After doing the antenna mod to my ST16 to give me 3 external antennas I wanted to range test my setup. I did several runs out over some back woods and swamp land. After one run I was on my return and suddenly my H voltage dropped to 14.1 and said to land immediately! I felt sick since I was a good distance away and flying over some extreme backcountry gnarly terrain. I've never been in a situation that I had to land in a remote area by FPV (I could see the H in the sky but the only way to tell what was directly beneath it was using the st16 screen with the camera pointing straight down). I paused and panned the camera around looking for a safe place to touch down. I started to descend to a location that seemed like the best option. Then just a quickly as the voltage had plummeted it shot back up to 14.8! All the warnings went away and I flew back and hand caught my H! Had I been forced to land I don't know how long it would take me to find and recover my H. I'm thinking maybe it's time to invest in a Marco Polo. Who uses one? Do you like it? Is it our best option? Anybody ever experience a huge battery voltage drop and then rebound while flying?
Who is using Marco Polo ?
- Thread starter Pharkas
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First, I can only imagine how you felt. Amazing.
Check that battery out. Do you use a 3rd party charger?
I do not have a Marco Polo, but I did research them and a majority of owners felt they were good insurance.
Check that battery out. Do you use a 3rd party charger?
I do not have a Marco Polo, but I did research them and a majority of owners felt they were good insurance.
I have the Marco Polo and had to use it once it was only about a 1/2 mile away but it worked. I was pretty impressed with it ...I think how you Mount it on the Bird and if you don't crash to bad I really don't see how it can fail. I mounted it with real good Velcro.
With all the adrenaline surging during the situation I did not think to note which battery I was using until I got back to the house. By that time it was mixed up with my other spent batteries. I think for my next dozen flights I will fly over my horse pastures and fly my batteries in numerical order (they are marked 1-5 but I usually grab them randomly). I recently started charging with the Ev-Peak CQ3 4x charger and so far have only charged at a 1C rate. Flight conditions were fairly good: 65F and mild - med wind. I was returning against the wind, but load should not have been significant. I did check all my batteries pre-flight and all cells were well balanced. I will charge them and check them and see if I can see any anomalies in any of the cells.
Where do you have it mounted on the H? If velcro works then I could use one transmitter for all of my different aircraft?
I've found like you experienced, that once you take the load off the V will rise again, I think the best option in that case if you are over swamp or water is to loose altitude (less power), and drop the speed back to about the RTH speed of about 25kph which seems the most efficient power vs distance, and land based on how for your new hight voltage will allow.
It's an idea to go out in a felid and burn down a battery or two doing circles at full speed and get an idea of the amount of bounce back you get once you take all the power off.
Yea that's what I do I have 2 and four birds I just switch them up I mounted mine next to battery compartment to the right of it I'm gonna enclose a pic.
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The Marco Polo trackers are great. I've been using them since they first came out. I've got three of them and have tested them all. Only ever had a need to rely on them once, but it saved my rig and I was able to locate it very quickly.
I've read 3 separate accounts of pilots that had erratic flight control and fly aways and I noted that each of them was using a Marco polo device. It is said to be passive until activated but I wonder if the location it was mounted on the airframe was causing interference. Each pilot blamed the aircraft and rejected that the tracker could have contributed to the incidents. Maybe would have put a kink in warranty claims. Any merit to my convoluted theory before I pull the trigger and get one for my H.
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I use the trackimo every time I fly and no issues - nut mine is mounted to the front of the H
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Trackimo has saves ay *** on a number of occasions in the past year. In actual fact... I lost the trackimo... it fell off my Typhoon in a test I guess due to vibrations.
I walked up to it using my phone almost 1K away and picked it up. It works really well and holds a good charge.
I walked up to it using my phone almost 1K away and picked it up. It works really well and holds a good charge.
Marco Polo is passive, unless activated by the hand unit so there is no way that the unit itself could cause any interference. The location of the unit on the H may hold some merit. Placing it up towards the front or possibly under the body would be my recommendation for locations.
Any concerns with that placement impeding airflow with that vent? Are there other locations on the H that provides a secure placement without affecting cooling or the operation of the H?
If you look closely, on that side it is not a real vent, just a design in the plastic. On the opposite side, one of the grooves actually goes thru the plastic and maybe is some kind of vent but the rest of the grooves on that side are just design as well. I've done about 10 flights (batteries) so far and it seem to work great. Frankly, I couldn't find a better place for it and it fits very nicely there. Note that this is the version specifically for drones. It is much smaller and lighter than the other one although some people are using it. I guess it's a little cheaper. That wouldn't fit anywhere on the H that I can see.
Any device that will help you get your investment back is a plus. I think that as long as it's passive it should not interfere with anything on the TH.
On mine those vents do open into the shell, you can better see it if you look inside the battery compartment on the right side near the back. I'm pretty sure I'm going to get this product though as flying my 3 time replaced Typhoon H I have little trust in this drone. Maybe I'll mount it to one of the landing skids
