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."

Comments

Japan does it right

[fustakrakich]

You gotta put all the nasty bits in a roll cage, and only one motor to fail

Re:Japan does it right

[fustakrakich]

Distance...

Next question

Re:Japan does it right

[fustakrakich]

There were six or eight of them. It doesn't look like you need them all to maintain control, and they're also protected inside the cage. The ones around the prop tips and the base were free floating. The overall design just makes much more sense, being safer and far more robust. I am surprised it doesn't dominate the market. It did cost a lot of money to make the first time, but it's an old video, and being a military project, well, you know the routine there. Prices should be comparable now.

Re:Japan does it right

[jellomizer]

Oh come on, this is the high point of civilization.

Hey look technology, it's scary!
Let's throw rocks at it!
That will show how powerful me am!

Or we could just be like our barbaric ancestors and stop and think about it
Why we don't want drones over our property?
What are the causes that urge people to fly these drones?
Is there a way to change culture to prevent this from occurring?

I guess the difference between civilization and barbaric nature is the difference between ? and !

Re: Japan does it right

[KGIII]

I said it in a prior post. I will absolutely shoot one down over my property - and I will get away with it - I may get a fine but I will contest even that because I have enough money to do so. Privacy is important to me.

On the other hand, if you bring your toy and ask? I will probably try to help make your visit an enjoyable one. I will bring you a beverage and a snack - and play with your toy if you let me. You may even convince me to buy a toy too.

I'd even let someone make a track, even cutting down trees, if they wanted to. I need them to do one thing, I need them to get permission. I will grant it except in very rare circumstances that I can only imagine and are very unlikely to be true.

I do not have a super soaker. I do have a shotgun. I am not going to pick up a rock and throw it - I am going to use my shotgun to throw smaller rocks at it more rapidly and more accurately. More likely I will not even notice...

Silly string

[wierd_w]

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.

Garden hose

[Fencepost]

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!"

Re:Garden hose

[mysidia]

Why am I suddenly imaging a joystick-controlled turret mounted on the roof, connected to the water line.... with a booster pump for long-range spraying?

For repelling unwanted birds, of course

Silly string?

[Fencepost]

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.

Re: Silly string?

[drinkypoo]

When you get your hands on it, return it AFTER shorting out the battery. Light high energy batteries aren't that cheap.

Do not short out high-energy battery with remaining hand

Re:Silly string?

[v1]

Its a similar problem to using explosives to knock down a building. Paintballs have a large enough amount of energy to take down a drone, but it's not applied in the right way. During WW2 when nations were using bombs to knock down buildings, they discovered that, somewhat contrary to common sense, using an explosive with a very fast detonation speed to produce a very string but very brief blast tended to only so supericial damage to buildings. The problem was that the mass of the building had to be overcome before you started to knock it down.

Explosives like ammonium nitrate on the other hand, have a very slow release of energy, while still containing a lot of total energy. So instead of trying to send the bricks flying airborne, which requires a lot of energy, they invest it slowly to PUSH the bricks sideways without lifting them, and shove the building over. "Work smarter, not harder".

Paintballs I think have a simiar problem of incorrect energy delivery. They're delivering all of their energy in a very small package. But when the ball hits, it breaks, and sends essentailly all of the energy-containing mass plattering in all directions, instead of transferring it effciently to the target. Anyone that's played paintball knows, "the balls that break don't hurt that much - it's the balls that DON'T break that leave bruises". 20% energy transfer vs 100% energy transfer. Stopping paint absorbs much more energy than deflecting it. Look at how the paint just parts around the sides of the drone and continues on to create a spray downrange. All that energy wasted!

