I put a Marco Polo "pet" tracking system (90 day battery) on my Inspire 1 because I didn’t know they made a RC version (30 day battery) until later, I took it out of it's “Pet Collar” encasement and heat shank its components. I "Command Strip" (a plastic Velcro) it to the top part of the Inspires case as shown, with its antennae pointing up. I put a zip tie around the unit to reinforce the antennae as it’s only connected to the bottom of the circuit board.The Inspire with the tracker fits inside the closed case DJI provided just fineand the props don’t come close to the external antennae.

Specs: (no pay contract, No cell coverage needed, No GPS needed)System Range

• Line of sight: up to 2 miles typical
• Open terrain, rolling hills with few obstructions: up to .5 – 1 mile
• Dense suburban areas: 2,000 ft. typical
  

http://eurekaproducts.com    ,    Picture  Pet version.
http://eurekaproducts.com/rc-model-tracking-and-recovery/     ,  Picture RC version.
Always in a sleep mode (not transmitting) until you activate it with the finder. (when lost and within range)

looking good

I assume it has no interference whatsoever with the remote?

Blip Posted at 2015-1-17 12:00
I assume it has no interference whatsoever with the remote?

I took the advice from some long time drone fliers here on the forum and purchased it. So far the Inspire's been rock solid. The unit doesn't transmit in its normal (90 day) standby mode. But once you activate it with your tracking unit (because you have lost it) it will begin to transmit every 4 second for (30 day). Or when your within range. You may have to drive around with the tracker in hand until it get the signal. 2000 ft in a dense urban area. It detects the tracking unit on the Inspire inside my house from 10 houses away 1500 ft (2 football field). I live in a urban neighborhood in Northern California.  You'll know which house it's in if if ever taken.

But I don't recommend flying over other people's houses. My Phantom 2 V+ autolanded in ???someone's??? back (Totally my fault) and I never got it back. (Contact info was on it). If I had the Marco Polo then I woul have found it.

Has anyone tried the Drone Mods UAV locator?  http://www.drone-mods.com/Drone-Mods-UAV-Locator-DM005.htm

I prefer trackimo.  Less expensive, worldwide, smaller.  Only negative is shorter battery time, but more than adequate for our needs.

The marco polo unit does not rely on cell service.  Therefore better in non cell environments.  Requires you to travel with a handheld tracking unit.  Range is also limited.  They state 2 miles with line of sight.  

Blip Posted at 2015-1-17 12:00
I assume it has no interference whatsoever with the remote?

No interference, even if active, it's 900Mhz and just emits periodic blips.  The RC version is 12g, pretty light.  I've used them on Phantoms and it's a very nice, self contained system that needs no outside cell support.  I would not fly any model at the edges or beyond sight without some form of tracker.

DJI should offer or have built in GPS tracking system in their quads if they fly away. I think if DJI offered a system like this it would create piece of mind if you had a flyway. I think this idea would help shed a lot negative emails that DJI gets about flyways in forms and on the web and maybe get some potential buyers to buy their product. It's a pretty expenses piece of equipment to have a flyaway.  Just my thoughts.

They do have the tracking maps, and things like "find my Phantom" to help tell you the last location, but a tracker is potentially more useful.  The model could go down in heavy brush and GPS might get you to 10 meters more or less so you my still take some time to find the model.  Trackers like the MarcoPolo will direct you to the exact spot, plus, it's redundant in that it doesn't need anything from the model (batteries often eject in a crash).

When I lost my Phantom 2 V+, it autolanded in a backyard (1 of three houses in the area 2 streets over). I live in an residential area where the houses are right next to each other. "Find my Phantom" app in the Vision app. Said it landed in the street. (This incident was totally my fault as I overode it's return to home function.) and flew it out of line of sight. These residence would not return it to me if they had it. My contact info was on it and a month sater still no call. If I had the Marco Polo unit on it I could have called the cops and tracked it to the exact house.

