Aardvark Daily

Please visit the sponsor!

Not enough hours in the day

Over the past couple of weeks I've been working hard on my ADSB pocket-radar device.

I built the original prototype several years ago now and have been planning to launch it as a open-source project that anyone can "assemble" for less than US$100.

The device uses the ADSB broadcasts of manned aircraft to create a radar-like representation of all the planes within a 10Km radius. It reports their registration and shows their position and movement.

This isn't a device aimed at plane-spotters, it's a safety tool that can help assist those flying drones or RC planes in maintaining adequate distance between their own craft and some of the manned aircraft that might be flying nearby.

It's not a legal requirement to use such a device but it's a damned good idea.

The recent resurgence in my efforts is to try and make sure that the project is online and ready for people to reproduce by the Northern summer (flying season).

Interestingly enough, just in the past few days I've had several emails from companies in the USA and Europe who have expressed an interest in making this device under license.

Since I plan to release this under an unrestricted open source license, these companies will be free to manufacture the device without needing to gain an explicit permission or license to do so. My goal is not to become rich (and that's working even better than I could have dreamed of) but to ensure maximum safety for all those who use the skies over our heads.

However, it did, just for a moment, make me wonder how much I could have earned from this device if I'd decided to commercialise it and exploit the full profit potential.

But "yeah, nah".

So my 3D printer is busy churning out revision after revision of the nifty plastic case and my tired old fingers are tapping away at the keyboard connected to a Raspberry Pi4 and its SDR dongle.

Even though the base code has been in use and tested most weekends for the past year or two, there are still a couple of lingering bugs that have been hard to track down so right now I'm writing an emulator to try and simulate all the conditions that might trigger those bugs.

I'm also converting some of the code that was originally written in python to C, in order that it will satisfactorily on the less powerful (but cheaper, smaller and more energy-sipping) RPi Zero 2 W.

The smartphone app (that makes it possible to configure the device without the need for its own keyboard and GPS receiver) is also coming along.

So much to do, so little time.

Of course it would be nice to earn a little reward for all the many hours I've invested in development so I figure I'll make a very short run (proabably no more than ten units) of "signature" devices that I'll offer for a $1 reserve on eBay or similar. This will allow anyone who wishes to support my efforts to buy a "limited edition" unit that is all set up and ready to run... with my signature on it.

Those should fetch at least $10 each :-)

As I've mentioned in the past I do get quite a lot of people saying they'd like to buy a pre-built "ready to go" system from me but issues such as outrageous shipping costs out of NZ and the anti-Bruce attitude of our local council make such a thing unrealistic.

It's been my humbling experience however, that when you don't put a price on something (such as the 10 signature units), people tend to be pretty generous and show their appreciation in quite a tangible manner. To be honest, if I can get more than it costs me to make and ship those units, I'll be happy.

I'll be even happier when people with sharper minds and better skills than me take the code I've built and make it much, much better than my efforts can make it.

When I've created either a website or a Github repository for this project I'll let readers know and you can all mock me mercilessly for my efforts :-)

In the meantime, it's always good to be really busy and challenged.

On a related note...

Airways NZ has been crowing long and hard about its new safety system called Flight Advisor. Hell, they are shouting from the rooftops that they won an award for this.

They say this award-winning system:

But guess what?

The system is *NOT* available to the single largest (by a country mile) group of users of the low-level airspace -- recreational drone users and RC model flyers (whose craft are also deemed by CAA to be "aircraft").

What a crock of shirt!

If (as they claim) regulators are deathly afraid of manned aircraft crashing into drones then why do they lock those drone flyers out of a system that would provide them with valuable safety data?

This sounds like a bunch of people who are being paid to be more interested in winning awards and patting themselves on the back at every turn, rather than a group who really do have safety as their first priority.

I guess that leaves it up to people like and all my unpaid hard work to try and provide actual, practical, accessible safety mechanisms to drone and RC flyers around the world.

Carpe Diem folks!

Please visit the sponsor!

Have your say in the Aardvark Forums.

PERMALINK to this column

Rank This Aardvark Page

Change Font