Are Parrot drones insecure or deliberately built with zero security? I thought they're French made, and France tended to be more scared with technological resistance to government interventions than US or China.
I Reversed a Drone and Landed It with My PC
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Re: I Reversed a Drone and Landed It with My PC
#12I’m not very familiar with drones but apparently this company makes some models in the US, which is great for those of us concerned about privacy / security with Chinese companies like DJI: https://www.parrot.com/us/drones/anafi-usa But I can’t seem to buy these directly from them? So only through third party resellers? Or is it discontinued?
Curious why “enterprise” would need capabilities that seem tailored to hunting down people
DJI drones can already do all the stuff that's not tailored to hunting down people, and they can't compete on quality with DJI, so they're trying what little niche remains.
Re: I Reversed a Drone and Landed It with My PC
#13can anyone advise me on a drone brand or something that comes with an "API" that allows me to use it like a programmable interface, on the fly.
Would love to write some script to make my drones do predefined things depending on API calls - any clues?
Re: I Reversed a Drone and Landed It with My PC
#14can anyone advise me on a drone brand or something that comes with an "API" that allows me to use it like a programmable interface, on the fly. Would love to write some script to make my drones do predefined things depending on API calls - any clues?
Have you considered DIY options? There's lots of advanced control software out there. It wasn't so long ago that all the best ones were homemade.
Re: I Reversed a Drone and Landed It with My PC
#15can anyone advise me on a drone brand or something that comes with an "API" that allows me to use it like a programmable interface, on the fly. Would love to write some script to make my drones do predefined things depending on API calls - any clues?
Onboard or via a phone/controller?
Parrot had very good SDKs but they stopped making consumer drones. You could get one used but beware that the batteries are mostly aging out.
DJI have a Mobile SDK, although it has a quite confusing support matrix and is artificially hamstrung on consumer drones. I think the latest mobile SDK for Android still supports the Mini 3 Pro, so that might be a good starting point (but not the newer 4 Pro). They also have a Payload SDK for their enterprise drones.
Autel also have a mobile SDK although I would describe it as simply a mess.
You can always build your own drone with Ardupilot or PX4 but you’ll have to deep dive into DIY, reimplement or forego a ton of basic flight functions that commercial drones already handle, like visual odometry, and you don’t get a nice camera built in. It’s a viable option for a hobby use but you won’t get anything close to even the most basic commercial drone functionality.
Re: I Reversed a Drone and Landed It with My PC
#16Are Parrot drones insecure or deliberately built with zero security? I thought they're French made, and France tended to be more scared with technological resistance to government interventions than US or China.
What are you talking about?
The Anafi drone uses regular wifi, with ESSID and password, and that's how the security is achieved. There is no need for additional encryption on protocol level.
It's really the best way - instead of making ad-hoc security mechanisms, rely on well-researched and well-tested wifi security.
(That first sentence, "Start by connecting your PC to the Parrot Anafi’s Wi-Fi network", really carries a lot of load... As Raymond Chen likes to say, "It rather involved being on the other side of this airtight hatchway")
Re: I Reversed a Drone and Landed It with My PC
#17can anyone advise me on a drone brand or something that comes with an "API" that allows me to use it like a programmable interface, on the fly. Would love to write some script to make my drones do predefined things depending on API calls - any clues?
Anything that speaks mavlink is this. It's also much harder to get from 0 to 1 with this than it should be.
Re: I Reversed a Drone and Landed It with My PC
#18Are Parrot drones insecure or deliberately built with zero security? I thought they're French made, and France tended to be more scared with technological resistance to government interventions than US or China.
What are you talking about? The Anafi drone uses regular wifi, with ESSID and password, and that's how the security is achieved. There is no need for additional encryption on protocol level. It's really the best way - instead of making ad-hoc security mechanisms, rely on well-researched and well-tested wifi security. (That first sentence, "Start by connecting your PC to the Parrot Anafi’s Wi-Fi network", really carri…
Yeah, as if defending against the actual user of the drone would have been a good thing.
Re: I Reversed a Drone and Landed It with My PC
#19can anyone advise me on a drone brand or something that comes with an "API" that allows me to use it like a programmable interface, on the fly. Would love to write some script to make my drones do predefined things depending on API calls - any clues?
Just build one yourself... It's quite simple and a lot cheaper. All the components you need are open source. Open hardware and software. When something inevitably breaks you know what exactly to replace.
If you don't mind paying a little more and want a ready to fly / kit versions: pick any of these. I remember the Holybro x500 kit used to be very popular (review: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cTVtFYONHiY )
https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-rtf.html
You can control them using mavlink / mavsdk etc... the python libraries are good enough.
Re: I Reversed a Drone and Landed It with My PC
#20Fantastic work!