another drone attack foiled by American shotgunners! ( we've seen this movie b4)

[kgbsquirrel]

I had to adjust the collimation lens on the IR laser diode I purchased to get rid of the "dash" shape and make it a nice round dot. Can't do that with the blue laser?

[ArfinGreebly]

I ain't no scientist, but I has some general understanding of the laser concept.

I am confused by all this speak of "lenses" and "spread" regarding laser beams.

Last time I read up on the principles of coherent light, once you get the photons and wavelets all marching in formation in a given direction, the terms "focus" and "spread" hold little sway.

Somebody muck up the technology in the intervening years so that "LASER" no longer means what I thinks it does?

[AJ Dual]

I had to adjust the collimation lens on the IR laser diode I purchased to get rid of the "dash" shape and make it a nice round dot. Can't do that with the blue laser?

I could but a half cylindrical lens to squash the fast axis down could rob me of as much as 50% of the effective output. Otherwise yes, I just focus it tight as I can with the standard aspheric two element laser lens for a given distance I'm trying to use it at.

[seeker_two]

What would be wrong with good ol'-fashioned plated #4 turkey loads?

[kgbsquirrel]

What would be wrong with good ol'-fashioned plated #4 turkey loads?

Nothing, but I enjoy the exercise of devising new ideas. You never know when one of them will result in an advancement of the art.

[AJ Dual]

I ain't no scientist, but I has some general understanding of the laser concept.

I am confused by all this speak of "lenses" and "spread" regarding laser beams.

Last time I read up on the principles of coherent light, once you get the photons and wavelets all marching in formation in a given direction, the terms "focus" and "spread" hold little sway.

Somebody muck up the technology in the intervening years so that "LASER" no longer means what I thinks it does?

Nope. Laser light does have unique properties, such as being pure-monochromatic, and coherent, but its waves/photons obey the laws of physics as all light must and while lasers can focus well and produce long thin beams they're not infinitely parallel and will spread.

Look up the wikis on Rayleigh length, and Gaussian beam for a better explanation than I could give you.

[Scout26]

I like the idea of a model rocket with a 12 Ga shotshell as payload and a nail driven through a cork between the engine and shotshell.

A length of shoulder mounted PVC pipe to aim and a 1/4 or 1/2 "A" or maybe even a "B" engine to get to the correct height and you have a cheapie version of the WWII proximity fused AAA/FleigerAbwehrKannonen.

But I'm sure the Alphabet agencies would not be so amused.  Although it would make for great video for those doing the overflights.  See the puff of smoke on the ground.  What's that dot approaching.  Why did the screen go black?  

Having the Octocopter crash land on your property would pretty much ensure that at least that one wouldn't fly again.  And I bet if you "shot-down" enough you could cobble together a few to drop waterballons on the Hippies outside your gate.

 

[kgbsquirrel]

*giggles evilly* For some reason I was reminded of this.

[Northwoods]

this.

[AmbulanceDriver]

I like the idea of a model rocket with a 12 Ga shotshell as payload and a nail driven through a cork between the engine and shotshell.

A length of shoulder mounted PVC pipe to aim and a 1/4 or 1/2 "A" or maybe even a "B" engine to get to the correct height and you have a cheapie version of the WWII proximity fused AAA/FleigerAbwehrKannonen.

But I'm sure the Alphabet agencies would not be so amused.  Although it would make for great video for those doing the overflights.  See the puff of smoke on the ground.  What's that dot approaching.  Why did the screen go black? 

Having the Octocopter crash land on your property would pretty much ensure that at least that one wouldn't fly again.  And I bet if you "shot-down" enough you could cobble together a few to drop waterballons on the Hippies outside your gate.

 

RocketMan, paging RocketMan, RocketMan to the white courtesy phone please....




Yeah,  I know it's illegal as hell...  Still funny though...

[AJ Dual]

A guidance system that can get a "model rocket" into even ballpark of a shotshell pattern from a short cylinder bore will probably get you tons more attention from the fed.gov than the shotshell itself would.

[Scout26]

A guidance system that can get a "model rocket" into even ballpark of a shotshell pattern from a short cylinder bore will probably get you tons more attention from the fed.gov than the shotshell itself would.

Shoulder held PVC pipe?

