Lost plane buzzer

[wkevinm]

Last year I saw some lost plane buzzers on Amazon or Hobby King and thought this would be good insurance in the event of losing a plane to tall grass or other circumstance. Well I did not do much more than think about it, and as fate would have it I
lost a newer Ninja as a result of a midair at number 1 and all the gear in a Canola field, that was virtually impossible to find anything in. The plane was seen going into the field almost in tact but after waiting till the end of the race to look it could not be found.

So this year I plan to equip all of my planes with a buzzer that can be sounded when a plane is lost. There are 2 types from what I can see, these seem to be made for FPV multicopters but should work in a nitro plane as well.

One type simply plugs into a rx channel and can be turned on from the TX, this is simple and very cheap. The drawback is with a thrown battery this option would not work.
The other type has a built in battery and can be activated by a channel or will self activate whith loss of main power. The drawback seems they need to be accessible to turnoff or else when the RX is powered down they startup buzzing, this would be inconvenient in a Pylon racer.

There is another option that is a bit pricier and that may be the use of a lost object locator, these are often linked to a smart phone, a common one is called “Tile”.

Does anyone have experience with any of these options and any recommendations?

[ronin4740]

I would not use one which required the RX battery to power it. All of the crashes and midairs I've had seem to move stuff around in the fuselage (or what remains of it) enough to disconnect the battery from the RX. In fact the minor midair I had at the Nats last year in Q40 caused this to happen in the air. The gent who decided to fly through me got off with a nicked prop...

I don't think Tile will have the range you'll want. 100' sounds like a lot - and is when you're looking for your car keys - until you start trying to find something in a 10 or so acre field.

I'd probably do the all in one if I were going to do this and see if I could find one which could use a shunt or a switch to turn it off from the fuselage of the airplane. After spending two hours looking for a Loki I lost in the grass to the south of the field at the Champs race in Denver last year it's tempting...

The tBeacon looks interesting: https://oscarliang.com/tbeacon-lost-model-gps-tracker/


Chris

[delateurj]

May want to check out this one. Runs on its own battery but you can disarm it without having to get to it. (Turn off main switch, turn back on main switch, and turn if off again within 3 seconds disarms the alarm.)

https://alofthobbies.com/vifly-finder-2.html

[wkevinm]

Hi
Thanks for the link, these look like they could be made to work, I ordered 2 of them to give them a test. I will post my findings.
Kevin

[ronin4740]

Thanks Joe. I might order a couple of these as well. Sure would have saved me a bunch of time in Denver looking for the Loki if they work as advertised...

[wkevinm]

Hi,
I received 2 of the VIFLY Finder2 units. I have posted a short review on Youtube at https://youtu.be/4yqWcel50rM
Overall I believe this device is what I was looking for and will order one for each of my planes.

Kevin

[ronin4740]

Kevin,

Watched the video and enjoyed the review. Maybe I missed it but how do you keep it from going into lost plane mode when you intentionally kill the power after a heat?

Thanks,

Chris

[wkevinm]

Hi Chris

After a heat and the receiver is powered down the “finder” will go into lost battery mode. To disarm the “finder” you turn the power back on for 3 seconds and then power off again, it is now disarmed. I quickly touch on it in the video.

I can see an issue in that depending on who picks up your plane ( sometimes a new caller or someone else) the plane will go into lost battery mode and sound off after 40 seconds. I suppose this could be a pain, not sure how to get around this unless there was a way to switch and interrupt the “finders” battery.

For me I think I will use the device since loosing a plane with all the gear is pricey, Our flying field is surrounded by crop (number one is permanently positioned in the middle of a cropped field) and my plane was not the first to be lost, there are remnants of Q40s, Q500’s, Club 20’s in the fields somewhere, I am sure the farmer hates us every time he picks a plane out of his combine, many are never found or returned, including a brand new 1st race Miss Dara glided in with an engine problem ($$$ ouch!)

Kevin

[ronin4740]

Thanks Kevin. I think a caller would understand the process once it was explained to them but you're right - if someone else picks up your airplane and brings it back to you they might be a bit confused that it's started beeping AFTER they've turned off the power to the receiver. Would be kind of annoying if it made it back to the pits that way while the pilot was still out on the pylons, perhaps calling in the next heat.

If the device goes into lost mode after 40 seconds have elapsed can it still be disarmed by turning power on for 3 seconds then back off? Just curious.

I'm still mostly positive about the device. Kinda cool that it charges from your receiver. You ought to buy a few extras and offer to sell them to your club mates - am sure they'll want one or two after seeing how it works

As for the farmer... I don't think the combine even notices the airplanes it eats as it mows the field. The cows or whatever eat the hay might have a bit of a problem consuming the Q40 engine though!

[wkevinm]

Chris

One item I never tested was the sleep function. According to instructions after 2 hours of night (or loss of light) the buzzer will go into night mode until morning. Therefore only emitting a light and no longer emitting sound.

This could be a problem if the plane crashed but mostly intact and the finder did not have a light source, does this mean after 2 hours it would no longer emit a sound? Do I have to provide a window for light to enter?

If I could stand the the high pitch noise for 2 hours I would test it out.


As far as shutting it down after the 40 seconds, yes the same procedure is followed, turn RX power on 3 seconds then shutoff, this disarms the device.

Kevin

[wkevinm]

I think I may have found a way around the finder going into night mode. I found the optical surface mount chip responsible for sensing light and discovered it was closed when subjected to light. So I created a jumper around it and now the finder seems not to go into night mode. I have only done a couple limited tests and it seems OK, however I will test out some more and once I feel satisfied I will post a picture of the jumper.

[wkevinm]

I tested out a jumper around the light sensing chip, and it works. I connected the device to a 2S LIFE battery for 2 hours for a charge and then placed the device in a dark spot for over 4 hours. After 4 hours it continued to operate, although the interval between beeps had extended too 8-10 seconds, the loudness did not seem to change.

see picture, the jumper is around the chip lower left corner of the device.

[wkevinm]

I found a flaw in use of this ViFly Lost Plane Buzzer

When it is plugged into the RX it consumes its own battery and after a while the battery is drained, and will not be recharged. These things appear to need to be unplugged physically when not being used.

[dscherrer]

Wonder why no one mentions new tech. Maybe a little more expensive. doesn't plug into the receiver battery. audio and bluetooth tech that you can find with your phone.

https://xyfindit.com/xy4/

[ronin4740]

300' range... Great for car keys...

Thinking about last years champs race at Denver when the Dara/Loki I was flying went into the field behind the course due to radio problems I don't think a 300' range would have helped me much.

...maybe not so great for lost airplanes?