Lost Model Tracker

[Cliff 1959]

Has anyone had success in using a tracker in their model in case of a flyaway?

[Denis Watkins]

Well Cliff, just recently,my buddy had a fly away, and we started to look into this, and it boils down to how much you want to spend.

Lost article keyrings, £2-£4 work by Bluetooth on your phone with about 70ft range as you get nearer to the loss.

The best we found was lost pet tracker, £20 - £30, works well out of sight with map on your phone.

[Glenn Philbrick]

I've also looked into this as I recently lost a model in crops. Most of the cheaper and pet type trackers relying on Bluetooth rely on having Mobil phones nearby, so not too much use in the middle of nowhere. The best are those that have an sym that you have to dial from your phone. 

I would be interested if anybody else has comments.

My plane is still in the broad beans which are nearly 6 ft tall and like tree trunks. We have spotted it once using a drone but the battery went low and it returned to home before we could get bearings

[Zflyer]

Well if you have lost the model tracker you have no chance. 

The pet type are a good option certainly for expensive stuff.

[Bucksboy]

I've got a dog tracker and it's switched on all the time and worn on his collar.  Most of the time it detects the home wi-fi and uses very little power ( the thing lasts well over a week)  When we go out away from home wi-fi the tracker starts transmitting its location every 5 minutes, but, as most of the time I can see or hear him, I don't need it.  When I lose sight of him I use the app on my phone to activate it to 'live' and it transmits its location every 5 seconds.  I can then see where he is on a map and it draws a line so I can see his route.

The advantage for modellers is that it has its own built in sim card so works everywhere there is a phone signal.  Secondly, most of the time it's not transmitting very often and has very low power consumption.  Should your plane go down, simply activate the 'live' setting and you'll be able to see where it is.  It's about the size of a matchbox, self contained and splash proof, it's designed to fit on a dogs collar after all.

I've got no idea if there would be a conflict with the various signals by carrying this thing in the aircraft.  I don't use it on the plane but I thought I'd explain how my tracker works, it's a Tractive brand, but I think they are all similar.

[John Lee]

I've used the telemetry on my Tx to find a model which went down in long crops. The signal strength indicator gave a good steer.

[Jake Bullit]

Vifly lost model alarm with its own battery works well if you know the approximate area.

 

https://www.droneauthority.co.uk/products/vifly-v2-lost-model-finder?currency=GBP&variant=36506728267848&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Google Shopping&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=17378604620&utm_content=&utm_term=&gad=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwiIOmBhDjARIsAP6YhSV_XaO3z8MoErLmbL4cDx5gvfFmuWJWYmioicn09-BdMrbxFpd6PSgaAuFDEALw_wcB

[Phil Green]

1 hour ago, Bucksboy said:

I've got a dog tracker ... it's a Tractive brand...

quite expensive subscription charges though... another option is a payg tracker with no monthly fees  🙂

[Paul De Tourtoulon]

Sorry Jake, but I have tried the beepers and the old robbe strobe light, you can't hear a buzzer at 5 meters when hill soaring.

My brother has a 60€ one that works with a cheap sim card on his motorbike, it's very accurate, but quite heavy for a smaller model.

 

 looks like this,,

[Chris Walby]

I use SaferPets on the dogs, its not very large or heavy + I only turn it on when the dogs are off the lead and likely to do a bunk.

 

 

It would work well if the model is stationary as the accuracy improves over a few seconds/minutes as long as there is a phone signal! Its less effective with the dog at full speed heading across the field, but that's not the point for me. Its if the dog gets trapped/stuck/injured as I would be able to find them rather than start a search over a couple of square miles.

 

 

 

 

[Christopher Wolfe]

14 hours ago, Cliff 1959 said:

Has anyone had success in using a tracker in their model in case of a flyaway?

