Over the last 25 years, I’ve lost aircraft in the Pacific Ocean and the great Mojave desert. Vagabonds, drifters and fishermen got my name off the P-Touch labels and all returned my gear often with a really good story!
I find the approach interesting, but I believe that with proper preparation before the flight, you can find your copter again without this tool. Every remote control that uses the optenTX or edgeTX operating system gives the user the option of logging the telemetry data so that in the event of a crash the last GPS position before the connection is lost is saved. With this GPS position and a buzzer with its own battery (e.g. the ViFly Finder2) it should actually be possible to find any copter that uses a 5.8Ghz FPV system, even if the flight battery has come loose in the crash. I myself set the start of the log function to the arming switch on my remote control and since then have found every copter relatively quickly after a failsave with the help of the last GPS position.
Yes, often that will be enough to find it. But if you are in the mountains there are almost always waterfalls and wind as well as trees and shrubs. They all work together to make hearing a beeper almost impossible unless you are VERY close to it. If you have a good sat lock (say 20+) you should get a good enough gps location from the telemetry data to get you pretty close depending on when the last update was written to the log and how fast the quad was going and the current altitude. If you are 100 meters up and going 80 kph when you battery dies then the quad will travel good number of meters past the last location sent to the TX log. If you know the direction of travel you could determine a likely direction to spread the search in. It is quite possible to find using just the logs it just might be a harder / longer search at the end to find it. Where using the Marco Polo locator it should be pretty quick, even if you only know roughly where to start looking. It is a bit pricey as a method of speeding up the search, depends how much your quads cost and how much you want to guarantee being able to find it.
@@FalconRadFPV I hadn't considered the extremely loud background noise of the waterfalls in your area. I find it understandable that in this case the search can be hopeless even with a loud buzzer. But wouldn't it be possible to use a receiver which uses a 2nd power supply (1s battery) for the beacon mode? The TBS Crossfire nano diversity RX has this feature. So far I haven't had a need to use it.
People like you are sort of a bummer. You just assume something works for some people it works for everyone in every situation. It's a dangerous way to think. Come on man, no one wants to lose a quad.
Pretty interesting little device indeed, dude! 😊 After the 100km mark Wezley Varty did with ELRS 2.4ghz I wander if the devs couldn't insert something like that in their code... Anyway, stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
Hey MC, thanks for the comment. 👋👍 Crossfire has a very rudimentary version of this built into the full size crossfire TX but it's limited to rssi basicly, where as this locator unit will actually show a directional arrow towards the drone's location rather than having to use a DIY directional thing to pan around searching for the highest rssi reading like with crossfire. With how active the ELRS devs are I wonder if they could do something like this. I think it would still require a piece of hardware to carryout the search, but I'm sure they could make the RX put out a beacon when out of contact with the TX.
If there is phone network signal in the area, the better way to find it is attach a mobile phone sending the coords in loop to a server database. I have developed a very simple app to do it. You only need a small and light phone to put into your quad
We have these at our flying club. They are junk. You should put your drone in the woods and watch what happens. From the website in small print "† Ranges shown are typical under controlled testing. Your results will vary with your actual conditions." And the cost of everything then to add more trackers is crazy 100 bucks for a spare tracker. I love your videos and seen how you lost some drones you should put one in the woods then your opinion will probably change. I resorted to using the tracki gps tracker i rather pay 20 bucks a month knowing i will get my equipment back.
Do these gsm gps trackers work without interfering the 900mHz control link? I've always wondered if those would work wuthout causing random failsaifes. You would need one that only sends a signal once failsafe is active
@@ariafpv I use it with crossfire, dragon link 433, and 2.4. I have no problems at all with radio link and video links and for the price you can't beat it.
This trackers need cellular network connection. I doubt there is any in place where faclonrad flies. Honestly, even in Texas there are places where i fly and have almost no connection...
When you are flying the RF tag will be in standby mode. So it doesn't transmit. Once the locator is tuned on and begins searching for the RF tag it will send out a signal that the RF tag "hears" and only then does it begin to transmit a beacon signal. This way it will never interfere with any electronics.
Both analog and digital will go over 10km. The difference is is you lose signal analog comes back as soon as the obstruction is gone where digital takes longer to restart the video signal. The whole trick with long range is knowing where you are at all times so that you can make sure that you don't lose video (line of sight).
Over the last 25 years, I’ve lost aircraft in the Pacific Ocean and the great Mojave desert. Vagabonds, drifters and fishermen got my name off the P-Touch labels and all returned my gear often with a really good story!
Ha, ha, that's awesome! I love hearing stories like that.
