1. Developing a new weapon is hard so why not just copy another company’s design? Fibre optic drones are a hot product and part 4 of this series looked at a company (Skywalker) who developed their own. Other companies have rushed to make similar weapons. - ThreadSky

danielr33187703.bsky.social • 59 days ago

1. Developing a new weapon is hard so why not just copy another company’s design? Fibre optic drones are a hot product and part 4 of this series looked at a company (Skywalker) who developed their own. Other companies have rushed to make similar weapons.

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danielr33187703.bsky.social•59 days ago

2. Here are two fibre optics kits made by the Chinese company, Skywalker. Opening the boxes is the likely owner of PGI Technology, which operates in China but is effectively russian. Initially, this photo was confusing. Was Skywalker collaborating with PGI Technology? Nope.

danielr33187703.bsky.social•59 days ago

3. PGI bought these two Skywalker kits with the goal of copying the technology and selling their own version. The following photos are very unusual since they show the design process. Here is the Skywalker canister with a large drone frame.

danielr33187703.bsky.social•59 days ago

4. Very interesting image (from a video) showing the electronics & fibre optics. The circuit board has been removed from the base station but there isn’t a good view of it. Here a short fibre optic is being used instead of an entire spool. Note the russian & Chinese flags.

danielr33187703.bsky.social•59 days ago

5. This is the optical transceiver board used on the drone (it mounts inside the fibre bobbin). Unfortunately, there is only a blurry image of the board’s underside. The PGI logo is the most interesting aspect since it indicates this is a custom board.

danielr33187703.bsky.social•59 days ago

6. The housing for the base station is machined from aluminum. This is just a copy of the Skywalker design. The large slot holds an off-the-shelf battery pack. The circuit boards would have been trivial to obtain or copy.

danielr33187703.bsky.social•59 days ago

7. One thing that is very unusual and interesting is PGI shows the design cycle for the fibre canister. Their first step was to make a simply copy of the Skywalker design. This drawing looks like a preliminary design.

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