Lost Crazyflie in high grass

[Surrender]

Yes - it's true - I've lost my super Crazyflie in a 50cm high grass next to my house.

I was just flying a little bit outside, small curves, some moves and then i just pushed the thrust up and i looks so cool when it speeds up into the air.
Suddenly a strong wind came and i was not able to hold against. The wind took this tiny thing about 20-30m far away and then it disconnected and the battery was empty (red led steady lit).

One hour i was searching in this s**** grass (why couldn't this farmer just cut the grass ... ), but no success. There is now a lot of money lying in there.
I hope my family can find my Crazyflie tomorrow. Without a connection I'm not able to power the motors up and try to hear something.

Before I've done this i thought about it - but now it is a must for every outdoor flyer: A buzzer (maybe a SMD Piezo Buzzer or something similar).


Greetings from Austria

[TheFrog4u]

Whish you luck!

[Surrender]

What a luck! My mom found it - but it was in the short grass. Don't know how this could happen..
A farmer (with his machine) destroyed the motors and props but the board has no real damage except the battery connector (pushed sideways).

Luckily that i have enought spare motors

My next target: add a beeper (for batterycheck, location)
The question is: which interface should i use for this? Is there a recommed beeper?

Thanks anyway for wishing me luck

[foosel]

What a luck! My mom found it - but it was in the short grass. Don't know how this could happen..
A farmer (with his machine) destroyed the motors and props but the board has no real damage except the battery connector (pushed sideways).

Luckily that i have enought spare motors

Do you have pictures?

[Surrender]

I have no pictures yet, but i will share them as soon as possible
The grass was wet, the farmer was pushing out junk (form cows etc.) on the whole area, and the crazyflie was exact in the path of the tractor.
My dad washed the thing (with water - yes really - with water, i think its waterproof haha ) and then with a electronic cleaner.
Now it smells a little bit strange (after cows) but the thing is clean.

The all motors are able to turn but the thing in the middle (forgotten how it is called) is bend on each. Until now I was not able to bend them back (maybe i try tomorrow or replace them with spare motors).

The whole PCB is not broken, also the motor holder has no damage.
Really strong PCB .. good job guys! Nearly undestroyable

I try now to fly with damaged motors

[Flare09]

There are some things I bought called stick n find. They are low power tiny bluetooth tracking tags. They are super light. You could strip one down and put it on there.before you buy them though make sure you have a compatible system to track them with,iphone 5, Ipod gen5, some android systems. I bought them for my girlfriend cus she looses everything... but they are incredibly useful.

[Surrender]

Cool idea, but i don't have BT 4.0 (SGS2), so this is not the solution now
4.5g is also a little bit heavy for the crazyflie -> push down the flight time.

The idea with the buzzer will be the cheapest (~5€) and a lightweight solution i think.

[tobias]

We have actually been thinking of making a "come find me mode". It is possible to make a sound using the motors. It is not super loud but it should be possible to hear it from a couple of meters away. Putting it on the wishlist.

[Capri-Sjonnie]

That is awesome! Just out of curiosity; how is that sound generated? Just by spinning the motors really hard separately or do you guys have another technique?

[DesTinY]

I guess the PWM signal of the motors could be used to make a sound if the PWM frequency matches the resonance frequency of the motors.