S
sUAS News
suasnews.com · Group blog · on HN since 2010
News site covering small unmanned aircraft systems, with reports on drones, regulation, hardware, and crashes.
What HN saysHN commenters cite it as a source on drone hardware, such as DJI's OcuSync being based on LTE, and on drone and aircraft accidents.
44HN people shared it
14linked it in comments
42stories submitted
195story points
3 months agolast shared
2010people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1World’s largest multirotor makes successful maiden flight1 people · 46 points · first shared 2014 · 44 comments on HN
- 2Skysense Launches Charging Pad for Drones1 people · 33 points · first shared 2014 · 3 comments on HN
- 3Affordable rtk gnss trials is over. Really no need in 10K receiver1 people · 24 points · first shared 2016 · discussion on HN
- 4German multicopter makes first manned flight.1 people · 10 points · first shared 2011 · 3 comments on HN
- 5Fallen drone found on streets of San Francisco1 people · 9 points · first shared 2014 · 8 comments on HN
- 6Map the earth in real-time using drones on the Internet with DroneDeploy1 people · 7 points · first shared 2014 · 2 comments on HN
- 7US Army calls for units to discontinue use of DJI [drone] equipment1 people · 7 points · first shared 2017 · discussion on HN
- 8Robot Launch 2014: The first global startup competition for robotics1 people · 4 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 9X-37B Secret Space Plane's Second Launch Today1 people · 4 points · first shared 2011 · discussion on HN
- 10MIT Multicopter Maps Environment With Kinect1 people · 3 points · first shared 2011 · discussion on HN
- 11Open Source Alternative to DJI Flight Controllers1 people · 3 points · first shared 2017 · discussion on HN
- 12Quadrocopter swarm creates massive flying 3D Art1 people · 3 points · first shared 2013 · discussion on HN
- 13Raytheon Delivering Linux To Navy UAV Ground Stations1 people · 2 points · first shared 2012 · 1 comments on HN
- 14Drones Banned at Yosemite, Park Service Says1 people · 2 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 15Colorado judge rules in favor of holding drone-hunting vote after legal fight1 people · 2 points · first shared 2013 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
gmisra · 2013-12-02
Worth re-posting here: http://www.suasnews.com/2013/11/25838/gimball-an-insect-like-crash-hap…
gruez · 2023-09-26
> DJI OcuSync is based on LTE: https://www.suasnews.com/2022/05/the-dji-p1-and-s1-fpv-chips... is an example of more information.
Is it using LTE bands? Or just LTE technology on non-licensed bands?
dji4321234 · 2023-09-25
DJI OcuSync is based on LTE: https://www.suasnews.com/2022/05/the-dji-p1-and-s1-fpv-chipset-its-not… is an example of more information.
This is a major advantage DJI and other Chinese drone makers have over US based ones. Technically acquiring an SDR/DSP implemented LTE baseband is not a major difficulty. Getting Qualcomm to let you is quite a challenge.
Looking at FCC listings and product pages you can tell that DJI are also throwing power at the problem. The EIRP on DJI devices is very high. They go up to 33dBm (2W EIRP) on the most modern devices like the Mini 4 Pro.
Piskvorrr · 2016-04-18
Um, no. E=m*v^2, note that the energy rises with the square of velocity. Just hitting a quickly spinning blade on a fast flying machine is quite sufficient for massive damage. http://www.suasnews.com/2015/11/vt-researchers-study-jet-engines-inges…
asynchronous13 · 2015-12-23
Yep, the FAA does not distinguish between an RC aircraft and a drone.
There's also been accidents with larger UAVs:
http://www.suasnews.com/2012/05/15515/schiebel-s-100-crash-kills-engin…
mapt · 2015-08-04
Looking further, the problem isn't so extreme: http://www.suasnews.com/2015/08/37585/china-tightens-controls-on-drone…
"From August 15, manufacturers of certain powerful drones and computers will have to give technical details to the authorities to obtain a licence prior to export, Xinhua news agency says.
The new regulations from the Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Customs are aimed in particular at drones which can fly for more than one hour and at heights of more than 15,420 metres."
So basically, drones powered by internal combustion engines need to be design-certified.
skue · 2014-03-07
This appears to be the video that upset the FAA:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZnJeuAja-4#t=17
And here is the complaint the FAA originally filed, which includes flying through crowded streets, flying through a tunnel with traffic, flying as high as 1500ft AGL, flying at an individual causing them to jump aside [apparently moments before crashing into a hedge], and flying within 100ft of the UVA Medical Center's heliport [though the video was being filmed for UVA].
http://www.suasnews.com/2013/10/25471/the-faas-complaint-against-trapp…
icebraining · 2013-05-27
People were shooting drones in the US[1]; you don't to assume a warzone to consider it a risk.
[1] http://www.suasnews.com/2012/11/19719/activists-drone-shot-out-of-the-… (Yes, the drone may have been above private grounds; so probably will the blimps)
SoftwareMaven · 2012-03-19
I don't think latency is that big of a concern. First, these are behind their global proxies. Second, this is all meta-data, so if it takes a second longer to load the magnet link and associated text, meh.
