On of my hobbies involves homing pigeons and other small game birds. These birds are released and do not always come home. I was thinking that it should be possible to construct a small/light weight RF beacon/tracker system that would be cost effective enough to lose (predation is a reality, so low cost is important). I've read about systems for drones and model rockets, but most of these are either too heavy for a bird to fly with or too expensive (bird costs $10, locator is $750...). I'd like something that can track at a range of 2-400 yards and get me within a few feet and ideally cost around $1-2.
What I was wondering is if there was:
A preexisting project
An off the shelf product
Any recommendations or comments on feasibility
The closest off the shelf product I've seen is either tile or bluetooth key fobs. The fobs seem possible, but bluetooth range is 15 meters or so. If this isn't possible, I can accept that. This was a "wouldn't it be cool" thought experiment to start with.
If the bird is in the air, you might be able to use a LoRa tracker similar to those used for lightweight balloons. Lots of info at http://www.loratracker.uk/
bkenobi:
I've read about systems for drones and model rockets, but most of these are either too heavy for a bird to fly with or too expensive (bird costs $10, locator is $750...)
If it were possible to replace a $750 locator with a $1 one, why are people buying the $750 ones ?
I found similar topics, but figured I'd ask anyway. A $750 professional system is designed for rockets and the type of abuse they hand out. A bird can't fly quite as high, fast, g-force, impacts, etc. And their long range is miles wheras I am interested in long compared to 15m that the bluetooth can offer.
Oh, and I did found some interesting topics on other forums before posting here which made me think it would be easy to do.
This seemed plausible since the transmitter costs around $1 and is smallish. The receiver is bulky, but it's designed for many km, so it seems like a compact version for less than 1km might be feasible.
I was aware of that thread, indeed I get a mention in the first sentence.
Cant see you getting that transmitter down to the size needed for a pigeon though.
Also appreciate that at such low powers the ground search range can be very small indeed, 10s of meters even. Unless you can train the pigeons to perch high in trees when they get lost.
lol, that might be beyond my training capabilities.
I guess the alternative would be an audible beeper. That would require a RF remote transmitter and the bird would have a RF receiver and speaker. I thought that would be harder on batteries and bigger though. That solution would be fine for my needs since I could estimate where I thought the bird was abd then confirm with tone.
bkenobi:
I guess the alternative would be an audible beeper.
Do you know if there are any bird trackers that use audible beepers ?
There are audible beepers for finding 'lost' radio control planes, as per post #6, but they tend to be very short range indeed, of little use for your stated requirements.
What was the answer to the question posed in post #3 ?
I can't speak to long term viability of the $1 design. I read about the design but I don't know how it works beyond the poster of it.
If a simple RF piezo beeper had the range, I'd just use that since I'd assume it would be small, loght, and cheap. But, I haven't found any examples so far, so I could be wrong on that too.