Help Center

The ZTAG system is designed to work with any HD digital drone. We simply provide you the ZTAG circuit board with mounting holes and you can decide the best way to mount this in front of your HD camera. We have some STL files for common frames that have 18-33mm spacing between it's bottom camera standoff screws. The board will require 5-28V input voltages (handles 2S-6S or 5V directly from your flight controller).

ZTAG Board Shell STL file
Sensor Cowling STL file
Universal Frame Mount STL file

The electronics weigh a little more than 7g but the total added weight will depend on the mount that you'll need to add. Our standard mount design along with the flight electronics and a balance lead connector will add approximately 25g to your overall drone weight.

Temporary Installation

You can solder on a male-pin balance lead connector (we provide a 6S connector, which can be cut down to fit 2S-5S) for temporary use. The benefit of the balance lead method is that you can easily remove the ZTAG system when it's not in use. We recommend using zip ties to keep the power wires from getting chopped by your motor since it will likely be routed on the side of your frame.

Permanent Installation

Yes, below is a standard mount that fits to frames that have a M3 camera standoff screw that is spaced apart by 18-33mm. You will need screws that are about 5mm longer to secure the mount.

The ZTAG system is designed for digital HD systems because the cameras have much higher resolution (to see other drones) and have better response to LEDs (to accurately see different colors). While you CAN mount this to an analog rig, the overall experience will be MUCH better on a digital system.

No, the weight of the components (7g for electronics alone) just adds too much weight to a tinywhoop. Plus, ZTAG is designed for digital systems so you'd want to consider the smallest rig that can carry a digital HD setup.

Yes, a cinewhoop that can carry an action camera can definitely carry a ZTAG module, just make sure your camera feed is digital.

Yes! This will make your gameplay AMAZING! We have 3 solder pads (5V, Signal, GND) that will directly connect to 24 RGB addressable LEDs. The state of the drone (team colors and being hit) will also flash on the external LEDs.

Like all drone components, things can and will break during a crash. We recommend printing the mount below with TPU to protect it. Having a TPU mount will also be much more durable during a crash. Generally, players will find it easier to play when people are slower and doing more hovering so crashes are less likely. If you really want to protect the ZTAG board, you could design a ZTAG drone where the camera sits further back into the frame so the board can be inside the frame.

We have specifically designed the LED light output to work with colorblind pilots. The information conveyed throughout the game comes across as different flashing patterns rather than just different colors. This way, a colorblind pilot can simply select a team color that they can easily pick out and play ZTAG with just as much enjoyment!

We recommend any environment without direct sunlight so that you can see the LED lights. Examples are:

• Parking garage, day or night
  
• Parking lot at night
  
• Gym
  
• Whoop race course
  
• Outdoor courses at night with lights
  

If there are no external lights, sunset and twilight is the best time to fly and get great video.

While everyone's rates are different, we generally recommend a throttle limit on the drones so they don't just whiz by each other at high speed. More tagging action (and less crashing) will happen when people fly slower and smoother. Different quads should be speed matched so the game play is fair, a 6s quad should be throttle limited if playing against a 4s quad. The actual throttle limit will depend on kV / props size etc so you'll have to experiment. Ideally, everyone is flying a similar class of drones to have a fair game --- practically though, ZTAG is fun no matter what drones are flying!

ZTAG uses infrared to transmit and receive shooting signals. Each ZTAG board has 4 front facing IR emitters that blast out a team encoded signal at about a 30 degree beam angle. Each ZTAG board has 2 independent rear facing IR receivers that will register a hit if another team's IR signal is received. The 2 IR sensors will even show you which side you were hit via the dashboard LED health bar.

Yes, the holding down the middle button on the ZTAG board for 1 second will adjust the power level of the IR signal and change the tagging range. You will need to experiment with low, medium, and high levels as it will be affected by your ambient lighting conditions. For a fair game, you want to make sure all players have the same power setting.

We are first waiting on community feedback to see how they are playing ZTAG Drone Laser Tag and how they are mounting it onto their rigs. Once we understand how how everyone plays, we will consider a "spec drone" that is purpose built for ZTAG.

Currently, there is no plans to integrate to OSD because the 5 dashboard LEDs already do the job at giving pilots all the instant information they need. Our external LED based "OSD" makes installation very quick and simple and gives a lot of interaction without having to fuss with soldering wires to your flight controller. On top of that, since ZTAG is designed for digital HD drones, we don't have easy access to OSD input to the digital system at the moment. We did leave serial TX and RX pads on the ZTAG board if and when integrating to a digital system's OSD is more widely supported. Firmware updates will be possible via the USB-C connection.

Currently, the ZTAG board is designed to work standalone so there's no connection needed to your flight controller. However, we have left serial RX and TX pads on the board to allow for future firmware updates. We'd first have to see what the community response to our product is like and then we'll start adding features via firmware updates.

Theoretically yes, this would be awesome for competitions with an audience. We have already implemented this feature on the human version of ZTAG. The ZTAG board already has the wireless capability to broadcast hit signals and we've already developed a central computer for human ZTAG. We'd have to first see how the market adopts drone ZTAG before we invest time and money into a central scoring system.

ZTAG is confident that with enough community participation that a ZTAG drone league is inevitable. This requires community feedback on the best way to play the game and the best rules to have. Once we have a better understanding of what makes the game really fun and exciting for spectators to watch, we will form the ZTAG Drone League!

Buy some the ZTAG Drone Laser Tag system and start flying and battling your fellow pilots! Come up with creative ways to play the game. Find the best scenarios, the best team combinations, and get in touch with us and share your thoughts! Once we have enough of a player base, we will launch official tournaments with prizes!