Additional GPS Tracker

Angel1058 · Apr 1, 2017

hi

I had a Phantom 2 ( still have ) - but with the reports of many flyaways, i attached a separate ( cheap / small) GPS tracker to it, so i could ping the tracker and hopefully, it would tell me how far back to china my Phantom had made it before crashing. Fortunately, never had to use it. Would you advocate doing the same with my Mavic? It's a stunning bit of kit which I'd hate to lose, and there are a few youtubes mentions flyaways. Thoughts?

Cheers

Macmad · Apr 1, 2017

Definitely worth the small investment, to enable you to track your bird if all fails, and you end up in a flyaway situation.
I am pretty new to the Mavic Pro, and I have ordered a TrackR Bravo for my own piece of mind, which despite being a small disc like tracker is pretty accurate, and less than £25 is value for money.

Angel1058 · Apr 1, 2017

Macmad said:
....and I have ordered a TrackR Bravo for my own piece of mind, which despite being a small disc like tracker is pretty accurate, and less than £25 is value for money.

That answers it then. I have a Chinese TKStar - again, cheap, does the job. Will look at the one you have though - good to have alternatives.

Angel1058 · Apr 1, 2017

Angel1058 said:
That answers it then. I have a Chinese TKStar - again, cheap, does the job. Will look at the one you have though - good to have alternatives.

It is a blue tooth tracker - how will that help if the mavic clears off miles away? Or have it got it wrong? The one i am using - you can text it, and it gives you a google map location back. - accurate to within a few feet.

Macmad · Apr 1, 2017

I think I have ordered the wrong tracking device, Thanks Angel1058, it's mine that is Bluetooth based which needs to utilise crowd GPS, it's not a concept I am familiar with, and will be purchasing a real time tracking device, the TKStar does look like it ticks all the boxes.
I am looking for a waterproof small tracking device with adequate battery life.

Aerial Gopher · Apr 3, 2017

Oh why does everyone think these little TrackR and similar devices give GPS? They are Bluetooth. Essentially when your phone can connect to it, you can probably see the thing unless its in brush, etc. Why would you want to run an app that is used for crowd sourced locating anyways. I am sorry, I paid for those electrons in my battery, I am not doing any work for you, especially when you drain my battery, no matter how little you are taking! :-{P <-- That was an accident.. its a smiley with a moustache and tounge sticking out! :-{) :-{|

GPS trackers are good, if you have cell phone coverage..... but, if you fly in the middle of no where, and there is no cell phone coverage, you cant find out where anyways. There is only one solution left.... and I am working on solving this... I actually know what I want to do, I just need to make it small enough to put on a drone.

Grey Wolf · Apr 3, 2017

Macmad said:
Definitely worth the small investment, to enable you to track your bird if all fails, and you end up in a flyaway situation.
I am pretty new to the Mavic Pro, and I have ordered a TrackR Bravo for my own piece of mind, which despite being a small disc like tracker is pretty accurate, and less than £25 is value for money.

I made the mistake two years ago by buying the TrackR device for my Inspire.
Total waste. It's Bluetooth only and crowd sourced. Yeah right !
Bluetooth works for 30 feet. End of story.

Davidss · Apr 3, 2017

There is a previous thread which contains relevant advice. This is the Loc8tor UK link.
Yes, you do have to be reasonably close to get a response, but the other posts in the thread explain how to interrogate your mobile device to get 'reasonably close', from the flight record.

Regards.

Aerial Gopher · Apr 9, 2017

Anyone have a Android Watch? Wanna see if you can install an app that can share its GPS location with another device, being an android phone, and see if it can do that over wifi or Bluetooth. Even Cellular data would be nice. But there are many solutions that offer cellular and GPS. I would like to find a cheap method using a wifi in areas that there is no cellular coverage. I would also entertain an idea that can just basically send out an SSID and use a directional antenna to find it.

Like Kid smart watches that have GPS tracking, if its an android watch, you can install the app, but I cant find any that use wifi or Bluetooth for this sharing.
Any ideas?

BorisTheSpider · Apr 9, 2017

Has anyone tried the Loc8tor that can give some feedback? I have a cellphone network dependent GPS tracker already, but it would be nice to have something that worked without cellular coverage as well, Marco Polo is so expensive and doesn't seem to be sold in Europe (possibly it's using frequencies that are not permitted here?) so the Loc8tor seems to be the next best thing and much cheaper.

Jordi555 · May 9, 2017

I had this on my p3a
Bolted it onto my mavic pro at the weekend and after a few test flights l'm confident that it's ok
.

jimapp · May 9, 2017

I think trackimo is the best bang for the buck, but only if you get the 3G unit
Best 3G GPS Tracking Device - Trackimo

MikeyNick · May 9, 2017

I hope the next drone comes with a sim slot. I hate the idea of having to have yet another thing that I need to charge, make sure works, attach before take off, etc etc. I suppose I could probably wire something to the PDB on the Mavic but it'd feel like blasphemy modding such a beautiful demonstration of engineering

dbyantis · May 9, 2017

Aerial Gopher said:
Oh why does everyone think these little TrackR and similar devices give GPS? They are Bluetooth. Essentially when your phone can connect to it, you can probably see the thing unless its in brush, etc. Why would you want to run an app that is used for crowd sourced locating anyways. I am sorry, I paid for those electrons in my battery, I am not doing any work for you, especially when you drain my battery, no matter how little you are taking! :-{P <-- That was an accident.. its a smiley with a moustache and tounge sticking out! :-{) :-{|

GPS trackers are good, if you have cell phone coverage..... but, if you fly in the middle of no where, and there is no cell phone coverage, you cant find out where anyways. There is only one solution left.... and I am working on solving this... I actually know what I want to do, I just need to make it small enough to put on a drone.

An Engineering friend of mine built a tiny UHF transmitter emits a signal on a"know channel", like 409.8, combined with a receiver to listen for the signal, you can sweep the antenna for location. I put one in my Kit quad, not sure if I would go to the trouble for the MP. The App provides pretty accurate location without the weight.

Islandguy27 · May 9, 2017

I lost my Mavic at sunset awhile ago. It clipped the top of some Australian Pines but I had no idea where it was. I looked at my flight log and went back the next day looking for it. It was within 20 feet of its last know position. $311.00 later I was good to go. Lol

Marlin Hunter · May 13, 2017

I have lost drones two times. Both times I was using a gps tracker. I was able to find the drones in dense brush with-in minutes. On the Mavic I attach the tracker to the top rear of the battery with heavy Velcro that is installed on each battery. The tracker stayed attached in both crashes and survived without damage. I hope not to find out how it would do in a Mavic crash.

Cut.Aussie · May 13, 2017

Marlin Hunter said:
I have lost drones two times. Both times I was using a gps tracker. I was able to find the drones in dense brush with-in minutes. On the Mavic I attach the tracker to the top rear of the battery with heavy Velcro that is installed on each battery. The tracker stayed attached in both crashes and survived without damage. I hope not to find out how it would do in a Mavic crash.

If you attached it to that area behind the battery then your right on top of the gps antenna