Build Your Own Drone Tracking Radar: Part 1

This is the first video in a new 5 part series where I will show you how to build and program your own radar. At the end, we'll use it to locate a small drone. Each video will start with basic radar concepts that I will first explain and then demonstrate. Over the course of the videos, the radar will grow until we have a more complete radar that can generate the classic range doppler plots.
0:00 -- Introduction
1:04 -- Disclaimers
2:35 -- Overview of the Video Series
4:52 -- Basics of Radar Hardware
7:58 -- Option 1: MIT Cantenna Radar
11:11 -- Option 2: Pluto
13:04 -- Option 3: Pluto + Mixers
14:47 -- Option 4: the Phaser
18:30 -- Conclusion
Here are the links used in this video:
Technical Support Questions on any product from Analog Devices should go here:
ez.analog.com/adieducation/un...
Pluto: www.analog.com/adalm-pluto.html
Phaser: www.analog.com/cn0566
Radar Software: github.com/jonkraft/PhaserRad...
MIT Lincoln Labs Coffee Can Radar:
ocw.mit.edu/courses/res-ll-00...
Pluto (only) Radar Setups:
• GRCon21 - Channel Leak...
events.gnuradio.org/event/8/c...
• A Software Defined Rad...
Pluto + Mixers Radar Setups:
• FMCW radar with Pluto,...
• GRCon22 - Kuiper Linux...
Small and Short Range Radar Systems, by Gregory Charvot
www.barnesandnoble.com/w/smal...

[@AlexK-jp9nc]

finally a radar DIY that isn't actually a sonar

[@user-rf3ky5ir5y]

Гидролокатор местами сложнее: среда очень неоднородная, да и широкополосных помех от животных бывает много.

[@nikitacheblokov8032]

​@@user-rf3ky5ir5y Много проектов на Ютубе заявляют что делают "радар" когда на самом деле, они используют ультразвуковые дальномеры. Гидролокатор ещё никто на Ютубе не делал

[@blacklion79]

DIY? It uses ready-made hardware which costs $2800

[@AlexK-jp9nc]

@@blacklion79 and does anyone else assemble it? or do you Do that Yourself? and anyway i just wanted the design. I'm capable of getting the components around on my own

[@egeres14]

This guy is so professional, watching his videos feels like speed running the telecommunications bachelor, thank you so much for explaining everything with this clarity, I'm looking forward to see this series 🎉

[@timothybaldinger261]

He got my sub just by the way he is speaking to everyone.

[@phoneaccount6907]

He is Analog Devices employe

[@AmitYadav-rp3ot]

This is gold. No unnecessary stuff. the SNR of these videos is just too damn high. love it. thank you so much. I wish your videos reaches to all the aspiring communication engineers

[@supremeleader5516]

Hi I am from India too, glad I found my countryman with similar interest

[@chaitubhojane6137]

@@supremeleader5516are you guys interested in 4d radars

[@MountainCatBob]

Slick! I'm a retired ET who maintained the first phased array military RADAR SPS 32 on Enterprise back in the 70's. The electronics for each panel occupied (I think) 3 units full of control circuits, 4'X4'X7' tall, one with a single 8-bit register to run the phase shifting function. And to see such a FANTASTIC handheld device demonstrated so flawlessly is simply delightful. I'm going to make one to see how low those bloody helicopters are flying! Cheers!

[@jonkraft]

Thanks! And thank you for your service! I think the job you were doing was much more difficult than doing this project in 2023. Very interesting to hear about phased array radars on an aircraft carrier.

[@NiteSaiya]

Will the police pay you a visit if a helicopter starts getting pinged from an unexpected location?

[@jum5238]

@@NiteSaiya I would guess that about the time you start registering the helicopter on your radar, you've already got bigger problems. Sounds like it's very short range.

[@Pwmclain]

I worked on GPS anti-jam in the 80s, on big military drones, wish we had the current capabilities then.

[@rbdan]

​@@NiteSaiya if you are using that much power on your personal radar system then the police are the least of your problems

[@emptech]

Way back in the '60's in school we built a simple doppler radar. We used cans similar to what you are doing. Back then we used a klystron to generate the microwave signal, with what was called a hybrid junction to provide the detector and mixer. In the '80's I would have used a Gunn plexor to generate the microwave and do the mixing. I remember the term "radar mile," the time it took for a radar signal to leave the transmitter, reflect from an object a mile away, and return. My memory says about 63 microseconds, but I'm probably wrong, it's been many years. I'll have to follow your videos, thanks for sharing. Jim H.

