Travelling with BOE Stamp on airline, any thoughts?

gpierson

Hi to all, I'm traveling with my Board of Education Stamp and plan on carrying it in my carryon luggage on a trip to Colorado. Anybody had trouble with this before? I've got it wired up working on a project and it struck me how scary it might look to a TSA agent.

Thanks,
gpierson

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

You'll probably be subjected to the individual whims of whatever TSA agent you get. Why not just mail or UPS the project ahead and pick it up when you get to your destination?

-Phil

mklrobo

I was under the impression that when you fly inside the USA, you will have some searching, but not as bad as if you leave the country.
Worst case, you have to take it out and explain it. ? Embarassing to take my belt off, and shoes off in that long line..........

xanadu

They may not understand how these devices work but they know how to detect something harmful.

Everyone runs the risk of getting pulled into secondary, give yourself an extra hour before your boarding time and you shouldn't have any problems.

SRLM

I've never had any problems with the TSA. They rarely even pull me aside, or ask about electronics.

NWCCTV

I usually take mine with me and put everything in my TSA approved laptop case. Never had an issue. I have even taken batteries so I could work on projects while in flight.

Oldbitcollector (Jeff)

Toss some printed materials about the products you are carrying, unhook any batteries and you should get through TSA just fine. They are looking for things that contain explosives, and your BOE STAMP won't trigger any of those sensors. I've always been up-front with the TSA about what is in my bag, and why and while it's cost me a few extra minutes at times, (be prepared for that possibility) I've never had issues travelling.

Now, pulling out your kit and working on it on the plane *might* be another issue, but that's only because such a large group of the populous is stupid and have seen bombs on TV that look exactly like what you are working on. Do you coding and planning on the flight, better yet, kick back and enjoy the chance to relax and watch a movie on your laptop instead.

jazzed

Learn to program things that don't look like bombs.

bomber

One thing to note: Depending on what the TSA agents do to inspect the device, they may use some form of liquid chemical that reacts to any bomb chemicals. I specifically mentioned to them that my project was sensitive to liquids, but they did it anyways. I had to do a presentation at IMSH less than 12 hours after that, and I ran into some problems with the PropBOE during the presentation! The best advice I can give is to be completely open about it, and to note that they do not allow loose lithium batteries (like if you had a spare set).

John Board

I had a bit of a funny story about this. It was right after RoboCup Australia Nationals 2012 which was being held in Canberra, Australia and I was about to jump on my plane back to Brisbane. As hand luggage I had this 30x30x30cm metal behemoth of a robot that looked rather scary, and packed with all manner of fancy wiring - this went through fine. Then they searched my backpack and found some double-sided tape. We had used this tape to give the wheels some extra grip on the track. They pulled us up, and held us for about 10 minutes while they debated among themselves whether they would let us take the tape through.

In the end they let us take the tape and robot - but it's interesting to note that what sets them off is not always the most obvious!

-John

LoopyByteloose

It is all rather unpredictable.

Flying out of Tokyo, I had packets of soy sauce and a tube wasbi confiscated as carry on items due to issues about potential explosive hazard.

Flying into Bangkok during a nasty period of rioting and curfew, they didn't seem to care at all that I was carrying a micro-controller board with real time clock, LCD display, and a bank of relays... all of which might have been considered a bomb timer (it was a RTC set up to start and stop a bio-gas fueled engine in a pig farm.).

+++++++++

Tokyo seems very paranoid, Bangkok rather blaze. And if you fly through Hong Kong, don't leave a ticking clock in your luggage or it will likely arrive a day or two later at your destination. Apparently, any incoming luggage that ticks is set in a bomb quarantine for 24 hours in a far corner of the runways.

Not sure what might be going on the USA. Haven't been back for 10 or so years.


