Is there any way to locate your drone after a crash?

[DShot4Twenty]

Hey guys. I just today had my first major crash. I flew into some power wires and my drone plummeted. I was flying in an auto salvage yard with piles of rusty metal and crusty cars everywhere. We found the drone after about half hour of searching. It was in an empty patch in the middle of piles of junk. I'm wondering if anyone knows of how to retrieve the drone via its gps location. Or possibly using the controller to send a signal to the drone telling it to make an audible sound making it easier to find and retrieve. Thanks for your help guys.

D

 

[JamesD]

Making the Phantom audible on command, or in the case of an error such as RC disconnect, isn't such a bad idea. I crashed my P2 into some trees in my backyard. It was (sort of) right in plain view, but it took an hour to find it!

Jimmy

 

[John Locke]

Audible beep sound activation? Not a bad idea, send that to DJI. However I don't think they want you to find it. Just a hunch.

 

[Oso]

Hey guys. I just today had my first major crash. I flew into some power wires and my drone plummeted. I was flying in an auto salvage yard with piles of rusty metal and crusty cars everywhere. We found the drone after about half hour of searching. It was in an empty patch in the middle of piles of junk. I'm wondering if anyone knows of how to retrieve the drone via its gps location. Or possibly using the controller to send a signal to the drone telling it to make an audible sound making it easier to find and retrieve. Thanks for your help guys.

D

Whenever someone starts a thread asking for our Phantom wish list or if we can turn down the volume on the start tone, I always reply that having a loud audible sound for locating would be awesome. I think it should be manual and also automatically activated when RTH or auto land activates. Of course with a disable option if we don't want the sound. It seems like it's not a hard thing to add, right?

 

[Wibble]

If you have internet on your tablet/phone you can upload the log file to healthydrones.com - it will give you a nice map overlay on google maps

 

[bmcgnh]

Hey guys. I just today had my first major crash. I flew into some power wires and my drone plummeted. I was flying in an auto salvage yard with piles of rusty metal and crusty cars everywhere. We found the drone after about half hour of searching. It was in an empty patch in the middle of piles of junk. I'm wondering if anyone knows of how to retrieve the drone via its gps location. Or possibly using the controller to send a signal to the drone telling it to make an audible sound making it easier to find and retrieve. Thanks for your help guys.

D

I feel your pain....

Mine went down in a swampy, heavily wooded area north of the house. I only had the GPS location from the DJI Go app. I logged onto the desktop and opened Apple maps (same map the DJI GO app used) and then I used trees, rocks, large shadow, etc to locate the position from the GPS f. I dropped a pin onto that location--then I sent the location to my iPhone.

Put on long pants/shirt, a waterproof ziploc for my iPhone, grabbed a bottle of Gatorade and I used the GPS on the iPhone to guide me in....

Not a real true GPS application but I did pull the GPS out of the phone and used it to recover the drone.

PS I am now looking at trackers for the next time....

 

[Ingsoc75]

I use Trackimo. My P3 landed in the middle of a soybean field and I was able to find it using the Trackimo app on my phone.

 

[Dirby]

marco polo will do the job.

 

[Jbundy63]

It would be nice if you could have some kind of audible signal to search for by ear. I just use a Marco Polo tracker, doesn't require GPS, a stand a lone system for up to two miles.

 

[pchin2]

It would be nice if you could have some kind of audible signal to search for by ear. I just use a Marco Polo tracker, doesn't require GPS, a stand a lone system for up to two miles.
View attachment 33362

Which model is this? The one I saw is meant for pets (to be weared in the colar) hence it's quite big for the P3. Did you modify it? Does it have an app similar to Trackimo?

 

[pchin2]

I use Trackimo. My P3 landed in the middle of a soybean field and I was able to find it using the Trackimo app on my phone.

Is this the Trackimo TRK-100?

 

[Jbundy63]

Marco Polo RF Tracker with 2 Mile Range

LOL I had the pet collar style but went ahead and got the smaller version. Here's a listing on eBay but you can probably find them at a better price then this. Comes as a kit.

 

[Jbundy63]

Which model is this? The one I saw is meant for pets (to be weared in the colar) hence it's quite big for the P3. Did you modify it? Does it have an app similar to Trackimo?

It's a stand a lone and doesn't require GPS or cell data. Good if you are somewhere the signal sucks.

 

[spin2win]

Is this the Trackimo TRK-100?

That's what I use, works well. A good price considering it also comes with first year service included. $5 a month after first year

 

[DShot4Twenty]

Thanks a lot guys. I'll look into trackimo for now. Would be nice if a future firmware update included an audible locating feature.

 

[Chris P Duck]

I wouldn't want to rely on the audible beep idea, from what I've read there's a 50% chance the battery will come out on impact meaning you couldn't trigger it.

 

[Justgregg]

trackimo on the p3p and inspire for me. Works flawlessl

 

[John Locke]

I think the sonar devices in the vps can make audible sounds if programmed correctly to be enabled with the remote. It should be free from DJI, just a software update hopefully in the future.

 

[HD pilot]

GPS Tracker. I never fly without mine. Quick phone call before takeoff to get the position and your off. Peace of mind you will find it if she flies away.

 

[nickyb]

Maybe some new update from DJI will have something like a locating device, maybe a slot in a future bird for a SIM so it can work off GPRS, 3G etc.