GPS Tracker: Simple placement mod

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I needed a way to attach my TK102 Nano to my P2.

Main goals here were to allow the device to have some LOS to the sky, while keeping it as far away as possible from things like the radios in the landing skids, the compass, the bulk of the Phantom which may block GPS signals, and out of the way of the gimbal system. I also needed an easy way to be able to access the device to change the battery.

Here’s what I came up with. You'll need: 2 x long elastic bands, 1 x strip of velcro. I removed my CAN-Bus connecter and left the lead where it is for now. You could just as well leave it in place and re-arrange the bands.

Not the most pretty solution, but it’s very cheap, fills all the boxes, and is rock solid in that there is no vertical play from either the tracker or elastic bands due to the velcro keeping them in place. Even if you crashed the Phantom the tracker will stay where it is, which is a very important feature as this in no doubt when you need the thing to do it’s job ; )

The tracker weighs 50g, so there is a chance I may need to counter balance the other skid.

I’m still yet to do some extensive testing of the TK102 in situ / mid flight, so I’ll report back on that asap.

jb_tk102_mod_1.jpg


jb_tk102_mod_2.jpg
 
Nice idea :) I would imagine that 50g on that leg may cause stability issues and having to add another 50g to the other leg will seriously start to deminish your flight times. Are you also carrying a Zenmuse + GoPro?

I'm working on fitting a stripped down TK102 to a P2. Rather than carrying all the excessive weight of the case and battery I've found it can be powered from the 5v output on the vTX. The board on it's own with the sim card is a little over 15g.... quite a weight saving.
 
I got my simply valco tape under battery tray next to my 600mw tx. No issue so far. It weight 60g excactly with the battery not 50g. My whole fpv setup total 1334g.
 
goldfishrock said:
Nice idea :) I would imagine that 50g on that leg may cause stability issues and having to add another 50g to the other leg will seriously start to deminish your flight times. Are you also carrying a Zenmuse + GoPro?

I'm working on fitting a stripped down TK102 to a P2. Rather than carrying all the excessive weight of the case and battery I've found it can be powered from the 5v output on the vTX. The board on it's own with the sim card is a little over 15g.... quite a weight saving.

I knew someone would ; )

Yeah, I have the Zenmuse setup but had to return it to the supplier on day 1 after trying for hours to get it to work. It was lifeless and wouldn't update from 0.0 to 1.8, I reckon it's faulty.

Anyway, an interesting idea. Although I'd be concerned about relying on the Phantom to power the tracker. What happens if you crash somewhere and the power goes dead, the tracker would be redundant. Unless you plan on using the continuous tracking via GPRS feature each time you fly... could get costly on those PAYG sims :p

I like the idea of the tracker being completely independent, but it would be good to shed the case though and perhaps stick the insides in a tough plastic bag, or something, to save weight.

Out of interest, how did you get yours open? I can't see any screws, seems like a sealed unit, and where would you position your stripped down tracker?
 
leekawey said:
I got my simply valco tape under battery tray next to my 600mw tx. No issue so far. It weight 60g excactly with the battery not 50g. My whole fpv setup total 1334g.

Cool. I thought about that but wondered if the dense Phantom battery would impede the GPS signal. Guess it offers less of a stability issue in the middle of the unit. Have you done much testing pinging the tracker and how's your flight time with that extra weight?
 
Jaybee said:
leekawey said:
I got my simply valco tape under battery tray next to my 600mw tx. No issue so far. It weight 60g excactly with the battery not 50g. My whole fpv setup total 1334g.

Cool. I thought about that but wondered if the dense Phantom battery would impede the GPS signal. Guess it offers less of a stability issue in the middle of the unit. Have you done much testing pinging the tracker and how's your flight time with that extra weight?

I have just read about the dji recommend max weight is 1350g. My whole setup correct my previous quote is 1345g. So it is just under the limit but somehow it is not holding it position quite well against the wind. However It's still acceptable I think.
I can't tell you exactly how many mins I got. But definitely no less than 18mins. I always make sue I land at 30% warning.
In uk there is a website selling the striped down version of gps for fpv. Cost about £80 and also it's waterproof. I will post the link later.
 
