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DroneScan Pro Explained: From Remote ID Broadcast To Live Radar
DroneScan Pro is a real-time drone detection app paired with a Laravel radar platform. The phone listens for Direct Remote ID broadcasts, decodes them, and puts every nearby aircraft on a live map. The backend turns those detections into alerts, searchable flight history and a web radar dashboard. This page explains exactly how both halves work.
What DroneScan Pro Is
Two products, one pipeline.
DroneScan Pro is a passive drone detection system. It does not jam, intercept or interfere with any aircraft. It simply listens for the identification signal that modern drones are legally required to broadcast, decodes it, and shows you what is flying nearby.
The system has two halves. The mobile app, built in Flutter for Android and iOS, does the listening: it scans the airwaves for Direct Remote ID messages and renders every aircraft it finds on a detailed map. The Laravel platform does the remembering: it receives telemetry from the app, stores it per user, drives a live web radar dashboard, sends alerts when a new drone appears, and manages accounts, devices and subscriptions.
You can use the app entirely on its own for local awareness. Connecting it to the platform is what adds a persistent record, a desktop view, and alerting that keeps working when your phone is in your pocket.
How Remote ID Detection Works
Drones announce themselves. DroneScan Pro is built to hear them.
Remote ID is often described as a digital licence plate for drones. Under EU Commission Delegated Regulation 2019/945 and Implementing Regulation 2019/947, and under the FAA's Part 89 rule in the United States, unmanned aircraft must broadcast their identity and position while flying. The message format is defined by the ASTM F3411 specification and the European ASD-STAN prEN 4709-002 standard.
These broadcasts are open, unencrypted and local. Any receiver in range can decode them, which is exactly what DroneScan Pro does across four different radio paths:
The most widely supported path, and the only one available on iOS. Short range but present on virtually every phone.
Extended advertisements carry a fuller message set at greater distance. Requires a handset whose chipset supports BT5 extended scanning.
Remote ID data embedded in Wi-Fi beacon frames, common on larger commercial airframes. Android only.
Neighbour Awareness Networking, used by several manufacturers. Android only, and NAN scans do not expose the broadcaster's MAC address.
What a single broadcast contains
When DroneScan Pro decodes a message, it can surface any field the aircraft chooses to transmit:
| Field | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Serial number / UAS ID | The unique identifier of the airframe or its Remote ID module |
| Position and altitude | Live latitude, longitude, barometric and geodetic altitude, height above take-off |
| Speed and direction | Horizontal and vertical speed, heading, and derived track over ground |
| UA type | Aeroplane, helicopter or multirotor, captive balloon, glider, and other classifications |
| Operator ID | The registered operator identifier where the aircraft broadcasts one |
| Pilot position | The take-off or current ground-station location, when transmitted |
| Operation description | Free-text purpose of the flight, such as survey or inspection work |
| Emergency status | Whether the aircraft is signalling an emergency condition |
Honest limitations
Detection is bounded by physics and platform APIs, and it is worth being clear about that. On iOS, only Bluetooth 4 scanning is available, because no public API exposes the required Wi-Fi scanning; CoreBluetooth also hides the broadcaster's MAC address. On Android, Wi-Fi NAN scans omit the MAC too, so an aircraft broadcasting over both NAN and another technology may appear as two separate records. Older drones with no Remote ID module, or aircraft flying outside broadcast range, will not appear at all.
Mobile App Features
What the Flutter app does on the device, in the field, often with no signal.
Detection and tracking
Continuous scanning across Bluetooth and Wi-Fi paths, with each aircraft grouped into a single tracked record.
Full breakdown of every broadcast field, updating live as new messages arrive.
Name aircraft you see regularly and review the flight path each one has taken during the session.
Model recognition that turns raw type codes into recognisable airframe descriptions.
On-device compass so the map orients to the direction you are actually facing.
A foreground service and wake-lock keep detection running with the screen off, so nothing is missed.
Maps and airspace
OpenStreetMap, vector tiles and additional providers, so the map suits both urban and remote operations.
Load your own offline tile packs and keep full map detail with no mobile data at all.
Visited areas are cached automatically, so returning to a site works even when coverage drops.
Restricted, controlled and special-use airspace highlighted directly on the map.
Draw an area that matters to you and get alerted when an aircraft enters it.
Live GPS position and accuracy so you can judge distance to any detected aircraft at a glance.
Alerts, data and integrations
Local notifications plus a configurable alarm tone when a new aircraft or a zone breach is detected.
Export a full detection log for reporting, evidence or later analysis, and share it straight from the app.
Ingest ADS-B traffic from a Stratux receiver over GDL90 UDP, putting crewed aircraft on the same map.
Periodic status reporting keeps the web dashboard aware that a scanner is alive and collecting.
Localised UI, with the backend portal also serving English and Greek.
An in-app showcase walks new users through scanning, the map and the detail panels.
Purchases and device identity
Subscriptions are handled natively on each platform: Google Play Billing on Android and StoreKit on iOS, with purchases verified server-side before any premium feature unlocks. Each installation generates a private device identifier stored in the iOS Keychain or Android encrypted storage, plus a separate stable device ID, so entitlements survive reinstalls without ever requiring a personal email address.
