Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

$96 3D-printed rocket that recalculates its mid-air trajectory using a $5 sensor

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 561 posts

Re: $96 3D-printed rocket that recalculates its mid-air trajectory using a $5 sensor

#181

Post by rdtsc »

danmaz74 wrote: post #108
tamimio wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that’s ok if it’s failing to do the job as intended, learning is acquired, and it looks fun to build, I am in the field and I find it great homemade concept. Realistically, I doubt there’s ANY system out there will be able to counter small weaponized drones that are flown manually let alone with AI, you might have some workarounds, but never a real counter.

> Realistically, I doubt there’s ANY system out there will be able to counter small weaponized drones that are flown manually let alone with AI What kind of systems are you thinking about? Jet airplanes for sure are completely safe from small drones.

> Jet airplanes for sure are completely safe from small drones.

Until they land then, due to their cost, they become a very juicy target to aim for.

Re: $96 3D-printed rocket that recalculates its mid-air trajectory using a $5 sensor

#182

Post by runako »

make3 wrote: post #138
mikkupikku wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I don't think this project is a serious threat as a weapon, it's more interesting if viewed as a politically provocative stunt, to get people thinking about the relationship between technology and war.

I always wonder why rockets are millions of dollars each, that seems insane to me.

Part of it is the sophistication. Take the Tomahawk: assumed range of ~1000 miles , estimated accuracy of 30 feet. Can launch from above or below water. Etc.

The other part is the limited production runs. Until last month, the DoD was generally purchasing ~100 of these annually. There's no scale economy in making these, so those 100 missiles need to support the entire production & R&D of the product.

Re: $96 3D-printed rocket that recalculates its mid-air trajectory using a $5 sensor

#183

Post by waffleiron »

kotaKat wrote: post #155
firesteelrain wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if the correct sensor could be chosen (whatever it is), unlikely is attainable by consumers and the technology would definitely be export controlled in the US.

You'd be AMAZED what you can find on eBay. I saw this pop up alongside its video thumbnail and nearly shit myself watching it and going "damn, that looks exactly like what's on those RU/UA drones going at each other"... https://www.ebay.com/itm/197224214645 "HS AI Vision Cube For Ultra-long-range Target Recognition tracking & Thermal" for as low as $175. I am feeling the potential ITAR violations straight through my…

Are items made, located in, and sold from China covered by ITAR?

Re: $96 3D-printed rocket that recalculates its mid-air trajectory using a $5 sensor

#184

Post by peterus »

I would suggest using a more modern IMU, the MPU6050 has been long obsoleted both in cost and capability by newer IMUs. I used the ST LSM6DSOX in my rocket flight computers, for example it has a way better rate noise density of 110ug/Sqrt[Hz] at 16g fs compared to the awful 400 ug/Sqrt[Hz] of the MPU6050 and is cheaper than the MPU6050 on LCSC last time I bought some. If you go newer to the LSM6DSV you can get 60ug/Sqrt[Hz] but these aren't as cheap. There was an interesting Sony project which used a synchronized array of these consumer IMUs to achieve lower noise (apparently they became export controlled despite just fusing a bunch of consumer IMUs on one PCB!)

Nowadays you can even use the LSM6DSV320X which has both a low-g and high-g integrated which basically obsoletes the high-g ADXL375 and saves some space, but it's not quite at the price and supply reliability of the LSM6DSOX since it is less than a year old.

Re: $96 3D-printed rocket that recalculates its mid-air trajectory using a $5 sensor

#185

Post by giantg2 »

tzury wrote: post #88

There are 2 short segments in the video showing the actual performance and thus far it is a complete [1] failure [2]. The guy has a talent, and he put together a nice prototype based on OpenRocket [3], but with all due respect, this is not a rocket, and you are not going to win any war with this toy, even if all your enemy has are rocks thrown at you from pretty much similar distance. The remix of computer games / Uk…

"and you are not going to win any war with this toy, even if all your enemy has are rocks thrown at you"

I don't want to use it for war. I think it would be a pretty cool technical project (if it works).

Re: $96 3D-printed rocket that recalculates its mid-air trajectory using a $5 sensor

#187

Post by ivanjermakov »

clbrmbr wrote: post #171

I strongly object to building weapons. It is not right. Raise your consciousness, young hacker. I grew up building homemade rocket engines to power model rockets. I even programmed a flight computer in ASM. I was always quite risk averse and, then being only shortly after 9/11, I told my friend I worried what we were doing may be illegal or otherwise get us in trouble. So he picked up the phone and called the county…

I was suprised seeing american youtube folks building rockets (including orientation and guidance systems) in their free time. In many countries doing this is borderline jail time.

Re: $96 3D-printed rocket that recalculates its mid-air trajectory using a $5 sensor

#188

Post by oofbey »

giantg2 wrote: post #185
tzury wrote: post #88

There are 2 short segments in the video showing the actual performance and thus far it is a complete [1] failure [2]. The guy has a talent, and he put together a nice prototype based on OpenRocket [3], but with all due respect, this is not a rocket, and you are not going to win any war with this toy, even if all your enemy has are rocks thrown at you from pretty much similar distance. The remix of computer games / Uk…

"and you are not going to win any war with this toy, even if all your enemy has are rocks thrown at you" I don't want to use it for war. I think it would be a pretty cool technical project (if it works).

This design is pretty clearly optimized for weaponry. Eg the foldable fins - necessary if you want to keep a magazine of these things stored compactly before firing. Totally unnecessary for funsies.

What nonviolent application are you imagining for a gps-guided rocket that is launched by pulling a gun trigger on a hand held mount?

Re: $96 3D-printed rocket that recalculates its mid-air trajectory using a $5 sensor

#189

Post by dw_arthur »

jeffbee wrote: post #135
mikkupikku wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not really terribly new actually, in the past, rapid advances in consumer technology have enabled other sort of weapon guidance systems. For instance, the development of extremely compact television cameras available to consumers directly lead to the development of the Walleye television bomb. It happened when one nerdy guy was fucking around with his new camera and realized that he could automatically track tra…

People made self-guided missiles with 1940s technology, in the 1940s. It can't be too much of a surprise if someone right now can make guided missiles in their garage with 2026 electronics. At this point the "guided" feature is trivial, the "missile" part is doable, and the weapon has probably become the tricky part.

Throwing an aside here that anyone interested in 1940s war technology must check out the old BBC documentary The Secret War (1977) which goes into depth on solving the engineering challenges of the war.

Re: $96 3D-printed rocket that recalculates its mid-air trajectory using a $5 sensor

#190

Post by atemerev »

clbrmbr wrote: post #171

I strongly object to building weapons. It is not right. Raise your consciousness, young hacker. I grew up building homemade rocket engines to power model rockets. I even programmed a flight computer in ASM. I was always quite risk averse and, then being only shortly after 9/11, I told my friend I worried what we were doing may be illegal or otherwise get us in trouble. So he picked up the phone and called the county…

Unbombed people are cute.
Post reply on HN