Table of Contents
⚠ Disclaimer: This entry may be incomplete, out of date, or inaccurate. It is AI-maintained on a best-effort basis. Do not rely on it as a sole source — verify claims independently using the sources listed below.
Summary
DragonSync (Community Edition) is an open-source Python gateway that turns Remote ID and DJI DroneID detections into Cursor-on-Target (CoT) messages for TAK/ATAK, and optionally publishes per-drone telemetry to MQTT/Home Assistant and Anduril Lattice. It is the software core of the “WarDragon” detection kit built by cemaxecuter (GitHub alphafox02) and is designed to run alongside that kit’s pre-configured sniffers rather than as a standalone tool. Limitation: DragonSync itself does not decode RF — it consumes already-decoded detection streams from separate sniffer processes (droneid-go, antsdr_dji_droneid) over ZMQ.
Key Facts
- Maintained by: alphafox02 / cemaxecuter (GitHub)
- Type: Open-source software (fusion/gateway layer, not a sensor)
- License: Apache 2.0
- Status: Active; 84 GitHub stars, 23 forks (as of mid-2026)
- Language: Python (98%)
- Companion hardware: Designed around the “WarDragon” kit (pre-integrated sniffers, GPS, ZMQ monitor); also usable standalone with manual sniffer setup
How It Works
DragonSync ingests three ZMQ streams: decoded WiFi/Bluetooth Remote ID and DJI DroneID frames (via droneid-go and antsdr_dji_droneid), system/GPS status from wardragon_monitor.py, and optional FPV analog-video energy-scan alerts. It can also pull ADS-B/UAT aircraft data from a local readsb instance over HTTP. DragonSync merges these streams, rate-limits them, and fans out to multiple sinks simultaneously: CoT over multicast or a TAK server (with optional TLS) for ATAK/WinTAK display, MQTT with Home Assistant auto-discovery (per-drone device trackers, pilot/home markers, sensor entities), and Anduril Lattice for organizations using that platform. A read-only HTTP API also serves a companion WarDragon ATAK plugin.
Notable design details: CoT icons are chosen from the Remote ID UA Type field (fixed-wing vs. rotorcraft), drones that stop reporting are marked offline in Home Assistant while preserving location history, and an optional allow-list-only Kismet ingest path can add WiFi/Bluetooth device locations to the CoT feed without flooding ATAK with unrelated devices.
What Can Be Built With This
For a TAK/ATAK-centric detection deployment:
- Run WiFi/BLE Remote ID sniffers (droneid-go) and optionally a DJI DroneID SDR decoder (antsdr_dji_droneid) on the same host
- Point DragonSync at their ZMQ outputs via
config.ini - Feed CoT to ATAK via multicast (LAN/VPN) or a TAK server for wider distribution
- Optionally bridge to Home Assistant for dashboarding or to Lattice for organizations already standardized on that C2 layer
This is primarily a fusion/integration layer — it assumes the detection hardware and sniffer software are already producing decoded output; see OpenDroneID and DJI DroneID Decoder for the underlying decode stacks.
Critical Limitation
DragonSync performs no RF capture or decoding itself — it is a data-fusion and CoT-conversion layer sitting downstream of separate sniffer processes. Deploying it requires the WarDragon kit or an equivalent manually-assembled sniffer stack (droneid-go, antsdr_dji_droneid, wardragon_monitor.py). Like all Remote ID–based tools, it cannot see non-compliant, RF-silent, or fiber-optic-tethered drones, and ADS-B/978 ingestion depends on a correctly configured local readsb instance.