Track your Drone with Tile

How Tile found a $800 DJI Phantom 3 Drone and Scared off a Family of Deer

More and more we hear about how Tile is helping people find lost drones. You might ask why? It's really about affordability and durability here. Some pilots also hint at weight as well. When a drone pilot loses connection to their drone or it starts to malfunction, they gracefully fall from the sky and the pilot has to recover it.  Depending on how far away it is, it is usually out of Tile range. However, Tile helps them find their drones faster. Our customers tell us that they usually know it's in a certain area, but it would take them 30 minutes or more to cover every square inch. Some professionals also have high end GPS gear, but it can be expensive or the battery sometimes comes off on impact. This is where Tile comes in. If you can get within 100 feet of your drone, you can ring it and find it in minutes.   This is super helpful for people who fly in fields or in the dark ( as with the case of Brendan below ).  Tile makes a great affordable drone tracker for those who fly microdrones or higher end models such as the DJI Phantom. 

  Today was the first full day with my new Phantom 3 Advanced drone. After sometime calibrating, and reading manuals, and making pre-flight checks, I was ready to go. Although I had flown the drone late night for a test run, this was the first full term flight. Thankfully I had the foresight to attach the Tile that I had gotten as a gift.

After taking off, I flew around my neighborhood a bit, and then decided to take it up the hill toward the local zoo, not really realizing that the drone doesn't do well adjusting for changes in elevation. I had it up pretty high at 335 ft, which I thought would clear anything. This was at the initial lower height setting for the DJI. When I took it up the hill, it got pretty far away, and I was starting to run low on batteries. The battery issue combined with the higher elevation and very high forrest trees caused me to lose connection. The drone only had a couple minutes of flight time left before it would ground itself. I started running up the street to try to reestablish the connection, but no luck. I ran back got my car, and tried to head for where I thought it would be. At that point, it started getting really dark and there was no way the drone was still in the air.

All that money LOST! 

It was now pitch black. I had no hope of finding anything other than disappointment. Then I remembered I had taped the Tile onto the top of the drone! And all I had to do was push the ringer on in the app. 

I hear the beeping into the dark woods, and a large family of deer take off running. 

I take three steps and nearly walk right off a steep cliff/embankment I almost didn't see right in front of me it was so dark. I ended up using my phone flashlight, and walking the long way around a residence yard, and strangely found the battery, ejected like twenty feet away. I finally make my way down into the gulley and into the forrest, without walking off a cliff, I find the drone, almost perfectly intact, but for one prop. Tile was a huge help, and probably wouldn't have been able to recovery my craft in near perfect condition without it since it was dark. I certainly won't be flying again without it! Thanks Tile.

Sincerely, Brendan W., New York