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Comment by ehnto | Hacker News Reader

> The low-risk category, which accounts for the majority of hobbyist drones, will be managed through the CE mark, which is a process for products sold in Europe to ensure they meet health, safety and environmental standards.

How does this work for home-made drones? You wouldn't have a CE mark.

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https://www.caa.co.uk/Consumers/Unmanned-aircraft/Recreation... seems to suggest that's fine as long as you meet all the other criteria.

The CE mark is the commercial manufacturer's confirmation that they follow the EU regulations and have appropriately documented this.

A home-made drone would presumably still need to follow the same relevant regulations.

https://publicapps.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP2003_EU_Drone_Rules_... includes a reference to drones that are "privately-built and less than 250g"

And what exactly is the definition of 'toy drone'?

That could be the difference between having to register a ~30g 'Tiny Whoop' style drone or not.

That is up to the manufacturer. Anyway, you don't need to register the drone in this kind of case, only you as a pilot and even that is questionable in the case of Tiny Whoop which would be flown mostly inside (i believe that the regulation doesn't cover indoors).

You don't need to CE mark things that aren't sold.

> How does this work for home-made drones? You wouldn't have a CE mark.

I 'home-made' an iPhone app and gave it a CE mark myself.

Do CE markings apply to software like apps? Some quick searching seems to indicate it's mostly relevant to embedded software (and most search results are talking about medical devices embedded software).

If you write medical software that runs on an iPhone then your iPhone is now a medical device, subject to CE marking.

That's exactly why I asked, since the parent said "I 'home-made' an iPhone app and gave it a CE mark myself." and I don't know what the CE mark would even mean in that context.

That is a very simple take on the quite complex situation that still differs in different states of the EU.

> That is a very simple take on the quite complex situation that still differs in different states of the EU.

How complicated did you expect me to get in a HN comment?

But I believe it's fact - medical software that measures or calculates on an iPhone gives you a medical device, and a medical device needs to be regulated in the UK, EU, and most other places. I was on the team that did among the first work on regulating this properly.

Pretty much all electronics seem to need a CE certification in the EU. I'd be surprised if this wasn't already the case for drones.

There are likely to be relevant standards for drones to get them CE certified.

Yes, but you generally only need to CE mark something that you're selling. You can for the most part build and operate something yourself without needing to do it.

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