[@peanutbutterdijonnaise]

This content makes me wish my dad were still around these days, he loved tinkering with radio tech.

[@lifegettingintheway2710]

For quite a bit of the 1970s I worked in Marine Electronics, specializing in radar, gyro compasses, auto pilots, and telecommunications. I worked for Raytheon as a field engineer working on their commercial anti-collision radar. Some interesting radars I worked on were a Soviet S and X band radar where the S band wave guide and the x band wave guide were constructed like a coaxial cable - one inside the other. The slotted waveguide antenns were in the same scanner as a result. It was about 75' between the TR unit and the scanner and there were a lot of elbows in the wave guide along the route. Water was a serious problem and keeping them sealed was problematic. But my favorite radar was a hand-help chirp radar made by Whistler eponymously named Whistler Radar. It used headphones to listen to the beat frequency of the sent/received fm pulse. One curiousity is when aimed at a passing yacht one could here the vibrations of othe engine and stereo systems. These sounds vibrated the hull of the boat which modulated the radar echo (cw as you might expect) and speech was clearly understandable. Here and there in the internet are a few references to the Whistler Radar which was strapped on like an accordian and about the same size, head phones were donned, and targets were found to learn what the different sounds represented by visual objects, moving and stationary. I nearly got one recently on Ebay but it sold just hours before I saw it.

[@chimpo131]

k Boomer😂😂😂

[@lifegettingintheway2710]

@@chimpo131 Get off my lawn, kid! :)

[@roipaz8671]

The room and the video itself seems like a 90s TV worshop show... I love it!!!!

[@bob_mosavo]

Awesome! I can hardly wait for the rest of the series 😁 Thanks 👍

[@geofftaylor8913]

I have always been fascinated by phase array technology. Very cool.

[@seantedesco6851]

very excited for this series - thank you for the time and effort put into these.

[@bradlambert4140]

Fantastic work, Jon. The series is off to an auspicious start!

[@krj1979]

I am looking forward to seeing this series evolve. Great job!

[@kurtttttttt]

glad you're back! looking forward to the rest of the series!

[@seeker4430]

Wow... It was my childhood dream to learn and build RF electronics... Radar, radios etc... Thanks a lot for making this series

[@nullptr472]

This looks quite interesting. I'm looking forward to your upcoming videos in the series

[@AerialWaviator]

Fascinating series. Love the idea of starting simple and building to more complex experiments using a common base of hardware. It was the reference to Phaser, or phase-array antenna that got my attention on seeing the reference to this video. Watched a couple of prior videos, and am subscribed, ready to follow along.

[@suncrafterspielt9479]

so excited for this series, thanks a lot

[@cybermascot]

This will be really exciting series.

[@ashotyayloyan1296]

For a while I couldn't follow your videos. john, great job! Everything you provide in your videos is excellent material, especially for students of relevant specialties. Thanks very much!

[@bt1578]

Fantastic content mate. Been waiting for something like this. Your facilitation style and content presentation is top notch. Keep it up!

[@diegob.p.9546]

This video was very good, it gave a presentation on the main aspects of radar systems. With practical examples from the most accessible to the most complex available for students and researchers. I just have to thank for your contribution.

[@douglasmontgomery6315]

Jon, thanks so much for your time and effort. Looking forward to all the videos

[@polbarrull]

This is the best series on youtube!!

[@RM10345]

I really appreciate people like you who do all this great work and still find some time to put up such educational videos and share resources with engineering enthusiasts. Really appreciate your work.

[@astra_joe]

This is next level!

[@Parkhill57]

Very interested, thank you for series! I've enjoyed CW only radars for many years, but ready to move on in experiments.

[@thomapapa4006]

Excellent video and information. Looking forward to the next video parts.

[@rowanjones3476]

Nice work. I appreciate you applying your industry experience in explaining why you selected the components you did. Would not have thought to take an off the shelf SDR and modify the signal path! Can’t wait to see the rest of the series.

[@NotSure416]

Analog Devices have some amazing engineers. It's always a pleasure to work with their products.

