Trackers: this one saves your **s

[dirtybum]

I've shared my opinion before but i want to hit it home with this!
Yesterday flying out on a run, going a direction i know i can make 4 miles then i usually lose video signal. So i get out 3 miles and still solid. But, it goes in and out of gps mode a few times (still 15 sats) once i get out 20'000 it starts to lose a couple bars,as expected in that area, and slips outa gps again. Then, dropped signal, everything! I hit RTH.

Now, not knowing if its heading back cause the atti/gps dance what do you guys do??
Heres what i did!

I flipped open the flytrex app, noticed it WAS flying straight towards me in a v-line slightly off from direction my controllers pointing and i was able to fly it "quickly" back with NO pilot app until i regained signal!
Come on now!! Tell me what your tracker does! The thing sells itself.

(If i had relied on RTH alone that far out, it would of never made it)

 

[Justgregg]

Doesnt the FAA frown on flying beyond line of sight?

 

[Dirty Bird]

Socre bleu!

Doesnt the FAA frown on flying beyond line of sight?

 

[Erroll]

Then, dropped signal, everything! I hit RTH.
..........

(If i had relied on RTH alone that far out, it would of never made it)

I don't understand the point of "hitting RTH" after all signal was lost. What did you expect the RC to do? Send a pigeon?

 

[dirtybum]

Doesnt the FAA frown on flying beyond line of sight?

Don't know I don't talk to the FAA. I fly the way I want to fly until further notice

 

[Saudio]

I must be missing something. It has lock on 15 sats but is going in and out of GPS mode? It goes into RTH mode but is not flying directly towards home? Is the drone defective?

 

[dirtybum]

I must be missing something. It has lock on 15 sats but is going in and out of GPS mode? It goes into RTH mode but is not flying directly towards home? Is the drone defective?

Yeah, Saudio, it shuffled in and out a few times showing " safe to fly non-gps. That was no big deal. And yes it was trying to fly a straight line home, however i flew out to the left and then straight to avoid some obstructions in the area. So the flytrex app was beneficial to help fly back on a path i could (1) know which way to point my controller(2) help me fly back the course to regain my signal quickest(3) to show me in real time that a/c is returning at all!

 

[Air Ontario]

So, it lost uplink and downlink, either initiated RTH or your actions did, and it began returning home just like it is supposed to do?

Did the GO App notify you that RTH was activated and in progress?

I suppose the point is you had redundancy with the Flytrex and app to verify RTH was actually happening rather than dependency on regaining downlink?

I have always just waited a few seconds, realigned my antenna orientation, goth the downlink back and saw I was flying back.

 

[Saudio]

Yeah, Saudio, it shuffled in and out a few times showing " safe to fly non-gps. That was no big deal. And yes it was trying to fly a straight line home, however i flew out to the left and then straight to avoid some obstructions in the area. So the flytrex app was beneficial to help fly back on a path i could (1) know which way to point my controller(2) help me fly back the course to regain my signal quickest(3) to show me in real time that a/c is returning at all!

I understand. Were you using some sort of amplifier on the remote? And if you don't mind me asking, when flying to the absolute limits of the aircraft, why would you not have the RTH parameters set to fly home at an altitude that would clear obstructions? The Flytrex sound interesting, I'm checking it out.

 

[dirtybum]

Point is,redundany or piece of mind,when yer out 6-7 miles at 50% bat you cant wait to see if its gonna come back or wait for reception to see where you stand. Every mph,%,&second counts !

 

[dirtybum]

, why would you not have the RTH parameters set to fly home at an altitude that would clear obstructions? The Flytrex sound interesting, I'm checking it out.

This post was to illustrate how useful the realtime app can be in a situation, something other popular trackers cant do!
Yes my RTH is set to clear ANY obstacles,buuuuut, there is a tree line in that particular flying path that would not allow me to pick reception back up until it was almost a couple miles from home.

 

[Mark The Droner]

Yes - flytrex is completely friggin' awesome. I've flown my craft home this way too - not nearly from as far as dirtybum's distance but still it's amazing to me to lose FPV and telemetry via the normal RC connections and yet still be able to seemingly blindly and yet confidently guide it home using telemetry via flytrex.

 

[dirtybum]

Now obviously Marknmd and I would never recommend flying on radar alone out of line of sight without the aid of a camera to assist you to safely fly!but it's easy to see a scenario where this app could really save your tail and your bird

 

[nix240z]

I am sending my 2nd flytrex back today as this one also had the double start of the quad issue on my P3P and then intermittent signal loss with tablet. Rebecca at Flytrex is great to work with.

 

[GaryDZ]

. . . it's amazing to me to lose FPV and telemetry via the normal RC connections and yet still be able to seemingly blindly and yet confidently guide it home using telemetry via flytrex.

I have the Live 3G+ and love it. But help me to understand how you can "guide it home" if you don't have "telemetry via the normal RC connection". Sure, you can see where it is but how do you control it? Does Flytrex have a feature of which I am not aware?

 

[Mark The Droner]

If you're in RTH mode, it's a lot more likely you'll have the ability to regain control before you regain FPV. But if you do get the ability to regain control, since it's a one-way signal, you have no way of knowing it. No way, that is, unless you have flytrex. With flytrex, you don't need FPV. You can see the craft coming towards you on the flytrex app. So you take your controller, attempt to regain control, and if you see the craft responding to you per the flytrex app, you can then fly it home by watching the aircraft heading towards you on the flytrex app - even with a blanked out FPV screen.

It's great. It's even greater than great. It's even greater than greatest.

I'm gonna name my horse Flytrex.

 

[dirtybum]

Finally someone who understands me my work here is done

 

[2nd2non]

What happens if you have spotty cellular service [emoji15] - rhetorical question....
Glad to hear Flytrex customer service (equipment and responsiveness) has improved. I had abandoned Flytrex when I sold my FC40 due to their issues. But loved the ability to use the live app to see where it was. But for me, when flying my P3 out far, it's usually in areas with spotty or limited cell service (i can see with RF-v16 tracker).

 

[Phantom751874]

I have never permantly lost the ability to use the Go App and I have never lost FPV and telemetry but still had RC control.

I believe, I could be wrong, that RC and telemetry are carried on the same signal seperwte from FPV, which would explain why I have had complete loss of FPV but was able to use the Go App Map to guide myself home.

 

[Mark The Droner]

You're suggesting your control transmitter on the remote control is actually a transceiver.

I don't think so, but I don't have a P3. On my P2V, I'll get a different warning message depending on which signal I lose. If I lose the control signal for a few seconds but I have FPV, I get that warning message. That's the aircraft sending telemetry, notifying me it senses no control signal (but I already have a clue since I can see on the FPV screen the craft is hoving instead of moving forward). A few seconds later it will tell me it's in RTH. If I lose what carries the FPV signal, I get a warning for that (it's different), and that's from my app directly, since it senses no FPV signal. However, when I lose the actual video signal, I will sometimes NOT get the warning that I have no FPV signal. This means I have a very weak signal - not enough to carry video but enough to carry some telemetry. In that case, I do have a signal - a single bar (it's red instead of white in Litchi) showing a very weak signal. And then I'll still get an intermittent telemetry update on something (e.g. battery) even with everything else is not being updated.

When I lose FPV first and get that warning, that's it for warnings. No more warnings. I might have control and I might not. I have to guess. Gosh I hope it's not flying away. Gosh I hope it didn't crash. Gosh I hope somebody didn't shoot it down. Gosh I hope it's coming back. Gosh I hope it's pointing at me. Gosh... I have no way of knowing - unless I can see it in the sky... or ... I glance at the Flytrex app.