drones

TRX
March 22, 2012
17:
Anything that doesn't move can be easily triangulated and removed, or at least disabled.

Even putting up a network of intermittent nodes wouldn't work, because you could keep monitoring until you discovered each node.

Hmm... of course, if your nodes were mobile - affixed to cars, or carried about by people - it would be much harder to detect an intermittent network.

As usual, your sweet spots come when it costs more to eliminate nodes than to replace them, and when the budget for eliminating them is overwhelmed.

TRX
March 22, 2012
30:
> So tell me, what are your ideas for
> cool uses for RaspberryPi?

I'll tell you what I'm going to do with it - assuming the specs don't change too much and the price stays reasonable - I have a couple of applications where an off-the-shelf USB DAC board and a cheap Linux card could replace some aging analog machine controllers I have, which are now old enough that the few people who can repair them charge accordingly. It's thermonuclear overkill for the purpose, but "cheap is a quality overcoming many faults."

I'd probably just dust off my Pascal chops and do the software in FreePascal; it supports the ARM processor and runs on Fedora, and there are various appropriate libraries available for it.

For the last couple of years I've been avoided having to set up PCs and monitors in the shop, where the environment would by unfriendly, to say the least. The software learning curve of any of the single-board computers I looked at was formidable given the limited time and non-reuseability of the code for other things. But I can, theoretically, just plug a Pi into the network switch, open another tab on Konqueror, and do all of the programming work from my comfy chair.

The processor speed and memory are no problem; the board is more powerful than the workstations I used in the days when I was paid to be a Real Programmer(tm).

TRX
March 23, 2012
147:
> why not a rifle?

Here in the relatively gun-friendly USA, almost every municipality has a law against "discharging a firearm within city limits."

Also, "what goes up usually comes down." People could get paranoid about spent bullets or dead drones dropping through their skylights or damaging their paintwork. Annoy enough people, or even let a journalistic crusade get started, and your network would be fighting public resistance as well as the government.

A radio-controlled toy airplane trailing some used guitar strings would take a drone down without the firearm problem, but you're still faced with debris falling out of the air.

TRX
March 24, 2012
183:
> solar cells Though some solar model aircraft exist, solar cells are heavy, and the electric motors used in model aircraft suck power at an intimidating rate. Batteries are heavy. Battery chargers are heavy. Plus you need power for the flight computer (assume it also works as the server), control servos, data storage, and the radio, all adding weight and current draw. Don't forget the weight and aerodynamic drag of the antenna, too.

Then you have to figure fighting any prevailing wind to stay on station.

Even at 100% efficiency and skinning the whole aircraft in solar cells, I don't think it's going to work.