With the Marco Polo unit, can you just purchase 1 transceiver, and velcro to which ever rc your flying?

cyflight Posted at 2015-1-26 10:54
With the Marco Polo unit, can you just purchase 1 transceiver, and velcro to which ever rc your flyi ...

Yes you can take it out, it is totally removable and can me put anywhere, on any RC you use. Just make sure the velcro or tape still strong enough to hold it on.

Here's a video taken by a Marco Polo user after losing his quad in tall grass.

[url=http://vimeo.com/user11788030/review/118051384/22d28dae08 (]Marco Polo User Video[/url]

Looking at the various equipment available the Marco Polo units seems to very light, accurate and simple to use.  Does anyone know if they are sold in the UK as I cannot locate a dealer here yet

Cheers

alafeverkoch@os Posted at 2015-1-18 01:23
Has anyone tried the Drone Mods UAV locator?  http://www.drone-mods.com/Drone-Mods-UAV-Locator-DM005 ...

Hey All My First Post Here,

I have the Drone Mods Locator and I'm very happy with it. I have it attached to my Phantom and My new Inspire as of a few minutes ago. I first brought some cheap $30 tracker on eBay and a nightmare it turned out to just trying to get a SIMS Card from any of the wireless carriers. I went through this ordeal while waiting for the tracker to arrive. It arrived DOA! A Good Thing, Gave me time to come to my senses. The drone Mods for me was the best bet. I'm in rural No. Ga. with forest, mountains, and every other nature made obstruction known plotting against me. This unit offered me the best hope for recovery. With Full GPS then backed up 3 cell tower triangulation. having two separate independent systems one backing up the other. The price up front is $200 this includes a year of service $5.00 at month, Locator $120, $10 setup fee. Drone Modes sends the unit set up and operating out of the box, nothing to do but turn on and use. T-mobil was the least expensive for a SIMS card $15 and a monthly service fee $20.00 if one was to use a tracker that required self setup. Plug and Play is a nice feature. This Locator is bullet proof well made and after a dunk in the toilet (ask me not how it got there) for a period of time came out working just fine. All the rubber covers at the openings fit well and tight. Drone Mods makes no claims to being water proof. So Im lucky. I've had no fly offs so I haven't had to use it. I also place it in the teens car when I suspect boys may be lurking around. I know where she at and that a good feeling. To Operate just call it phone number and it will text you a Google maps link to open and it sends a email with the same with more detailed info. After purchasing this I keep discovering new Locators that are equal, better, more features, cheaper and on and on. I'm still happy with my Locator..A fast growing market!! I sure if look around for quality over price you will be a happy camper with your choice. I watch a video with this brand and I must say the hand held locator take your right to the spot is nice. GPS can range from 1 to 100 feet from target. Ok I'm going to fly this inspire I got. I have no worries or fears I'm going to see her do her thing. Ive had one shot of Irish Whiskey to calm myself after all Ive read and A little luck of the Irish be with me and my bird......

they dont have international shipping i m in hk and would really like to get it.

Hi there,

Has anyone used the Marco Polo unit in Europe.

Kilowong, if you were referring to Marco Polo they do do shipping to HK.

I ordered the Marco Polo unit today. Wasn't going to spend any more money considering it is still in transit but the possible thought of any "Glitch" that could send my Inspire onto a path of its own and the investment of the unit, plus extra batteries, rolling case, chargers, and extras etc just isn't an easy though to swallow and $200 shipped is a drop in a bucket compared to the potential loss.

where can i buy a tracker for my inspire 1??

This is where I bought mine today

http://eurekaproducts.com/shop/marco-polo-rc-recovery-system/

mrburns Posted at 2015-2-8 16:27
Hi there,

Has anyone used the Marco Polo unit in Europe.

Hi! I emailed them today to see I they could ship to UK. Reply was yes...BUT 25$ us shipping + vat ,import duty etc etc could work out to be expensive

I have one on way to test.  My guess its this or the flytrex system.  Both have benefits. However this appears to be very accurate.

