Hello,
Lost my Iris+ when I took it out for a mission today. Put it on auto to do it's mission and set the drone so that it would RTL if the battery voltage goes below 10.5 V. Needless to say it did not return. I am using APMplanner 2.0 to do the mission planning stuff.
Any advice or help would be appreciated.
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Don't you need to have a SIM card and pay for wireless network access for one of these trackers? If so, how much? Those charges will quickly add up....
It will only cost you $10, Here is what you do.
1) Get a prepaid H20 card and install it, you can get H20 cards doe 1 penny on amazon, h20 works of ATT GPRS so its everywhere
2) Activate it for $10 and test it, make sure it works good and is set up the way you want.
3) If ever you lose it go on h20 site and add more money, they have a phone app so you could do in the field.
I have even tested why flying, it works great.
The SIM stays with your craft and account, they sim card does not expire.
Great info, thanks. So it only "calls" to report its position if/when you ask it to from your regular mobile or computer?
does this work anywhere in the world?
The battery will definitely be dead by now so it's not likely you'll be connecting to it any further today. This will be a visual search only so take several people with you.If you have friends with a drone and camera, maybe launch an aerial search too.
The first place to search is directly along the flight path. If it died along the auto mission, it will be right along that path. This will be the fastest and easiest search to knock out immediately since it is a documented path.
The second place to search are some straight line paths from the launch point to various distant points along the flight path. When RTL engages, it will fly directly home. So if it died during RTL, it will not be along the auto mission path. it will be between the path and home, straight line.
If it was a fly-away due to some other malfunction, it could have gone any direction at any time. No way to narrow that down unfortunately.
It's most likely the battery got low, RTL engaged, and the battery was fully exhausted before it made it home. 3.5 volts per cell on a 3S battery is probably 2-3 minutes at best before the battery is flat lined. If the aircraft was 4 minutes away from home, well, it's not going to make it to dinner.
Can you post a screen shot of the mission on the map?
I would start with a point on the mission that is furthest from home. Draw a straight line back to home. Do the same working your way closer and closer to home with points along the path. How much you do this is up to you and how much effort you want to put into it.
Here is a screenshot of the mission. It left on 100% battery. Ignore the home, because that is where I did the set up from and uploaded the route. I had it set to 95M altititude RTL alt is set to 0 and it is set to return when it goes below 10.5V
Screen Shot 2015-08-05 at 8.36.43 PM.png
Thanks, I searched for it along the path and no luck, so I am guessing that this is what happened. Going to have to look straight lines to figure out. Knowing that it left at full battery at an alt of 95M is there any way for me to calculate where it should be roughly?
I used Tower on my flyaway, since my Iris landed in a thick, Houston-area forest...I got to the "home" location of the Iris, and then hit the "arm" button on the Tower app, and listened for the bee-beep....sure enough....on the ground under a bush...lights on, two arms and the gimbal mount busted, but otherwise, alive. I would not have been able to recover the unit in a tree.....it was under a 90 foot high loblolly pine...impossible for me to consider climbing. "Lucky?"
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