If you want to use paintballs, the solution is easy. Freeze the paintballs. I absolutely guarantee frozen paintballs will be effective in bringing down a drone. Just keep a sandwich baggie of them in your freezer "in case of emergency". See a drone? Fill your hopper and encourage the drone to "chill out" and take a "break" on your lawn. Just make sure it lands ON your lawn, so it's clear to any authorities that it was in your airspace at the time. (and if it happens to land just outside... you might want to "covertly relocate" it slightly)

If the owner comes traipsing over and insists on your handing it over, refuse admission to your property. Insist that they will be charged with criminal tresspass if they enter or will not leave your property. If the neighbor kids throw a baseball and it lands inside your fenced yard, just because it's their ball doesn't give them legal right to come onto your property to recover it. Tell them to send the cops, you will gladly turn over the drone to the cops, and they can turn it over to the pilot. If they persist, don't resist, just protest and document (picture/film) the tresspass. Then regardless of how the drone thing ends, they WILL be liable for tresspass.

So leave it sitting on your lawn, guarded and covered. If they call the cops, take them to where it landed, point out the camera, turn it over, give your statement, and its all documented. The owner should get a nice dressing down from the cops before they give him back the drone.

Depending on the local laws and the particular judge though, you may be found liable for damage to the drone. Be preapred for that if you go hunting. Even if it doesn't seem fair, the law may not be on your side. If it really worries you, contact your local authorities for their official position on the matter before it comes up.

You might also go down the route "My daughter was upstairs in her bedroom changing to come outside when this drone flew by on our property at the same level, it could have been filming her through the second story window. She had an expectation of privacy that wast being violated. We demand the owner turn over any recorded footage."

My weapon of choice would be

[Applehu Akbar]

A Super Soaker filled with salt water.

Re:My weapon of choice would be

[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

I'll try:

My weapon of choice would be to nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Re:My weapon of choice would be

[techno-vampire]

Even better: use Dip. Anything that can dissolve a toon can't possibly do anything good to a drone.

Re:My weapon of choice would be

[phayes]

Weight.

Re:FTA

[fustakrakich]

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.

Go after the owner/pilot

[Fencepost]

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.

Re:FTA

[pi_rules]

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.

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.

Fly fishing reel with a heavy sinker

[Antique Geekmeister]

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.

Vortex Cannon FTW

[Irate Engineer]

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.

Ain't it bizarre?

[StevenMaurer]

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?

Meh

[Hamsterdan]

A real geek will take it down with his Bat'leth and scream victory

Re:string..

[Anonymous Coward]

Fine, just don't interrupt her webcam show. She probably earns more than you do.

Re:string..

[arth1]

I'd say the best way to down a drone is using a bigger drone.

Re: Consequence

[TWX]

Never offend with style when you can offend with substance. You're clearly far into style territory, he's well into substance.

Re:FTA

[I'm New Around Here]

Some of us knuckle dragging rednecks passed the 3rd grade with flying colors.

Exactly. It was the proudest moment of my teenage years. ;^)

Re: string..

[kenai_alpenglow]

Clicking simple shots a a neighbor hood pool is probably harmless. Single shot from the street at your yard with kid-in-swimsuit also probably harmless. Coming into your privacy-fenced backyard pool standing there for several minutes taking close-ups of small kids in swimsuits.... If you think that's normal, maybe you should be seeing the shrink...

Re:string..

[BronsCon]

its much the same thing really.

Not really, as you can typically see whether my camera is on or not (most P&S cameras have an automatic lens cap) or if the lens cap is present (anyone who gives a fig about their camera makes damn sure the lens cap is on it while not actively shooting). On top of that, it's easy to tell what I'm actively shooting and if, for some reason, you can't figure that out, you can always ask me. Unless you can see radio waves and somehow pick out which of the tens of thousands of waves hitting the drone are the ones coming from said drone's control device, you have no way of tracing those waves back to the control device (which may or may not be in the same location as the pilot) and, therefore, no way to track down the pilot to ask them anything, let alone if (or what) they're filming or photographing.

And if I've forgotten to put my lens cap back on after shooting, I thank the person who raises their concerns to me for reminding me to protect my lens when not in use, then put the cap back on.