droneid-go

A high-performance Open Drone ID (ASTM F3411) receiver and decoder for WarDragon kits.

Overview

droneid-go is a unified detection receiver that replaces multiple Python-based services with a single Go binary:

• ASTM F3411-19 and F3411-22a - Full Remote ID specification compliance
• WiFi Remote ID - Direct monitor mode capture on 2.4/5 GHz (replaces wifi-receiver)
• Native BLE Remote ID - Built-in Sniffle dongle support for Bluetooth 5 Long Range (replaces sniff-receiver)
• DJI DroneID - ZMQ input from DragonSDR-based DJI receiver
• UART/ESP32 passthrough - Direct serial connection to ESP32 devices
• Pcap file analysis - Offline processing of captured traffic
• ZMQ pub/sub - Unified drone output for DragonSync on port 4224, plus optional health publish on port 4227 for the WarDragon Console / monitoring tools

v0.3.0 - Native BLE support (-ble auto) eliminates the need for the external Python sniffle process.

What It Replaces

Old Service	Old Port	droneid-go Equivalent
wifi-receiver (Python)	4223	Built-in WiFi capture (-g)
sniff-receiver (Python sniffle)	4222	Native BLE (-ble auto)
zmq-decoder.py (aggregator)	4224	Unified ZMQ output (-z)

DragonSync now subscribes to a single port (4224) instead of multiple Python services.

License

droneid-go is not open source at this time. See LICENSE file for details.

Sniffle Firmware

Native BLE support requires a Sniffle-compatible dongle (nRF52840 or Sonoff CC2652P) pre-flashed with Sniffle firmware. droneid-go communicates with the dongle directly over serial — no Python sniffle process required.

Sniffle is licensed under GPL-3.0. See the Sniffle repository for firmware source and flashing instructions. Thanks to @bkerler for the ZMQ-enabled fork.

Prerequisites

• Linux x86_64 (Ubuntu 22.04+) or ARM64 (Ubuntu 24.04, e.g. Raspberry Pi)
• WiFi adapter capable of monitor mode (for WiFi capture)
• Sniffle-compatible BLE dongle (for BLE capture) - nRF52840 or Sonoff CC2652P

Note: The droneid-linux-arm64 binary is built against libzmq 4.3.5 (Ubuntu 24.04). It requires libzmq5 >= 4.3.5 at runtime.

System Dependencies

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install libpcap0.8 libzmq5

# Fedora
sudo dnf install libpcap zeromq

Installation

WarDragon Kits

cd /home/dragon/WarDragon
git clone https://github.com/alphafox02/droneid-go.git
cd droneid-go
sudo ./install.sh

The installer will:

• Detect if this is a WarDragon kit (x86_64 with DragonSync)
• Copy files to /home/dragon/WarDragon/droneid-go/
• Stop and disable legacy wifi-receiver and sniff-receiver services
• Install and enable the zmq-decoder systemd service
• Start the service

Non-WarDragon Systems

On non-WarDragon systems, the installer will display manual setup instructions.

Usage

WarDragon kits: The zmq-decoder service runs automatically via systemd. The examples below are for manual operation or standalone use.

Typical WarDragon deployment (all inputs)

sudo ./droneid -g -ble auto -uart /dev/esp0 -dji 127.0.0.1:4221 -z -zmqsetting 0.0.0.0:4224 -health-zmq 0.0.0.0:4227

This enables:

• WiFi capture with 5 GHz hopping (-g)
• Native BLE via auto-detected Sniffle dongle (-ble auto)
• ESP32 UART passthrough (-uart /dev/esp0)
• DJI DroneID from DragonSDR (-dji 127.0.0.1:4221)
• ZMQ drone output on port 4224 for DragonSync (-z -zmqsetting)
• ZMQ health output on port 4227 for the WarDragon Console (-health-zmq)

Missing hardware is handled gracefully - the binary retries connections and continues with whatever is available.

WiFi only

# 2.4 GHz only
sudo ./droneid -i wlan1 -z -v

# With 5 GHz support (for Skydio, etc.)
sudo ./droneid -i wlan1 -g -z -v

# Custom channel hopping
sudo ./droneid -i wlan1 -hop -hop-channels "6,149" -hop-cycle "3,1" -z -v

BLE only (native)

# Auto-detect Sniffle dongle
sudo ./droneid -ble auto -z -v

# Specify device path
sudo ./droneid -ble /dev/sniffle0 -z -v

BLE via legacy sniffle pipeline (v0.2.0)

# Terminal 1: Start sniffle
cd sniffle/python_cli
python3 sniff_receiver.py -l -e -z

# Terminal 2: Subscribe to sniffle ZMQ output
./droneid -zmqclients 127.0.0.1:4222 -z -v

DJI only

./droneid -dji 127.0.0.1:4221 -z -v

Process a pcap file

./droneid -pcap capture.pcap -v

Command-line Options

Flag	Description	Default
-i, -wifi	WiFi interface for capture	(auto-detect)
-channel	Initial WiFi channel	6
-g	Use 5 GHz channel 149, enables hopping	false
-hop	Enable channel hopping	false
-hop-channels	Channels to hop between	6,149
-hop-cycle	Dwell time per channel (seconds)	3,1
-no-hop	Disable hopping when -g is set	false
-ble	BLE Sniffle dongle (auto or device path)	(none)
-z	Enable ZMQ drone publisher	false
-health-zmq	Health ZMQ publisher bind address (e.g. 0.0.0.0:4227); empty disables	(none)
-health-zmq-interval	Health publish interval in seconds	30
-v	Verbose output	false
-zmqsetting	ZMQ publisher bind address	127.0.0.1:4224
-zmqclients	ZMQ subscriber endpoints (legacy)	(none)
-uart	UART device for ESP32 passthrough	(none)
-uart-baud	UART baud rate	115200
-dji	DJI receiver ZMQ endpoint	(none)
-pcap	Process pcap file (offline mode)	(none)
-version	Show version

ZMQ Port Reference

Port	Service	Description
4221	dji_receiver.py	DJI DroneID from DragonSDR E200
4224	droneid-go	Unified drone output (WiFi + BLE + UART + DJI)
4225	WarDragon Monitor	GPS and system status
4227	droneid-go health	Periodic {"Health":...} JSON for the WarDragon Console
4222	sniff-receiver	Deprecated - replaced by -ble auto
4223	wifi-receiver	Deprecated - replaced by built-in WiFi

Output

droneid-go publishes decoded Remote ID messages via ZMQ in JSON format, compatible with DragonSync and other consumers.

References

• WarDragon Documentation
• ASTM F3411-19: Standard Specification for Remote ID and Tracking
• ASTM F3411-22a: Updated Remote ID specification