Some of the combination flying wings are getting pretty good flight time (2+ weeks[1]). It isn't an unreasonable direction to start looking, especially if you could use that time to hop from one base to another around the world.
1. http://www.suasnews.com/2011/06/5837/zephyr-the-new-standard-for-unman…
temphn · 2013-03-02
For anyone else who was curious about the drone photographing an environmental violation, here's the denouement and the company's side of the story. In short, the Ondruseks state that an unmaintained government-controlled sewer pipe was responsible for the leak.
Your reaction to this story will depend on whether you believe businessmen are mustache-twirlers who pollute rivers...or whether you believe that the kind of government that leaves potholes unfilled for years might jump into action to shift blame and point fingers rather than accept responsibility. From my POV, there doesn't seem to be much motive to intentionally dumping blood into a river rather than down a sewer line, so I kind of think the Ondruseks might be telling the truth.
http://www.suasnews.com/2012/12/20401/columbia-packing-co-indicted-for…
A Dallas County grand jury returned several indictments on
Wednesday against an Oak Cliff meat packing company
accused of dumping animal blood in a creek that flows into
the Trinity River.
Columbia Packing Company and its owner, Joe Ondrusek,
face twelve indictments for water pollution.
If found guilty, the company could pay fines between
$6,000 and $1.5 million. Ondrusek himself could get
five years in prison and fined up to $100,000 for each
count.
The grand jury also found evidence that the company,
Joe Ondrusek and family member Donny Ondrusek tampered
with physical evidence and returned six counts…
cottsak · 2017-05-22
Media:
https://www.suasnews.com/2017/05/john-taylor-defeats-faa-registration-…
https://www.recode.net/2017/5/19/15663436/us-drone-registration-rules-…
https://www.geekwire.com/2017/hobbyist-faa-drone-registration/
and Bruce, wow! what a legend! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTvSINcnQ6s
if you have the time, listen to John stating his original case and totally pwning the FAA lawyer! https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/recordings/recordings2017.nsf/469F0B57ED…
Animats · 2016-06-28
How is this different from all the other companies doing this?
- TeraRanger [1]
- DJI (Phantom) [2]
- Neurala [3]
- Intel / Yuneec [4]
- Aevo [5]
Then there's the work at MIT [6], which is open source (Github code: [7])
[1] http://www.teraranger.com/drone-flies-in-the-forest-with-collision-avo…
[2] http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2500144,00.asp
[3] http://www.neurala.com/technology/collision-avoidance-drones/
[4] http://www.pcworld.com/article/3019468/ces/intel-demos-collision-avoid…
[5] http://www.suasnews.com/2015/05/new-collision-avoidance-unit-for-small…
[6] http://www.roboticstrends.com/article/watch_mit_drone_autonomously_avo…
[7]
toomuchtodo · 2026-07-29
Congrats to the DroneDeploy team.
https://www.dronedeploy.com/blog/dronedeploy-hits-break-even-raises-st… [$15M strategic raise, breakeven reached 2025Q4]
https://www.globenewswire.com/fr/news-release/2021/02/04/2169787/0/en/… [$50M Series E]
https://www.dronedeploy.com/blog/new-series-funding-announcement [$35M Series D]
https://www.suasnews.com/2018/06/dronedeploy-raises-25m-of-series-c-fu… [$25M Series C]
https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/24/dronedeploy-raises-20-million-to-hel… [$20M Series B]
https://techcrunch.com/2015/03/31/dronedeploy-series-a/ [$9M Series A]
http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2014/09/19/dronedeploy-raises-2m-t… | https://archive.today/fUk9y [$2M Seed Raise]
alephnerd · 2025-03-20
A lot of people are ignoring the fact that SoftBank Group is also one of the largest players in the telco market globally (that's how they started) [0] and that played a role in their Arm strategy and Eutelsat OneWeb strategy.
It's useful to look at the Ampere acquisition from the same lens, as Ampere is heavily used for telco usecases [1]
SoftBank Group has heavily invested in O-RAN to act as the base technology for what will become 6G, and they have been making a number of partnerships, investments, and acquisitions specifically around this [2][3].
SoftBank has been working on a 6G/Beyond 5G strategy for several years now [4] - primarily targeting embedded usecases such as autonomous vehicles [5][6]
[0] - https://www.softbank.jp/en/
[1] - https://amperecomputing.com/press/ampere-accelerates-expansion-into-te…
[2] - https://www.softbank.jp/en/corp/news/press/sbkk/2024/20240228_01/
[3] - https://www.o-ran.org/membership
[4] - https://www.suasnews.com/2021/08/softbank-corp-unveils-6g-concept/
[5] - https://www.softbank.jp/en/corp/technology/research/news/051/
[6] - https://www.softbank.jp/en/corp/technology/research/news/069/