Has yer quad got a phone ? Mine has ! :-)

[powerlord]

After my first dji made a bid for freedom (succeeding) last year I';ve been keen on taking as many precautions as I can to avoid to happening again.

So far I have a working And tested Rth failsafe, and OSD with GPS.

But if the failsafe doesn';t work for some reason it could still manage to escape.

So I';ve fitted a cheap light android phone to it. Battery out and powered by ubec so nice and light.

I';m running glymse (sends GPS track to Internet in real time and of course on another phone or tablet you can watch it) and also ustream which sends real time video from the camera to Internet (where again it is saved and can be viewed real time on other devices)

So now at least if it disappears I should have an accurate up to date GPS location to find it, plus video link which is not limited by tx/rx distance.

Phone is a 25 quid tmobile rapport, and 6 months 3G Internet is 20 quid. So not a lot of cash to protect 2000 quid of quadcopter.

[fruitsalad]

like it 

[rsmith21]

After my first dji made a bid for freedom (succeeding) last year I';ve been keen on taking as many precautions as I can to avoid to happening again.

So far I have a working And tested Rth failsafe, and OSD with GPS.

But if the failsafe doesn';t work for some reason it could still manage to escape.

So I';ve fitted a cheap light android phone to it. Battery out and powered by ubec so nice and light.

I';m running glymse (sends GPS track to Internet in real time and of course on another phone or tablet you can watch it) and also ustream which sends real time video from the camera to Internet (where again it is saved and can be viewed real time on other devices)

So now at least if it disappears I should have an accurate up to date GPS location to find it, plus video link which is not limited by tx/rx distance.

Phone is a 25 quid tmobile rapport, and 6 months 3G Internet is 20 quid. So not a lot of cash to protect 2000 quid of quadcopter.

Its a cool idea, I wonder if there are any laws regarding flying phones, keep an eye out for radio problems too, as the phone transmissions may cause radio problems. Lots of close ground tests :)

[firey1]

Thats a great ideas Stu
got me thinking now lol

just looking at this as a safety backup

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Black-Mini-A8-GPS-GSM-GPRS-Car-Vehicle-Real-Time-SMS-SOS-Tracker-Alarm-Tracking-/281111535516?pt=US_Tracking_Devices&hash=item41738d9f9c

[MOFO64]

I use my galaxy note as main camera for footage. While filming I figured I';d be aswell running sports-tracker at the same time to log flight gps data (altitude/speed/distance flown etc).......it works well.

I tried a few apps for video streaming to my other galaxy note from the note on the quad but there was always atleast a 1-2second delay in the feed which made my fpv very weird for me.....I need insta-vision.

I';ll need to checkout this glymse 

[rsmith21]

Thats a great ideas Stu
got me thinking now lol

just looking at this as a safety backup

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Black-Mini-A8-GPS-GSM-GPRS-Car-Vehicle-Real-Time-SMS-SOS-Tracker-Alarm-Tracking-/281111535516?pt=US_Tracking_Devices&hash=item41738d9f9c

I think I better buy one before you guys by them all    would this work in the UK. To make it work I suppose you have to add a sim card, but what else. I think I';ll just get one and see. Great link 

I ordered it, I';ll let you know how I get on with it in a month if it arrives 

[dp106]

Sure I read something somewhere once about being able to set off an alarm on your quad to locate it. Might have been built into a flight controller, or I could have dreamt it

[firey1]

I think I better buy one before you guys by them all    would this work in the UK. To make it work I suppose you have to add a sim card, but what else. I think I';ll just get one and see. Great link 

I ordered it, I';ll let you know how I get on with it in a month if it arrives 

yes would work fine in the UK and it runs on 5v so could power it by the ubec with a bit of wiring up

[rsmith21]

yes would work fine in the UK and it runs on 5v so could power it by the ubec with a bit of wiring up

cool, I have a spare UBEC , IFLY-4 has one built in, I ordered one before I knew that

[firey1]

easy to wire up
just cut the supplied usb cable to the length you want
there are 4 internal cables you only want the red and black others are redundant
but before connecting to power
plug the usb side  of cable into laptop or 5v power charger and check color coding is right
I had 1 usb cable that red and black were reversed and fried my key chain cam
now you can plug in the mini usb to the unit and power from a ubec 

[powerlord]

Don';t buy firey1s link. I looked into them last night. They are rubbish - there';s a whole bunch of these Chinese things with GPS in their title which don';t actually have a GPS - these a8 things are one of them - they just do triangulation from the gsm signal. If it doesn';t actually state GPS chipset, cold/warm start etc in specs chances are it doesn';t have a GPS.

Look for the tk110/gt02. I got One last night for 23 quid. This actually has a proper GPS in it and you just phone or text it for coords (also tracking services on line but they cost subscriptions - which is the main benefit of using a real phone: free)

[rsmith21]

God, I was too quick off the mark there then 

But BEWARE someone just posted a link to a thing called Drone tracer and it looks very much like the £14 thing I ordered last night only they want £119 for it, I can see a few disappointed people .

What do you think, is this the cheepo version over priced http://www.i-drone.me/index.php?option=com_opencart&Itemid=54&route=product/product&path=79&product_id=189

[powerlord]

Maybe it';s ok . It did has tick at a picture saying ';GPS'; but if you take about online everyone seems to be saying the a8 things are crap.

I ordered one of these:

eBay item : 406377546023

[rsmith21]

I may find another use for the A8 thing.

I tried your item number but it failed to find it, I ordered one of these from AU
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221130446303?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

By the time I add this and the camera then the IFLY GPS when it is released it wont get off the ground 

When they talk about GPS on the A8 device, they mean it sends you GPS co-ordinates to its estimated position, at least one description I saw said that but they are sold in so may jackets and by so many people.

[powerlord]

Just search for gt02 and you';ll find em. As they are for vehicles they come ready wired so no need to gaffs about with USB power which I though was useful.

[firey1]

the good thing with ebay is if its not as specified you get your money back
and that unit states its GPS so you have come back on it R Smith

[rsmith21]

  your right, it states GPS, there was an image of two units at the end of the item description, with covers off, showing the difference between two units one with a GPS module and the other without. I';ll just have to wait and see what arrives.

Bob

[pete-c]

My DJI did the same thing today.

Pete

[firey1]

your right, it states GPS, there was an image of two units at the end of the item description, with covers off, showing the difference between two units one with a GPS module and the other without. I';ll just have to wait and see what arrives.

Bob

My apologies if i did you wrong with the link

[rsmith21]

No, sorry mate, your link was fine and I ordered one. The A8 site on ebay showed two units one with and one without GPS, they had a tick under the one with, indicating they are selling an A8 with a GPS unit, time will tell.
Bob

[powerlord]

My DJI did the same thing today.

Pete

No ! Flew off you mean ? Did u get it back ?