Garmin Rino as Rocket Tracker

A friend tried that in his L3, and discovered that the power button doesn't like high G loads. The unit shut off in flight.

-Kevin

My experience as well this past weekend on both an M and a K flight. Maybe they're shutting the unit down istead of just locking out the data when the velocity exceeds the magic number?

Garmin generally make good products, but this one is definately first-generation.

-- Erik Ebert, L3 TRA #09105 NAR #79868

The ER article was about using a single GPS unit to plot a bearing after you have a visual sighting. At best you'd get direction but no range. You could walk right past it without knowing. Of course and audio beeper would help.

A Rino transmits its GPS position via FRS radio to another unit. It could take you to within ten feet.

...Fred

IIRC - The article I'm thinking of said something about cheapo model talking to a more expensive model so you'd know where it landed.

Note to those attempting this....

I don't have a Rino, but I do know that the firmware in many FRS radios has a 60-second "timeout" feature which disables the transmit, if the button is held down for more than a minute. This is not just a battery-saver, it's a safety feature to precent accidental overexposure to RF (if a unit is accidentally keyed in a pocket, etc.)

I thought it was to prevent people from doing Dead key pranks like on old time CB ?

That wasn't the problem in this case. The way the Rhinos work is the local (ground) unit can poll the remote (airborne) unit and ask its position. The transmit button doesn't need to be held down on either unit.

Worked fine in ground tests, worked fine with the rocket sitting on the pad, never got a response after liftoff.

-- Erik