Laravel Platform Features
What happens once a detection leaves the phone.
Radar ingestion and live dashboard
Scanners post detections to /api/drone-radar/ingest. API keys are never stored in plain text, only as SHA-256 hashes.
A browser dashboard streams current aircraft positions, operator locations and tracks without needing the phone in hand.
Recent detections are queryable and replayable, so you can reconstruct what flew over and when.
Each scanner reports in on a schedule, making it obvious when a field device has gone quiet.
First sighting of an unrecognised airframe can trigger an immediate email notification.
Forward detection events into your own systems, with a built-in test endpoint to verify the integration.
Multi-tenant telemetry storage
Radar telemetry is high-volume and write-heavy, and mixing it into a shared relational table gets slow quickly. DroneScan Pro instead gives every account its own isolated SQLite database for events and heartbeats, while the main database keeps only accounts, plans, devices and API keys. One user's traffic cannot slow down another's, and a scheduled cleanup task prunes events older than seven days so storage stays predictable.
Accounts, devices and billing
Email and password registration with verification, plus one-click Google sign-in.
Register, rename, link and remove scanner devices, and generate a per-device API key on demand.
Stripe for the web, Google Play Billing for Android and Apple StoreKit for iOS, all resolving to one entitlement.
A single plan resolver decides Free versus Platinum from whichever source is authoritative, with expiry awareness.
Redeemable codes for trials, promotions and partner distribution, with usage limits and expiry.
Automated invoice and statement generation for partners, with PDF output and earnings tracking.
Operations
The platform also ships a UAS reference database for known airframes, an AdminLTE-based admin area for user management, transactional email for installation and subscription events, scheduled console commands for Play Store acknowledgement and partner billing, and role-based access separating standard users from administrators.
End-To-End Architecture
From radio wave to browser, in five steps.
A drone transmits Remote ID over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi as required by regulation.
The Flutter app receives the advertisement and decodes it into a structured aircraft record.
The app posts to the Laravel API. The key hash is matched and the plan entitlement checked.
Events and heartbeats are written to that account's isolated tenant database.
The web dashboard reads live and historical data for maps, replay and alerts.
Why it is split this way
Detection has to work offline, instantly, and with no network round trip, so it lives on the device. Persistence, alerting and multi-device views need a server, so they live in Laravel. The boundary between them is a small, authenticated JSON API, which means the app stays useful with no account at all, and the platform stays useful even if you later swap in a different scanner client.
Who Uses DroneScan Pro
Situational awareness, not surveillance.
Understand routine drone activity over a site and get alerted to anything unusual.
Monitor airspace over crowds and coordinate a response when an aircraft appears where it should not be.
Confirm your own Remote ID broadcast is transmitting correctly before a job or a check ride.
Keep a persistent record of nearby unmanned traffic near sensitive approaches and perimeters.
Export structured CSV data or pipe detections into an existing system through the API and webhooks.
See what is flying overhead, learn the standards, and understand the airspace around you.
Privacy And Data Handling
What is collected, and what deliberately is not.
DroneScan Pro only receives signals that aircraft broadcast publicly and openly by regulatory design. It does not decrypt anything, does not connect to any drone, and does not transmit toward aircraft.
On the account side, the platform is built so that using the mobile app requires no personal email address at all: each installation is identified by a generated device identifier held in secure device storage. A portal account is only needed for the web dashboard and web billing. Telemetry is isolated per account rather than pooled, and detection events are automatically pruned after seven days.
Full details are set out in the privacy policy, alongside the terms of service and a self-service data deletion route.
Frequently Asked Questions
The questions we get asked most often.
Does DroneScan Pro detect every drone?
No, and no passive Remote ID receiver can. It detects aircraft that broadcast Remote ID and are within radio range. Drones with no Remote ID module, or those out of range, will not appear.
Do I need a special receiver or antenna?
No. A supported smartphone is enough. Handsets that support Bluetooth 5 extended advertisements will detect more, and further away, than Bluetooth 4 only devices.
Why does the iOS version detect less than Android?
iOS exposes no public API for the Wi-Fi scanning that Remote ID also uses, so the iOS app is limited to Bluetooth 4. This is a platform restriction, not an app limitation.
Is it legal to use?
Yes. Remote ID broadcasts are unencrypted and intended to be publicly receivable. The app listens only, and never transmits toward or interferes with any aircraft.
Do I need an account to use the app?
No. The app works standalone for local detection. An account is needed for the web radar dashboard, stored flight history and email alerts.
What does Platinum add?
Live radar ingestion and the web dashboard, history and replay, alert zones and the advanced monitoring features.
Can I get my data out?
Yes. Export detections to CSV from the app, or pull them through the API and webhooks on the platform side.
Where does my telemetry live?
In a database isolated to your account, not pooled with other users. Detection events older than seven days are pruned automatically.
Try It Yourself
DroneScan Pro is live on Google Play. Install it, walk outside, and see what is actually flying above you right now. The demo video shows a real detection end to end.