have some high costs associated with it and the associated recommendation of calling the police:
Be aware of the FAA's Model Aircraft Operations rules and recommendations (https://www.faa.gov/uas/model_aircraft/) and be ready to go after someone flying a drone around above you - in particular reference section 336(a)(2) of the laws linked on that page, the "community-based set of safety guidelines and within the programming of a nationwide community-based organization." If someone gets antsy when you're pissed off about their drone use, liberal application of the hammer of "Why are you violating the FAA guidelines on drone use? Whose community-based standards DON'T require that you avoid flying your drone above and around uninvolved people? Are you a registered member of that organization? What's their contact information and your membership information?" might be merited.
Depending on how things go you might actually get them ticketed for creating a public nuisance or something along those lines, and that's the kind of thing that can create a record that might be useful in the future.
fencepost
just a little off
Cripes, is this what /. is coming to???
How about some relevant news? Is that too much to ask? For fuck's sake...
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When one sits upon the mighty high horse of Being Intellectually Superior one should spell all of their words properly. Some of us knuckle dragging rednecks passed the 3rd grade with flying colors.
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Nailed it! 'nuf said...
Airzooka: $2
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The sense of satisfaction from knowing that you used the Force to bring down another fucking drone: priceless.
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Any moderately capable fisherman who's used a fly fishing rod should be able to make a reasonable accurate cast to drop the lead "sinker" through the path of the propellors, with the monofilament dragged with it, fouling the rotors or even bodily hooking the drone. It also gives you the choice of cutting the line and walking away, or following the line to the crashed drone even if doesn't crash as close as you might wish.
There are some modest risks of dragging monofilament around people's yards, and of hitting a bystander with a sinker, but it seems safer than firing faster projectiles in an inhabited area.
I think this lays to rest all the /. experts claiming such a thing is 'impossible'.
I am also still interested in meeting all the users who were willing to bare their bum to a shotgun blast at 200ft - with #8-#6 shot - on my farm.
I will allow you to use one drone as a shield.
Knock the fucking thing out of the sky with a Vortex Cannon. Do it the the right way with propane and fire!
No projectile, plausible deniability, loud noise and flames, dead drone. WIN.
Also works well against the neighbor's pets and the damned kids who keep walking on my lawn.
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We're talking a cool technology here (though not quite as new as many think - I remember cameras being put on model rockets in the 1970s), and all slashdot talks about is how to treat them like skeets. "Hurr durr. I'mma gon' shoot it down with my slingshot. No Clem! Use a waterhose, or maybe toss a polecat at it or somethin'."
When did Slashdot become a luddite website?
Its designed to shoot down flying ducks and geese, drone can't be too much harder : )
Lawyers, MBA's, RIAA? A jedi fears not these things!
A real geek will take it down with his Bat'leth and scream victory
I've got better things to do tonight than die.
It'll take out that Japanese drone too.
against low altitude quadro drones seems to be a bolas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... , it can be made quickly just from boots bound together with shoelaces. I am always carrying a spare pair of boots myself.
Octocopters are much harder to shoot down because of their redundancy. You can lose two motors and still fly decently.
And if you have a decent pilot, quadcopters are hard to shoot because of their speed and manoeuvrability. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
My problem here is that I despise both the jerks feeling like they need to fly drones with cameras close to other peoples houses and redneck retards with guns that thinks that it is normal to shoot at anything unidentified that comes close.
If we can get rid of both I'd be happy.
Load a shotgun with non-lethal ammunition, rubber buckshot with reduced charge. It will hit with enough force to knock down a human so it will damage the drone, and the rubber shot coming down doesn't have enough energy to do any damage. The report is like that of a starter pistol so less alarm to the neighborhood. Blast that thing.
There should be an "approved" way of shooting down a hostile drone. Maybe somebody could sell an "approved" shotgun. Make a lot of money off it.
AD: "Use this approved shotgun to shoot down a drone and you won't get arrested!"
You want a fixed length tether line to the payload to trigger the it's deployment. The trigger length should be adjustable.
The fixed length also takes care of not having the projectile end up somewhere you don't want it, like your neighbor's property. Safety hint: don't assume it will not fail so don't aim it somewhere where it would endanger anyone or anything if it failed.
