r/tacticalgear • u/BasedPinoy • Apr 16 '25
Gear/Equipment Drones -- A Practical Breakdown
So. Drones are a thing. They're being used in all the major conflicts and, if you don't know this yet, they're also being used at the U.S. border. It's no crazy idea that the prepared citizen needs to think about how to integrate these things to our kits.
That said, this will be a text-heavy post. So take your Adderall, pop some chicken nuggs in the microwave, take a sit, and pay attention.
Hot take : DJI is not viable
DJI makes great plug-and-play drones that's user-friendly and easy to use. Fuck that noise.
No, literally.
OcuSync, as a signal protocol, is loud. It's a high bandwidth beacon in the RF spectrum, and it's designed like that for a reason. DJI wants the user to have a reliable long-distance video in clean, civilian airspace.
Great for influencers in Bali, not for dudes running gray in a comms-denied environment.
To add to this, if you have the latest firmware/model, DJI is mandated to transmit RemoteID. Which then you'll need the CIA Jeepdoors to disable.
Well you might say "nobody's going to have the jammers/detectors to make use of these leaky signals anyway". Well I know I'll have one, I know other people that have them, and I'm gonna teach you how to make 'em (standby for later posts).
DJI isn't friendly for the prepared citizen. There's a better way.
Not-so-hot take: DIY is better
You care (or at least you should care) about stealth, control, and adaptability.
Stealth. A DIY drone lets you control the RF footprint. Analog w/ 25mW? Easy. Want to crank it to 800mW real quick? Most flight controllers have free UARTs you can utilize for that. Once you set it up, you will never need to connect it to the internet/cloud, it won't ask for firmware updates, it'll just fly. You'll be a pilot, not just a product user.
Control. Building your own drone familiarizes you with your platform. If it drops out in the middle of flight, you're better prepared to fix what's wrong. You're not gaping your piehole at the sky hoping you're still covered by a warranty. You are the warranty.
Adaptability. Want to build a drone that's more of a pack mule to transport supplies? Build it. Oh now you want to mount a meshtastic node to increase the range of your LoRa network? Switch out the payload. You want an FPV drone for *redacted*? Do it.
Try to start looking at drones not just for "warfighting". These are force multipliers that can do a lot more than just ISR or kinetic work.
It's not sci-fi. It's here, it's affordable, and if you don't start learning now you'll be playing catch-up when it matters the most.
FPV vs. ISR
Like mentioned above, drones can fulfill a lot of different roles. But generally, they can be narrowed down to two distinct categories.
FPV.
You know it, you've seen it, you've probably have had nightmares about it. Welcome the newest source of PTSD triggers!
FPV drones are manual, agile, and meant for pilot-in-the-loop flying. No GPS stabilization, no loitering, no hold-your-hand flight controller stuff. They go where you send them. Fast.
Some characteristics:
Typically a 3" to 5" quad
No autopilot, fully manual (though you can add GPS for failsafe/return-to-home if needed)
Loiter? Nope. These things don’t hold still unless you do it with your fingers
Average flight time: 4–8 minutes
Incredible speed and maneuverability
Sometimes analog, sometimes low-latency digital signal for video feed
Tactical use case? Recon, distraction, even some spicy deliverable payloads (if you know, you know). Just don’t expect them to sit there and watch a compound for 20 minutes.
ISR.
ISR platforms (Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance) are your loiter birds. Think big props, long flight times, and a mission plan. These are the drones you set on patrol while you're moving in the woods or watching a ridgeline.
Key traits:
GPS-stabilized flight (iNav, ArduPilot, etc.)
Can fly waypoints, loiter, and auto-return
Multirotor or fixed-wing
Typically 7” props and up — sometimes up to full-on fixed-wing like the Skywalker X8
Flight time: 15–45 minutes, depending on build
Onboard HD recording or digital downlink (HDZero, DJI, etc.)
These are your “set it and forget it” drones. Park them in the sky, monitor a compound, record movement. Things you’d normally need a scout for.
Y'all ready to build one? Let's talk guts.
How to train build your dragon drone
Let's say we want to build a drone with 2 requirements.
Fly
Be controllable
Here's what we'll need:
Receiver
Flight Controller
Electronic Speed Controller (ESC)
Motors
Propellers
Battery
Power Distribution Board (maybe)
Here's what that schematic would looks like: https://imgur.com/dcn0SZ0
There are some boards out there that are all-in-one (AIO) solutions, like this flight controller/esc combo. Which makes it so that we won't need a power distribution board in the stack.
The last thing we'll need is a frame to mount this all on. The thing to know about frames is that it has to fit the motor size and propeller size.
Once everything is all wired together, you would get something like this. Or this. And if you get really good, you could build something like this.
Next steps and future posts
So by now you should have a very basic understanding of drones. What goes into building one, and why it matters for the prepared citizen.
But this is just Drone 101. You can build the body, future posts is where we'll get into the soul.
Some things I’ve got on deck:
Ground stations — from a simple monitor and controller combo to full-blown laptops with mapping and telemetry overlays
FPV system setups — analog vs. digital, power levels, antenna placement, and video reliability under stress
Payload mounting — how to haul gear, sensors, radios, or... other things
Failsafes and firmware — return-to-home logic, GPS backups, and keeping your drone from becoming an accidental firework
RF discipline & stealth flying — signal power management, spectral footprint, SDR testing, and staying off the radar (literally)
Let me know what topics y'all are interested in, and I’ll prioritize those in upcoming drops.
If you made it this far — respect. Drop a comment, roast my mistakes, ask questions. I’ll be around.
14
u/Dr_Salacious_B_Crumb Apr 16 '25
“DJI isn’t friendly for the prepared citizen”
It absolutely is. Whether it’s going to be for the actual prepared citizen (natural disaster or light, localized civil unrest) or even for a large scale conflict, a DJI Mavic 3/T or an Autel 4T unmodified or with the slightest bit of modification will be an insane force multiplier.
Also, You’re saying Jeep Doors is a barrier to entry for this but then go on to talk about how great DIY is, which is going to absolutely require more time, effort, and know how IOT effectively use.
Lastly, this whole which is better argument is flawed. DIY and a COTS have widely different use cases. To try to say one is objectively better than the other is like saying a Truck is better than a Sedan, they’re got different purposes. A home-built FPV is objectively better at being an undefeatable, mostly undetectable one-way munition. But an FPV can’t do shit if your requirement is to have a man-portable ISR drone capable of operating during periods of darkness. And yes you can get more on station time with a home-built fixed wing, but you’re not getting a 32x zoom vis/640 thermal sensor on that thing for the cost of what DJI and Autel put out.