[@michaelfuchs1467]

Perfect! Since a few months back I'm having a phased array radar project in my head and on my bench - for detecting small drones! In addition I have acoustic profiling on my mind... 😉

[@axoidmax]

your contribution is that you want to learn. Thank you. My dad was an Air Force JTAC/TACP and he tried to explain this to me but I didn't get it till I watched you learn and teach it.

[@marcbonomini2751]

Fantastic content... I hope it remains in the public realm without much difficulty.

[@reneweise]

Great teach and presentation skills! Can't wait to see the other videos!

[@alexparkison4593]

I'm hyped for this

[@ptrckqnln]

Great presentation style. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series!

[@melkhoulyihp]

Great content Jon, Being a chip designer myself, I find it very informative to follow your videos I will be following this video series and will try to get the hardware as well

[@rowanholligan]

Amazing presentation! Thank you!

[@anthonydelagarde3990]

Thank you for putting this together. Appreciated!

[@MRKLYESTEP]

This is cool as hell. Subscribed to see these builds. Thanks for breaking it down.

[@ArsenioDev]

Oh this is gonna be right up my alley, thanks for this!

[@jonkraft]

Great, I hope its useful!

[@spectaor]

This what i am interested in!!! pure hobby

[@lazerusmfh]

As a radar guy, (I have many many radars) look forward to the rest of the series

[@Stelios.Posantzis]

Happy new year! A very exciting project - a great start to 2024!

[@thereverant5203]

I served on a SAM site for quite some time so PAR/CW systems are not unknown to me. We used PAR for longer, over the horizon tracking and CW for shorter and low-altitude tracking. I've been fascinated with radar systems ever since and always wanted to build a small, portable one at some point as I I'm an electronics engineer but my focus is on digital systems and uCs, never analog or RF. Maybe this is the chance to begin.

[@wahswolf88]

Fantastic. Subscribed. I am in the sports simulation space and have been working for a little while with vision based ball tracking systems. I know very little about radar but I always wanted to see if I could build something to track short range ball flight. Looking forward to this series!

[@burtharris6343]

Sounds fantastic.

[@thenewfast1]

Love this topic glad i found your channel.

[@ekyu88]

Thank you very much, this sounds like a fun project!

[@ArchonLicht]

Great video A lot to learn

[@Fluxo-vc7qj]

Ive searched for such a project!

[@thewyliestcoyote]

AEWSOME! looking forward to more videos

[@user-yq6tu7yi3r]

Amazing Dear Jon Kraft

[@MikeT10101]

I just found your channel and subscribed. I am a self taught "electrical engineer" specializing in vacuum tube high-end audio, particularly custom transformers, although in the course of my studies I came to really love math and electronics generally. I look forward to learning and working along with this project!

[@GodzillazzZ]

thanks u; can't wait for upcoming videos

[@Jemacaza]

Great idea. Thanks for sharing

[@uploadJ]

Been using the Doppler returns from VOR and ATSC tv pilot carrier signals for some experiments ... many A/C returns can be seen using waterfall type SDR receiver displays. Subbed to keep informed of your progress too. Thanks.

[@campbellmorrison8540]

Excellent thank you. I have no idea about radar so this will be a wonderful resource for my learning

[@DataWaveTaGo]

Great production! Subscribed!

[@gregorybrennan8539]

Thank you. This is great . You are generous.

[@ATMA3Weapon]

ok this is cool as hell. thanks for this video was really informative and fun.

[@abdullahsoyero4994]

am looking forward to seeing more of this video, thanks @Jon

[@matija92]

This is awesome! Thank you

[@andrewmunro671]

Outstanding video Jon. I write a lot of software and am fascinated by the combined engineering and software problem that is RADAR. I've been playing around with Vayyar's Walabot dev kit and its pretty robust and powerful. Still, I'd love to see more of this tech in the hobbyist/maker world, so these videos are an amazing resource.

[@Native_love]

About time! I LOVE YOUR VIDEOS! ❤❤❤❤❤

[@jonkraft]

Ha, thanks! Yeah, its been awhile since I've done a video, they take a surprising amount of time to put together.... But I get a lot of questions on these kinds of topics, so I thought I should just do a series on it. I hope you like it!