Maybe its a combination of both.  Apparenty triangualtion is not as accurate as we would like.
Flytrex to find the vicinity, Marco Polo to find the beast.

After a long search for GPS tracker i ended up with the rf v16.
that one have the latest GPS chip and gsm/gprs, it's very small and light unit (27g), and not expensive.

The best part in my opinion is the ability to call the unit if you arrived to the location on the map but could not see the drone because it have a built in speaker, and it rings loud.

I think that in terms of wight, ability to track the unit for long distance (everywhere you have cell service) and the help of the ringer to point you to the drone, that's the best tracker for a drone so far.

the battery will go up to 12 days (depending on how you set it up) and lots of other features like the ability to listen to what's happen where the unit is and set it up for uploading its location automatically to the web site, etc.

Just put a pre paid sim card and set to go.

My suggestion, look for it.

guygeva Posted at 2015-2-9 17:49
After a long search for GPS tracker i ended up with the rf v16.
that one have the latest GPS chip an ...

Question about RF-V16: could you tell me does this require some type of cellular subscription? How did you attach it to your inspire 1?  Did it cause any type of interference with the inspire 1?

rsghowellnj.gma Posted at 2015-2-14 05:28
Question about RF-V16: could you tell me does this require some type of cellular subscription? How ...

Any word on if the RF-V16 caused any radio interference with the Inspire?

The rf-v16 do needs a cell service to send and receive text massages for tracking information.
You can use a pre paid sim for that.
the amount of communications it will be doing depends on how you set it up-it can send a text every X amount of time or send its location only when you asked him to.

More then this, it's very recommended to have some amount of data with the sim for a much better gps accuracy. If you want you can let it to upload his location to a website using the data service of the sim.

About where to attach it to the inspire I would say that it's not deferent then any other tracker. i guess that it will be good to place it as far as possible from the inspire's electronics, every where on the arms will be good. It's a small and light unit so it's not a problem.

This is my set up with the Marco Polo RC tracking unit. 30 day battery, performance specs as above in original post by Chato1974. The orientation shown allows recharging port and button access without removing unit (Velcro).

Sorry, had to resize images...

Here's an interesting video posted by a Marco Polo user. In this case his quad crashed in deep snow. It seems it went in so deep that he couldn't hear his beeper from even 20 feet away. He didn't have a cellular-based system on the quad so there is no way of knowing how that would have worked in these circumstances. Would he have been able to get a cell signal out from beneath the snow? If he did would it have placed him close enough to find it when the beeper couldn't be heard?  I obviously don't know the answers, take a look for yourself.

http://youtu.be/Zmy2C8XSWFY

tattman Posted at 2015-2-8 00:43
Hey All My First Post Here,

I have the Drone Mods Locator and I'm very happy with it. I have it a ...

Tattman, Hindsight being 20/20, would you still buy the Drone Mods locater for your Inspire?  I'm facing some of the same natural obstacles that you described also.  (rural, mountains, forest, ect..)