Hi, just having a spy and spotted this, over from the darkside p2v :) , with all the mods I have on I'm hitting 1445g and I'm getting approx. 16min flight times to 15% warning, anyways just thought I would share with you where I have my tk102b tracker, you have to remove quite a bit plastic to fit but once fitted it works a treat, food for thought ;)

DSC_0099_zps4fc7c2e0.jpg

DSC_0097_zpse2fec247.jpg
 
NEILS said:
Hi, just having a spy and spotted this, over from the darkside p2v :) , with all the mods I have on I'm hitting 1445g and I'm getting approx. 16min flight times to 15% warning, anyways just thought I would share with you where I have my tk102b tracker, you have to remove quite a bit plastic to fit but once fitted it works a treat, food for thought ;)

Very interesting! so you've kept the TK battery permanently attached and can charge it with that plug? The TK I have has a separate charger, i.e, you have to remove the battery from the unit.

How does it all perform, presuming it does it's job and returns the GPS location all good?
 
The Battery is fixed to the pcb with a cable tie so not removed once fitted, the charging socket on the pcb is not used at all, the plug is soldered to the back of the battery pins on the pcb, plug in any 3.7v lipo charger to charge the unit up, just a case of finding a plug and socket, something like the hubsan plugs are fine, use a bit of jb weld to fix the plug in position.
The tracker is working fine, I used a mobile phone to activate the sim card and add £10 credit, it must be activated first before fitting as once fitted its a total strip down again to get it back out, switching the unit on looks hard to get at as the switch is right at the back of the pcb however I use a long screwdriver to switch on before fitting p2v battery, it only takes a few seconds and when switched on the led lights up the battery compartment green so you cannot miss it.

On top of that I have a flytrex core on the other side, temp readings may be a problem but who cares :) still have to test that though, once we get some half decent weather that is

DSC_0098_zps6ef6fddd.jpg
 
NEILS, about the Flytrex...How do you get to the SD card when it is installed inside?
Can you reach with your fingers or with a tool of some sort?
Thanx!
 
Jaybee said:
Out of interest, how did you get yours open? I can't see any screws, seems like a sealed unit

[*] Use a flat blade screwdriver to prise off the band around the top which has the antenna underneath.
[*] Open up the unit, remove the battery / sim
[*] There is a little label on the bed where the battery sits, if you scrape it off you'll find a little screw, remove it
[*] You should find that most of the case is easily removable now. You'll need a pair of snips to cut the plastic to allow you to remove the antenna wire.
 
bernardb said:
NEILS, about the Flytrex...How do you get to the SD card when it is installed inside?
Can you reach with your fingers or with a tool of some sort?
Thanx!

You can reach with your fingers no problem
 
NEILS said:
bernardb said:
NEILS, about the Flytrex...How do you get to the SD card when it is installed inside?
Can you reach with your fingers or with a tool of some sort?
Thanx!

You can reach with your fingers no problem

Great! Just what I wanted to hear!
 
goldfishrock said:
[*] Use a flat blade screwdriver to prise off the band around the top which has the antenna underneath.
[*] Open up the unit, remove the battery / sim
[*] There is a little label on the bed where the battery sits, if you scrape it off you'll find a little screw, remove it
[*] You should find that most of the case is easily removable now. You'll need a pair of snips to cut the plastic to allow you to remove the antenna wire.

NEILS said:
The Battery is fixed to the pcb with a cable tie so not removed once fitted, the charging socket on the pcb is not used at all, the plug is soldered to the back of the battery pins on the pcb, plug in any 3.7v lipo charger to charge the unit up, just a case of finding a plug and socket, something like the hubsan plugs are fine, use a bit of jb weld to fix the plug in position.
The tracker is working fine, I used a mobile phone to activate the sim card and add £10 credit, it must be activated first before fitting as once fitted its a total strip down again to get it back out, switching the unit on looks hard to get at as the switch is right at the back of the pcb however I use a long screwdriver to switch on before fitting p2v battery, it only takes a few seconds and when switched on the led lights up the battery compartment green so you cannot miss it.

