I have been thinking of picking up a couple strobe lights to use with my Mavic Air to help me locate it a little quicker if I lose sight of it. ...So, if you have them, where are they mounted?
I have two of the Firehouse ARC2 strobes, one red and the other white. There are quite a few options for mounting, most of which I've tried on my Mavic Air. All involve some trade-offs.
For a single strobe installation, the hands down winner is using 3M Dual Lock tape to attach the strobe to the bottom of the battery. However, the ground clearance is essentially nonexistent in the
MA, so you have to get landing skid extensions. With them, the
MA does not sit on the strobe, and you're also providing protection to the camera/gimbal. With this location, you have essentially obstruction free LOS for the entire lower hemisphere. You also have to move the strobe from one battery to the next. There is no problem completely folding in the arms.
If you want to get coverage for the upper hemisphere, you can use the Dual Lock method to attach the strobe to the top of the
MA. When you're picking the exact spot, make sure all 4 props clear.
I think that lower hemisphere coverage is more important than upper hemisphere. A top strobe is essentially worthless to locate the
MA from the ground. If the idea is to make it easier for a manned aircraft to spot you, it may appear that the top mount is better, but you also have to consider that even if they're looking down for you, they'll have to discern your strobe from all the other lights on the ground. The bottom mount is the one that will make it most likely that
you will be able to keep an eye on your
MA. If there's an airplane or helo near you, you're likely to know about it in plenty of time (strobe makes it easier to keep your
MA in sight), and be able to reposition your drone, if necessary.
I've also tried the strobe mounts that attach to the 4 arms, from Aerial-Pixel. These attach securely and do let you point strobes to the front and back. Unfortunately, these mounts, by their very nature, block a bit of the side view. Also, consider that you have to remove them before you can fold in the arms, and you may not be able to use landing skid extensions, especially on the rear arms. This is not a problem that you have to deal with, when using the top and bottom mounts.
Another option worth considering is getting clip-on brackets, to which you can attach strobes via Dual Lock. Amazon has brackets that that lets you mount cameras that have standard tripod threads; one adapter that snaps onto the top, and another than snaps on to the bottom. I've used Dual Lock to attach strobes to the brackets alone, without any other hardware. Unfortunately, these brackets, while only a few grams, do weigh more than a little square of Dual-Lock, especially the low profile version.
One last idea that provides great side visibility, is the Dual Lock low profile attach to the sides of the body of the
MA, behind the battery latches. One problem is that it would cover the sticker with S/N and password...that could probably be peeled off, and put inside the battery compartment. Also, you may not be able to fully fold up the back arms.
On a related topic, to improve visibility in daylight, especially sunny days, consider applying chrome vinyl wrap - I use red - on the landing skid extensions. When the sun reflects off of your
MA, you'd have to be blind not to see it.
