Track that Drone
- Thread starter THell
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- Dec 25, 2013
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I have to ask but what is a price range "most" users would be willing to pay for GPS tracking. I've spotted a lot on the net and most are pricey and real time like Trax which offers 2 years of free data usage in more than 30 countries.
Then there is Retrievor which is very small and light weight. Pricey too and not a lot of information on how it works.
Another one and I'm sure I don't even want to ask them how much they cost since the quote form starts at $1500 but Telemetry Solutions makes GPS for tracking animals.
If you just plopped down $1200.00 for the PV2 is $200.00 to much for protection along with it being light weight. I like the Trax because even if I picked it up for their price $218.00 USD and the first two years free data usage it might actually be a good deal. After the 2 years is about $5.00 a month.
David
Then there is Retrievor which is very small and light weight. Pricey too and not a lot of information on how it works.
Another one and I'm sure I don't even want to ask them how much they cost since the quote form starts at $1500 but Telemetry Solutions makes GPS for tracking animals.
If you just plopped down $1200.00 for the PV2 is $200.00 to much for protection along with it being light weight. I like the Trax because even if I picked it up for their price $218.00 USD and the first two years free data usage it might actually be a good deal. After the 2 years is about $5.00 a month.
David
I've been looking at the pet tracker "Tagg" at http://www.tagg.com, they seem to have good coverage according to the map of everywhere I'd be flying anyhow.
I asked if one could start/stop coverage as if in my case, I'd probably not be flying in the dead of winter so why pay for tracking coverage during the winter months. But come spring and summer turn it back on. Here is what they came back with:
"-------- Original Message --------
Subject: New reply: Can the coverage be purchased by the month?
From: Tagg - The Pet Tracker <[email protected]>
To: Tagg - The Pet Tracker <[email protected]>
CC:
Tagg - The Pet Tracker
Shane Peterson, an employee of Tagg - The Pet Tracker, replied to Can the coverage be purchased by the month?, a question about Tagg - The Pet Tracker
We do have customers
that use our trackers seasonally. To end service at the end of your season,
you'd want to call in to our toll-free
line at 1-855-PET-TAGG. We're here seven days a week from 10 AM to 7 PM
eastern time. We'd just need to verify
you as being authorized to make changes to the account, then we could
cancel the tracker. That would end your
monthly billing at that time.
When you wished to
resume service, you could just charge up the tracker, log in to your account
at pettracker.com, and activate the
tracker in a manner very similar to the way you did the first time you activated it. Many of the activation steps
would be skippable, as the information would already have been entered and saved.
The trackers do need
to be on the docking station during the activation attempt, and are not able to
be turned on/off, or activated from a
remote location, or by us through the Verizon network. "
I believe the monthly fee is: $7.95 a month after the free 3 months that comes with the unit. Now is it worth $100 for the device and 3 months of service ? I do like the ATT sim route with a less expensive device, but not sure if it would cover my area. This device looking the the map coverage at least in my area must be allowed to roam on other networks in order to blanket such a large area out in the sticks of where I'd be flying. Oh and the device is supposed to be water resistant and rugged being it's on a pet which is a good. Here is a link to the coverage map:
http://www.pettracker.com/support?showc ... =(referral)|utmcmd=referral|utmcct=/viewtopic.php&__utmv=-&__utmk=204957202
I asked if one could start/stop coverage as if in my case, I'd probably not be flying in the dead of winter so why pay for tracking coverage during the winter months. But come spring and summer turn it back on. Here is what they came back with:
"-------- Original Message --------
Subject: New reply: Can the coverage be purchased by the month?
From: Tagg - The Pet Tracker <[email protected]>
To: Tagg - The Pet Tracker <[email protected]>
CC:
Tagg - The Pet Tracker
Shane Peterson, an employee of Tagg - The Pet Tracker, replied to Can the coverage be purchased by the month?, a question about Tagg - The Pet Tracker
We do have customers
that use our trackers seasonally. To end service at the end of your season,
you'd want to call in to our toll-free
line at 1-855-PET-TAGG. We're here seven days a week from 10 AM to 7 PM
eastern time. We'd just need to verify
you as being authorized to make changes to the account, then we could
cancel the tracker. That would end your
monthly billing at that time.
When you wished to
resume service, you could just charge up the tracker, log in to your account
at pettracker.com, and activate the
tracker in a manner very similar to the way you did the first time you activated it. Many of the activation steps
would be skippable, as the information would already have been entered and saved.
The trackers do need
to be on the docking station during the activation attempt, and are not able to
be turned on/off, or activated from a
remote location, or by us through the Verizon network. "
I believe the monthly fee is: $7.95 a month after the free 3 months that comes with the unit. Now is it worth $100 for the device and 3 months of service ? I do like the ATT sim route with a less expensive device, but not sure if it would cover my area. This device looking the the map coverage at least in my area must be allowed to roam on other networks in order to blanket such a large area out in the sticks of where I'd be flying. Oh and the device is supposed to be water resistant and rugged being it's on a pet which is a good. Here is a link to the coverage map:
http://www.pettracker.com/support?showc ... =(referral)|utmcmd=referral|utmcct=/viewtopic.php&__utmv=-&__utmk=204957202
Hello all first post here, I am planing on buying the Vision 2 and I will be using my dogs TAGG system for the o-**** moment if it ever takes off on me.
Lucky for me I got the TAGG with one year service for Christmas.
Lucky for me I got the TAGG with one year service for Christmas.
Here's a new option coming in the near future. It uses an extended bluetooth range to achieve around 2500 ft of tracking range without any monthly service fees.
https://www.sticknfind.com/blutracker.aspx
https://www.sticknfind.com/blutracker.aspx
That looked good indeed, then I read the FAQ:
Not quite so good for those of us in this neck of the woods, by some margin.
