The first 12 months are free and then it's $5 USD/month.
Not a lot when you consider that if your drone takes off on it's own with a full battery it could end up 20ks away.
A Marco Polo won't find it that far away.
How much is your drone worth?
Every approach has it's strengths and weaknesses. GPS was designed as a self-location system. If you want to know where you are, all you need is to have a clear view of the sky and a GPS receiver. But, if you want to use GPS for object location (such as finding a lost drone) you have to have a back-channel to get the GPS coordinates of the object back to the searcher. This back-channel can be point-to-point RF or, more commonly, cellular. For object location using GPS and cellular, 4 things need to be true at the same time:
- The object must have adequate GPS reception, from its current position and orientation.
- The object must have adequate cellular reception, often from a single carrier, from its current position and orientation.
- The searcher must have adequate GPS reception, although they can move around somewhat to get it.
- The searcher must have adequate cellular reception from what ever carrier(s) their phone supports and they can move around until they get signal, assuming there is any signal to be had in that area.
Items 1 and 2 are obviously the bigger problem because if one is missing there is nothing you, the searcher, can do to improve the situation. If your drone ends up upside down in a ditch between 2 boulders in the forest, your GPS/cellular system isn't going to find it and there isn't a darn thing you can do about it.
Point-to-point RF systems like Marco Polo have limited range. So, yes, if your drone takes off on its own and flies 20 km away, you are going to have a tough time finding it. But, if you know the direction it went in or have last known coordinates from the telemetry, you have a very good chance. You also have up to 2 weeks from take off before the Marco Polo transceiver on the drone stops responding so, if you are determined - you will find it.
After selling Marco Polo for over 5 years I can tell you that it is much more common to hear stories like, "I saw right where it went down and looked for 4 hours, then It got dark and I had to give up." The long distance fly-away is always a possibility but is certainly not the most typical case.
Tim Crabtree
President
Eureka Technology
Drone Tracking And Recovery Solutions | Marco Polo | Tracking and Recovery Solutions