I am working on creating this rf beacons to locate a drone and I would like to be able to use an arduino, with a 443 mhz receiver, to find it.
How would I have the arduino connect or find the beacon's signal. All of my components and the arduino works.
Thanks in advance
EDD Group 11
Theres not much an Arduino can do other than simply detect there is a beacon somewhere, if you have a 433 Mhz receiver.
It cant tell you where.
The only way which may help is to use a receiver which has some form of RSSI output, and a highly directional antenna.
RSSI is unfortunately not a reliable way of determining signal strength, especially if the target is on the ground.
The only reliable way of tracking down a drone is to put a GPS receiver on the drone , and arrange for it to send its location via lat and long to a receiver or a phone via GSM.
An Arduino and one of those simple 433Mhz receiver modules, might pick up the signal from the 'beacon' if your close enough. But I suspect by then you will be able to see the drone. And you wont get a direction either.
The simplest tone based beacon would transmit a FM\FSK type tone which you can pick up with a low cost UHF handhled at quite long range. With this type of beacon you can get a direction indication using a directional antenna such as a yagi or indeed with a bit of practice you can use your body with the body fade direction finding technique.
I dont know specifically but I think those cheap 433Mhz modules are AFSK and wont be picked up on a cheap UHF handheld, you would need a more sophisticated scanner that provides AM coverage at 433Mhz.
The only use I can see for an Arduino as receiver is if the beacon is transmitting GPS co-ordinates.
How would I have the arduino connect or find the beacon's signal.
Basically it can't.
Hunting for hidden transmitters is a popular activity among radio hams it is called a Fox Hunt
Something like this would be useful: https://uk.farnell.com/lprs/yagi-434a/antenna-yagi-7-element-434mhz/dp/2096215