Tracking sirens now available!

Tired of losing your rockets to tall grass? Well, we have a solution!
Introducing the tracking siren!
Easily locate your rockets from tall grass, trees, or bushes with this inexpensive, small, and easy to use siren! Just stick a battery in, wrap a piece of electrical tape around the siren to secure the battery, close your rocket, then launch away!
This product is unable to be activated by an altimeter and must be manually activated before each flight.
Cord colors may vary.
Requires 1x A23(23A) Battery (Not Included). Up to 2 hours of constant operation on each battery.
Tracking Siren fits in body tubes as small as BT-20 (18mm)
Manufactured by Relay Rocketry


Only $5 for the tracker, or $6 if you want a tracker and one battery.


Get yours today!


https://arsrockets.com/collections/recovery/products/tracking-siren

We've already sold out, but we should have more back in stock by the end of this week.

Sorry about this, but we sold a lot more than I was prepared for, so I didn't have many in stock, but I will make sure that I order even more next time..




Thanks,

IT's BAACK!!!
The Tracking Sirens and batteries are now available as a back order! Order now, and they'll be shipped in a little over 1 week, (1/15/2019)
Tracking Siren:
https://arsrockets.com/collections/recovery/products/tracking-siren
Batttery:
https://arsrockets.com/collections/recovery/products/tracking-siren-battery
BTW, if the tracking siren page says that there are only 1 unit left in stock, then as of now, that is incorrect! We now have 8 in stock, along with 10 in stock batteries..




Thanks,

Do you have a specification on how loud it is?

les said:

Do you have a specification on how loud it is?

Click to expand...

It's pretty loud.. I'm not exactly sure how loud, (like in decibels)

Maybe this video can help:






Thanks,

Nice idea, good luck. How close to the rocket do you need to be to hear the siren? It does not sound that loud in the video, but videos can be deceiving. I have one that is so loud it hurts my ears from the moment I turn it on until it is inserted into the rocket, it is said to have a 120db sound level. I can hear it from about 100 yards away on the ground.

billdz said:

Nice idea, good luck. How close to the rocket do you need to be to hear the siren? It does not sound that loud in the video, but videos can be deceiving. I have one that is so loud it hurts my ears from the moment I turn it on until it is inserted into the rocket, it is said to have a 120db sound level. I can hear it from about 100 yards away on the ground.

Click to expand...

It can be heard from around 50 yards at least, after I tested it myself.. I only went 50 yards or so, but I bet it could be heard maybe a little further than that.

The smaller the siren, the quieter it is, so with a siren that is 18mm diameter, it's fairly limited as to how loud it can be, but it's still very loud..


And it does hurt my ears a little bit when I turn it on too, lol..




Thanks,

billdz said:

Nice idea, good luck. How close to the rocket do you need to be to hear the siren? It does not sound that loud in the video, but videos can be deceiving. I have one that is so loud it hurts my ears from the moment I turn it on until it is inserted into the rocket, it is said to have a 120db sound level. I can hear it from about 100 yards away on the ground.

Click to expand...

On paper, these sirens are rated for approximately 85-90 decibels. While I was testing the prototype sirens, they were audible probably 20-30 yards when upwind and 50 yards or more when downwind. On a perfectly calm day, I would estimate probably 30-50 yards is the range depending on a number of variables such as battery health and how the rocket landed. While the Relay Rocketry Sirens can be used to locate the rocket when the exact location is unknown, they are built more for retrieval in tall grass, or if your rocket is stuck in a tree.

While there are certainly louder options out there, these sirens are built to fit in even very small rockets. Additionally, I designed them to be a very cheap alternative to locate lower power rockets, or a feature of redundancy on higher powered flights. They're really designed to walk you the last few feet to the rocket more than anything else. Seeing that these cost a fraction of the cost of close competitors (I.e. Pratt Hobbies MicroBeacon at $12 each), they're really quite a bargain in my mind, despite the limitations.



I have been working on designing a more bulky siren which is also much louder with a built in toggle switch, yet the design hasn't been finalized.


Just to clarify for anyone who may look at my post in the future, these sirens are built by Relay Rocketry and additionally sold by ARS Rockets.

Nice concept, I have ordered one. I'd suggest sticking a small piece of cardboard between the battery tip and the terminal until the battery is wrapped in tape and the device is ready to be inserted into the rocket.

billdz said:

Nice concept, I have ordered one. I'd suggest sticking a small piece of cardboard between the battery tip and the terminal until the battery is wrapped in tape and the device is ready to be inserted into the rocket.

Click to expand...

Nice idea, I'll see about implementing such a piece in future sirens I manufacture.