[kgbsquirrel]

A guidance system that can get a "model rocket" into even ballpark of a shotshell pattern from a short cylinder bore will probably get you tons more attention from the fed.gov than the shotshell itself would.

A guy already built a GPS guided cruise missile using off-the-shelf parts 9 years ago. Price, at the time, was roughly $5,000.

[AmbulanceDriver]

[looks over shoulder for alphabet agency type folks]


I have to wonder, how hard would it be to build a system with COTS parts that would home on a laser spot?

[seeker_two]

I have to wonder, how hard would it be to build a system with COTS parts that would home on a laser spot?

Do you really want to know that?..... 

[roo_ster]

If you're on a large piece of private property, like a place big enough to hold a shoot, couldn't you simply launch your own drone and  crash into their drone?
Maybe a cheaper one perhaps.

Cheapest Solution:

I have done streamer combat with scratch-built fixed-wing RC planes made primarily of Bluecor/fan-fold-foam.  Roughly $50 in reusable electronics and $10 in consumable materials.  High risk of collision/crashes relative to lots of RC flight, so you don't want to fly pricey planes.  No reason that you'd HAVE to use crepe paper for a streamer.  Some light mason's line taped on to the plane with masking tape and do the REVERSE of what you want to do in streamer combat: get the streamer cut off/tangled in the enemy prop.

Make the mason's line extra-long and include a very small weight on the end so that it doesn't track 100% with the plane's flight, but droops down a bit.  And use two of them.

Greater probability of success than ramming, your $60 scratch-build takes out a $500-$2000 copter and comes home to tell the tale.

I would bet you'd only have to bugger one prop.  The electronic speed controls are made pretty cheap and when one motor goes out on these buggers, the best of them will lose power/altitude gracefully.  Many times the ESC will not snip off the motor's demand for power and burn out and/or demand more power from the battery than it can deliver.  The copter in the OP likely had something like this happen to get the lipo to catch fire and/or the lipo took some lead and shorted out.  Cheaper systems will not fail gracefully and will have definite issues with control.

31" Twin Boom with KFm3 Air Foil:


24" Delta with KFm2 Air Foil:


FTR, I let my kids decorate/draw on most my scratch builds. 

[gunsmith]

you have lucky kids rooster, hats off to ya.

FTR, I let my kids decorate/draw on most my scratch builds.

[Scout26]

I would be very interested in a parts list/plan for those roo_ster.

[Doggy Daddy]

Would that craft be near strong enough to drag one of those decorative fish nets you can buy at the head shops?

[roo_ster]

Would that craft be near strong enough to drag one of those decorative fish nets you can buy at the head shops?

Not sure what you are referring to, but the larger you build & the more you spend on bigger, badder electronics & motors, the more you can move.  You really don't need a net, though.  Mason's line or mason's line with some plastic film bows tied into it will ruin a copter's day.

I generally stick with what might be considered small "park flyer" planes.  I can only transport FW planes up to 48" WS if I can take off the wing.  My planes group around the 24-30" WS size.

I would be very interested in a parts list/plan for those roo_ster.

I will give you my general-purpose 24-36"WS foamy parkflyer parts list.  Works for an astounding variety of planes.  Biased toward thrust & robustness over speed, but can be tilted in favor of speed to get 60-70mph out of the right design.

Motor:
Emax CF2812 39g outrunner
$8 http://www.headsuprc.com/servlet/the-1529/Emax-CF2812-Outrunner-Brushless/Detail
Love this motor.  Robust.  Easy to replace the shaft if you bugger it up.  Likes props from 6-8" in diameter.  See props below.

Props:
My favorite and preference for big grunt is
GWS 8x6 HD
$1.25 http://www.headsuprc.com/servlet/the-1625/GWS-8060HD-Propeller-ONE/Detail
More accel, less top-end:
GWS 8x4 HD
$1.25 http://www.headsuprc.com/servlet/the-1599/GWS-8040-Propeller--dsh-/Detail
For smaller, speedier, you can go down to 6" diameters.  For my own part, if I want speedier, I choose a different motor.


ESC:
30amp:
$17 http://www.headsuprc.com/servlet/the-2137/HURC--30-Amp/Detail
Really only need 16amp for the motor, but this setup is biased toward the robust.

Servos:
9gram rosin/plastic up to 14g metal gear

14gram metal gear
$8 http://www.headsuprc.com/servlet/the-1499/Towerpro-14g-MG90-Metal/Detail
Strong and hella robust.  I have some that have been on 4 or more planes.

