Find my Drone

[Trailryder42]

Just watched a video of a guy that lost his drone in the desert. After sending in his Beacon to Skydio, they pulled the coordinates off it to give him so he could locate it. Would be nice if we could determine that info for ourselves instead of needing Skydio to do it.

 

[Ridefreak]

No need to send it to skydio, the drone's location is available in the app. Not it's coordinates but an interactive display showing the last known position of the drone and yourself. Takes a little walking around and zooming in on the display but once you have it figured out it'll take you right to the drone. Open up the "Find my Skydio" function in the app once the signal is lost.

Supposedly you can connect the phone to the beacon after the drone is lost and this will work. I don't know if that's true but I can attest that if the app is connected to the beacon when the drone goes down it will record the LKP info. When launching, once the phone is connected I mute the screen and stick it in my pocket and use the beacon. It's not like the phone is open to the app the entire time but the app is running.

I've used it 3 times now. I almost always connect the phone to the beacon before flying for this exact reason. I don't want to find out after the fact that turning on the app later doesn't give you LKP, I know it works correctly when the phone is connected the entire time.

 

[Trailryder42]

No need to send it to skydio, the drone's location is available in the app. Not it's coordinates but an interactive display showing the last known position of the drone and yourself. Takes a little walking around and zooming in on the display but once you have it figured out it'll take you right to the drone. Open up the "Find my Skydio" function in the app once the signal is lost.

Supposedly you can connect the phone to the beacon after the drone is lost and this will work. I don't know if that's true but I can attest that if the app is connected to the beacon when the drone goes down it will record the LKP info. When launching, once the phone is connected I mute the screen and stick it in my pocket and use the beacon. It's not like the phone is open to the app the entire time but the app is running.

I've used it 3 times now. I almost always connect the phone to the beacon before flying for this exact reason. I don't want to find out after the fact that turning on the app later doesn't give you LKP, I know it works correctly when the phone is connected the entire time.

The guy in the video didn't say what the things were that Skydio told him to try initially, that apparently didn't help him, before sending in his Beacon.

 

[Ridefreak]

The guy in the video didn't say what the things were that Skydio told him to try initially, that apparently didn't help him, before sending in his Beacon.

I've heard of others sending it in to get coordinates, I'd be worried the drone would get stolen or damaged during that time so I rely on the app to find it, that's what that function is there for. Sending in the beacon would be my last resort. It took me about an hour first time to get to where I was using that function correctly, enough time had passed by the second time I used it that I forgot and wasn't interpreting the icons correctly at first, that one took 1/2 hour. The third time was a charm, 5min to find the drone down in a shallow canyon out in Utah, a location that I doubt would have been found w/o that capability. If you rely on SD to provide the coordinates that's really going to screw you if it's not in you local area, means a trip back to wherever once they provide them. I have no doubt he had difficulty using the app, I did twice but it works once you figure it out. I also make a point not to turn anything off during the search haha.

 

[Trailryder42]

Well, I put some thin vinyl stickers on mine to make it more visible, just in case.

 

[Ridefreak]

That's a great idea, I've got some orange electrical tape that I'm planning to do the same thing with. It's hard to see in the sky sometimes when the sun is behind it and it will sure help finding it on the ground.