Air Travel with electronics...
FlyingFishFinger
Posts: 461
So I'm flying back to school tomorrow and I want to bring some pretty hairy-looking PCB's back, like my Nixie clock with wires hanging out all over the place (a nice case needs the machine-shop at school)
Obviously I'm not going to bring it in my carry-on, but can they search / confiscate things out of checked baggage?
I spent way too much time on some of these boards for them to be snatched by TSA...
RAf
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UC Berkeley '12 EECS
CalSol: Berkeley Solar Car team
www.calsol.berkeley.edu
KJ6AWU
Obviously I'm not going to bring it in my carry-on, but can they search / confiscate things out of checked baggage?
I spent way too much time on some of these boards for them to be snatched by TSA...
RAf
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UC Berkeley '12 EECS
CalSol: Berkeley Solar Car team
www.calsol.berkeley.edu
KJ6AWU
Comments
It might be better to ship it UPS or something.
Yes.
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When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. -- HST
1uffakind.com/robots/povBitMapBuilder.php
1uffakind.com/robots/resistorLadder.php
I certainly don't want to make the decision for you, but I'll share my experiences.
I travel all the time with projects like you describe, hand-carried. I bring small and big robots, SLA batteries, and development tools on the airplane so I can work on documentation, code, etc during the flight. The biggest problem I encounter is people around me who are interested in the same stuff, so it's probably best to keep it in your bag not attract interest of any type (alerting those who are interested or concerned). But as far as carry-ons of this type being suitable I've had no problem. Read the TSA or airline rules to be sure. They're mostly looking for corrosive or reactive chemicals or agents. I'm usually willing to take the risk of having my parts arrive safely on the person rather than loosing them entirely in luggage handling. It's a risk assessment you need to make after reading the rules: is it worth having my person things taken away; do I have time to ship them; or can they go in luggage?
When I visit suppliers in Asia, distributors in Europe, or am simply traveling for pleasure I always have some Parallax products in my possession, carried in person. I try not to check anything - but it's usually the running shoes that throw my luggage into the check-in realm. Seems like after I pack an extra set of shoes for running my carry-on just gets too big.
Ken Gracey
Raf
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UC Berkeley '12 EECS
CalSol: Berkeley Solar Car team
www.calsol.berkeley.edu
KJ6AWU
Usually you get a chance to mail the items somewhere (if you have time). You just cannot bring them on the plane.
I'm not sure about checked bags ???
Bean.
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Use BASIC on the Propeller with the speed of assembly language.
PropBASIC thread http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=867134·
Rich H
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The Simple Servo Tester, a kit from Gadget Gangster.
No doubt about that. Take it from me, you'll have a completely different airport experience if you show up with a bag full of blinkies looking like this:
www.thesmokinggun.com/mugshots/nolte1.html
or this:
www.mugshots.com/Celebrity/Kid+Rock.htm
Also, if you change your ticket departure time from the original time, (say leaving·on an earlier flight)·within a certain time you are automatically tagged for "Special Processing"
Post Edited (kf4ixm) : 1/11/2010 10:17:14 PM GMT
And although I'm friendly-looking, I still get "special processing" quite regularly.
Here's something interesting about immigration's intelligence on people (off-topic). On a recent trip to China I returned to the HKG airport with some special gifts of dried duck and moon cakes (both from China, not Hong Kong). I hadn't really given much thought to whether or not this would pose a problem, so I declared it on my immigration form. The immigration department seized it all in San Francisco and although this wasn't too much of a surprise, they also asked me about the "electronics business" in which I'm involved. On a prior trip I brought back a number of electronic samples (also had to be declared) and a note had been attached to my record on the prior trip. Records stick with people, too, so don't become a troublemaker by accident.
Anyway, moon cakes are acceptable if they are from Hong Kong, but not from China. The immigration officials don't know the difference so they take them all. And I think the dried duck poses a risk of avian bird flu, so it's taken away as well. That's okay, really, but it's very difficult to throw a gift in the garbage in front of your host who is helping you check into the airport.
Ken Gracey
Parallax Inc.
P.S. Going to Hong Kong on Sunday. This time I'm not carrying anything except myself, a change of clothing, and of course (some electronic products).
Post Edited (Ken Gracey (Parallax)) : 1/11/2010 10:51:39 PM GMT
Thanks!
Raf
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UC Berkeley '12 EECS
CalSol: Berkeley Solar Car team
www.calsol.berkeley.edu
KJ6AWU
As a side note, if you're willing to do a little bit of searching you can find the accidentally released document lost a few years ago from the TSA detailing their procedures at the checkpoints.
