Has anyone here yet put a tracker/locator of any kind on their Air? I was wondering what would fit on such a small device, and how many grams it could handle without affecting performance or flight characteristics too much.
I was thinking of something like the bluetooth tiles you can get, just to give me a chance if the drone lands in a bush or tree. Not sure how or where I would attache one though.

https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-bluetooth-tracker/

I know there are others out there like Marco Polo with a greater range, but that is expensive and seems rather large.

I've seen some videos where pilots used various weights to determine how much their quad can lift.  Those tiles are very very light - you quad would have no trouble with that.  But do take some known weights outside and just see how much you can lift.  Most packages show the weight of their contents.  A 1 pound can of coffee for instance.

But the DJI App and system has a find my Drone feature why not use that

Dennis

The MA's prop guards weigh 40 grams and or not really aerodynamic to say the least ;)  I wouldn't give it a second thought and be comfortable to fly with a tracker of that weight.

A Bluetooth tracker, to my understanding, does need a connection to the phone or tablet to work and therefore you need to be in close ficinity (maybe a couple of hundred feet at the most?) to track the subject. If that is enough, go for it. A tracker with simcard is the safest, but those probably weigh more and cost more.

Bigplumbs Posted at 2018-2-28 23:25
But the DJI App and system has a find my Drone feature why not use that

Dennis

That should work great, as long as you had a full connection during the crafts landing.

LoSBoL Posted at 2018-3-1 00:59
The MA's prop guards weigh 40 grams and or not really aerodynamic to say the least ;)  I wouldn't give it a second thought and be comfortable to fly with a tracker of that weight.

A Bluetooth tracker, to my understanding, does need a connection to the phone or tablet to work and therefore you need to be in close ficinity (maybe a couple of hundred feet at the most?) to track the subject. If that is enough, go for it. A tracker with simcard is the safest, but those probably weigh more and cost more.

Oh, great point. I didn't think about the weight of prop guards! The trackers are between 6 and 15 grams:

https://www.thetileapp.com/en-us/products

Bigplumbs Posted at 2018-2-28 23:25
But the DJI App and system has a find my Drone feature why not use that

Dennis

I have seen people have problems, either because the recorded location was not completely accurate (maybe GPS accuracy was off a little, or coordinates were taken above the tree line before signal was lost. Another issue is that people have gone to the location and could not find it due to dense vegetation or because it was stuck in a tree (and they forgot to look up

cspain Posted at 2018-3-1 04:39
Oh, great point. I didn't think about the weight of prop guards! The trackers are between 6 and 15 grams:

https://www.thetileapp.com/en-us/products

I saw lannes recommending these over here
More expensive then a bluetooth tracker, but you'll be able to track it all over the world.

Another thing to keep in mind attaching items to your MP if you have DJI Refresh is that it will void the program.  I have seen DJI Thor comment this on other threads that are simliar.

Isoflur Posted at 2018-3-1 05:09
Another thing to keep in mind attaching items to your MP if you have DJI Refresh is that it will void the program.  I have seen DJI Thor comment this on other threads that are simliar.

Yeah, they don't want you to find your drone when you have DJI Care because then they'll have to pay out! I wonder if that is covered in the terms of service.

Anyone have good ideas about placement for the tracker? There's not a lot of space on the Air and I'd be worried about the top due to interfering with the GPS.

cspain Posted at 2018-3-1 06:14
Anyone have good ideas about placement for the tracker? There's not a lot of space on the Air and I'd be worried about the top due to interfering with the GPS.

Not much room indeed, on the battery with 3M dual lock tape?

The only thing I would worry about when using a tracker, like Tick, or Tile, is they emit an active Bluetooth signal, which could interfere with Spark, or MA WiFi. The range on them is about 100ft so you still need to get pretty close to where your Bird went down.

I'd be interested to hear what kinds of trackers other people flying are using.

Grmachine Posted at 2018-3-1 08:52
The only thing I would worry about when using a tracker, like Tick, or Tile, is they emit an active Bluetooth signal, which could interfere with Spark, or MA WiFi. The range on them is about 100ft so you still need to get pretty close to where your Bird went down.

What about cellular trackers that have more range and the yearly fee is low enough?

LoSBoL Posted at 2018-3-1 06:23
Not much room indeed, on the battery with 3M dual lock tape?

Does anybody know of small, yet effective, trackers for their Spark or Mavic Pro?

cspain Posted at 2018-3-1 06:14
Anyone have good ideas about placement for the tracker? There's not a lot of space on the Air and I'd be worried about the top due to interfering with the GPS.

Ideally not next to the GPS of the drone.