Flite Fest 2014 - Lost Mini Quadcopter

cdraptor

Junior Member
Flite Fest 2014 was amazing - such a well run event for the first (an hopefully not the last) big event put on by the Flite Test team (of course help from all the great volunteers).

You will not find overall a nicer group of people at such a large gathering - I don't think you could ask for nicer, courteous, friendly and helpful people gathered together in one spot. Everyone enjoyed sharing and helping each other out. The Flite Test gang are every bit as awesome in person as they appear on the video. I was talking to Josh Bixler when someone came up and said could you sign this, these kids just lost their flyer in the woods, so I am going to build them another one.

BTW Josh Bixler may actually be to nice. I saw him the second day and he could not get away from people wanting to chat, always a smile, but you could tell he was exhausted, his wife was working hard to get him to sit down an eat. I hope he has a nice chance to recover now that it's over. Of people that deserve fame for what they do, Josh Bixler is second to none, in terms of what he gives of himself, the passion he has for the hobby and the lives of those he inspires and encourages, thank you so much.

So I had the Hunter Vtail Mini flying out at the far right edge of the field in the multirotor / helicopter section. I was having fun doing some flips, while chatting with people about it, I let it drift a bit to far away, totally lost orientation and the ability to see it well in the tree line. So I let it drop down quite a ways out - did not find it, it very well may have made it across the road into the bean field. Anyway it's out there with a nice spektrum receiver and a set of nice Luminier motors (rebranded TMotors).

If you happen to find it, I wouldn't mind it back or you can keep it and just do me a favor and get in touch with Flite Test and donate $100 to a good charity and post on here.

Was awesome meeting everyone, looking forward to next year :)
 

RAM

Posted a thousand or more times
I hope they can find it for you. This got me thinking. Why don't we build some sort of separate timer with a very small battery and loud alarm. Something that, if left on for more than ~1hr will send a chirp every 5min for several days.

A modified version of this maybe
http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/b278/
 

Craftydan

Hostage Taker of Quads
Staff member
Moderator
Mentor
. . . or an loud alarm thinggy that will go off when the voltage starts to run low.

If you can hang around untill the controller/FPV gear drains the pack low enough to set off one of these guys, it makes a great lost model alarm:

1S-8S-Dual-Speaker-Lipo-Alarm-8S-Voltage-Tester-Lipo-Checker.jpg
 

RAM

Posted a thousand or more times
. . . or an loud alarm thinggy that will go off when the voltage starts to run low.

If you can hang around untill the controller/FPV gear drains the pack low enough to set off one of these guys, it makes a great lost model alarm:

View attachment 28062

I have one of those. The only problem is how many days it might take for the battery to get low enough for it to sound off?
 

Craftydan

Hostage Taker of Quads
Staff member
Moderator
Mentor
Depends on what you have onboard -- if it's a full FPV rig, not long at all -- 30min or less, my guess. If it's just a control board, it might be a few hours, depending on the board -- from experience, the kk2's tend to sip power, while a mulitwii or similar with full sensor suite tend to drink.

Even still, it depends more on how big your battery is and how long into the flight before the "landing".
 

engineer

Senior Member
I almost lost a bloodywonder in that bean field, we found it the next day. When it went down, it had a nearly-full 1300mah, and when we found it it was well below 3v per cell. I'd bet that if we'd had that low voltage alarm, it would have been a much easier search.
 

brettp2004

New member
Lazertoyz actually had "lost plane finders" for sale. I bought one for I think $6. It plugs inline with one of your channels, rudder for example. If that channel doesn't have any activity for a minute or so the alarm starts sounding.