Can logic analyzer help reverse engineer drone controller?

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cvenour
 
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Can logic analyzer help reverse engineer drone controller?

Post by cvenour »

Hi, I'd like to reverse engineer the signals that are going to my remote control drone so that I can control it with my Arduino Uno. I'm really new at electronics so please forgive my newbie ignorance.

My question is this: if the transmitter (i.e. controller) of my drone is a 6-Channel, 2.4 GHz transmitter, will something like the 8 channel Saleae logic analyser that Adafruit sells at https://www.adafruit.com/products/2512 help me? Do transmitters work at lower frequencies, for instance in the MHz range, (which can be sniffed) and then the signals are sped up or boosted up somehow by the transmitter to 2.4 GHz when they are sent to the drone? Does a logic analyzer look at those slower MHz signals and so I don't have to deal with GHz frequencies? In other words, will this 8 channel logic analyzer that you sell help me determine what the signals are for controlling the drone? Or would the Bus Pirate (https://www.adafruit.com/products/237 ) help me reverse engineer the signalling? Thank you,

chris
Last edited by cvenour on Sat Nov 28, 2015 8:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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adafruit_support_rick
 
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Re: Can logic analyzer help reverse engineer drone controlle

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

No, you won't be able to use that logic analyzer. You would need a specialized RF analyzer to do that.

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cvenour
 
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Re: Can logic analyzer help reverse engineer drone controlle

Post by cvenour »

But can't I sniff the user input pulses (steering to the left for example or increasing the throttle) before the transmitter modulates those pulses onto a radio carrier frequency?

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Franklin97355
 
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Re: Can logic analyzer help reverse engineer drone controlle

Post by Franklin97355 »

But can't I sniff the user input pulses (steering to the left for example or increasing the throttle)
If your transmitter has those available you could test them, yes.

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cvenour
 
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Re: Can logic analyzer help reverse engineer drone controlle

Post by cvenour »

So would this logic analyzer https://www.adafruit.com/products/2512 or the Bus Pirate https://www.adafruit.com/products/237 help me determine what the user input pulses are for a given action (like increasing throttle or turning left)?

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adafruit_support_rick
 
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Re: Can logic analyzer help reverse engineer drone controlle

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

if you can get to those signals, then those analyzers should be able to monitor them.

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cvenour
 
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Re: Can logic analyzer help reverse engineer drone controlle

Post by cvenour »

o.k. thank you!

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