Thanks

Without a doubt I would. I'm very happy! It works, arrives in few days setup full operational, quality well made, simple to use on/off switch. I'm no salesman for drone mods. The guy is in this business, he's not a big company trying to appeal to mass markets. He went out, did his research based on his idea of what he thought would work best for the RC community based on his knowledge and experience. Nothing new. Have a problem solve it as best you can and making a buck improving  your hobby is your reward... This locator is made by GTX CORP http://www.gtxcorp.com. Drone mods is a licensed and exclusive private label reseller for this company's commercial use only GPS Tracker.  I read every single thing I could find on the net about GTX from their web site to their  Wall Street Stock financial reports. and I found myself quite impressed. Go see what this company really offers as their main product line.. very cool stuff and innovative. This tracker from Drone Mods is well built because it's not even offered to the public. It for business use tracking everything from employees to transportation, & inventory tracking. Really anything a company needs to track world wide. Thats why I'm happy with the tracker. If memory services me the owner of Drone Mods name is Frank.. Hats off to him for developing this and not buying a palate of China and pushing it off on us. Although I'm sure this unit is made if not somewhere near China. The price he's offering if you do the math is more than affordable unit $130, $5.00 unlimited AT&T data service, GTX provided GPS Service, $10 setup fee,  all tested, setup, even charged (mine was) packaged, delivered working. To much good for so cheap. Heck mine ended up in a toilet for how long I don't really know..I have a weird dog Luke puts small things in the toilet ???? Nuts!!! I took it out dried it off never skipped a beat. There are NO claims this is water proof. resident yes, proof No! I guess commercial equipment have good seals. There are many locators on the market with more or less features, I'm sure there are even better or even worse units out from when I made my purchase less than a year ago trackers an ever changing and supper fast growing market. I did my research and felt I made a good buying dissension based on facts about the product after digging around and that in-turn sold me to purchase from Frank and Drone Modes for going beyond to deliver a quality product to our market. By one of us!!  As I always tell my customers "The Bitterness of Poor Quality Is Felt And Remembered LONG After The Sweetness of Low Price and Low Quality Is Forgotten". I have a Great afternoon today with my Inspire and Phantom $5000-$6000 flying around without a care. Enjoyed the time with my buddy and his 14 year old son. That's what your money buys. Whatever brand you choose, do your research !!........Quality over Price and You will be good to go..     

Without a doubt I would. I'm very happy! It works, arrives in few days setup full operational, quality well made, simple to use on/off switch. I'm no salesman for drone mods. The guy is in this business, he's not a big company trying to appeal to mass markets. He went out, did his research based on his idea of what he thought would work best for the RC community based on his knowledge and experience. Nothing new. Have a problem solve it as best you can and making a buck improving  your hobby is your reward... This locator is made by GTX CORP http://www.gtxcorp.com. Drone mods is a licensed and exclusive private label reseller for this company's commercial use only GPS Tracker.  I read every single thing I could find on the net about GTX from their web site to their  Wall Street Stock financial reports. and I found myself quite impressed. Go see what this company really offers as their main product line.. very cool stuff and innovative. This tracker from Drone Mods is well built because it's not even offered to the public. It for business use tracking everything from employees to transportation, & inventory tracking. Really anything a company needs to track world wide. Thats why I'm happy with the tracker. If memory services me the owner of Drone Mods name is Frank.. Hats off to him for developing this and not buying a palate of China and pushing it off on us. Although I'm sure this unit is made if not somewhere near China. The price he's offering if you do the math is more than affordable unit $130, $5.00 unlimited AT&T data service, GTX provided GPS Service, $10 setup fee,  all tested, setup, even charged (mine was) packaged, delivered working. To much good for so cheap. Heck mine ended up in a toilet for how long I don't really know..I have a weird dog Luke puts small things in the toilet ???? Nuts!!! I took it out dried it off never skipped a beat. There are NO claims this is water proof. resident yes, proof No! I guess commercial equipment have good seals. There are many locators on the market with more or less features, I'm sure there are even better or even worse units out from when I made my purchase less than a year ago trackers an ever changing and supper fast growing market. I did my research and felt I made a good buying dissension based on facts about the product after digging around and that in-turn sold me to purchase from Frank and Drone Modes for going beyond to deliver a quality product to our market. By one of us!!  As I always tell my customers "The Bitterness of Poor Quality Is Felt And Remembered LONG After The Sweetness of Low Price and Low Quality Is Forgotten". I have a Great afternoon today with my Inspire and Phantom $5000-$6000 flying around without a care. Enjoyed the time with my buddy and his 14 year old son. That's what your money buys. Whatever brand you choose, do your research !!........Quality over Price and You will be good to go..     

With all the thousands of Marco Polo systems there are in the field now, the chances that you may know someone else who has one are growing. I want to point out an often overlooked feature of the Marco Polo system called "Rescue Group Search Mode".

