UPDATE:
I have been flying with the TrackR bravo for about 2 weeks now and I just don't see how its going to work guys...
Summary:
Basically, my real life model test showed that it failed to help me find my drone. Heres what I did to test it.
The controlled environment v1.0 test. My wife hid the trackR in the house. I could not find it. She laughed at me. HARD. She said, "I love it when your stupid gadgets fail. The look of defeat on your face is priceless. If I could save this moment I'd replay it every time one of your little packages arrives. Hahaha"... /Facepalm
The actual live test procedure. v2.0
1. I was in the middle of no where. Thick brush and tall evergreen pine trees for miles.
2. while my p3 was warming up I opened the TrackR iOS app and pinged my bravo dongle. It took the whole 5 min to start chiming and update the GPS map on the iPhone.
3. I walked 15 feet away and verified the trackR bravo was pinged at the same site on the p3 and was monitoring on my GPS of my phone. P3 motors are off still at that point but lightbridge is on and locked.
4. I launched the P3 and flew approximately 300 feet away, about 285 to find a flat spot to land. I checked iOS TrackR app which is still running and it is still showing the p3 in the original take off spot. I hit the refresh button, it turns grey like its searching. I sat for 5 min- no dice.
5. I landed the quad and ensured the motors were off. Again I checked the app. I did everything I could to force it to ping the trackR bravo. Nothing. It still shows the quad at the launchpad.
6. I approached the quad and cut distance in half. about 100 foot approximately in order to have LOS around trees and thick brush. Another 5 min. Still no refreshed location...
7. I walked up to p3 at about 10 foot distance, again nothing. I walked further, nothing. I turned off the p3 and picked her up. After about 10 seconds the trackR bravo started chiming (which is barely audible by the way).
Strike 1...
I've tested in controlled settings and in the wild and heres the thing... if you aren't chilling out within 30 feet of the device for 5 minutes waiting for it to lock... you won't find your bird. The devices work great when you are standing on top of them which probably wont happen in the wild. They are on about 5 minute refresh ping rate so every 5 minutes they ping the bluetooth. I have a bunch of video to show this but I can't for the life of me upload it to the web... took me 8 hours to upload and process 8 minutes of video to youtube...and then it was shite quality so I deleted it.
Strike 2...
The thing is quiet. You can't hear it. Even a running creek bed is going to make this a point of failure.
Strike 3...
They aren't cheap. I'm planning to return mine once I hear from you guys. Ideas?
Conclusion: unless you are closer than 10 feet and reading a book in a noiseless area for over 5-10 min waiting for the **** device to ping you are screwed. If it was a Search and Rescue operation you'd likely pass right on through her location and miss the ping. Also its so **** quiet you'd not hear it even if you were walking softly in the woods, alone.