I just saw this in the News. Protestors killing a drone with laser pointers. I thought it interesting enough to share:

Hello and good day Knapweed. Thank you for sharing this video with us today. Let us all be responsible drone pilots and please stay safe always.

R.I.P. The Drone ......

DJI Stephen Posted at 11-15 10:50
Hello and good day Knapweed. Thank you for sharing this video with us today. Let us all be responsible drone pilots and please stay safe always.

For sure. I posted it because we could be on the receiving end of laser pointers and, in daylight, we probably couldn't even see it happening until it blew the camera sensor out. I'm not trying to scaremonger but we have to be more careful now than we have ever been. As the man said, 'Some people just like to watch the world burn.'

What size laser pointers did they have, I’ve never seen anything like that here in Australia

Knapweed Posted at 11-15 13:28
For sure. I posted it because we could be on the receiving end of laser pointers and, in daylight, we probably couldn't even see it happening until it blew the camera sensor out. I'm not trying to scaremonger but we have to be more careful now than we have ever been. As the man said, 'Some people just like to watch the world burn.'

Likely won't blow drone's camera sensor out.  However, even "eye safe" lasers can damage camera sensors.
Chances are you won't see damage done by laser(s) while flying.  You will likely see damage done during reviewing of photos and videos taken at time and from then on.

For those doubting damage that can be done to a digital Camera's sensor, see following article and picture.


Photographer Forced to Spend Hours Photoshopping Lines From Wedding Photos, Issues Warning That Lasers Can Ruin Sensors




Worth noting these were lasers required not to harm human eyes!

This thread is on the Phantom page.

https://forum.dji.com/forum.php? ... D559%26typeid%3D559

HedgeTrimmer Posted at 11-15 13:38
For those doubting damage that can be done to a digital Camera's sensor, see following article and picture.

Ouch! Great find, I hadn't even considered the effect of laser show reflections and I doubt I would have been smart enough to figure out what had happened from the ensuing photographs.  Thanks for the heads up.

Deano76 Posted at 11-15 13:34
What size laser pointers did they have, I’ve never seen anything like that here in Australia

lol there's a lot you don't get to see down under.  i have a whole collection of lasers.  the drone was only one of their targets:

HedgeTrimmer Posted at 11-15 13:38
For those doubting damage that can be done to a digital Camera's sensor, see following article and picture.

Thanks for posting this. I had no idea a camera sensor would die from a laser but i do now!

Knapweed Posted at 11-15 13:28
For sure. I posted it because we could be on the receiving end of laser pointers and, in daylight, we probably couldn't even see it happening until it blew the camera sensor out. I'm not trying to scaremonger but we have to be more careful now than we have ever been. As the man said, 'Some people just like to watch the world burn.'

You are definitely correct Knapweed and thank you for the additional information you have shared. It is always great to educate everyone on the pros and cons with regards to this matter. Thank you for your support.

Deano76 Posted at 11-15 13:34
What size laser pointers did they have, I’ve never seen anything like that here in Australia

A 2000mW (2W) blue laser pointer can melt a beer bottle, or blind you. With that kind of power and range, a CMOS camera sensor is easy prey. If I was worried, I'd make a red glass (anti-laser) cover for my camera....

djiuser_RZKOx68fX1iO Posted at 12-15 12:57
A 2000mW (2W) blue laser pointer can melt a beer bottle, or blind you. With that kind of power and range, a CMOS camera sensor is easy prey. If I was worried, I'd make a red glass (anti-laser) cover for my camera....

i feel like we might all have to start doing this lol

Can the presentation clicker damage the camera sensor?

Where are you all flying that you're worried about laser pointers? During the day it would be extremely difficult to aim a laser pointer directly at the sensor, and at night, well, is it legal to fly at night over people? And even then, extremely difficult to aim right at the lens. Don't fly over protestors armed with a whole lot of laser pointers. Is that really a problem with Mavic Mini users?

I would not attempt to take photos at a party or event where laser are part of the entertainment but I am really not worried about anyone intentionally trying to damage my drone with a laser.

This has been discussed in another thread, and to put it simply, it is b*ll.... The laser hitting the camera will not cause the aircraft to fall out of the asky, nor will it do so if it hits the downward sensors on the drone. Any laser that might be described as "powerful" is only going to cause damage if it can be trained on the target for a period of time, and that is not going to happen if it is hand-held.

Dirty Bird Posted at 1-25 12:12
Not quite sure how this forced the drone down unless the lasers were sufficiently powerful to melt components?   It seems to have taken quite a few to bring it down, or one or two powerful lasers were mixed in.  I understand once the drone landed it was swarmed by the crowd, who summarily cut off the gimbal then drew & quartered the helpless device.

VICTORY!

I think it might be fair to say this was symbolic more than anything else.  bringing down a government drone just seems to be a small victory for a crowd that is otherwise helpless against their own government.  I wouldn't even put it past them to stage such an event to make it seem like it really happened...we don't know who was at the controls of that drone, do we?

