Tag Archives: naza

Multirotor used to smuggle tobacco inside prison – Drone technology opens new routes for contraband

Staff member from the Calhoun State prison in Georgia spotted a suspicious “helicopter” flying over the prison.

Calhoun State prison
Calhoun State prison

Rather than an helicopter, it looks like something visitors of this site are very familiar with: a DJI F500 hexacopter with a NAZA flight board, controlled by a Spectrum DX radio:

DJI hexacopter used for contraband in an attempt top smuggle tobbacco inside a Georgia prison
DJI hexacopter used for contraband in an attempt top smuggle tobbacco inside a Georgia prison – source

This unusual visit prompted a search on the premises surroundings, and after an hour Deputies noticed a suspicious Dodge car with 4 people onboard, two males and two females, and the multirotor.

“Everybody had several cell phones with different contacts. People try different things but the helicopter was something new. It is a surprise I’ve never seen a helicopter. They were in the woods flying it they had binoculars evidently so they could watch it,” Hilton said.

Multirotor tobacco smugglers - source
Multirotor tobacco smugglers – source

Read the full story at walb.com

This had to happen sooner or later. Quadcopters and multirotors are an obvious easy way to bypass any kind of wall, perimeter, country border et-cetera, and maybe deliver illegal items such as drugs for example.

After all, with multirotor deliveries for books and pizza to start soon, the use of this technology for both law enforcement (12) and all sorts of illegal purposes is just a matter of time.

DJI releases firmware update 4.02 for NAZA-M V2 flight controllers that fixes the limits feature bug

DJI has recently released firmware version 4.02 for NAZA-M V2 flight control boards.

The NAZA-M V2 Flight controller
The NAZA-M V2 Flight controller by DJI

This release contains a long awaited fix for the well known “limits bug” that resulted in loss of control of the aircraft if it flow beyond limits, as reported in several threads on RC forums, like this one.

In order to upgrade the firmware on your NAZA MC you should first download and install the version 2.20 of the naza assistant software from the NAZA-M V2 DJI downloads page.

On connecting your NAZA multirotor to the new assistant, upgrade to v4.02 of the firmware will be proposed by the software.

Good news for all pilots that were relying on limits for flying their NAZA V2 controlled flying machines.

 

DJI Flamewheel F450 NAZA M V2 maiden flight (with dogs)

Finally finished the setup of the DJI Flamewheel F450  and went out for a first flight test very early in the morning at the park, with the idea to avoid kids.

park_early_in_the_morning

Love kids but I feel that at this stage (of my flying skills), it could be dangerous for them, as they tend to come close to see the strange flying thing and are totally unaware of the possible dangers, those rotating propellers are like blades.

I discovered that dogs, that are indeed at the park early in the morning, are as curious as kids:

Just like kids, dogs are VERY curious about drones
Just like kids, dogs are VERY curious about drones

Anyway it was my very first flight with a NAZA quadcopter, and it took a few tries to take off because of my poor acquaintance with the settings and led light codes. The quadcopter needs GPS calibration, entirely forgot about that. Then, in atti and atti GPS modes, the throttle becomes effective only after the midpoint, which was kind of misleading to me. At the end, all was good. Took a couple of short videos while the quad was locked in GPS mode, holds the position beautifully. Video is very short as I did not really trust the quad in this very first flight. Here you go: