Getting green-red-green only when GoPro turned on

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My first flight today went without a hitch: I went sans GoPro for the first flight to be sure everything was working properly. When I attached and turned on the GoPro however, the Phantom kept flashing green-red-green-red but only if the GoPro was turned on. When I turned the GoPro off, it went just green-green-green. Everything up to the point where I normally take off was the same:

Sequence 1: green, 3 reds
Sequence 2: green, 2 reds
Sequence 3: green, 1 red
Sequence 4: green, then rapidly flashing greens indicating home point marked
Sequence 5: if GoPro is NOT switched on, I get green-green constantly. If GoPro IS switched on, I got green-red-green-red constantly.

Has anyone else run into this? My GoPro is a GoPro Hero3 White and I confirmed that the WiFi on the GoPro was turned OFF. Phantom is 1.1.1 running 4.0.2. It's like there is some sort of interference. I confirmed several times that the Phantom goes green-green when off but as soon as you switch on the GoPro and press rec to record video, it flashes green-red-green-red. That particular sequence is not listed in the manual.

Anyone know what is going on? Needless to say: pre-flight checklist failed... so I didn't try launching it with it flashing green-red-green-red.

Thanks,
Mike
 
Anyone? I'd kinda like to fly this thing with the GoPro turned on but... not going to fly it with the green-red blinking until I can figure out why it does that when I turn the GoPro on.

Best I've been able to do is fly it around with the GoPro attached but turned off: everything is fine that way. As soon as I switch the GoPro on I get the red-green-red-green flash from the Phantom. And I triple checked that WiFi is off on the GoPro.

Mike
 
I have read in other gopro forums that some gopro leak RF energy from the xd card slot. So on rc gliders etc they make a copper envelope to seal the gopro. I bought a sheet but cant remember where. I'll keep looking though.

Johnbig
 
If you have the Cineform app on your phone or tablet, try opening it and see if it picks up a signal from your camera with the wifi turned off. Maybe it's a fault within the camera and even though it says it's off, it's not. I dunno. Maybe double check that your camera has all the latest updates too. Maybe there is a bug in the camera that needs a patch to correct it or something.
 
Yeah, I haven't solved it yet but I find that if I wait until after I get the home position recorded and wait about 30 seconds after that and THEN turn on the GoPro, I can keep a green light with only an occasional red flash. I have some foil tape so I might wrap at least the sides of the GoPro case that don't have buttons with that tape in hopes that it'll block some of the RF. That's a pretty serious problem for something designed for RC and designed for the GoPro to be affected that way. If the GoPro has that much of a problem emitting RF, that might be the reason for some of the fly-aways!

Mike
 
Just did a title digging about the GoPros. Not sure if this is common knowledge or not but it's new to me so I'll share it.

Turns out the buttons on the cameras aren't mechanical switches like a light switch for example, but software keys. So if your camera doesn't seem to be fully shutting off the wifi then it sounds to me like a software issue and not a mechanical issue with either the camera or the Phantom. If it were me I would format the card on the camera and start clean with a full update so you can eliminate the software as the issue.

If it still triggers a light after that, something funky is going on for sure.
 
Here's an update. After some searching for GoPro RF interference, I came up with this thread:

http://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=570094

Seems plenty of people are having the exact same problem as I am: loss of GPS when GoPro turned on and/or videoing. Seems some models of GoPro Hero 3 and even some samples within a model group leak RF to the point that it can jam GPS acquisition.

I'm not sure I should update mine because it is a GoPro Hero 3 White and the GoPro website lists HD3.01.03.00 as the latest firmware but mine came with HD3.09.03.03 which seems like it'd be a later version. A Google search for "HD3.09.03.03" comes up with nothing. Another case of horrible documentation, this time on the part of GoPro.

Last night I carefully made templates for the GoPro waterproof case and wrapped the entire case minus view holes and button holes in foil tape. I'll fly again today to see if that helped. I think there are a lot of reasons for fly-aways but I'm convinced that GoPro EMI is one of them after seeing this!

Mike
 
Have you sent an email to GoPro about the problem? They may have heard of this as a lot of professionals use there camera's and if this becomes an on going fault than they want it sorted out, when the camera's are used in film work and at the Olympics that make's very bad publicity for them, to many people are now using their kit.
 
chopperflyer said:
Have you sent an email to GoPro about the problem? They may have heard of this as a lot of professionals use there camera's and if this becomes an on going fault than they want it sorted out, when the camera's are used in film work and at the Olympics that make's very bad publicity for them, to many people are now using their kit.

I will but I wanted to fly with the foil setup first so I can include that info (about how well/if that works). It's probably not a rush because it looks like a lot of people in that other thread have already emailed them about it. Seems to be a known issue... but one that just hasn't made it to the Phantom forums yet. But it seems the Blade quad guys are all over it.

Mike
 
Update: I've flown several times since I wrapped the GoPro waterproof case in foil tape and to be honest, I don't see much improvement. It still takes much longer to get a GPS lock with the GoPro on and videoing but it does eventually get a lock. When flying it up past the surrounding trees, it has enough GPS signal to keep a blinking green so I'm not worrying about it too much at the moment. I wonder when I connect my Arris CM2000 tomorrow if I'll have even more interference, however, and that'll tip the scales so I have to worry about keeping GPS lock. We'll see.

Mike
 
If you still want to do the copper foil wrap, I got a package from Amazon. Came with 4 sheets with adhesive on the back. I used it inside the top shell all around the GPS to get a quicker lock. Seems to work quicker.
 
CyberVet65 said:
If you still want to do the copper foil wrap, I got a package from Amazon. Came with 4 sheets with adhesive on the back. I used it inside the top shell all around the GPS to get a quicker lock. Seems to work quicker.

Hmm. For some reason I never even thought of putting the foil tape on the inside of the shell (under the GPS module). I may try that next. Thanks for the idea. I'll recalibrate the compass afterward just to be sure the foil tape didn't change anything about the compass readings.

Mike
 
Happy to report that while I had the shell open to install the Arris CM2000, I put two pieces of foil tape on the foam tape that was already over the GPS board. GPS locked today at least 3x faster than before and we have thick cloud cover today! So that appears to be the best solution.

Mike
 
mikeydaddio said:
Happy to report that while I had the shell open to install the Arris CM2000, I put two pieces of foil tape on the foam tape that was already over the GPS board. GPS locked today at least 3x faster than before and we have thick cloud cover today! So that appears to be the best solution.

Mike

Where did you get the foil tape you used?
 
OI Photography said:
mikeydaddio said:
Happy to report that while I had the shell open to install the Arris CM2000, I put two pieces of foil tape on the foam tape that was already over the GPS board. GPS locked today at least 3x faster than before and we have thick cloud cover today! So that appears to be the best solution.

Mike

Where did you get the foil tape you used?

I've had it for years and use it for many projects. Came off the shelf at a Home Depot. Just basically a little thicker than aluminum foil with an adhesive backing.

Mike
 

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