I'm on the verge of buying my first inexpensive drone ($100 + or -), but have been a little taken aback by the number of incidents where people bought drones costing $300-500 and up and for whatever reason the drone "flies away" never to be seen again. It occurred to me that there must be some inexpensive way to make a microcontroller (Arduino)/GPS shield/RF transmitter that would send a signal to the owner and give the coordinates of the lost drone. Another idea came to me when I was looking at GPS trackers for cars, Alzheimer patients and small children. That was pretty simple. One company makes a child locater that simply emits a high-pitched noise when mom pushes a button. http://www.brickhousesecurity.com/product/toddler+tag+child+locator.do?sortby=bestSellers&from=fn The cost is $29.95. Not too bad. Of course, this has limited value because it's limited to how far away you can hear the piezo buzzer. I'm hearing challenged, so it wouldn't do me much good. Now, a question: How do "real drone owners" handle the fly away problem? How do they find the drone?
Phantom quadcopters have a full record (GPS) of where the copter is - so you can usually find it using the built-in GPS. Those who want a backup GPS will install a trackimo or something similar. A good GPS drone - properly flown and maintained - is unlikely to end up far away from the pilot. That's the whole idea of the better machines... I just flew my P3 last night...had it since last April and it never went anywhere I didn't want it to (once it blew away but it's RTH brought it back).
Since I'm completely new to the drone flyer's world, I don't know the ins and outs of what I read. I looked at the trackimo website, and it appears that their device would do the job. But, the website seems to be a mess; it looks like a store that is going out of business. Most of the links are broken, and when you do finally get to the purchase page, a number of items are sold out--empty shelves. I ordered a Tile from ebay and will see how that works. If nothing else, I can put it in my wallet and use it for finding that when it is lost. It sounds like the Phantom quadcopter is a good answer to the question. Someday, I hope to be able to look into something of that quality. For now, I'm afraid it is more at the level of a Syma X5C or some such. Thanks for your answer. I do like this forum and website.
I have a bunch of the bluetooth trackers and they don't even work well inside my house - range is about 25 feet. If you get a Syma the real key is to keep it close. I lose a LOT of toy quadcopters because I always fly them too far and then it's too late. Trackimo would only be for an expensive machine. Other than that, the audio alarms can work (extra payload, tho),but if you are hearing impaired that's a no go. Best advice is to fly those toy models low and close and in open areas when the wind is light.
Your last sentence still makes the most sense. It's the KISS method. Keep it simple, Silly. Use common sense when flying. Buy something better if you lose this one, I guess. I'm going to try the Tile locator for now (www.thetileapp.com), as an extra precaution. If it depends on emitting a noise, I can always ask my wife to help me look. She can find anything. Thanks
One item I suggest to help locate a lost drone is the TrackR Bravo. I use the Bravo device to track some of my belongings now and it works great! I've used it on my drone as well and am very happy about the performance. The device does rely on Bluetooth connection, but there is a bigger program called Crowd GPS that helps you track the missing item once you're outside of the Bluetooth range. Once outside of the Bluetooth range and another TrackR user walks by your device, their phone will pinpoint your TrackR's location and notify you. The best part is that they won't even know that your TrackR device is near them. I tested this out on my drone and it worked for me! I definitely recommend to prevent any loss. I attached a picture of the device on my drone. It's pretty stylish I think. You can go to www.thetrackr.com to learn more!