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Powered by enthusiasm
"C-4 vs 4 C's" LOLz what a laugh ,... But I was smart I brought the data sheets with me to prove the batts were not Li based and I Proved they were dead .. thus almost harm less ...
documentation Is a life saver !!!!
Here is the kicker ! I was wearing my Ham HT on my belt the whole time and they never asked why Morse code and voices were coming from me ...
go figure it was LAX ...
Now as you are aware from recant events that now is the worse time to push your luck ..
If it was 4 weeks ago I would say bring it on cary on . but there is IMHO no way TSA is going to let any thing pass for a while ..
You might want to ship it!!!
Or Go By train Like I now do .. riding the rails solves many issues ..
I noticed you are involved with Berkeley .. Put some college stickers On it !!! ..
Berkeley is well known so call it " homework " ....
Peter KG6LSE
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"Carpe Ducktum" "seize the tape!!"
peterthethinker.com/tesla/Venom/Venom.html
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway. —Tanenbaum, Andrew S.
LOL
Okay, what's the story?
I once was hassled for carrying a Gerber multi-tool on an international flight in the Philippines. Then they saw my machete... In the end, I was allowed to carry both!
Rich H
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The Simple Servo Tester, a kit from Gadget Gangster.
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24 bit LCD Breakout Board now in. $24.99 has backlight driver and touch sensitive decoder.
It's not "the" story, it's many stories. I think I must have a certain look about me that overly excites authority figures.
Thanks for the help
Raf
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UC Berkeley '12 EECS
CalSol: Berkeley Solar Car team
www.calsol.berkeley.edu
KJ6AWU
Post Edited (FlyingFishFinger) : 1/12/2010 5:44:21 PM GMT
humanoido
Post Edited (humanoido) : 1/12/2010 6:02:02 PM GMT
Ken Gracey
Parallax Inc.
China and HK are looking for other things. I had Chinese dudes come up to me several times and flash a temperature gun in my face. They are more worried about people with fevers, H1N virus, etc. Every country is different. Knowing how hot I am on those Asian Boeing planes with all the air vents removed, I asked the dude, what was my temperature? He showed me the gun's faceplate. It read in Chinese and English. It said, "Temp Lower Than Normal." That was a surprise.
humanoido
One thing that you can count on is inconsistency by the Tupperware Stacking Associates (TSA). The problem is that you might get your project through security at one location, but it might get taken away on the return flight. Its up to the discretion of the person with the 8th grade education ensuring your safety.
Google the video of the Newark Airport security breach last weekend. They were looking for the guy who walked the wrong way through security, the cameras at TSA were watching, but no one bothered to actually make sure they were recording. The TSA employee walked away from his post. Luckily Continental had someone who had the common sense to make sure a tape was in the machine and recording. 5 hours later the terminal was open again. I'd love to hear more of the stuff that goes on that we don't find out about.
Got a bit off topic there, but happy to hear some guys are able to bring their electronics with them.
Alex
Ken
Anyway, to avoid any uncomfortable moments, I put everything under the plane. On the way out (from Midway), nothing had been touched. When I got back home, my bag had been re-arraged and the USB connector on one of my boards was bent a little. Nothing was missing.
So... they are looking at everything.
Leave plenty of room... they are in a hurry and just shove everything back in[noparse]:)[/noparse]
Rich
given my discomfort with flying. (Granted statically I've got a better chance of being killed
driving in my own town.) -- As I've discovered, my anixety with flying should have been with
getting on the plane, not the flight itself.
Here's one not to try... Traveling with 100+ RFID tags in your carry on.
They tend to get folks in the screening area a little excited as they light up bright green on
the X-ray, and block out the rest of the image. (That is, except the cable coming from a
surge strip in the same bag.) [noparse]:)[/noparse]
OBC
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New to the Propeller?
Visit the: The Propeller Pages @ Warranty Void.
Post Edited (Oldbitcollector) : 1/13/2010 2:48:57 PM GMT
(Then add the keys to your keychain)
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Don't visit my new website...
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24 bit LCD Breakout Board now in. $24.99 has backlight driver and touch sensitive decoder.
OBC,
As I've always said, the most dangerous part about flying is driving to the airport.
Gadgetman,
There are "TSA friendly" locks that have a combination to keep the honest people honest along with a the ability to be opened with a key that TSA has in case they need to look inside. To me the locks were never anything more than to keep the zippers from coming apart while your luggage is thrown from bin to bin.
"TSA" and "friendly" are hard to use in the same sentence.
Alex
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