Marco Polo

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Due to my outstanding ability to loose drones, I have purchased a Marco Polo drone locator system. Do people have good luck with these. I have just ordered my second P4P Obsidian due to a crash and loosing my first one. Have people had any problems and is there a place that is better to mount it on the drone. How does it work in heavily wooded areas as that is most of my work.
 
I did try that how ever this last time I think that at some point the battery got ejected from the drone as it took a swan dive from 400 ft into a heavy canopy!
 
Sounds like you have had some tough incidents...SMH
Yeah, I do most of my work in heavy woods, last time it took me 4 days to find but I did not know how to use the find my drone feature. This time the search feature did not work. So on this new drone I will have a Marko Polo tracker on it!
 
They work well. Nice pointer straight to your drone. Attached to the P4 front leg for now. Velcro on top of my MMini. Only have 1 sender for 3 drones, so trade. Good for over 2 mi. If contact lost, it will reconnect when you get closer.
 
Due to my outstanding ability to loose drones, I have purchased a Marco Polo drone locator system. Do people have good luck with these. I have just ordered my second P4P Obsidian due to a crash and loosing my first one. Have people had any problems and is there a place that is better to mount it on the drone. How does it work in heavily wooded areas as that is most of my work.
Yes, I have one with 3 tracking tags... In addition to the velcro/(hook and loop) supplied, I also put a velcro strap around it all just to make sure. On my P3P I mount it on a leg. For protection, I also insert the antenna into a short piece of plastic tube that I've fixed to all my drones. I've found that if the antenna isn't vertical, as suggested is best by the manufacturer, it doesn't affect effective distance that much.

Finally, just in 'further' case that the tracker should get separated from the drone, (it would probably fall nearby anyway), to make it easier to see I have stuck some fluorescent yellow tape onto the black shrink-wrap cover. Without that it would be harder to spot, particularly under tree cover.

Overall and although the Marco Polo tracker is a bit pricey, I'm well pleased with it. It has always taken me straight to where my drones were with no problems.
 
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The biggest issue is keeping the batteries charged in the beacon and the finder device, then remembering to turn the beacon on with each flight. I leave it on between flights, up to 3 days continuous, since the beacon battery lasts a week in sleep mode. It's just another thing to remember, but you'll get used to it. Velcro works great to attached the beacon to the craft shell arm, making it easier to transfer from one craft to another. Even the antenna wire can be attached to the landing gear with Velcro so it doesn't flop around. I've never had to arm the beacon, so I'm unsure how well it works in a real situation. I did test it at distance when I got it, and it seemed to work OK to get you near the craft to spot visually.
 
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The biggest issue is keeping the batteries charged in the beacon and the finder device, then remembering to turn the beacon on with each flight. I leave it on between flights, up to 3 days continuous, since the beacon battery lasts a week in sleep mode. It's just another thing to remember,
That about sums up the cons. Just carry battery packs for recharge. I carry a few. Remembering, thats my problem. Never needed but tried it out, worked fine.

Found It! Now, where am I?
 
That about sums up the cons. Just carry battery packs for recharge. I carry a few. Remembering, thats my problem. Never needed but tried it out, worked fine.

Found It! Now, where am I?
I've never found keeping the batteries topped up a major problem, either with the handset or the tags. I only switch the tags on when I am about to take off and I switch them off after landing. It's on my mental checklist :) The tags show you by various flashes how much charge is left when you switch them on and only really use appreciable battery capacity when being tracked. From memory, I believe a tag battery is claimed to last up to 15 days when in standby, ready for tracking.

The handset only uses power when tracking a tag and clearly shows you how much power is left in the battery via the display.

I usually try to store my tags at about 50% when I know I won't be using them for a while. When in use I recharge to 3 flashes when they get down to one flash. Both the handset and the tags have small lipo batteries, so I feel it does matter in the long term.. With the tags it wouldn't be a major operation to remove the heat shrink if the battery expires and fit another suitably-size one and then re-heat-shrink it. Eureka products (the maker) also offer a tag battery replacement service I believe.

The proprietary batteries for the handset (3.7v 1200mAh) don't appear to be available from Eureka Products, but if they were, they are easily replaceable. I'm sure something could be cobbled up to suit as well...
 
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Marco works great even in heavily wooded areas. I've tested mine in the worst conditions. Took the drone far out into the woods, even put it upside down and viola, located it with little effort. I found on the net a guy who 3D prints holders for the tag. It attaches to the leg of the aircraft. I think it was better than my original velcro mount. Easy to get in and out to turn on and turn off.
 
+1 on the Marco Polo tracking system. I've had mine over 4 years now, and never fly without it.........even on short 'test' flights. You never know when the drone may want to wander off exploring on its own.

Had an issue with the tag about 3 years ago. Contacted the parent company 'Eureka Technology' and they said to send it to them. They repaired the tag and sent it back to me, free of charge. Has worked flawlessly since that time.

Yep, it's a bit pricy......but so is the drone it's attached to. And the drone never leaves the ground without 'ol Marco Polo along for the ride. [emoji12]
 
There's an Israeli company that 3D prints a holder for the Marco Polo.
I searched for my receipt but it's long gone.
 

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