Blog Drone tracker

We demoed our system for Saab reps.!!

Some time ago were able to demo our system to Saab reprisentatives We told them about our clever well covering patent applications etc. Also sent them some images and full video and details of our long range demo. Very interesting discussions ongoing. Possibly upcoming discussions with more companies.

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Potential front line testing

While on walk in the park and at the office met some some very nice contacts with ties to investors, millitary and middle-east etc. however still pretty early and have decent own funding so will look at that stuff again.

Had some promising dicussions with an important foundation that operates in Ukraine. They they do very extenssive work for example they delivered a lot of trucks to help the troops. They said they can at some point offer help with antenna design. They also promised that once the device is well tested with a wide range of drones and well iterated it can even be tested on the front lines!

Standardise, standardise, standardize!!

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3D Printing experiments

We started our work by doing some direction finding experiments with various sdrs and then tested a device that simply detected the precense of a drone. Our initial version of the system used a raspberry pi and charcable batterybank connecteted to sdr radio it also included a buzzer and light this old version connected to phone or computer virelesly and could be remote accessed this might be useful since apple has limits on serial port cables This version is briefly seen at the start of/in our demo video and more details can be requested by mail from our contact button. hoverver this was simplified to current version seen above where the Sdr interfaces directly with the phone laptop/Pc/Linux.

Due to legalese we make no range guarantees with the out of the box antennas, depending on your conditions it can be from hundreds of meters to a kilometer, However: With the right powerful antenna the device can easily see drones, takeoff points and the operators well over kilometer away. We are further working towards device version with an Onboard Amplifier to Greatly maximize these things.

Through some expreimentation I we learned a lot about 3D printing various materials. Standard PLA tough but suprisingly brittle is ideal for figurines statues etc. these properties are fixed by pla plus plus ofterntimes producing more bendable but heat weak materials wich still work for indoor structural parts. WHile much harder to produce needing temperature control and having sticking and wrapping challenges ASA and its less enviromentaly durable alternative ABS seem ideal for consumer goods. TPU is very good for bendable products like phone cases but often needing direct drive production or highly refined low friction tubes both these and normal tubes are best if produced by capricorn.

When printing you develop some feel for the material like sometimes is necessary to run the printer for a bit to obtain a smooth delivery. The material must be kept under constant tension or it will wrap get stuck produce empty layer. One also has to watch for material touching the z screw because some dubious ender 3 design decisisions of placing the screw next to the extruder path with no guards. Normal sized parts often fit snugly if leaving a 0.10 extra tolearance space etc. For example snugly lock switch feels so good under finger one just wants to flip it back and forth. My favorite is 3D printed compliant mechanisms this idea of reducing every bit of complexity if a rubbing surface can be replicated with one part and achieving parts that just snap in place satisfyingly.

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The team

The team consist of Me Elias and My part time co-founder Mike. Mike is one of the most talented radio engineers in europe and has was for example offered job in the KrakenSDR project. He has also contributed to the KrakenSDR open source software and many other prohjects. We have done some direction finding work together and worked with sdrs like HackRfs USRPs limesdrs.

I myself led a 10k international drone detector school project for Saab and thus this project started. I myself was at least talented ennough to take part in Harvard interview though not accepted *dammit*. I Have studied both mech- and electrical engineering. Self taught in software. I started my career at a meat processing plant & machine shop as well as built some test equipment at Valmet flow research laboratory. Eg. I built them software that halved teoretical valve test time from 300 days to 150. I built them some software that helps them manage their work hours at their Helsinki and Shanghai facilities as well as a tool to beter manage their anual and quarterly project times to help reduce their their Hel & Sha project times by 20%. I most recently worked as a React native developper at a personal Finance startup called Daysave.

Personal website: Here

Also I used to have some aps in google play but lost my account ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ can ask me for apks if interested pls let me know what you think: Here

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