9gram rosin/plastic gear
$3.50 http://www.headsuprc.com/servlet/the-1410/Towerpro--9g-SG90/Detail

5gram rosin/plastic gear
$4.50 http://www.headsuprc.com/servlet/the-1479/Towerpro--5g-SG50/Detail

(The above are Towerpro branded servos.  The 9 & 5 gram are considered second-best to the HXT branded, but I can not tell the difference.  FOr the HXT 9 & 5 grammers, go here: http://www.strongrcmotors.com/servos.htm)

9gram rosin/plastic  up to 14g metal gearis the norm.  5gram on smaller, lighter builds, 13-14gram metal gear for heavier builds, combat, or such.  I have had 13g metal gear servos outlast four planes (same with the motor above)

Receiver:
Spektrum DSM2 clone
$9 http://www.headsuprc.com/servlet/the-2122/HURC-2.4ghz-DSM2-Compatible/Detail
Requires 2.4GHz Spektrum or JR Transmitter.  My fancy Tx is a DX6i.  My buddy box/backup is a DX5e.

Battery:
1000mah 25C+ Lithium-Polymer 3-Cell
http://www.headsuprc.com/servlet/the-1927/11.1v-1000mah-30C-EZ/Detail
I get my lipos elsewhere for cheaper, but these are good, I hear.  Most my designs fly best with a 1000mah 25C lipo, but if I want better wind penetration ore more flying time, I have been knwn to bump it to 2200mah.  Not as fun to fly, though.

Here is something close for the 24" delta:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-O25KF06MpB0/UFpWxaSgqOI/AAAAAAAABrY/ANKTHg3zUsM/s800/superfly%252024%2520lines_exported.png

This plan assumes KFm4 airfoil and prop-in-slot. I went KFm2 and pusher.  You can use whatever vertical stabs you like, from winglets to more in-board deals.  I have on-board video of my 24" delta.  If you want more speed than aerobatics, reduce the elevon area by a bunch.  Look at my delta for an example of reduction.

I have no plans for my twin-boom.  I looked at some other folks builds on rcgroups.com, simplified, and built it as I went.  If I had to do it again, I would use 2 carbon fiber arrow shafts as booms, stuff the aileron servos under the wing, and use one vert stab to include a rudder.  I had spoilerons on this puppy and could parachute it to land at my feet.  Next time, I will have separate servos for flaps so I could SLOW it down and use it for decent aerial photography/video.

Here is some really bad aerial video taken by my 24" WS delta with a cheapo gumpack camera:
0deg:     http://youtu.be/OqgKVuhIwhc
180deg:     http://youtu.be/7lHx80gwng0

I have since obtained a 720p-ish keyfob camera that can manage FPV if I ever want to sink the cash into that.




Other builds...

24"WS Dead Simple Wing with Kfm2 (easy, light parkflyer)






24" WS Dead Simple Wing with KFm4 (AKA, "speedy" because it moved out like a scaled-a$$ ape)




The two above are derivative of the following build:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1252282&highlight=dead+simpl

[Doggy Daddy]

Not sure what you are referring to, but the larger you build & the more you spend on bigger, badder electronics & motors, the more you can move.  You really don't need a net, though.  Mason's line or mason's line with some plastic film bows tied into it will ruin a copter's day.

This:

Might not need anything like this, but the mental image is entertaining. 


http://www.partysuppliesdelivered.com/decorative-fish-net.html#.ULNVIIdZ2YA

[roo_ster]

This:

Might not need anything like this, but the mental image is entertaining. 


http://www.partysuppliesdelivered.com/decorative-fish-net.html#.ULNVIIdZ2YA

Overkill.

I have seen and had props/motors completely fouled by crepe paper streamers.  Light masons line would be more than sufficient.

[kgbsquirrel]

Curse you for showing me that website! Now I have to fight off the urge to build a multicopter.

[Scout26]

Hey KgbS,  whatever you do, don't look at this website.

http://www.nitroplanes.com/rchelicopters.html

[kgbsquirrel]

Hey KgbS,  whatever you do, don't look at this website.

http://www.nitroplanes.com/rchelicopters.html

Meh, those do nothing for me.

I'm pondering a design using 8 ducted fans and a camera system that can use my PVS-14.