Do thephantoms transmit a gps signal?

[Suwaneeguy]

A news story right out of Hollywood NCIS got me thinking about this.
The FBI claims they tracked a kidnapper's car through his GPS unit.
So if that can be done for real, I was wondering, could they track your phantom while it's in flight?

Let's say you fly over the White House in Wash. DC.
They see your bird and instantly track it, find out where it lands and pounce on you.

I can see this being done on NCIS. After all, they track cell phones all the time.

 

[doug86]

Re: Do thephantoms transmit a gps signal?

when you fly it, do you see the Lat/Lon displayed on your phone?? (You should). How do you think that information gets there?

Your Phantom sends all kinds of telemetry to your smartphone via the WiFi link, and that does include the Phantom's GPS position, assuming it has a enough satellites to calculate a fix.

 

[ianwood]

Anyone with somewhat decent Wi-Fi skills and some easily accessible software can track and probably hack a Vision. I am going to assume there is no WEP, WPA, WPA2 on these machines.

And a P2 with FPV and OSD is basically broadcasting it's altitude and location relative to the take off point to anyone listening on the same frequency. And all Phantoms can be tracked with more rudimentary RF tools.

 

[samteeeee]

https://github.com/noahwilliamsson/dji-phantom-vision

 

[Meta4]

The FBI claims they tracked a kidnapper's car through his GPS unit.

The FBI and/or journalists involved are wrong.
They're either confused or don't want to draw attention to what really happens.
A GPS unit doesn't send any kind of signal.
It listens to the sats and computes.
It's much more likely that they tracked the felon through his phone checking in with cell towers.

Yes, your Phantom passes telemetry data back through wifi but as any Phantom pilot knows - that's only good for line of sight over a relatively short distance.

 

[BuzzBuzzZoomZoom]

To answer your question, no, they couldn't instantly target you and track you to your landing (right now).. They would have to have a setup and be ready for this to happen. More than likely, they'd spot it by noise and have a sniper take it out. They could probably then get the serial number info from DJI and track down who it was sold to, or just get your fingerprints off the shell.

 

[rrmccabe]

As said above. GPS devices are receivers. It takes secondary technology to get that GPS received signal back so you know where its at. Most commonly cellular.

And Meta4 if he is talking about the story I am thinking the lender added technology to the car thinking the thug that had it was going to default on the loan.

 

[Suwaneeguy]

Other information I have found since the original post says that the car dealer had secretly installed a tracking device because they had a suspicion the guy was gonna be bad news when they tried to repo the car.
It would appear some journalists just misunderstood what was happening.

 

[Meta4]

The car's GPS unit vs a gps tracking bug fitted to the car by a suspicious 3rd party.
Close enough to the same thing for some journalists these days.

 

[AnselA]

"GPS signal" is sent by GPS satellite. Phantom is not a GPS satellite.

 

[480sparky]

Not all GPS units are solely receivers.

Many large companies track their vehicle fleets using GPS that transmit. Without the ability to transmit a location, they would have to wait until the vehicle stopped and downloaded the information. I doubt any kidnapper is gonna do that.

 

[IflyinWY]

I'm thinking a phantom with FPV or WiFi is transmitting GPS fixes.
I'm also thinking the word "signal" as I believe we are now using it here, means the microwave transmissions that come from satellites.

And I'm thinking these other things too.
A GPS fix is not the same as a GPS "signal". So, nope, they do not transmit a GPS signal.

GPS fix = location

A GPS receiver doesn't transmit.

A GPS transmitter or transceiver (FPV, WiFi, tracker, transponder, some phones, and many more devices) do transmit location/tracking information.

I'm thinking that's all I'm thinking at the moment.