Marco Polo tracker placement

[sonof40]

Should work. That motor will work slightly harder.

 

[lrsn]

I read through most of this thread but haven't found where anyone found their lost drone that was equipped with a Marco Polo. There is absolutely no Cellular Service where I live so a Marco Polo was my saving grace! A year ago the day after I received a Marco Polo and charged it I sent my month old P4 off way past the range of the Marco Polo. After losing a faint signal back to my Remote I jumped in my truck with the receiver that wakes up the Marco Polo. I never read the receiver manual but just turned it on. I couldn't believe it but driving down the mountain gravel road in the basic direction that I last saw my P4 I started to receive a faint signal. I quickly found that the receiver was very intuitive and I abandoned my truck and started walking into heavily forested mountainous terrain with extremely high cliffs, deep ravines and 125' high trees following the arrow on the receiver from which the audible and visual signal was getting stronger. Many times I had to circumvent ravines and cliffs but eventually the receiver beeped and the arrow pointed 90° to my left. I walked about 20+ feet and there under a fallen tree trunk laying upside down barely visible was my P4. It had hit the top of a 125' Ponderosa Tree and on the way down had thrown the P4 Battery about 12' away. This is an area that I had never explored before that within a month or so would have been under up to 10' of snow. Now I have a Marco Polo permanently installed on my repaired P4 and my Inspire 1V2 and will install another on my new Mavic Pro.

 

[John Locke]

I velcro mine to the back, behind the battery, just above the rear light. Seems to work good, no problems in 6mos.

 

[Pixar]

mine has been like this for about 6 months now. I like this way so when I fold the leg it fits in my case .
so far no problems.

 

[hammick]

I received my Marco Polo Ultralight. Looks like they changed the antenna position on the receiver. Makes a side mount more difficult. Any reason this location would cause any problems? From what I have read the GPS receiver is in the back. Thanks.

 

[hammick]

It looked too goofy up top so I put it here. Wrapped the antenna around and under the velcroe to keep it steady. Hopefully I won't lose range doing this but I don't trust the antenna to stay put otherwise.

 

[hammick]

I checked with Tim at Eureka Products and he advised against wrapping the antenna lead like in the photo above. Said it would cause a ground plane. I unwrapped it and used some electric tape to support it. Tested both ways and range better now. Range in my neighborhood is less than 1/4 mile but I guess that is to be expected.

Flew tonight in a stiff wind and it worked great. Antenna didn't move.

It was the first time I experienced the MPP getting swept away quickly and unable to fly against the wind. From my research here I knew to flip it into Sport mode and brought her home safely.

 

[lrsn]

Keep in mind that the stated 2 mile range is with the extended in a vertical position. This is best for both range and close up tracking, having the antenna horizontal will reduce both range and accuracy.


Sent from my iPhone using MavicPilots

From my experience most of the Phantoms that I've found or helped find ended upside down with the antenna in a vertical position. I've not been involved with a crashed Mavic Pro yet.

 

[SA2112]

Been flying quads for a long time and lurking here for a while but joined today.

Received my Marco Polo tracker two weeks ago. While I live in Phoenix, I fly mostly in mountainous areas of northern Arizona and GSM coverage is usually terrible to non-existant up there. Verizon's CDMA coverage is great, but that wouldn't matter if Trackimo's GSM based signal couldn't hit a cell-tower so the obvious choice was Marco Polo. Pretty sweet device as determined after a few tests.

Although I adhere to FAA Part 107 rules, I'm not FAA 107 licensed and have no plans to become so.

Anyway in the rare situation I'm flying at dusk, or later, I use Cree collision avoidance strobes, but 98% of the time my flying is during daylight and my Marco Polo tracker is placed "on the hood" as pictured below. In the very rare occasion I fly at/after dusk, the MP tracker is relocated to the rear of my Mavic and a white Cree strobe goes on top and below. BTW, the white Cree strobes are amazing.

 

[MGHUFF]

anyone own a Marco Polo? I just bought one. Where should I place the tracker on the mavic?