+++++++++
From what I have read, the new international standard (imposed first in the U.K) for carry-on electronic devices is that you have to demonstrate how they work be for you will allowed to board with them. It seems that if it is an actual bomb, the explosives will take up most of the space that the batteries would.

varnon

I haven't had any trouble bringing stuff on a flight within the US or to Brasil. They scan the bags and they may ask what it is, but I never seemed to arouse any suspicions.
Language barriers can be difficult when traveling internationally. I had a peristaltic pump in my bag when I went to Brasil. In Portuguese the words for pump and bomb are very similar. That could have been a tricky situation!

A colleague may have had a checked bag inspected. There wasn't an inspection slip, but it looked like things might have been removed and replaced in the bag. But it also may have been shuffled from from the bag being tossed around in the airport. I would bring the item in a carry on bag if you can. That way you at least have the chance to show people what it is.

Heater.

Loopy,

From what I have read, the new international standard (imposed first in the U.K) for carry-on electronic devices is that you have to demonstrate how they work be for you will allowed to board with them.

I have heard that to.

Does that mean I have to detonate my bomb at the departure gate in order to show them it works?!!

Sounds like a good deal. I can take out most of the passengers of my flight at the security check, perhaps a few more at rush times, if I get to be first in the queue. I get bonus points for taking out officious security people at the same time. And I don't have all that fuss and bother of boarding, finding my seat and squeezing in.

Genetix

Being that we now live in an age of paranoia the safest thing to do is have documentation with you. Terrorists are not going to document a project and you will also come off as being more professional. Most should wave you through or skim your documentation before waving you through.

Heater.

Genetix,

Being that we now live in an age of paranoia the safest thing to do is have documentation with you...Most should wave you through or skim your documentation before waving you through.

Do you realize what you have said there?

1) You are describing how to keep yourself safe from harassment from the authorities, TSA in the States for example.

2) There is no security at all. If presenting any likely looking paper that is not read or checked or understood gets you through then what about the bad guys? They can do the same.

This is all a farce. "Security theatre" as they call it.

Ken Gracey

You'll receive no problems from TSA for carrying electronics, even the kinds of exposed PCBs we make. They're not corrosive or explosive and they're not hand tools.

I travel frequently with complete quadcopters, transmitters and robots of all kinds in carry-on luggage. The only issue you'll encounter pertains to batteries, which are also supposed to be carried on now. Sometimes they'll be checked by their chromatography machines.

Ken Gracey

Heater.

Ken,

On the other hand there is this:
http://blog.tsa.gov/2011/08/wierd-science-traveling-with-homemade.html

Sadly I can't find a link to the famous story of the young female student that got a lot of grief at an airport because she wore some home made LED flashing gizmo on here shirt.

Sapphire

http://boingboing.net/2007/09/21/mit-student-arrested.html

Heater.

That's the one.

Ken Gracey

Heater. wrote: »

Ken,

On the other hand there is this:
http://blog.tsa.gov/2011/08/wierd-science-traveling-with-homemade.html

Sadly I can't find a link to the famous story of the young female student that got a lot of grief at an airport because she wore some home made LED flashing gizmo on here shirt.

Sure, there are exceptions and even the TSA staff doesn't know their own rules. I realize you're pointing out a unique situation and not suggesting it's not allowed to bring electronics on board.

If people functioned based on a set of worse-case situations being their governor of judgement then none of us would do anything. You couldn't take electronics on an airplane because an MIT student got arrested because she was "wearing a bomb" that blinked. You couldn't eat spinach because it once had E. coli and several people died from it. You wouldn't place a phone by your ear because of cancer concerns from electromagnetic fields.

This all seems silly, but we gotta LIVE! Take the electronics on the plane, know the TSA rules that don't prohibit them, and feel free to bring any electric tool you want (as long as it's under 6" - like the little Makita drivers with battery removed!). I've don't it over 200 times. And this question comes up on the forums all the time.

Ken Gracey

NWCCTV

the TSA staff doesn't know their own rules

I could not agree more. I fly quite often and have yet to see any 2 Airports that TSA Agents follow the same set of guidelines.