Each Marco Polo tracking tag is encoded with a unique 24-bit ID code at the time of manufacture. The handheld locator is paired with a tag by placing the locator in "Learn" mode and turning the tag's power on. The ID code is transferred from the tag to the locator over the RF link and stored in flash memory in the locator.  The locator can be paired with up to 3 different tracking tags. After pairing, the ID code is never again broadcast over the air, yet it allows the locator to individually access that unique tag (a whole other subject). Once the pairing operation is done you and only you can track that tag. But, what if you have a friend that has a Marco Polo locator (even if he has it for tracking his dog) and he wants to help you find your missing drone? He can't learn your tag's ID because, well, it's lost.... But, it is possible to transfer the ID code of a missing tag from one locator to any number of other locators over the RF communications link. This is similar to the original pairing operation but the locator with the missing tag's ID is doing the transfer to the second locator. It is even possible to map the Tag ID to a different channel on the receiving locator. For example, if you lost your tag 1 and your buddy has paired 2 of his tags with his locator, leaving his channel 3 available, he can transfer your missing tag's ID from your channel 1 and store it in his channel 3. Of course he could also temporarily overwrite one of his tags and then re-learn his tag after the search.

Using the rescue group search capability any number of people can join in the search. The searcher that establishes communications with the missing tag first will enter into sync-mode communications with that tag and all others will be locked out.

While Marco Polo is basically radio direction finder, it is far from being just a radio receiver with an antenna - it is much more than that.

Why I ordered the Marco Polo RC version.  (waiting for arrival)  I read much about this and all of the other system around.  Including all the GPS systems.  If you travel to remote locations, different countries etc... then a cellular system doesn't make sense to me.  You just don't know till you are there if you have cellular reception.

1. Radio direction finding is the way to go, and just makes sense...  Totally independent of cellular connectivity.  Looks like this will find the transmitter when polled by the transmitter within inches.  This would also suggest that it is in a tree above me or snow below me......  not just a point on a map.  Outside the urban areas, I don't think GPS is reliable.

2. Cellular is not all that accurate.  And if the UAS is in the brush, this will be important as you need to find it within feet and inches not yards, if it lands in tall grass, weeds and brush..  

3. Very lite and can be polled for days.

4. No additional fees is a minor but nice side benefit.

wesdorman@gmail Posted at 2015-2-21 10:42
Why I ordered the Marco Polo RC version.  (waiting for arrival)  I read much about this and all of t ...

Sound like your more hard core than I. I got the Marco Polo to find it if it lands in a backyard or If have to ask for it because it's in someone's house. But everything you said is true.

Spoiler Alert:  Do you know why there is only cellular service in certain parts of the world?  BECAUSE 97 PERCENT OF THE WORLD LIVES IN AREAS WITH CELL COVERAGE.  It simply makes no sense to provide full coverage in the Sahara desert because 99.99999 of the world's population won't be flying in that area tomorrow .

Situation 1- I fly my drone anywhere  and if I have a catastrophic failure, my Trackimo will tell me exactly where it is.
Situation 2- You fly your drone with marco polo and hope you lost it within an two mile radius . You spend 3 times as much money to purchase it  and you end up playing a game of "hot and cold" to find it... If it flew three miles away. You're f*cked . If my drone flew 10 miles away then I know exactly where it crashed or landed.

Wow, great discussion! For now, I just ordered the Marco Polo (after researching 13 trackers).  Will experiment with that first. Thanks to all the contributors on this thread!

Got mine this week and tested it.  I live in a very rural area and must say Im very impressed at how well I can have someone go hide the tag and I can find it.  Now to mount it on my inspire.

Short of flying with one of each system, maybe at sometime in the future, we could see a blend of the two methods in one small unit.... radio directions and GPS.  I'll certainly report here with a review of my Marco Polo system, so everyone can decide what makes sense for them.  Hope to hear from others.  I can see the advertising campaign right now....  "News Flash !  Marco Polo Updates his Travels with GPS"