Using aero ace transmitter to send a 'Ping' & find ur lost plane???

[Corbin_Dallas]

I'm getting really tired of losing Aero Aces due to a gust of wind and the time it takes to get around a fence or other object in the way, just for it to have suddenly Vanished :( !?! & it doesn't help that it's always dark out when it happens.
The 1 time I walked everywhere doing what the only thing to do is.....walking up and down streets throttling up&down pushing Left and Right trying to listen for it. It worked once,.... but if the plane is upside-down or stuck in a tree a certain way, this is useless, and you might even be damaging your plane even more this way.


SO TO EVERYONE WHO I'VE SEEN GIVING THE SCHEMATICS FOR THE RX/TX BOARDS, THE PEOPLE CONTROLLING AN AACE FROM A SOUNDCARD, OR ANYONE ELSE W/ THE KNOWLEDGE/KNOW-HOW >>>>HERE'S A CONCEPT FOR EVERYONE, FOR SOMETHING WE ALL NEED!!!!!

I haven't thought too deeply into it, for I'm not sure if I'm just way outside the box already,
but would it be possible to use a transmitter (specific to the lost plane's A,B,C) and hook it up to something along the lines of a cheap radar or like a metal detector beep setup, that sends a sort of PING out and (this is where the fog rolls in on my knowledge) detects when/where the ping gets picked up??? Yeah around other electronics it would be harder to do this well, but then again, these planes are all on the same frequency, yet there are three different channels, so it'd be a lot harder for some other device to not only be on the same freq/chan, but also be receiving the signal and the translating the ping into a command, I dunno, ANY IDEAS!!?? :confused:

[Unyon]

That is a great idea, Corbin. The only downer is that the RX doesnt send out any kind of signal, so there wouldnt be a 'ping'. I'm sure there's a way to make this idea work though.

I lost my sport for a while yesterday (never let your friends six-year-old fly it near a fenced-off wooded area!). We found it after half an hour of searching and getting stung by nettles, using the 'throttle up and listen' method.

If only I'd had an "AA/X-twin locator (tm)" with me at the time!

[mharms]

How about just a time delay circuit that would start counting down as soon as the plane's RX power switch was turned on. The delay could be set to, say 30 minutes (longer than any expected flying session on a single battery charge). Under normal conditions, the end of the time delay would never be reached because you would have turned of the plane's power switch off to recharge (or quit for the day) well before the end of the delay period. If you lost the plane, the end of the delay period would eventually be reached and the timer would then set off a periodic audio beep from a transducer/buzzer -- some kind of audible alert every second or two. This would not require any serious hacking of the RX (just a connection to the RX power after the power switch).

Micrel sells a couple of tiny SMD timers that might be used to make a very lightweight time delay and beeper interval timer. The beeper transducer and driver circuit would weigh a little bit. You might be able to build something under 3 grams total, as a rough guess.

Trick might be getting it to work off just a single lipo cell. Also, if you had little charge left on your plane's battery, the beeping of the alarm would not last long or would not be very loud (and it might over discharge the lipo if left beeping overnight). A separate lithium battery (coin cell) could be used for the lost model alarm, but it would add to the weight.

Anyway, an idea.

Mark

[Hotflyer]

I fit all mine with lights. That way, especilly at night, they are easily found. Also, try extending the rx ant. about 4 "

[Crashaholic]

Tip: Write your phone number on the bottom of the wing with sharpie.