WrongWay Feldman Posted at 1-25 12:19
Where are you all flying that you're worried about laser pointers? During the day it would be extremely difficult to aim a laser pointer directly at the sensor, and at night, well, is it legal to fly at night over people? And even then, extremely difficult to aim right at the lens. Don't fly over protestors armed with a whole lot of laser pointers. Is that really a problem with Mavic Mini users?

I would not attempt to take photos at a party or event where laser are part of the entertainment but I am really not worried about anyone intentionally trying to damage my drone with a laser.

relax.  the world is a different place outside the United States.  there's nothing all that dramatic in these videos and to be honest, if America were faced with their own government doing the things these other governments do to their people, well...you haven't seen nothing yet.  

Good to know info.  Thanks

We have some cats.  Almost all of them love to chase the spot from a normal red laser pointer, and it's a great way to give them some fun and exercise while being a lazy bum myself.  Of course, we're careful not to let the spot get into their eyes, or even any reflection of the spot.

Anyhow, we got a new cat a while back, and not only doesn't she chase a laser spot, she doesn't even acknowledge its existence.  That got us to wondering if she might be color blind in some way, and just not see that particular wavelength.  So I got on Amazon and bought a cheap green laser pointer to give that a try.

And this unit is flat-out dangerous!  It runs on an 18650 (two of these are what are used to make up a Mavic Mini's battery pack).  And it puts out WAY too much energy to be safe.  It comes with a little key that you must put into a lock to switch it on so you can presumably keep kids from using it, but of course it's a cheesy lock that you can probably turn with a bent paper clip or the like.

Anyhow, she doesn't give a hoot about this laser, either, but I've played with it outside a few times, and it's just nasty.  Just viewing the spot it produces is painful.  I'm not sure how much actual light power it emits, but it's not safe.  And I think this is exactly the type of inexpensive, readily-available green lasers we see being used in that top video.  I have no doubt that it would damage a camera sensor even with brief exposure.  And I can imagine it damaging any downward-facing collision avoidance cameras or simple optical sensors as the Mini uses for judging elevation below 30 meters.

I can't say whether or not that would cause any particular drone to crash, but I can't rule it out depending on what the drone used to judge its altitude.  It seems unlikely, but these lasers could certainly cause damage to equipment and damage to people's eyes.  And this is not nearly the power of some that one can purchase quite easily online if you want to spend the money.  I was actually very amazed at how powerful this cheap little unit is.

If the person piloting that drone was relying on their FPV from the camera, wrecking that camera could cause the pilot to have serious trouble flying, for sure.  And wrecking the camera's sensor seems entirely possible.

As for the cat, she's amazing.  She's a full-blooded Maine Coon, and enormous.  But she just doesn't give a darn about any laser pointer.  Maybe she had too much of it as a kitten before we got her and realized that it's pointless to chase or even notice something that you can never catch, much less eat!   Our other cats go nuts for a laser pointer.  I've had them run up and down the stairs until they're out of breath and panting.  Ever see a cat pant?  If not, get yourself a laser pointer!  ;)

Sigmo Posted at 1-25 20:29
We have some cats.  Almost all of them love to chase the spot from a normal red laser pointer, and it's a great way to give them some fun and exercise while being a lazy bum myself.  Of course, we're careful not to let the spot get into their eyes, or even any reflection of the spot.

Anyhow, we got a new cat a while back, and not only doesn't she chase a laser spot, she doesn't even acknowledge its existence.  That got us to wondering if she might be color blind in some way, and just not see that particular wavelength.  So I got on Amazon and bought a cheap green laser pointer to give that a try.

"If the person piloting that drone was relying on their FPV from the camera, wrecking that camera could cause the pilot to have serious trouble flying, for sure.  And wrecking the camera's sensor seems entirely possible."

At any time the pilot of that drone could have flown away from the area, there is no scientific basis for the lasers bringing down the aircraft.

Geebax Posted at 1-25 21:39
"If the person piloting that drone was relying on their FPV from the camera, wrecking that camera could cause the pilot to have serious trouble flying, for sure.  And wrecking the camera's sensor seems entirely possible."

At any time the pilot of that drone could have flown away from the area, there is no scientific basis for the lasers bringing down the aircraft.

https://www.laserpointerpro.com/ ... _50000mw-lasers_105

Read some of the reviews.

Also, I found this a while back.  Not hand-held, but pretty spectacular for no more than it cost:



Edit to add:  This is another good one:

we get it sigma, welcome to the 2000s.  you should go hang out in the laserpointerforums, that's where all spent time 10 years ago when lasers were the whipping boy, like drones are today; had to be banned, was going to bring down the airliner, super dangerous offensive weapon.  I've long since put my collection away, they're not all that....and yes have some green and even a nice blue one.  lasers are legal to own and legal to possess and legal to point but illegal to misuse.  just like with the drone, check your local and state law first or check with the fda.  