Thank you

Advanced or Ultralight version ? I use the advanced..

anyone own a Marco Polo? I just bought one. Where should I place the tracker on the mavic?

Thank you

Are you using Advanced, or Ultralight ?? I have the Advanced mounted..

 

[Jimmie Hanson]

I wired tied it to the back leg gizmo I bought to raise Mavic higher off ground. i.e. 2 front leg extenders and one back leg (double extender) It faces out from the drone to the rear. works well. You have to have the $6.00 leg extension kit.

 

[John Locke]

I chose to mount my MarcoPolo on the back, right above the light. It's out of the way, I don't have to remove it every time I fly, and it's easily charged without removing it. I like Marco Polo because it's a rarity I use it, in fact I have only used it once to test the distance and ease of use. Since I rarely have to use it, I'm OK with the more difficult nature of location versus GPS, with the key advantage that MarcoPolo works anywhere, without cellular coverage. I would estimate that 20% of my flight locations don't have good cell coverage, so that's important. However, in reality, half of the places I fly would be unrecoverable if the craft went down anyway, such as rugged terrain or water. I prefer mounting the device as light as possible, since the craft is so light, stock. More weight will impact flight times, so I use Velcro.

Here's a small tip for mounting with Velcro. If you look closely below, you'll see a bump on the device in the center. Try to avoid installing Velcro on this bump. This helps when joining both surfaces of the Velcro upon installation to the craft, providing a more flat surface to mate to the craft. As you can see below I installed two pieces of velcro to the device to avoid the bump. This lets the device adhere to the Mavic more securely with both sides making better contact with a flat surface. You can use black velcro if you prefer, that would certainly look better, I just happen to have white in my toolbox. I've flown with this setup for 10mos now, I've never had a problem. It's a good idea to make sure the antenna wire is hanging straight down, or point a little toward the rear to avoid potential conflict with VPS sensors, although I've never had any VPS issues with this wire as suggested by another pilot.

 

[MrMavic]

I mounted mine to / front. My thoughts are that if the Mavic does an emergency landing, hopefully it would be Right Side Up and the antenna could transmit effectively. I have about 40 flights with it here, and no problems yet.

 

[ellislo]

I lost my spark two weeks ago. I managed to trek to the crashed site based on the GPS location from DJI GO app, but due to the dense bushes and undergrowth, it was impossible for me to find the spark. Marco Polo will definitely help in this situation. And I will be getting one for my new Mavic Pro.

 

[ellislo]

Online Shop Sunnylife TK 102 GPS Tracker Satellite Locator Mounting Bracket Fixed Carries Support Bracket Set 3D Printed for DJI Mavic | Aliexpress Mobile

I am thinking of mounting the Marco Polo tracker on the above mount.

 

[Jonarbel]

This is a nice set up by shire, from another post. I’m new I hope this is ok to share. It’s a super clean set up. The guy who designed this did a great job. I just purchased the parts and the Marco Polo water proof version. Check out the link, he does a great job explaining everything. Gonna do the same set up. I hope it’s ok to share a screen shot of another post . If it’s not I’ll delete just let me know. Trying to be respectful and sometimes these chats can be brutal. I come in peace.

Check out this link Mounting The Marco Polo Tracker

 

[Aerial-Pixel]

This is what I came up with for the Ultralight version:

 

[hammick]

I like the Aerial-Pixel arm mount a lot. Can it be mounted so the transmitter faces up with the antenna close to the arm pivot? I think the transmitter would have better range if the antenna was up in the air.

 

[Aerial-Pixel]

I like the Aerial-Pixel arm mount a lot. Can it be mounted so the transmitter faces up with the antenna close to the arm pivot? I think the transmitter would have better range if the antenna was up in the air.

The tracker or antenna can't face up, it would get chopped up by the prop.

 

[Goldchucker]

Here is how I mounted my Marco Polo tag. I have yet to try it out however.
The velcro is split between the battery and the Mavic as seen in these 2 pictures.
I have no idea if there will be any interference based on the mounting location.