[@Native_love]

@jonkraft I love this stuff! I do Healthcare IT consulting and would love to branch out into one of the defense companies here in Chandler, Arizona! I truly love studying your videos! I want to build this exact project but need some more storage space. I buy way too much stuff and my wife said 'no more toys' until we get a bigger place or I get rid of some stuff (I'll just wait until we get more room). Seriously, why would I sell my sword, boxing gear, books, or ...... Darn it! She's right! I have too many toys! Lol!

[@deplorablesecuritydevices]

This is so awesome!

[@Rachelebanham]

Nice Jon - I work with a few drone radar companies. this came up in my feed. enjoying watching you building this from ground up.

[@AstroCharlie]

Thank you so much for taking on this material in an approachable, hands-on manner. I've been trying to use a 900 MHz radar to ranging on amateur rockets, and I'm hoping to apply these concepts!

[@laulaja-7186]

If 900 MHz is wavelength 30 ish cm then can it even detect small drones? Might work better, to locate the drone based on its own emissions.

[@j6077xxd]

Incredible.

[@Flamenawer]

I had this claim time ago and said you I wanted this , Oh my GOD what a present

[@algorithminc.8850]

Great channel. Will be fun to go through your other videos. Subscribed. Cheers ...

[@plenus7392]

Awesome project, God bless my man :)

[@justice32legends]

I don't think I can afford the phaser. But this clip's got me interested, so I'm gonna keep tabs on this playlist. Thanks man for all the references, sure helps!

[@joedoe4871]

Excellent content. Appreciated all the work that went into preparing this. Looking forward to the series.

[@mrtrash5873]

This is so good, thanks a lot

[@ChetanAhlawat]

Amazing....continue thw work..hoping to see lot more in the coming days

[@mmnyako]

Thank you for sharing!

[@maverick9708]

Nice, my best friend works at analog devices too so maybe I should send him this, its a wonderful project!

[@The_SoloRogue]

looking forward to the series

[@migalito1955]

Very interesting. Being a retired math guy with a love of radio astronomy and radio in general I will definitely follow your series. From the two prices I looked up, Pluto, & two low noise amplifiers, which together sums to about $360 & by guessing the mixers are not terribly pricey & guessing the phaser might add another $200 to the whole it's not terribly cost prohibitive. Especially if pursued over time. Regardless of whether I attempt to build a system which I'd love to do Pluto has really caught my attention & I think its on my next radio gear list. Look forward to the sequence & thanks for documenting & sharing.

[@kckoellein]

The Phaser is in the neighborhood of $2800... Q.Q Still investigating if I can sell a kidney to pay for it, tho...

[@MaxR52]

this guy has tim and eric confidence, great vid

[@medved3027]

That is amazing work. I studied radars in mid-90s. I wish we had this back then, it used to be a pain in the ass and extremely expensive.

[@JashJacob]

Great content! Thanks 👍🏻

[@PrivateUsername]

Ooh. This looks interesting. Subscribed.

[@ahmedmoustafa6829]

Very great!!

[@kingjamez80]

Awesome. If I can find a phaser I’ll be building this along with you. Can’t wait.

[@AnteUjcic]

awesome video always wanted to make my own little radar

[@bernard2735]

Wow - can’t wait to watch the series. Liked and subscribed 😊 Beamforming and clutter would be great to include.

[@jonkraft]

Thanks! Yeah, I'm kind of hoping people vote for those 2 also..... There's a lot to do and learn on both those topics.

[@antikoerper256]

great stuff

[@AleksandrStrizhevskiy]

This may save many lives.

[@RonLWilson]

That is totally cool!

[@tuoms]

this is sick!

[@jimmyweber8793]

Very cool

[@tarikmoussali6887]

Thank you so much mr jon i appreciate your efforts and works thank you so much again i need it for my research. Best regards.

[@Beedulgi99]

you absolute legend!!!

[@PaintSlinger99]

This is great thank you

[@paristo]

This is very interesting. These are golden for hobbyists and amateurs to create something new. I can already think purpose like detecting a rodents or other harmful animals for farmers and have a systems to scare them off based to that.

[@mehmetakifyegin9307]

Well done

[@viktoreimar1240]

Holy crap yourube recomended part 3 of this series a hundred times i had to search for part 1 - it just seemed logical to see part 1 before part 2 or 3.

[@viktoreimar1240]

I just felt the frustration building up. "Oh god why are you recomendimg part3 before part 1" The series seemed interesting, it was just that i didnt want to watch the series in reversed order.

[@Degenerates-re5wc]

Brilliant