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Marco Polo Fit Spark?
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<blockquote data-quote="Bill Melody" data-source="post: 93718" data-attributes="member: 9146"><p>Howdy all,</p><p></p><p>Be careful when choosing the location where you mount the BT puck or the Marco Polo. Placing it on top of the spark you are covering up the Sparks internal GPS antenna. I experienced GPS problems when testing a BT puck located on the top of the Spark. The GPS receiver is using a compromised (for size) ceramic antenna and the large round battery in the BT puck de-tunes the GPS antenna. This is evident by watch looking at the RSSI of the GPS on your remote then remove the puck then check the RSSI again. Do this experiment several times and I think you will agree with me there is an interaction. The interaction may cause you more problems than not. It may cause you to lose your drone. I personally do not like the BT locators as you need to be too close for them to work at all. However once you are close enough to activate the locator it would definitely help.</p><p></p><p>Also mounting a Marco Polo transceiver or a BT locator to the side of the Spark is not a good idea either. There are WiFi antennas on each side of the Spark so nothing should be mounted to the sides of the Spark as this may cause you to lose connection with the remote.</p><p></p><p>The best location would be on the bottom of the battery. I purchase a landing gear extender from someone on eBay and mounted a Marco Polo to it using Velcro. See pix.</p><p></p><p>I am designing a tracker similar to the Marco Polo that will cost less than 1/2 cost of a Marco Polo. It uses a cell phone and a custom receiver to display the RSSI with a tone that will that varies depending on signal strength. The puck has a sounder that should help you locate the drone once the receiver gets you close to the downed drone. The puck will be about the same size as a Marco Polo. Prototype works quite well with a range of over a mile or 2. As long as you know which direction the drone was headed this thing will help you find your drone. I have completed the PC board design but not yet ordered. I will order boards once I finalize the design and satisfied with my software code. I will attach a pix of my prototype. </p><p></p><p>The BT locators use 2.4 GHz that if malfunctions and starts transmitting could cause total loss of connection with the remote due to swamping out the receiver in the Spark.</p><p></p><p>Please be careful when mounting what ever locator you chose. Try not to block any required signals or cause any unnecessary radio interference than may cause you to lose your drone.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]10583[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]10584[/ATTACH]Tons of fun!</p><p></p><p>~Bill</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Bill Melody, post: 93718, member: 9146"] Howdy all, Be careful when choosing the location where you mount the BT puck or the Marco Polo. Placing it on top of the spark you are covering up the Sparks internal GPS antenna. I experienced GPS problems when testing a BT puck located on the top of the Spark. The GPS receiver is using a compromised (for size) ceramic antenna and the large round battery in the BT puck de-tunes the GPS antenna. This is evident by watch looking at the RSSI of the GPS on your remote then remove the puck then check the RSSI again. Do this experiment several times and I think you will agree with me there is an interaction. The interaction may cause you more problems than not. It may cause you to lose your drone. I personally do not like the BT locators as you need to be too close for them to work at all. However once you are close enough to activate the locator it would definitely help. Also mounting a Marco Polo transceiver or a BT locator to the side of the Spark is not a good idea either. There are WiFi antennas on each side of the Spark so nothing should be mounted to the sides of the Spark as this may cause you to lose connection with the remote. The best location would be on the bottom of the battery. I purchase a landing gear extender from someone on eBay and mounted a Marco Polo to it using Velcro. See pix. I am designing a tracker similar to the Marco Polo that will cost less than 1/2 cost of a Marco Polo. It uses a cell phone and a custom receiver to display the RSSI with a tone that will that varies depending on signal strength. The puck has a sounder that should help you locate the drone once the receiver gets you close to the downed drone. The puck will be about the same size as a Marco Polo. Prototype works quite well with a range of over a mile or 2. As long as you know which direction the drone was headed this thing will help you find your drone. I have completed the PC board design but not yet ordered. I will order boards once I finalize the design and satisfied with my software code. I will attach a pix of my prototype. The BT locators use 2.4 GHz that if malfunctions and starts transmitting could cause total loss of connection with the remote due to swamping out the receiver in the Spark. Please be careful when mounting what ever locator you chose. Try not to block any required signals or cause any unnecessary radio interference than may cause you to lose your drone. [ATTACH type="full"]10583[/ATTACH][ATTACH type="full"]10584[/ATTACH]Tons of fun! ~Bill [/QUOTE]
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Marco Polo Fit Spark?