Homing Pigeon Disc Finder - Opinions

[itsRudy]

It's like a geiger counter for discs, but with only a sticker on the disc, no heavy chonking beeper.

Thinking of getting this farther down the line, I legitimately hate looking for discs in tall grass more than anything and lost 5 these last 3 months on light play. But I don't buy Monday Morning Engineering Jobs, what do others think? More importantly, what tech does it work on, I though RFID couldn't really be used to locate products.



Saw it advertised on GripLocked podcast (Foundation secondary youtube channel).

A lot of people on reddit are saying they'll buy cheaper when knockoffs come out, but RFID readers never really came down drastically in price, as I was thinking a solution like this for years.

 

[Sewer bill]

Passive rfid (no battery only sticker) range is determined by frequency and antenna dB and type of antenna.

Active (battery system on the sticker) range is determined by the same as above but range can be drastically increased due to having active transmission from the tag.

Lower frequency requires a bigger antenna and sticker and punches through foliage and is less susceptible to background material interference like rebar or scrap metal. Higher frequency can use a smaller antenna and sticker but is less range in woods and can get lost in background reflections.

Directional antennas can on paper read an rfid tag the size of a stamp from a couple hundred feed but the beam is like a spotlight and almost the size of a stamp which makes it kind of not user friendly for finding a disc.

Circular polarized antennas have an apple shaped radiation pattern which is useful for finding a tag but much less range.

I think a sticker about 2" would be the best passive rfid size specifically because it wouldn't need a high power hand transmitter and could use a lower frequency for better penetration through woods and stuff.

I also think if stamps could be done in some kind of conductive material an rfid system could be hot stamped or incorporated into existing disc stock stamps.