A dedicated GPS tracker works well for Free Flight models https://bmks.co.uk/products/bmk-gps-locator-system

 

Probably overkill for r/c models as most seem to crash within visible distance 🙃

[Cliff 1959]

Thanks for all the suggestions so far. So from what I learnt it seems a fairly cheap gps tracker with a sim card from the likes of giff gaff (which are free to order) with a small amount of credit on would last a long time if you only 'pinged' the tracker when you lost your model, a 'ping' costs 5p.

This way you avoid a subscription as well.

The only possible drawback I can see is if your model goes down in an area with no signal!

[Graham Bowers]

4 hours ago, Cliff 1959 said:

Thanks for all the suggestions so far. So from what I learnt it seems a fairly cheap gps tracker with a sim card from the likes of giff gaff (which are free to order) with a small amount of credit on would last a long time if you only 'pinged' the tracker when you lost your model, a 'ping' costs 5p.

This way you avoid a subscription as well.

The only possible drawback I can see is if your model goes down in an area with no signal!

PAYG sim credit seems* to "expire" at the end of the month now, and needs to be replenished - unlike the old days, when it lasted until it was used.

 

*I'm on PAYG as am a very light phone user. Vodafone now, however have tried EE and GiffGaff. If you do find a PAYG that doesn't expire, please say 😉

 

 

[Phil Green]

My tracker has been on Giffgaff PAYG for 3-4 years now, started with £10 and I've never needed to top it up.  As long as you send one very occasional text, Giffgaff doesnt expire.

If I havent used it for 3 months or so (its an 'on demand' tracker) they remind me with an email, then I make one short call to the tracker which responds with "I'm right here on your driveway" and Giffgaff are happy again for another 3 months  🙂

 

[Graham Bowers]

1 hour ago, Phil Green said:

My tracker has been on Giffgaff PAYG for 3-4 years now, started with £10 and I've never needed to top it up.  As long as you send one very occasional text, Giffgaff doesnt expire.

If I havent used it for 3 months or so (its an 'on demand' tracker) they remind me with an email, then I make one short call to the tracker which responds with "I'm right here on your driveway" and Giffgaff are happy again for another 3 months  🙂

 

Interesting, thanks for that. Gifffgaff didn't work for me as I'm in  a poor signal area at home, so probably didn't give it a proper workout!

[Phil Green]

Giffgaff is on the O2 network so should be pretty good coverage... unlucky if you're in a dead spot or a shadow.   We get no Vodafone reception at home, coverage does seem to vary a lot...   🙂

 

[Graham Bowers]

8 hours ago, Phil Green said:

Giffgaff is on the O2 network so should be pretty good coverage... unlucky if you're in a dead spot or a shadow.   We get no Vodafone reception at home, coverage does seem to vary a lot...   🙂

 

Yes, we're in a shadow area.

[Frank Skilbeck]

If your radio supports it then a gps sensor can transmit location, so if logged on the tx you'll be able to see the last known location.

 

When the farmer grows maize in the adjacent field to our strip, if a model goes down we tell the searchers to take their mobile phone and the windsock, that way we can see where they are and guide them, once you start walking in tall crops it's very easy to get lost.

 

I've now found 3 models with my drone!

[Chris Walby]

I don't hold with the TX telemetry suggestion for a couple of reasons, firstly the assumption that when the model contacts with the ground, that the battery is not ejected/disconnected thus powering off the RX won't happen. Ok I suppose if you have logged GPS that you can look at that. Secondly I had a model dead stick and the glide was a lot better than I expected hence it skimmed the top of the maze until dropping in. We (three/four of us) spent the best part of 90 minutes walking around with the TX held at waist, chest and arms reach trying to determine its location by signal strength. We gave up once it was getting dark and I returned the next morning.

 

Fortunately an cub member had videoed the flight and by using landmarks in the distance could work out its flight path. Another 45 minutes of searching and still nothing until one of the trips of walking in and out of the field to get my bearings I came across it standing on its nose undamaged in the maze (it was nowhere near where the TX suggested). I appreciate warbirds have camouflage and in this case it worked very well. Perhaps telemetry works better in less demanding situations, but then again don't you want to find the hard to find model!