Couple of probably obvious questions :)

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Hello all,I have a Phantom 2 and my mate has a Vision 2+
He is having some issues of late,weirdly his wifi extender seems to have an adverse effect on the GPS lock.
We can hover with GPS lock but as soon as we turn on the wifi extender GPS lock is lost and the Phantom starts to drift on its own in the wind,almost like it is in ATTI mode.
He isn't a huge fan of using the app to "see" with which almost seems like a waste of spending the £s on the Vision + to me but there you go :)
Is it possible to start the camera recording manually somehow without using the app?
He noticed a little silver button near the camera but we didn't explore what it was at the time,I did wonder if it was a manual record?
Also does the 5.8ghz transmitter have the pot on the circuit board like the 2.4ghz does so we could make the gimbal manually controlled cause as it is without the app it sits at about 45degs with no way of moving it?
Hope that makes sense.
Thanks.
 
Some units do experience GPS signal degradation when the camera begins recording. I suspect it isn't really the camera recording that is to blame, but rather that's when the Wi-Fi module starts pumping out the video feed inducing the interference. It would make sense that the signal is lost when the Wi-Fi extender starts as, before that, the Phantom's Wi-Fi module is transmitting very little data. My suggestion is to perform the GPS foil shielding mod mentioned in a thread here in this base, making sure to shield as much of the GPS connector cable as possible. This should help with the GPS signal loss.

If you don't care to use FPV, and to test whether its the camera recording or the FPV transmission behind the GPS signal loss, there is a small button on the forward underside of the gimbal base. Press this button once to begin recording video. The light on the front of the gimbal base will turn red (orange). Don't forget to press it again once you land, before powering off, so the video file is properly closed. The red (orange) light on the gimbal will turn off when recording has stopped.

Please let us know whether starting a recording without FPV still results in GPS signal loss?
 
Thanks folks that does seem to make some sense and would explain the loss of GPS when the wifi extender is turned on.
Seems odd to me though given they work in a different frequency range.
Is it the close proximity of the components in the Phantom that causes it do you think?
 
What may be interesting is if you may have found the source of the interference that most people are having with EMI and reduction in GPS satellites received. I would bet you are getting satellite lock with maybe only six satellites and as soon as you turn on the Wi-Fi it's dropping it below the required number needed and it is drifting in ATTI mode.

So if the Wi-Fi data stream is what's creating the interference, then maybe the lower foil mod between the gimbal and phantom body is all that is really needed. Worth a try!
 
Cocoa Beach Kiter said:
What may be interesting is if you may have found the source of the interference that most people are having with EMI and reduction in GPS satellites received. I would bet you are getting satellite lock with maybe only six satellites and as soon as you turn on the Wi-Fi it's dropping it below the required number needed and it is drifting in ATTI mode.

So if the Wi-Fi data stream is what's creating the interference, then maybe the lower foil mod between the gimbal and phantom body is all that is really needed. Worth a try!

It certainly seems that way.
We did a second flight with no wifi extender and the GPS lock was constant.
We didn't fly far away just in case but the wifi extender sure does seem to be the cause.
On the first flight I had control for the last 20% or so of battery and at that point it did start to drift on it's own with yellow lights flashing rather than green.
At that point it would have appeared to have been in ATTI mode as there was a lot of inertia.
I counter acted the drift but as I didn't know at the time it was in ATTI mode I must have been over compensating and getting loads more inertia/drift than I was used to with GPS mode.
Then it decided to land cause the battery was that low but it tipped over as it landed,again I think cause of the inertia I had built up.
He also had a couple of incidents prior to this which again thinking back on it would appear to have had the same cause.
 
Well all seemed to be okay but we have found another possible problem today :)
Whilst we taped up the inside and repositioned the GPS cable which has indeed speeded up the time it takes to get a lock recording is something else.
We can start a manual recording but as soon as we use the app to start recording the GPS count drops down to 5 (or less) from 8+
If the app is just running and you are using it to just view information all is well but as soon as you press record on the app the GPS count drops down and stays like that,usually 5 or less,sometimes briefly straying into 6 but no more than that.
As soon as you stop recording with the app the count goes back up again.
 
I had this too (after I had done the aluminium foil mod). What worked for me is to do the aluminium foil mod BUT with copper tape (ensuring you put an insulating tape over the copper tape (to prevent shorts)).

Probably the key thing is ensuring AS MUCH OF THE GPS WIRE AS POSSIBLE also has copper tape around it. Hope it helps you too !
 
dpdpkpcom said:
I had this too (after I had done the aluminium foil mod). What worked for me is to do the aluminium foil mod BUT with copper tape (ensuring you put an insulating tape over the copper tape (to prevent shorts)).

Probably the key thing is ensuring AS MUCH OF THE GPS WIRE AS POSSIBLE also has copper tape around it. Hope it helps you too !

Done that already.
Went with copper tape right from the start as I had that already.
 

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