this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2026
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Engineer open-sources DIY radar system that's 95% cheaper than $250,000 commercial offerings, has 20 kilometer range — Moroccan engineer designs Aeris-10 radar, shares it on GitHub (www.tomshardware.com)
submitted 1 week ago by throws_lemy@lemmy.nz to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] neon_nova@lemmy.dbzer0.com 39 points 6 days ago (3 children)

This is the real way to hurt a company. Once an open source version exists, even if it is not as good as the commercial offering, they will have trouble convincing people to pay for what they are selling.

Of course, they should be compensated for their work, but if you can build it yourself then the cost to a company does not need to be much higher than the costs of parts and labor for someone else to do it for you.

One of the things I want to do is build decent applications and release them for free so people can get the same functionality of their paid apps but not need to pay anything.

Main thing stopping me is time.

[–] pelya@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago

Military tech companies will be perfectly fine. They typically have 10+ year contracts, and military equipment has a huge price margin in exchange for being reliable and field-serviceable, and the main disadvantage of DIY radar is reliability (unless you also recruit the guy who built it into the army).

It will probably impact civilian market more, where the same companies will try to sell you an unnecessarily hardened machined aluminium box full of cheap Chinese electronics, camo painted for an additional ten thousand bucks.

Their next commercial offering might just be cheaper.

[–] picnic@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

Dont forget support

[–] lithiumground@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

Commercial companies will copy it to improve its product and sell

[–] mtpender@piefed.social 43 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Ukraine: "Write that down! WRITE THAT DOWN!"

[–] aquovie@lemmy.cafe 37 points 6 days ago (3 children)

This doesn't have any practical application in Ukraine.

Ukraine detects FPV drones with numerous distributed and networked microphone/acoustic sensors. You're not going to get any cheaper than a used phone paired with a $2 USB solar panel.

The larger Shahed/Geran and above stuff isn't limited by radar detection. What they need are cheap interceptors to deal with swarm attacks.

[–] Coyote_sly@lemmy.world 16 points 6 days ago (4 children)

If you crack the combination of "actually cheap" and "reliable interceptor", the US military industrial complex is going to build you your very own Scrooge vault.

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 18 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

And then defense contractors will sell it to the government for a 10,000% markup.

But in all reality they would steal it after the inventor commits suicide with 2 rounds to the back of the head

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 16 points 6 days ago

“actually cheap” and “reliable interceptor”, the US military industrial complex

This is antithetical to the US military industrial contractor complex doctrine.

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[–] pelya@lemmy.world 14 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Radars are very much in use in Ukraine. There is a whole range of air targets besides FPV drones, there are ballistic missiles, fighter planes, bomber planes, helicopters, gliding bombs, and ships, all of which require a radar to detect.

Acoustic sensors have limited range. By the time it detects a missile, it's already flew one kilometer away, and it's too late to grab your AA gun. Gliding bombs are silent.

Radars have 50+ km range, and allow to shoot bombers and ships from beyond the border with expensive US-provided missiles.

[–] aquovie@lemmy.cafe 3 points 6 days ago

Again, this particular DIY radar has no application in Ukraine. It does not have a 50+km range (10km). It can not direct or interface with an interceptor missile, of any kind, to shoot down TBMs, Shaheds, etc. The critical issue really is how many interceptor missiles Ukraine has and far less about janky early-warning radar coverage.

Acoustics are used for FPVs, which have a tiny radar cross section and can fly at tree top altitude or lower. A basic/crude DIY radar would not be effective there and at $12,000 vs $Free, acoustics win hands down for FPVs. The Gepards (AA gun) have their own onboard radar already for cruise missiles/shaheds. No one is proposing or expecting acoustics to track missiles or bombs. These are two very different problems.

The Russian Navy stays way, way the hell away from the Ukraine coast these days. The drone-boat bombs have them running scared. Even Sevastopol in Crimea is too risky.

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago

This doesn’t have any practical application in Ukraine.

How can you be so dismissive? Of course it has practical application in Ukraine.

[–] GreenShimada@lemmy.world 33 points 6 days ago (3 children)

ITT: A bunch of people who think they know a lot about radar, expect to run their own radar at home, and think they can do it better for cheaper.

[–] musubibreakfast@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago

Honestly if I have fun building it then I'll spend 80 to build my own but if I need it right now then I'll probably buy a ready made one. It's basically the difference between my home pc and the mac I use for office work.

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago

Look, if I could point this thing at the ground and get soil moisture at depth, I wouldn't be in this situation ok.

[–] Randelung@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Just do like Musk did and only use cameras. It'll be fiiiineeee.

[–] GenosseFlosse@feddit.org 19 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Not sure if this is a good idea. As far as I know radars operate on a regulated frequency and you need a permit to use in most countries. There was also some incident a few years ago where the beam of a radar station would clearly show up on the cloud coverage maps of weather stations because they used the same frequency.

[–] Allero@lemmy.today 12 points 6 days ago

This is, to be fair, mentioned in the article. Cool project nonetheless!

[–] iglou@programming.dev 10 points 6 days ago

That should never be a reason not to share open source knowledge!

[–] elaina@lemmy.zip 7 points 6 days ago

morocco mentioned 🇲🇦🇲🇦🇲🇦🇲🇦🇲🇦

[–] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 10 points 6 days ago (8 children)

So what use would a private citizen or business have for a system like this? I'm not sure who the "commercial offerings" are meant for.

[–] TehWorld@lemmy.world 13 points 6 days ago

I mean. I like cool electronic gadgets. It’d probably be fun to play with.

[–] Nindelofocho@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago

This would be a lot of fun for those of us who like messing with radios and antennas

[–] ThunderQueen@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Im mostly speculating but the stuff that comes to mind is hunting, fishing, weather, private space company, shipping company (air and sea), and tbh even military contracting firms are also considered private commercial businesses. Radar is super useful if you can afford it

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Ahh yes.. let me just go hunting with my beamforming radar.. I'll be tracking the rate at which that deer is changing course at over 100khz.

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[–] Foofighter@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 6 days ago

Mir first thought where "low budget" battlefields and high budget personal security.

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[–] arsCynic@piefed.social 10 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Now do the Internet please.

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

But 12'500 is still much.

[–] Allero@lemmy.today 4 points 6 days ago

Indeed. But any price decrease is highly welcome, especially such a massive one. It now falls into the "budget of certain small communities" territory

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