An interceptor drone, equiped with an unnecessary amount of spikes, skull decals and a rusty paint job should do the trick.
... And can't even come in with a DIY SAM. Shame on you. Then again, why don't you simply jam the signal and cause it to crash?
- Swiss made Oerlikon is what you use to shoot down Mi-29 warships in the mountains, right?
- Oerlikons are a good start, but the Russians will start flying higher altitude missions,
Let's start flinging objects around that can hurt other people or damage other things if you miss the drone (and you probably will miss the drone). Yes, the person flying the drone over your backyard is being a jackass but I doubt your neighbours are going to be won over to your side if you break their windows with a slingshot or hit them with a paint gun. If the neighbour is throwing crap into my yard I'm going to be upset at my neighbour and not at the guy flying the drone. Just because one person in your area is acting like a twat doesn't mean give everyone the excuse to.
Some of us knuckle dragging rednecks passed the 3rd grade with flying colors.
Exactly. It was the proudest moment of my teenage years. ;^)
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My child and my wife and I attended a season ending champs swimming meet for kids 6-18. As the kids were warming up, and even during the National anthem, this drone thing is buzzing about 10 feet in the air.
First, if that thing had dropped on a kids head... Second, it disrupted the beauty of the National anthem, waccompanied by 6 kids swimming the length of the pool with flags in their hands.
Last, it is is violation of swimming regulations prohibiting cameras behind the blocks.
And here was the kicker: our coach had no idea who was running it, was it some perv from the neighboring apartments, or part of the meet?
Regardless, it was unwanted by all.
I think you mean a paintBALL gun...
just fly a kite up to it and let the kite string foul the drone. $5 kite takes down $500+ drone. also a kite with a bit of wind can move faster than most drones so catching it shouldn't be much of a problem.
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You can simply have it.
Put a transmitter on your drone that rolls through known frequencies (1.2, 2.4, 5.8GHz, 433MHz, etc.). Fly your drone close to the enemy drone, roll through the frequency list and take control ownership. Have your drone proxy transmitter events from the ground so your buddy can fly the enemy drone back to you.
Nobody is encrypting control transmission (yet). I believe it is illegal to encrypt traffic on amateur radio bands...
I'd think that a device that can shoot something to entangle one or more of the propellers would be the most effective and safest method. Something that shoots a net or a string at the drone, which then fouls the props. It it was a string then it could be attached, allowing you to reel in the drone if you didn't manage to entangle a prop, but did manage to get it hooked on the chassis. Or, how about this: A super-soaker, but that's filled with something just sticky enough to foul up the propeller(s), compromise their abilty to produce lift, and then the drone falls (probably more slowly) to the ground, not even actually damaged. Better to hold for ransom, if it's undamaged. Yes, I said 'ransom'; as with so many things, hitting offending drone operators in the wallet will, in the end, probably be one of the most effective ways to get them to behave, I think.
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They are just as big of a nuisance now as drones are expected to be in the future. In my area (nearest airport is 30 miles away) they are tons of these slow flying lawn mowers flying around on the weekends during the summer months. They are just buzzing around. My understanding is that the most common reason for these is that they are piloted by people taking lessons so they slowly circle within 30 miles of the airports. It's very annoying as they are very slow so the noise they generate lasts a few minutes. On certain peak times there could be one of those within hearing distance every 10 minutes. It makes enjoying the outdoors very hard.
For the high and might Blights of society that are making you think bullets are bouncing off the windshield use double sided clear sticky paper and sort the the bugs from the GMO micro drones swarming the Field you cannot beat these tards in court but you can cost them a Shit ton of money.
Bolas, 007.
But what the heck, let's cater to our knuckle dragging redneck readers because we figure if we start to talk about directed RF or other more effective means, we'll loose you at the first multisyllabic word.
I think you meant "lose", which, as you may know, is not a multisyllabic word.
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Why go after the drone? I'll wager the operator is much less maneuverable and less redundant than the drone...A solid punch to the controller or the operator's nose will achieve the same result, and might get better results. If I owned a drone and I saw an angry person headed toward me, my expensive toy might not be the first thing I'm worried about...
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