[kkielhofner]

Upvoted and completely agree.

Bans of Flipper Zero are ridiculous but Flipper should have run this by a "lay person" (sales, PR, marketing, an intern). Stripping a wire, showing a schematic with a diode and resistor, winding wires, soldering iron, etc just further proves the point of the regulators.

Meanwhile in the beginning of the video they show decoding the signal with the pocket-sized Flipper Zero with the push of a button in a few seconds. Easy, portable, easily concealable.

Ordering a $20 SDR from Amazon, plugging it in (even an Android phone), and clicking/tapping around in one of the many SDR GUI programs available would have demonstrated:

1) This functionality isn't limited to the Flipper Zero and has been around for years.

2) It's still "plug and play" and relatively low skill level.

3) It's actually cheaper and uses a device everyone already has in their pocket.

They shot themselves in the foot with this and only gave regulators more ammunition to call for bans.

They seem to have combined a sales/marketing video for Flipper Zero with a PR video for regulators.

Frankly it's incredibly stupid on their part.

[jrochkind1]

I follow you, but the use case they mentioned to propose the ban is stealing cars. I'd figure a car theft ring is sufficiently motivated to figure out how to solder.

[kkielhofner]

A car theft ring sophisticated enough to solder is going to realize several things:

1) Flipper Zero = almost no effort and instant.

2) Cheap and plentiful USB SDR = slightly more effort, longer range, higher signal integrity, faster, works with anything that can do host USB.

3) Using a headphone jack and requiring some amount of electronics expertise for what is in the end going to be a very short range and cumbersome tool that requires a 3.5mm jack that isn't even present on many/most modern devices is practically a non-starter.

This is basically a sales and marketing video for car theft rings.