There are some similar personal alarms a little bulkier, like the size of a keychain fob, that require a pin to be pulled to sound the alarm. I wonder if you could implement a similar pull cord switch that activates the alarm when the nose cone ejects?

a peace of plastic inserted in the negative side between the end of the battery and tracker. Like when you buy a toy that has batteries included. you must pull the peace of plastic out then the battery makes contact. It can be attached to a teather and to the shock cord so when recovery is deployed the plastic peace is pulled and the siren activated.

Joe Rocket 97 said:

a peace of plastic inserted in the negative side between the end of the battery and tracker. Like when you buy a toy that has batteries included. you must pull the peace of plastic out then the battery makes contact. It can be attached to a teather and to the shock cord so when recovery is deployed the plastic peace is pulled and the siren activated.

Click to expand...

I was planning in adding this to mine and testing it this weekend.

GlenP said:

There are some similar personal alarms a little bulkier, like the size of a keychain fob, that require a pin to be pulled to sound the alarm. I wonder if you could implement a similar pull cord switch that activates the alarm when the nose cone ejects?

Click to expand...

I'll play around with it and see what I can do. It would work better with the upgraded version I talked about earlier, Since the basic Tracking Siren is already pretty streamlined.

Joe Rocket 97 said:

a peace of plastic inserted in the negative side between the end of the battery and tracker. Like when you buy a toy that has batteries included. you must pull the peace of plastic out then the battery makes contact. It can be attached to a teather and to the shock cord so when recovery is deployed the plastic peace is pulled and the siren activated.

Click to expand...

Not a bad idea either, I'll see what I can come up with.

Rainmaker said:

I was planning in adding this to mine and testing it this weekend.

Click to expand...

I'd love to hear how it goes!

Very similar to the one Estes had some years back. Came with a Head set and a somewhat gun shaped hand held microphone to pick up the squelch.
The thing with the microphone is that it picked up and amplified any wind noise, like walking on a calm day, and would drown out the squelch.
I have 2 of the sound admitting devices and just don't use the headset and microphone device.
But for only $5 + $1, I can't see how you could go wrong for a little assurance of finding your rocket vs loosing it!

Tracking sirens available once again at arsrockets.com!
Only $5 for a siren, and $1 for a battery
These are available for backorder and won't ship until Tuesday, January 22nd, 2019!
https://arsrockets.com/collections/recovery/products/tracking-siren
BATTERY:
https://arsrockets.com/collections/recovery/products/tracking-siren-battery






Thanks,

My two beacons arrived safely yesterday. Can’t wait to fly them in a few weeks. Thanks for an affordable beacon I can throw into smaller rockets without feeling guilty if I loose one.

TimothyG said:

My two beacons arrived safely yesterday. Can’t wait to fly them in a few weeks. Thanks for an affordable beacon I can throw into smaller rockets without feeling guilty if I loose one.

Click to expand...

Glad to hear you like the Tracking Sirens (these are manufactured by me, Relay Rocketry). If you ever need any additional sirens, you can always buy them direct at www.relayrocketry.com (generally fastest turnaround time, especially if a vendor is backordered), or purchase them from an authorized Vendor such as ARS Rockets.

To add to the ARS winter sale, we have now discounted the Tracking Siren! Now only $3.99!!
Hurry, this deal ends this Sunday, at 11:00 PM EST!
Siren:
https://arsrockets.com/products/tracking-siren
Battery:
https://arsrockets.com/products/tracking-siren-battery


Thanks,

Ordered! Thanks

Nice introduction to a simple, cheap device that may save one a lost rocket!

I use the very similar Pratt Micro Beacon. (It's a bit more expensive, adds a blinking red LED light at the end, and has a warbling tone rather than a steady one. The battery slot and speaker appear to be identical to the ARS device, though.)

The most failure-prone part of the Pratt device (and the ARS variant too, I assume), in my experience with several of these, is the resistance of the simple steel battery contacts causing the siren to either diminish severely or stop altogether when the battery is nudged. A sharp jolt (ejection, or the snap of the chute opening) can pop out the battery, too, as spring tension and a semi-cylindrical plastic sleeve are all that secure it . To mitigate both failure modes, it's prudent to tightly wrap the waist of the battery slot with a strip of tape or a zip tie.

I tried the pull-before-launch, insulation-tab-between-the-battery-and-a-contact idea, too, to reduce the pre-launch annoyance factor, but it often tended to move the battery out of the required good contact with the terminals. The tab is almost impossible to re-insert after pulling, too, if needed, once the battery was secured.

What I do now is put a small piece of masking tape with a pull tab over hole in the end of the piezoelectric speaker. Surprisingly, this blocks the emitted sound to just about zero. When the chute's packed and the nosecone is ready to go on, I pull off the tape, ensure the alarm is loud and stable, verify that the kevlar cord is attached securely to the nosecone, then drop the beacon into the airframe and cap the bird for flight.

A fresh battery is a must for an adequately loud alarm. Although the device might emit noise for a full day or two, it's only usefully loud enough for our purpose for a few hours.

Good skies,
GlueckAuf