I am curious if DJI's Aeroscope works only with DJI drones? Would it be able to pick up an Autel drone, or a hand built racing quad?
Aeroscope Question...
- Thread starter PHZ
- Start date
Jagerbomb52
Well-Known Member
Aeroscope is not the only gadget that can detect drones. Mnay companies have or are in the process of developing something like aeroscope that detect any drone.
www.defenseone.com
New Tech Promises to Stop Drones from Overflying Stadiums — and Find the People Flying Them
Raytheon says its products helped police nab four flying drones over an outdoor concert.
www.defenseone.com
Yaros
Well-Known Member
There are other systems and with varying ranges used by authorized agencies that can pick up other brands in addition to DJI.
That's not true. If the aircraft is transmitting a signal (regardless what information is contained in that transmission) it can be picked up by any receiver able to process it. Changing the specific data within the transmission does not stop the system from detecting the aircraft or not.
If you transmit a signal (if you're Remotely Controlling the aircraft) then odds are the signal can be detected and most likely location of the aircraft and base station (where you're standing) can be determined regardless if the transmission contains the LOCATION/ID information in the strong.
Aeroscope is DJI drones only. It decodes the unencrypted telemetry data.
There are plenty of 3rd party generic drone detectors around, some of which can also perform Aeroscope's telemetry function (as DJI doesnt encrypt it).
Ultimately its nothing more than an RF sniffer on certain known bands looking for specific protocols or waveforms. Exactly what an SDR was designed for.
Localisation can either be via RF direction finding OR via the data sent by the drone itself.
No RADAR is needed - this is much simpler. Just an SDR and RaPi can do it.
There are plenty of 3rd party generic drone detectors around, some of which can also perform Aeroscope's telemetry function (as DJI doesnt encrypt it).
Ultimately its nothing more than an RF sniffer on certain known bands looking for specific protocols or waveforms. Exactly what an SDR was designed for.
Localisation can either be via RF direction finding OR via the data sent by the drone itself.
No RADAR is needed - this is much simpler. Just an SDR and RaPi can do it.
Not according to DJI, if you read the text in the image of post #2 it says:
"Aeroscope is able to identify the vast majority of popular drones on the market today"
And vast majority of popular drones on the market today are DJI drones since 75% of sold drones today are DJI. So with vast majority they meens their own drones
DJI are the vast majority of drones on the market.
Aeroscope has boards for Lightbridge, Occusync and their enhanced wifi. Nothing else.
Its accurate, if not a bit misleading marketing.
Yaros
Well-Known Member
True.
However most protocols nowadays like Frsky or ExpressLRS do not transmit anything related to GPS Data or Homepoint/Pilot Location.
I am not an FPV Pilot, I haven't built FPV drones, I built only Arducopter-based drones, in which I used FlySky protocol, which doesn't transmit data. But there are Telemetry modules for Arducopter that do transmit data like Homepoint location, drone current location, speed and so on, same as DJI, but as far as I know, they aren't picked up by aeroscope, they however CAN be picked up by a custom RF scanner made with a Raspberry Pi, for example.
Most FPV drones don't have a GPS on board, so even if they are detected by some RF scanner, they aren't that identifiable.
Two systems at work here:
- Aeroscope is a DJI only product that does not locate via RF but simple decodes the unencrypted data transmitted by their drones for an operator to see. It only works on DJI protocols. It wont show anything else.
- 3rd party RF scanners. These detect all drones transmitting by looking for the actual RF emissions. This will work on any drone but location is less precise as it uses triangulation and other physical techniques to narrow down a transmitter.
There is now a 3rd combination - the RF scanners that can also decode the DJI data if present as its sent entirely in the clear on the datastream.
- Aeroscope is a DJI only product that does not locate via RF but simple decodes the unencrypted data transmitted by their drones for an operator to see. It only works on DJI protocols. It wont show anything else.
- 3rd party RF scanners. These detect all drones transmitting by looking for the actual RF emissions. This will work on any drone but location is less precise as it uses triangulation and other physical techniques to narrow down a transmitter.
There is now a 3rd combination - the RF scanners that can also decode the DJI data if present as its sent entirely in the clear on the datastream.
I can’t see how you could determine even the exact location of the drone (never mind the base station) by just detecting the signal. Without any specific location data in the transmission, I would say that’s almost impossible using a single receiver.
There are pretty good COTs devices that can do useful single receiver DF now using active antenna arrays and so on.
(But as above, doesnt matter on DJI as they spit out the exact location unencrypted)
Those devices are unlikely to be owned by most people and would almost certainly need more than one to fix the position of the drone/base station unless they had a VERY widely spaced antenna array.
Do you have a link to the information about the data being unencrypted?
DJI Drones Transmit Location Data Unencrypted For Aeroscope but depends how much detail you want. Sample code on GIT if needed.
DJI insisted AeroScope signals were encrypted — now it admits they aren’t
Last month, Ukraine Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov accused DJI of helping Russia to kill Ukrainian civilians in an unusual way — by allowing Russia t
newsiki.com
Aeroscope only works because its not encrypted.
And electric array antennas can localise decently enough from one receiver here. Its pretty common in DF practice up in those bands these days.
Do you mean phased arrays? Unless there’s also some kind of range finding involved, you can get DF (direction) from a single antenna, but not specific location. For location, you need more than one antenna to be able to give a number of radials to fix the location.
Last edited:
Phased yes (typing on phone). The drones put out a known output and its a clear air path so approximate range can be worked out.
Certain localised enough to know roughly where one is flying (and from there work on the operator).
But as above, irrelevant with DJI as every Lightbridge drone onwards sends all that info in the clear to anything with a suitable receiver.
Certain localised enough to know roughly where one is flying (and from there work on the operator).
But as above, irrelevant with DJI as every Lightbridge drone onwards sends all that info in the clear to anything with a suitable receiver.
Similar threads
DJI Drone Deals
1. Mini 2
2. Mini 3 Pro
3. Mini 4 Pro
4. Air 2s
5. Air 3
6. Avata 2
7. Mavic 3 Pro
8. Mavic 3 Classic
2. Mini 3 Pro
3. Mini 4 Pro
4. Air 2s
5. Air 3
6. Avata 2
7. Mavic 3 Pro
8. Mavic 3 Classic
Forum statistics
