Is Electrophobia on it's way?

[Pommie]

With the recent arrest of a suspected terrorist here in Australia (see this article), will being an electronics hobbyist become a risky business? I've recently been researching guidance systems (compasses, gyros, 3D cosine matrix etc.) as I'm very interested in self guided drones. At a guess, I would say that I have all the electronics required to build a guided missile, in fact, anyone into fpv drones would have the same. This could very easily be mistaken by the authorities as terrorist research. I would hope that something more than research has to be in evidence before a prosecution could go ahead. Whilst this may seem a little paranoid, chemistry hobbyist have had this problem for many years and frequently get visited by police to check for drugs/explosives etc.

Am I over thinking this?

Mike.

 

[EvilGenius]

Hi Mike
No I don't think you are over paranoid. I feel the same.
I have read many articles on how google keeps track of all the key searches and could/would possibly put someone on the list by sharing it with government entities or allow them access (willingly or unwillingly)! Same with what someone may say casually or seriously on Facebook.
EG

 

[JonSea]

I used to worry about a string of little packages from Chinese with some from India (Zenni Optical - highly recommended) and other countries. It's pretty routine these days, but 5 or more years ago, it wasn't a common thing.

 

[spec]

With the recent arrest of a suspected terrorist here in Australia (see this article), will being an electronics hobbyist become a risky business? I've recently been researching guidance systems (compasses, gyros, 3D cosine matrix etc.) as I'm very interested in self guided drones. At a guess, I would say that I have all the electronics required to build a guided missile, in fact, anyone into fpv drones would have the same. This could very easily be mistaken by the authorities as terrorist research. I would hope that something more than research has to be in evidence before a prosecution could go ahead. Whilst this may seem a little paranoid, chemistry hobbyist have had this problem for many years and frequently get visited by police to check for drugs/explosives etc.

Am I over thinking this?

Mike.

Hi Pommie,

I don't see any connection between your fears for electronics practitioners and the video. The fellow was arrested for helping the Islamist State rather than being involved in electronics per se.

But I know what you are driving at- anyone with a soldering iron and a pair of wire cutters can be suspect, but the thing is that there are so many people involved in the electrical, electronic, engineering, and chemical areas that a fair proportion of the population would be under suspicion for one reason or another.

I have been closely interrogated at airports- In one instance I had a calculator without a battery in it (because the calculator turned on itself in the case). I had to fit the battery and show that the calculator functioned as a calculator. This was just after a bombing incident.

At one time, I used to carry a pretty comprehensive tool kit when going on holiday (inevitably your hotel room needs something fixing/adjusting, and getting maintenance can take a day or so in some hotels), but that is not possible now.

I remember a carpet layer who was flying to Edinburgh from Heathrow to fit a big hotel- he had all his carpet fitting tools confiscated and was not totally pleased.

spec

 

[large_ghostman]

With the recent arrest of a suspected terrorist here in Australia (see this article), will being an electronics hobbyist become a risky business? I've recently been researching guidance systems (compasses, gyros, 3D cosine matrix etc.) as I'm very interested in self guided drones. At a guess, I would say that I have all the electronics required to build a guided missile, in fact, anyone into fpv drones would have the same. This could very easily be mistaken by the authorities as terrorist research. I would hope that something more than research has to be in evidence before a prosecution could go ahead. Whilst this may seem a little paranoid, chemistry hobbyist have had this problem for many years and frequently get visited by police to check for drugs/explosives etc.

Am I over thinking this?

Mike.

Hi Mike

I did some posts ages ago on a self flying and guiding drone I built for a school project. You helped with some of the maths for the guidance, in the end instead of a square grid system, I went for a honeycomb grid.

On the school system I have all 16GB of stuff I collected for the project, I will dig out what I can. The drone worked great but flight time was limited. I also looked into a model aircraft engine (glow fuel) to power electric motors. This was going to be for the MKII Version, in the end I went with a semi self guiding model aircraft.

We are likely to get new laws here in the UK for drones, this will kill off alot of them....... Its stopped me working on the new one and the old one ran out of power at 800 feet.......... Top of the MKII list is a power sensor and software to land when power is low, I would like to avoid super fast landing in future .

 

[tcmtech]

I don't see it as a phobia of any particular device or system so much as gross ignorance of things backed by irrational paranoia of what someone doesn't understand about how things they fear work being the problem.

World wide, society as a whole is already overwhelmed with idiots and halfwits who are scared to death of things now because they either simply don't understand the rational reality of what something actually is or how it works or does not work or can't work even if they tried to force it to on purpose.

How many threads have we seen just on this forum from fools who are worried their 'smart meter' that puts out a multi milliwatt signal (mostly through the hardwired power lines at that) for a second or two every few tens of minutes to 1 - 2 times a day is going to give them RF radiation poisoning yet have zero issue with holding their cell phones that do produce multi watt RF signals to their heads for hours a day?

Or that their 'smart meter' is spying on them somehow despite being a very application specific and simple data capture and logging system that looks at two or three hardwired analog inputs in and only in the meter unit itself yet don't have a problem with their cell phone that has live video, audio, GPS, and other active data sensing, monitoring, collecting and logging systems running every second it's turned on?

 

[GromTag]

Given with recent events, I think there's an App for that.....

 

[Reloadron]

I would hope that something more than research has to be in evidence before a prosecution could go ahead. Whilst this may seem a little paranoid, chemistry hobbyist have had this problem for many years and frequently get visited by police to check for drugs/explosives etc.

Electronics was a hobby as well as putting beanies and weenies on the table for over 40 years. I also have expressed an interest in drones, so what? Another hobby I really enjoy is the shooting sports including hand loading my own ammunition and black powder shooting. So what? In addition to a few electronic hobby forums I am also active in a few shooting forums where we discuss, dare I say guns? I sure as hell am not about to get paranoid about any of my hobbies.

Ron

 

[large_ghostman]

Electronics was a hobby as well as putting beanies and weenies on the table for over 40 years. I also have expressed an interest in drones, so what? Another hobby I really enjoy is the shooting sports including hand loading my own ammunition and black powder shooting. So what? In addition to a few electronic hobby forums I am also active in a few shooting forums where we discuss, dare I say guns? I sure as hell am not about to get paranoid about any of my hobbies.

Ron

You live in the land of the free, I live in the land where making a simple firework gets you 5 years, owning Nitric acid over 3% gets you two years. And here in Scotland an air rifle now needs a firearms certificate, which makes it harder to get than it does to get a shotgun! We have a shotgun for pest control, but was refused a firearms license for a low powered air rifle. I do have 68% nitric acid and Oxalic acid etc, but my mum kindly set up a LTD (incorporated company), this allows us to have it. But we have to do 'research' etc and pay pointless tax on what I consider hobbies.....

 

[Reloadron]

You live in the land of the free, I live in the land where making a simple firework gets you 5 years, owning Nitric acid over 3% gets you two years. And here in Scotland an air rifle now needs a firearms certificate, which makes it harder to get than it does to get a shotgun! We have a shotgun for pest control, but was refused a firearms license for a low powered air rifle. I do have 68% nitric acid and Oxalic acid etc, but my mum kindly set up a LTD (incorporated company), this allows us to have it. But we have to do 'research' etc and pay pointless tax on what I consider hobbies.....

I know LG and I feel bad for those who can't own a firearm. Even here in the US we have some very restrictive states and fortunately I do not live in any of them, New York and California come to mind with others. I think in New York you get 5 years if you even think about a gun.

Ron