I find the approach interesting, but I believe that with proper preparation before the flight, you can find your copter again without this tool. Every remote control that uses the optenTX or edgeTX operating system gives the user the option of logging the telemetry data so that in the event of a crash the last GPS position before the connection is lost is saved. With this GPS position and a buzzer with its own battery (e.g. the ViFly Finder2) it should actually be possible to find any copter that uses a 5.8Ghz FPV system, even if the flight battery has come loose in the crash. I myself set the start of the log function to the arming switch on my remote control and since then have found every copter relatively quickly after a failsave with the help of the last GPS position.
Yes, often that will be enough to find it. But if you are in the mountains there are almost always waterfalls and wind as well as trees and shrubs. They all work together to make hearing a beeper almost impossible unless you are VERY close to it. If you have a good sat lock (say 20+) you should get a good enough gps location from the telemetry data to get you pretty close depending on when the last update was written to the log and how fast the quad was going and the current altitude. If you are 100 meters up and going 80 kph when you battery dies then the quad will travel good number of meters past the last location sent to the TX log. If you know the direction of travel you could determine a likely direction to spread the search in. It is quite possible to find using just the logs it just might be a harder / longer search at the end to find it. Where using the Marco Polo locator it should be pretty quick, even if you only know roughly where to start looking. It is a bit pricey as a method of speeding up the search, depends how much your quads cost and how much you want to guarantee being able to find it.
@@FalconRadFPV I hadn't considered the extremely loud background noise of the waterfalls in your area. I find it understandable that in this case the search can be hopeless even with a loud buzzer.
But wouldn't it be possible to use a receiver which uses a 2nd power supply (1s battery) for the beacon mode? The TBS Crossfire nano diversity RX has this feature. So far I haven't had a need to use it.
People like you are sort of a bummer. You just assume something works for some people it works for everyone in every situation. It's a dangerous way to think. Come on man, no one wants to lose a quad.
WOW! Pretty cool searching device! Great review!
Pretty interesting little device indeed, dude! 😊
After the 100km mark Wezley Varty did with ELRS 2.4ghz I wander if the devs couldn't insert something like that in their code...
Anyway, stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
Hey MC, thanks for the comment. 👋👍 Crossfire has a very rudimentary version of this built into the full size crossfire TX but it's limited to rssi basicly, where as this locator unit will actually show a directional arrow towards the drone's location rather than having to use a DIY directional thing to pan around searching for the highest rssi reading like with crossfire. With how active the ELRS devs are I wonder if they could do something like this. I think it would still require a piece of hardware to carryout the search, but I'm sure they could make the RX put out a beacon when out of contact with the TX.
If there is phone network signal in the area, the better way to find it is attach a mobile phone sending the coords in loop to a server database. I have developed a very simple app to do it. You only need a small and light phone to put into your quad
cool, interesting idea!
shots fired :)
This is a really cool gadget. And it's not that expensive either
Been using the Marco Polo system for a couple years now with my long range quad. Luckily I haven't had to use it. 😅
Nice that's a good run with no loses!
Grate love from india
So you don't have to yell Marco Polo to find it... nice
No it does it all for you, the locator yells "marco" and the RF tag responds with "polo", sort of...
Whattt? I'll never lose a drone again.
Long story short if you don't have the last known gps and a beeper on the drone - it is lost.
Unless you have a tracker like this on it, then ya.
We have these at our flying club. They are junk. You should put your drone in the woods and watch what happens. From the website in small print "† Ranges shown are typical under controlled testing. Your results will vary with your actual conditions." And the cost of everything then to add more trackers is crazy 100 bucks for a spare tracker. I love your videos and seen how you lost some drones you should put one in the woods then your opinion will probably change. I resorted to using the tracki gps tracker i rather pay 20 bucks a month knowing i will get my equipment back.
Do these gsm gps trackers work without interfering the 900mHz control link? I've always wondered if those would work wuthout causing random failsaifes. You would need one that only sends a signal once failsafe is active
@@ariafpv I use it with crossfire, dragon link 433, and 2.4. I have no problems at all with radio link and video links and for the price you can't beat it.
This trackers need cellular network connection. I doubt there is any in place where faclonrad flies. Honestly, even in Texas there are places where i fly and have almost no connection...
No it does not need any cell connection. It's ma stand alone system that works anywhere.
When you are flying the RF tag will be in standby mode. So it doesn't transmit. Once the locator is tuned on and begins searching for the RF tag it will send out a signal that the RF tag "hears" and only then does it begin to transmit a beacon signal. This way it will never interfere with any electronics.
$350 is cheap insurance for a $1000+ quad
This would be great for my old lady's car. 😈
Ha Ha ha
Is analog better for distance flights? Cause a caddx vista says it can only go 4km. Or can that be boosted with better antennas?
Both analog and digital will go over 10km. The difference is is you lose signal analog comes back as soon as the obstruction is gone where digital takes longer to restart the video signal. The whole trick with long range is knowing where you are at all times so that you can make sure that you don't lose video (line of sight).
Thank you, it looks useless at all
???