Losing your drone

General Drone Discussion
1

Hi Guys

just thought I’d share a tip with you. Some of you may already know this and probably do it.

I am a total newbie to drones but have been into action filming and photography for some years. Now losing your GO-Pro was something I did a few times and was common practice for a lot of us. However, on a number of occasions, I came across posts on forums and on Facebook where someone had found a Go-Pro in a rockpool by someone snorkelling or halfway up a rockface.

It was always the same scenario, someone finds it, charges it, powers it on unless it was smashed, but they were always able to post pictures of an individual or individuals on the SDCard. Appearing under the “headline GO-Pro found do you know this person”. Sometimes the search was successful and Go-Pro returned. Other times no such luck. At £250 a throw it’s an expensive bit of kit to lose’ Go-Pro 4/5 back then. Just like your drone is now.

It occurred to me that if you marked it up, you’d have a better chance of getting it back, but being only a small item you couldn’t exactly put your name on it. The one thing that was consistent, even when the camera was found and it was badly damaged. The memory card was always intact a bit like a plane’s Blackbox.

I, therefore, added a folder to my SDcard named Owner Info. Inside I put a word document with my name, address, mobile number and email. This folder was only 12kb in size. So took up no room at all on a 128GB microSD. Obviously, this relies on a person’s honesty, but if they have a name and number you do increase the likely hood of getting it back. I have done this on all my MicroSD cards.

However, I will just point out that if you format your SDcard mid-flight you will lose this info. So will need to add it once you’ve completed your flight. I always RTH my drone and swap the card as I don’t like to fill it completely. If I’m nearly done I will switch to the internal memory, but that’s only 8GB
Secondly, if you do this you must ensure you are flying totally legally and responsibly. Otherwise, it may be a different type of knock on the door

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Top idea, ive got my OP ID and Phone number on my drones :+1:t2:

But do like the idea of adding additional info to the SD card :+1:t2:

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Yes, good idea :+1:
but the info file as a basic text (.txt) might work better as it can be ready by virtually any computer out. i.e MS Word not needed
JMTPW
Steve

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Or a JPG photo of your info in the DCIM folder ;o)

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5

Good Idea.

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All my drones have a “reward if found” dymo sticker on them with my mobile number - just in case :mag: :male_detective:t2:

@Motzil I take it you don’t format your cards in the drone very often then? :thinking:

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Very good idea, thank you.

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Great idea. I have info on stickers inside the battery compartments, I’ll give this a go also :+1:. The more info places the better. Can anyone explain why you format your card mid flight, just curious?

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Forgot to do it before you set off and it’s nearly full?

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It’s maybe only once in a while then. Might have sounded a bit spakky🤪, I thought everyone ripped their footage off their card as soon as,thought there may have been some other secret dronie thing behind it. Cheers

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@Motzil
Yup that seems a good idea!

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Cracking idea, I never thought of that. Simple ideas always elude me…

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I like that idea! I’d go for a txt file or PDF so that anyone can open it. :grin:

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You could even call the file - ’ owner info 07xxx xxxxx’ being your mobile.