Not quite so good for those of us in this neck of the woods, by some margin.
Pull_Up said:That looked good indeed, then I read the FAQ:
Not quite so good for those of us in this neck of the woods, by some margin.
Wow, you got that right, did not know the restrictions outside of the US were that strict on range.
TexomaEV said:Pull_Up said:That looked good indeed, then I read the FAQ:
Not quite so good for those of us in this neck of the woods, by some margin.
Wow, you got that right, did not know the restrictions outside of the US were that strict on range.
There is a lower max power limit.
The ranges tend to be a tad optimistic too...
Having said that we designed a bluetooth headphone system to euro specs for a rally team, which had a line of sight range of just over 1km, but that took very careful rf and antenna design.
I still think the best solution is a gps / sms triggered tracker with a loud beeper to do the final locating. The human ear is a very sensitive and very directionally accurate sensor!
Yes, there should be something built into the firmware that if the Vision has auto-landed or crashed and remains powered up for more than a couple of minutes, say, that it starts beeping in that delightfully loud way it does on power up. Even if you don't find it, it's more likely someone will...
Keep in mind when your bird crashes, the concept of optimistic LoS (line of sight) goes down the drain immediately. Think of the curving grounds, trees, rocks, buildings and whatnots between you and it.
Go with gps+sms tracker.
Go with gps+sms tracker.
Hee hee ... I just discovered a "gotcha" with the "GSM GPS Tracker." Don't press the "SOS" button on it. I went to turn it off today and accidentally pressed "SOS" instead of the power switch. Before I realized what was happening, the tracker had sent 10 location messages to each of the two phones I had registered with it!
-- Roger
-- Roger
My TK102B only sends one text "SOS alarm" (as opposed to "Help me!) plus Lat/Long/Speed/Time/Date/IMEI. There's so many of these out there with different firmware, different hardware, different command set. I still can't get the shock/vibration feature to trip even though the tracker confirms its enabled. May have a bum unit.
iDrone
iDrone
I ended up purchasing one of these too: http://www.visionflyer.com/adding-a-gps ... -2-vision/
FYI, for anyone in Australia - ALDI sells pre-paid SIM's for $15 with a long expiry of 365 days, and only 12c per SMS. It uses the excellent Telstra network too!
FYI, for anyone in Australia - ALDI sells pre-paid SIM's for $15 with a long expiry of 365 days, and only 12c per SMS. It uses the excellent Telstra network too!
gpauk said:
I don't think the concern with flying near a "cell phone tower" is because of the cell phone frequencies. It is because tall structures, such as towers, are often used as microwave relay points which may be using a strong, focused signal close to the frequencies used by the quadcopter.
-- Roger
jadebox said:
Oh??
Didn't you just contradict yourself here?
Btw, there are quite a few cellphone frequencies being used and deployed around the world (1700, 1800, 1900, 2100, etc) so some may interfere worst than others toward what freq we use (?).. Unfortunate they're not marked, and not to mention they may use different freq altogether for their backhauls.
LeoS said:
No.
Apologies if I wasn't clear. What I said, or tried to say, was that the towers might have microwave relays which can be very high power and use frequencies close to the frequencies used by the Vision. These are not the same as cell phone signals which are not very powerful - they are designed to cover only a limited area - and are not using the same frequencies as the P2V. Of course, flying too close to a tower's cell phone transmitter could cause problems even though the frequency isn't close to the Vision's. But, I'd bet it's more likely that flying near a microwave antenna that is using a frequency closer to 2.4 or 5.8 GHz would be a bigger concern.
Anyway, the main point is that the intermittent low-power signal (at 800 or 1800 Mhz or whatever) produced by the GPS tracker is unlikely to affect the quadcopter's signal.
-- Roger
All your points are all well-taken: stay away from the business-end of high-energy antennas no matter what they are. On a side-note it's unlikely you're going to call your tracker while it's aloft, so I don't think upsetting PV avionics is an issue. And yet another side-note, the factory told me they disabled the Shock sensor on the TK102B because it might affect the accuracy of the GPS. Curious answer?!
iDrone
iDrone
iDrone said:
So what are your thoughts on a Cell based tracker that will do SMS or data based Pings?
The TK102's that LeoS, jadebox, and I are using has a full GSM cellular radio plus a GPS chipset. It even has a built-in microphone you can switch on to monitor ambient audio.pileosnafu said:
In normal use it quietly listens to the cell towers for a phone call, answers the call & hangs-up, then lights-up its GPS chipset to get an updated fix, and finally sends an SMS text with its Lat & Long coordinates or a URL to Google Maps to the phone number you've pre-programmed. In more advanced use you can command it to text it's location periodically with a minimum 20-sec interval to handshake & complete transmissions to the cell system. In deeper enhanced use with subscription services, it can transpond its location to an Internet server, which in-turn plots its trail on a web page map.
For the Vision (or any RC aircraft) I think it's perfect because its compact, light, & self-powered and gives me some reassurance that if I lose my Vision due to my own noobness (borrowing a slinger'ism) or I experience some unexplained fly-away, I have an excellent chance of retrieving it by making a phone call and clicking on the link in the text message it sends me within 10-20 seconds which I've tested is accurate to within 3m. After walking/driving closer to its location I would try reopening Camera to reacquire telemetry, and if successful should be able to use the Radar function and/or Find My Phantom Vision to zero-in on its location using the Vision's GPS.
I've looked at Bluetooth options (and even have a few) but Bluetooth is very limited in its range. I've also looked at various 3rd party subscription tracker options but don't find them effective nor geared towards our purpose. I think the Flytrex system is far more suitable & affordable for flight tracking, telemetry, and data metrics.
iDrone