On top of that I have a flytrex core on the other side, temp readings may be a problem but who cares :) still have to test that though, once we get some half decent weather that is
Thanks for the info folks.

I've got the TK dismantled and will be doing an internal mod this week thanks to your inspiration. Be great to have the thing internally fitted and out of the way.

I'm planning to cable tie the battery like NEILS and use the same space -- seems like the only place it can fit. Will create a slot on the undercarriage to enable USB charging via the TK's built-in socket and also drill small hole to allow access the On/Off switch.

Will post up the results.
 
anybody have more pics of this? or any in progress pics? I will be doing the same thing here in about a week and would like to have a little bit of a plan if i'm going to do this. Thanks!
Kyle
 
Brothainchrist06 said:
anybody have more pics of this? or any in progress pics? I will be doing the same thing here in about a week and would like to have a little bit of a plan if i'm going to do this. Thanks!
Kyle

Hi Kyle, all I can really say is be careful!, you have to remove all the pcbs, motors and speed controllers to get to the battery compartment, don't unplug or unsolder anything, remove all the screws from the motors and pcbs, this will allow you to move them out of the way all together, once all the screws are removed move the main board just enough so you can reach the screws on the battery terminals, once the grey battery terminal block is removed this will allow you to move all the boards together and gain full access to the battery compartment, then its a case of removing the plastic and keep checking the fit, its tight but they will go, it also helps to also check the fit with the p2 battery in place, just to make sure it wont hit, I find the cable tie I have holding the tk102 and its battery together also help as a buffer when the battery is inserted, the switch looks hard to get at however before flight and fitting the battery I use a knife to reach the switch, its easy once you have done it a few times.
Hope this helps and if your at all unsure about doing this then its probably best not too.

Neil
 
Brothainchrist06 said:
anybody have more pics of this? or any in progress pics? I will be doing the same thing here in about a week and would like to have a little bit of a plan if i'm going to do this. Thanks!
Kyle
I've done mine today, will get pics up shortly :)
 
Jaybee said:
I needed a way to attach my TK102 Nano to my P2.

Main goals here were to allow the device to have some LOS to the sky, while keeping it as far away as possible from things like the radios in the landing skids, the compass, the bulk of the Phantom which may block GPS signals, and out of the way of the gimbal system. I also needed an easy way to be able to access the device to change the battery.

Here’s what I came up with. You'll need: 2 x long elastic bands, 1 x strip of velcro. I removed my CAN-Bus connecter and left the lead where it is for now. You could just as well leave it in place and re-arrange the bands.

Not the most pretty solution, but it’s very cheap, fills all the boxes, and is rock solid in that there is no vertical play from either the tracker or elastic bands due to the velcro keeping them in place. Even if you crashed the Phantom the tracker will stay where it is, which is a very important feature as this in no doubt when you need the thing to do it’s job ; )

The tracker weighs 50g, so there is a chance I may need to counter balance the other skid.

I’m still yet to do some extensive testing of the TK102 in situ / mid flight, so I’ll report back on that asap.

jb_tk102_mod_1.jpg


jb_tk102_mod_2.jpg

Interesting project. You don't need to worry about the bulk of the phantom blocking the gps signal. They even work when installed under a car (have done a few hundred installations myself). As long as they are not closed inside a thick metal box, they will work fine.

To make sure it will work fine even after a crash, you can wrap the unit with a few layers of bubble wrap. A few months ago we had a client use his 102-NANO to locate his meteorology balloon. With plenty of bubble wrap the tracker survived after 500m+ fall.

I have noticed you haven't used the waterproof pouch. The tracker itself is not waterproof unless used with the waterproof pouch supplied.
 

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