Loc8ter tracker for Mavic mod

[Mavic626]

I don't know if anyone has done this yet. But I have use this on my drones in the past. It is a handheld personal locator that will locate a tag when you are within 100 yards of it. It activates automatically when you press the remote which is the size of a credit card. I have seen a bunch of YouTube videos where people know the general location where their Mavic crash but could not find it in the brush or trees. I got this on Amazon and it is cheap insurance to locate my Mavic. What do you guys think? The locator Tag I hot glued on the back it is about the size of a dime and a quarter inch thick.

 

[geigy]

I put my loc8tor in that same spot and got gps dropout big time. I moved it to a rear strut instead and no problems. Mounted it vertically where it would not interfere with folding.

 

[Mavic626]

Thats really interesting, I thought the gps stuff was in the belly and the legs. I havent powered it up yet with this installed

 

[iamSteve]

I have not had chance to fit mine yet but planned to put it on the top in front of the battery.

 

[geigy]

Hold your hand over that area and you'll see the GPS bars go down. Seems like it should be ok, because the locator is off to the side, but it apparently interferes sometimes.

If you fly that way, be ready for ATTI to kick in and the wind will take it. That's what happened to me. Not serious if you are ready but I would avoid it altogether and move the locator.

 

[JLane]

GPS is in the top rear of the body. You could try the placing the Loc8tor on the top front instead. I put my Trackimo up there with extra strong velcro tape. No issues with GPS, compass, etc.

 

[LowlandFlyer]

I have got the Loc8tor glued tot the back just over the tail light like you. I have never gone into Atti, no problems with gps. With 60 flights.

 

[Mavic626]

Thanks for the tips, I ended up gluing it on the rear leg extension like this. I was inside and still able to get 10 satellite in the GPS. Do you think this would affect The GPS satellites being lower?

 

[geigy]

Looks good. I like it better than my arrangement. For one thing it is more balanced left to right. Keep us posted how it works out.

 

[jimapp]

!00 yards or so would not cut it for me. I think the investment in a good 3G trackimo is much better. Just keep away from the cheap 2G units.

 

[geigy]

The loc8tor has some significant advantages. It will work in areas with no cellular reception, requires no activation contract, has months of battery life, it is on continuously, weighs less, and is cheaper.

 

[geigy]

BTW - your loc8tor is different from mine. Mine is a circular tag about an inch in diameter - no LED status light since there is no on/off switch. I wonder if yours is a newer model.

 

[jimapp]

But does it not have limited range? I mean what happens if it "flies away?" becomes lost?...just sayin...

 

[geigy]

That's a good point, and it's true there are no guarantees. If it does, you can use the Loc8tor to extrapolate the last known location, and sweep out a 400 foot radius systematically along that line.

The situation where I think the Loc8tor would be the most helpful is a fairly common one, that I used to run into all the time with my non-smart drones: lost in the tall weeds. The loc8tor solves that problem very well - you can scan an acre of weeds very quickly, without having to walk every square meter of the field.

If the drone still has power, and you are in transmission range, DJI Go's find my drone functionality is also pretty good, including making the drone beep or flash its lights. So there's a lot of redundancy there.

That's not to say there aren't a lot of situations where having an active GPS/Cellular device like the Trackimo would be the best solution.

 

[iamSteve]

This is where I have put my Loc8tor on the Mavic......

 

[ROBDOG]

1. I have an Iphone 7 plus which keeps cutting off the camera and just showing a blank screen. It does work if I keep reconnecting.

2. When I use my Ipad mini this does not happen. I Have no cellular data on the Ipad mini. Has anyone had issues with the Iphone 7 Plus staying connected.

2. I took some footage today with my Ipad mini (which does not have cellular data) when I took the SD card out and placed in PC to show the footage nothing was there. How does the footage get transferred on to the SD card.

Many thanks Rob

 

[BorisTheSpider]

This is where I have put my Loc8tor on the Mavic......

View attachment 12565

I'm quite surprised you've not had issues with that - I tried it with my newly arrived loc8tor yesterday and saw big changes in the front compass sensor state reading when testing putting it where you have yours, likely due to the little magnet in the speaker on the loc8tor tag.

I have now found a location to mount mine that doesn't cause that (front extended landing gear leg) but nonetheless I'm interested to know if you've flown much without issues with it in that location.

 

[iamSteve]

I'm quite surprised you've not had issues with that - I tried it with my newly arrived loc8tor yesterday and saw big changes in the front compass sensor state reading when testing putting it where you have yours, likely due to the little magnet in the speaker on the loc8tor tag.

I have now found a location to mount mine that doesn't cause that (front extended landing gear leg) but nonetheless I'm interested to know if you've flown much without issues with it in that location.

To be honest not tried it yet......

But did not expect any issues as I looked at tear down videos and did not see any sensors above the gimbal they were all at the back.

If you tried and failed there then I may have to move it also. Ummm

 

[BorisTheSpider]

To be honest not tried it yet......

But did not expect any issues as I looked at tear down videos and did not see any sensors above the gimbal they were all at the back.

If you tried and failed there then I may have to move it also. Ummm

Yeah be careful - the front compass is under there. Monitoring the "sensor state" page for the compass in the app, I observed the back compass go totally out when I put the loc8tor near it (back end of the drone, on the top or near the back light), to the point where it generated a "compass interference" error and the drone wouldn't be able to fly.

Putting it where you have yours didn't do that and wasn't as bad as putting it at the back, however I did observe big changes in the compass noise reading when comparing the numbers with no loc8tor against those with it sat on the top front.

Strangely enough, the compass error/noise readings _decreased_ with it on the front when I tried, but that doesn't mean it would be OK since any change in the reading must mean the magnet in the tag is affecting the compass.

As I said, the change in readings was much less with the tag at the front than at the back, and you might be OK. Even if it seems good, possibly you'll decrease the compass SNR to the point where it'll be OK in magnetically clean areas but cause issues near power lines or metal objects etc which would have been within the tolerance had you not put the tag there.

In any case, at the least I would fly it cautiously the first couple of times keeping it somewhere that you're unlikely to lose it if it decides to go ATTI mode on you.

 

[iamSteve]

Do you have a photo where you have put yours?