Hypothetical Lost Plane Finder Question

[brettp2004]

I just got some FPV Gear for my electrohub and I'm nervous about losing another quad. I have a lost plane finder that I picked up from lazertoyz at last year's flitefest. I don't think it would be a good idea to plug this inline on one of the channels from the RX to the FC, but I could be wrong. If so please let me know and this next question is just for geewiz.

So can I plug it into a spare channel on the rx, and set up a Logic Switch in the taranis to pulse that channel every 5 or 10 seconds? Then have the failsafe set up to stop that LS in the event of Signal loss? Or at the flip of switch?

Currently there is nothing on the quad that is capable of making noise to find it if it goes down and one of these would at least provide an extra means of finding it. I'm also thinking of making a "Black Box" that is small enough to attach to the quad. Any input is appreciated.

 

[Christopher14]

I have used a lost plane finder, and what I did was I plugged it into a spare channel on my RX that was activated with a switch. It worked very well until the plane disintegrated on a 'less then perfect landing'. :black_eyed:

 

[brettp2004]

How did you get it to only come on when you wanted? The lost plane finder I have will turn itself on when there is no signal running through for about 15 seconds. It's made to go inline on a channel like your rudder, elevator, etc. So if I hook it to a spare channel it would constantly go off unless that channel is outputting a signal. So I was thinking of just setting up a logic switch in the taranis that pulses that channel every 10 seconds or so... Or I guess I could just have it so it is constantly sending signal to that channel unless I turn a switch off...

 

[jipp]

would the throttle be better signal to follow? as you are always adjusting the throttle.

chris.

 

[brettp2004]

I don't know if I should put it inline with any of the control channels. I'm worried it will either cause some sort of lag or at the least add another connection that can fail. This might not be a valid concern, but I don't know.

 

[AverageGuyRC]

I have been using discovery buzzers with my Taranis for awhile. I had the same issue with it constantly going off no matter what the position of the switch I had programmed for it was in. I finally discovered that you just need to assign a switch under source but not under the Switch line. Go to the Mixer screen choose an open channel hold down enter then choose edit. Under source select the physical switch you want to use(SC is what I use)and you are done. In the next column over at the top where is says Switch, leave it as --- . You don't need to set up anything on the Inputs screen in case you were doing that. I am not sure why but this seems to work. When the switch is up the buzzer is silent and when down it goes off.

I have thought the same thing regarding having it go on at signal loss. The biggest issue is it won't work regardless if you crash hard and the battery becomes inoperable. It would be nice to have a separate source like a watch battery to power the buzzer in case of a hard crash. There is a way to set up some of the frSky receiver to have fail safes so the buzzer could be activated on signal loss. You might look into that. You've got me thinking about it again. If I come up with anything I will post again.

 

[brettp2004]

Averageguy, are you using one of the lost plane finders that go off after inactivity on that channel?

 

[brettp2004]

Ok I got it working. I couldn't use your method averageguy because my alarm has to have a constant signal to prevent it from going off. So if there is no signal for 1 minute it starts an alarm. I set up a mix in the taranis to pulse that channel every 50 seconds. I also hooked it to a switch so as long as SC isn't down it pulses it. So if I loose the quad I can flip SC down and the alarm will go off 1 minute later. It will continue to go off until I flip SC again. If anyone else is trying to do something similar, all I did was set logical switch 5 to timer, v1-50, v2-50 and switch- !SCdown. Then under mixes for channel 8 (that's what channel the alarm is plugged in to) for source L5. Works great. I also have my telemetry set to SC so if don't want to hear the tx say "low battery" every 10 seconds I can turn it off. I LOVE THE TARANIS!!! Seriously, why would anyone want a different TX?

 

[AverageGuyRC]

Interesting. Glad you got it to work. It was very frustrating for me. The Taranis is amazing once you've got it figured out.
I am using cheap discovery buzzers from Hobby King.