real time audio beacon for drone signalling end of control range

Discussion in 'General Discussions and Intros' started by neville, Dec 30, 2017.

Tags:
  1. neville

    neville New Member

    Dec 27, 2017
    6
    0
    1
    Male
    #1 neville, Dec 30, 2017
    Is there some way to put an audio beacon on the drone that increases intensity or repetition of its beeping on the receiver the further it goes out of range? A simple use case of what I need - Say for example I am in a field flying my drone and I know its got a range of say 500 feet. I want the beacon to sound when I reach say 300 feet away and start beeping faster the closer it gets to 500 feet and maybe flat line when the drone approaches say 450 feet so I can may a course correction.

    Any ideas, pointers?
     
  2. Jonathan

    Jonathan Drone Expert
    Crew

    Aug 31, 2013
    1,302
    104
    63
    Male
    Drone Aerial Photographer
    York
    #2 Jonathan, Dec 30, 2017
    I know someone made a beacon that started beeping loudly if you crash, and/or lose signal. I know it should be relatively easy to make something that beeps in radio signal loss, if you're building your own drone you could set one of your receiver channels to activate a beeper on failsafe.
     
  3. neville

    neville New Member

    Dec 27, 2017
    6
    0
    1
    Male
    #3 neville, Jan 1, 2018
    not building my own drone yet. Was planning to push this onto the Rise Vusion 250 Extreme, so I know when its going out of range. What should I be looking for in terms of hardware. I wouldn't even know where to look for part names so I can buy them on Amazon.
     
  4. Jonathan

    Jonathan Drone Expert
    Crew

    Aug 31, 2013
    1,302
    104
    63
    Male
    Drone Aerial Photographer
    York
    #4 Jonathan, Jan 1, 2018
    I don't think it will go out of range just racing? However, if you're wanting to push it to see how far you can go you're better of using a flight controller/osd combo that shows distances etc and has a return to home feature.
    For a beeper you can get something like this:
    https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Crazepon...128697&hash=item3f817a4388:g:cO4AAOSwy3NZYhXc
    You can attach it to a spare channel in the receiver on the drone and have the radio failsafe set to trigger it, if the radio allows that? That's only if you lose signal. Getting it to work for distances is a lot more complicated and would involve some programming.
     
  5. neville

    neville New Member

    Dec 27, 2017
    6
    0
    1
    Male
    #5 neville, Jan 2, 2018

    Thanks for the info. I wanted a way to test how far it would go, without losing the drone by an accidental fly away.
     
  6. Jonathan

    Jonathan Drone Expert
    Crew

    Aug 31, 2013
    1,302
    104
    63
    Male
    Drone Aerial Photographer
    York
    #6 Jonathan, Jan 2, 2018
    I see, in that case I would swap out the flight controller for this: https://www.dji.com/naza-m-v2 - you can get them cheaper now on ebay etc. It will fly back to where you launch from if it loses the signal, and it will tell you how far away you are.
    I don't think that will work with the Rise Vusion 250 Extreme though, the drone is too small and light. It only has about 6 to 8 minutes flight time so it can't get far. In fact, if it goes out of range it probably just stops instead of flying away? Not sure about that last statement, but a lot of these small drones just stop. You can test this by switching the radio off when it's hovering and see what happens, or better yet take the propellers off, start the motors then switch the radio off. If the motors keep going you know it will fly away, if they stop you know it will just crash land.
     
  7. neville

    neville New Member

    Dec 27, 2017
    6
    0
    1
    Male
    #7 neville, Jan 5, 2018
    Thanks. That is good information. Based off what you are saying and my research so far it seems like the Rise will be limited in terms of upgrades I might want to add in the future. I want to buy a beginner drone that I can upgrade to the max as my skill levels improve. I am willing to start as low as $300 for a functional flying assembly to start with and go all the way to a $1000 in upgrades.

    Here are a few different drones I found at different price points that I think might fit the job. What would you recommend? I'd like to think I should buy one controller that I can use with multiple different drones later.

    The Falcore: Seems like a decent good looking fpv drone with HD video transmission. Not sure if I can use this with a Fatshark or any other similar FPV goggle. Also seems like I need to use the controller that comes with the drone and I cant use it to control any other drone I might buy in the future.
    https://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/co...XfiPqhqTcaAnSSEALw_wcB&is=REG&m=Y&sku=1304248

    Kylin 250 - Storm edition: Not sure why it is discontinued. Seems like a good drone with a canopy to protect internals from newbie like me, in the event of a crash.
    http://www.helipal.com/storm-racing-drone-bnf-kylin-250-storm-edition.html

    Storm SRD280: The FPV seems to show the front blades and a large portion of the canopy. Not sure if this is avoidable.
    http://www.helipal.com/storm-racing...60Z8Hqql7LFw_WZ6AIJfDt5k89sOsz5MaAgdoEALw_wcB

    Walkera RUNNER 250 PRO : Has GPS for assisted hovering and OSD that might provide telemetry like distance from controller - solves one of the requirements I had of being able to push the drone to its furthest without losing it.
    https://www.vertigodrones.com/Walkera-Runner-250-Pro-FPV-Racing-Drone_p_463.html

    WALKERA RUNNER 250R: This also has GPS with hovering and return to home feature
    https://www.vertigodrones.com/Walkera-Runner-250R-FPV-Racing-Quadcopter-with-GPS_p_273.html
     
  8. Jonathan

    Jonathan Drone Expert
    Crew

    Aug 31, 2013
    1,302
    104
    63
    Male
    Drone Aerial Photographer
    York
    #8 Jonathan, Jan 6, 2018

Share This Page

About Drone Minds

Drone Minds is a forum for users of all types of drones and all skill levels..read more