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?
Locating drone if lost
- Thread starter AerialPaolo5286
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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.
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.
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Drone Tracking And Recovery Solutions | Marco Polo | Tracking and Recovery Solutions
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Agreed. Most of the flyaways I've reviewed were within range of the Marco Polo.
"But, if you know the direction it went in or have last known coordinates from the telemetry, you have a very good chance."
This is true whether you're using a device or not.
I was very tempted by the Marco Polo but it was the limited range that killed it for me.
Luckily i the areas where I fly I have no trouble with cell reception and as far as I know I'm not linked to any one carrier.
The device is from OS but I'm in Oz so it wouldn't make sense to have it linked to one in another country.
This is true whether you're using a device or not.
I was very tempted by the Marco Polo but it was the limited range that killed it for me.
Luckily i the areas where I fly I have no trouble with cell reception and as far as I know I'm not linked to any one carrier.
The device is from OS but I'm in Oz so it wouldn't make sense to have it linked to one in another country.
Yes, I've lost my drone in the past and had to hike quite a bit to recover by use of the on screen flight path that is laid out while in flight no need to waist $$
I would say that you were lucky. Here is an example where it would be very difficult to find your drone by just knowing "about" where it was.
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