What's Latest Thoughts on Marco Polo

[jim81]

Excellent, useful information. Especially the concept of turning it on and leaving it on. Thanks John!

Good thinking. I have been turning mine off and on. Have never forgotten to turn it on but after flying and then putting stuff away, I sometimes forget and leave it on.
With the recent discovery of affordable insurance for aircraft replacement and a Marco Polo I am much more comfortable about flying and being concerned about losing and expensive hobby piece.

 

[RamFade]

... With the recent discovery of affordable insurance for aircraft replacement and a Marco Polo I am much more comfortable about flying and being concerned about losing and expensive hobby piece.

Jim81, what replacement insurance are you speaking of? I use Verifly for liability, and have DJI Refresh. Is there something better than Refresh (or Care, whatever that call it for the P4P)?

 

[jim81]

Just do the search for insurance and you'll find volumes. To answer your question directly, State Farm offers to cover the Phantom in case of a fly away, pilot error crash, etc., for about $50 a year zero deductible. I've seen the premium between $30 and $80 depending in what state you live in and for what dollar amount you want to set it for. It's available in the lower 48 but some agents don't want to mess with it. If that's the case, just contact another one.

 

[RamFade]

State Farm offers to cover the Phantom

Thanks again jim81, I did some research and found State Farm only covers personal use of the drone and I use mine for commercial. I'll keep searching but I won't make it a high priority. I only have a P4P, not some $20K aircraft.

 

[John Locke]

Thanks again jim81, I did some research and found State Farm only covers personal use of the drone and I use mine for commercial. I'll keep searching but I won't make it a high priority. I only have a P4P, not some $20K aircraft.

So don't you ever use your drone for personal hobby use? Vacations, practice runs, testing, etc.?

 

[RamFade]

So don't you ever use your drone for personal hobby use? Vacations, practice runs, testing, etc.?

Practice runs yes, but even then I write off the mileage. My drone is registered as a commercial UAS, I'm not going to fight the insurance companies about it. I have DJI Refresh, just ordered some strobes from msinger and a Marco Polo. That'll have to do. I don't have damage insurance on any of my other cameras.

 

[Pixar]

As promised, here are the photos illustrating the method I use to secure the Marco Polo tracker tag to my machine. It won't win any awards for looks but it's strong, secure and it works.

This is the component I modified to carry the Marco Polo Tracker tag.
In Australia it called an electrical conduit tee junction and costs around $2 from any electrical wholesaler.

View attachment 74359

The female conduit lugs have been removed leaving holes that are flush with the body of the junction. (A hacksaw or angle grinder with a fine cutting blade make short work of this.) Then file off any rough edges.
A small modification is also required to the inside so as the tag can be inserted. The photo shows where I’ve filed the plastic away, (none too neatly), to achieve this. The black strip is the cable tie used to hold the tag “housing” to the machine.

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The tee junction cover needs a hole drilled in it as shown, to allow the antenna wire to protrude.

View attachment 74361

This photo shows the tag in place with the “housing” held in position with a heavy duty cable tie.

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With the tag in position, the housing “lid” can now be screwed down.

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With the tag in place, the cover screwed down and the cable tie inserted thru the housing and fastened, the assembly in complete. (Don’t forget to activate the tag of course!)

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The first of the final two photos shows the completed housing with tag in place and in case you’re wondering, your bird will still fit into it’s case (see last photo), with slight pressure against the cable tie by pushing against the tag housing to clear the styrofoam.

View attachment 74365

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I’ve done dozens of flights using this configuration with no mishaps to either machine or tag. Good luck!

what is the size of that part ? 1 inch ?
Thanks!

 

[RamFade]

I'm a big fan of cable ties. Here's how I mounted mine, I think I got the idea from another post in this thread. If I ever want to move it to another aircraft I'll have to come up with something else. A velcro strap glued to the MP comes to mind, one more for the antenna.

 

[Bakersfield Quad]

I have one, got a saddle bag, for my P4P, it did not fit perfectly, but I did get it to work. The P4 and P4P are just different enough that the mounting is not quite right. But, it looks OK and works well. The Marco Polo, keeps me from worrying so much about losing it in a bush or something.

 

[AlanTheBeast]

When I first got the MP (Jan 2017) and then the P4P I was quite concerned with the possibility of a flyaway or a mis-configured RTH causing a non-return.

Many, many flights later and having much more confidence in my operating skill and having practiced RTH (and had induced a few times at range/behind folliage) my desire for a tracking device has waned to the point where I'll probably never get one.

 

[Bakersfield Quad]

The Marco Polo is insurance, nothing more. It is really easy for a drone to disappear, if it lands in brush, trees, tall grass, ect. It could be very close and yet you will not see it. The Marco Polo allows you to locate the bird in this kind of scenario. Plus, the more you fly, the greater the chance that you might need this.

 

[Carl1770]

what is the size of that part ? 1 inch ?
Thanks!

Hi There
For the metrically challenged, this tag holder finishes at approximately 2 1/4" long X 1 1/4" square.
Good luck with it.

 

[John Locke]

I'm a big fan of cable ties. Here's how I mounted mine, I think I got the idea from another post in this thread. If I ever want to move it to another aircraft I'll have to come up with something else. A velcro strap glued to the MP comes to mind, one more for the antenna.

View attachment 86907 View attachment 86908

I think Velcro works better than tie wraps. I've used Velcro to mount MP on my P4P and Mavic, it's very secure, and looks a lot cleaner, not to mention it's easier to remove and install MP and install on my P4 or P3P when I need to.

 

[Bakersfield Quad]

I think Velcro works better than tie wraps. I've used Velcro to mount MP on my P4P and Mavic, it's very secure, and looks a lot cleaner, not to mention it's easier to remove and install MP and install on my P4 or P3P when I need to.

Better yet, it is a vibration dampener.

 

[RamFade]

I think Velcro works better than tie wraps.

Hey John, that does look much cleaner! I should do that too. One mod I might make though is to leave some of the black velcro sticking out as a tab. So when I pull the tag off I'm actually pulling on the velcro instead of the tag, reducing or nearly eliminating the stress on the glue. The velcro had a tendency of pulling off the batteries in my RC planes, not any more. I also did that with the strobes I got from msinger, tie-wrap velcro hooks to the legs and glued a strip of loops longer than the strobe to the strobe. I don't worry about the velcro pulling off the strobes. I suppose I could have used glue on the legs but they're so curved I feel better using tie-wraps. They're visible in my photos.

Good tip on cutting out the notch in the loops!

 

[Razorback1]

Where do you buy these trackers?

 

[Pixar]

I like that cut out idea as well, I also called the vender and asked if I could shrink white shrink wrap around what was already on the unit, and he said it was fine just dont mess with the antenna, it blends in pretty nice now on it being almost the same color

 

[Bakersfield Quad]

I use a UAV Bits Saddle Bag.

 

[Pixar]

Where do you buy these trackers?

Ebay, Maropolo.com/Amazon.

 

[Pixar]

I use a UAV Bits Saddle Bag.

However I dont see one for the P4P , It is only under the Phantom 3 Stuff. I did email them tho. thanks.
That is the perfect setup !