The Saint Posted at 1-25 23:52
we get it sigma, welcome to the 2000s.  you should go hang out in the laserpointerforums, that's where all spent time 10 years ago when lasers were the whipping boy, like drones are today; had to be banned, was going to bring down the airliner, super dangerous offensive weapon.  I've long since put my collection away, they're not all that....and yes have some green and even a nice blue one.  lasers are legal to own and legal to possess and legal to point but illegal to misuse.  just like with the drone, check your local and state law first or check with the fda. Where did I ask to have anything banned or restricted?  Did you read my post

I wasn't asking for these lasers to be banned.  Those lasers look very fun!

When I was in high school, some friends and I built a pulsed nitrogen laser from plans that were in Scientific American.  We mixed helium with the nitrogen to get the partial pressure correct for the nitrogen to "lase".  The capacitor is hand-built, and when it would discharge, to produce the wave-front across the gap, the spark from that discharge was about as loud as a .22 being fired in the room.  The thing emitted in the UV range, and was in the megawatt range (although, as the one in the video, for an incredibly brief pulse period, creating a light pulse about a meter in length).  It had enough brightness to be detected reflecting off of the moon.

But being UV, you had to use the proper detector or a piece of bleached cloth or something to even know it was there.  However, it could blind someone from a hundred miles away with a single pulse.  So we had to be very careful with it.  Beyond that, I haven't played much with any sort of lasers.  So getting that green one for kitty stimulation was a shock to me, seeing how bright that silly thing is!

I was just pointing out that you may be able to damage a camera sensor with a cheap, readily-available laser.  So it may be possible that the protesters did help bring down that drone.  Maybe they did, maybe they didn't.  I can't say!  But I don't think it's impossible, and it is interesting.

Sigmo Posted at 1-26 00:19
I wasn't asking for these lasers to be banned.  Those lasers look very fun!

When I was in high school, some friends and I built a pulsed nitrogen laser from plans that were in Scientific American.  We mixed helium with the nitrogen to get the partial pressure correct for the nitrogen to "lase".  The capacitor is hand-built, and when it would discharge, to produce the wave-front across the gap, the spark from that discharge was about as loud as a .22 being fired in the room.  The thing emitted in the UV range, and was in the megawatt range (although, as the one in the video, for an incredibly brief pulse period, creating a light pulse about a meter in length).  It had enough brightness to be detected reflecting off of the moon.

"I was just pointing out that you may be able to damage a camera sensor with a cheap, readily-available laser.  So it may be possible that the protesters did help bring down that drone.  Maybe they did, maybe they didn't.  I can't say!  But I don't think it's impossible, and it is interesting."


You might very well damage the camera sensor, or some of the optical obstacle avoidance sensors, but what can a light beam do to bring down the aircraft? Nothing. Hitting sensors with strong light does not trigger immediate descent.

Geebax Posted at 1-26 13:16
"I was just pointing out that you may be able to damage a camera sensor with a cheap, readily-available laser.  So it may be possible that the protesters did help bring down that drone.  Maybe they did, maybe they didn't.  I can't say!  But I don't think it's impossible, and it is interesting."

If the drone had optical flow sensors then it's not inconceivable that blowing these out could confuse the drone enough to make it drop out of the sky. I'm guessing this wasn't the first time the crowd has done something like this as they look like they knew what they were doing.

If I was flying beyond visual line of sight, or at night like we saw in that video, and someone managed to destroy the sensor in the main camera, I would then be flying blind.  At that point, I might well crash or even decide to land slowly to try to avoid hurting someone.

We don't know anything about the drone or the pilot.  Sure, if the drone had RTH, that might have worked fine after the camera or bottom sensors were damaged.  Or the pilot might have been able to simply fly home based on GPS data telemetry.

But my point was that by damaging the camera, that alone could effectively "bring down" a drone depending on other factors.

I don't think people are saying that the lasers shot it down as in vaporized it, or blew it out of the sky.  Just that it could have been disoriented, or the pilot deprived of some needed feedback.  If nothing else, losing the main camera renders the drone useless for surveillance, which may have been the actual goal of the protesters.

Also, I thought the Mini, for example, uses its downward facing sensors to determine distance to ground when closer than 30 feet or so.  People report crashing when flying over water due to the reflections.  If that can happen, couldn't damaging the bottom sensor system potentially cause the same sort of issue, triggering an auto landing because the drone believes it's close to the ground?

We need the flight log!  Then we can see if the pilot was giving it some down-stick as the bottom sensor was being fooled, or damaged, leading to an auto landing into the crowd.  ;)

#Quick Reply Here#Good to know info.  Thanks

Yea i have a 3 watt 445 nm blue pointer....bada$$ burning device and lloks like a blue sword at night but ya got to know better then to point these at people and things...

Jimmy hoffa Posted at 2-2 06:21
Yea i have a 3 watt 445 nm blue pointer....bada$$ burning device and lloks like a blue sword at night but ya got to know better then to point these at people and things...

Yeah I heard you were outside in your wife’s knickers pointing that thing LMAO.....

wow! Had no idea.   Thanks for sharing.