GPS issues with Phantom

Hello giodood
It´s very easy to put the new antenna
Desolder the cracked one
Be carefull with the new one about electrical static aspects (sorry for bad french translation). You have to be connected to the ground.
The antenna is provided with double face tape.. So don,t forget to remove the protection.
Put in place the new one and solder the central pin.
That´s all.
 

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Chrislille,

Thank you for the help. I have been fly a little without the GPS but am scared to fly too far away :D
Once the new part come in I will give it a try.

Thanks!
 
+1 to this thread!
I too had gps stop working after a bad crash and found the ceramic antenna broken on my gps. I just ordered the replacement and hope it works! One thing happening to me that I didn't see mentioned here is that the phantom would not even recognize a gps as being installed at all. It would just blink yellow ATI mode regardless of flight mode. When I hooked it up to dji assistant software it would have a red "GPS needed" error on certain pages. Hopefully replacing the antenna fixes this
 
vrso2 said:
Ok, here is my problem fellas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcXJXapG ... e=youtu.be

I did manual and advanced calibration, but same behavior. All values are in range.

Any help?

I looked at the video and other than the first circle that it made (which might indicate need for compass calibration) it looks about as stable as mine in a little wind. Remember that GPS is only accurate down to about 3 ft so if you hover, it really can't correct any more accurately than when it drifts more than about 1m. If there was no wind at all in that clip though, I'd say it's a little "loose".

Mike
 
Mine didn't look damaged at all but she did land inverted. The £3 (well £3.13) replacement immediately restored GPS functionality.


Top tip:

Wedging a small screwdriver under the old module and then melting the solder on the circuit board side helped the old one pop off instantly.
 
Hi, I'm from the Netherlands so excuse me for any bad grammar.
Mine DJI also crashed from approx 100m! I appears that a DJI can't fly that good with only three props attached... ;) luckily I still have the video filming the crash, from under the DJI :D .
Mine GPS antenna also cracked among other things: Two motors, ESC module and body. But when I dismantled the GPS module the grey cable to the unit appeared broken as well. The connector that is.
image.jpg


So I will order a replacement GPS antenna from Digikey, but I also need this cable. Does anyone know the part number? Or other ways to replace this cable?
 
That is the compass cable and you can order it separately as either the cable kit or compass complete. Clearly I don't use any Dutch suppliers, but Buzzflyer and Align-trex in the UK have them in stock.
 
hi all,
great info here! I hope this is the solution to my problem:

I got a slightly damaged phantom2 for a very good price.
It had a crash but only the plastic case was a little bent - so repairs were easy.

I upgraded firmware a few days back so I should be current (is that good? no idea)
However, GPS aquisition is slow or doesnt work at all...

I took a look at the GPS unit itself and it looks ok - only a slight scratch, but no cracked ceramic here.
What I found: waited forever to get rid of 3 red blinks - no chance.
than I flew in Atti mode - wich works fine
after landing I noticed that the red blinks were gone or only 1 red blink.
so I could use GPS mode after the initial flight.

my theory: a barely visible crack in the GPS antenna because of a crash?
if the unit gets warmer the material expands a bit and the antenna starts to work?
or maybe it's the vibrations in flight that sometimes help get the antenna going?

no good feeling about GPS mode on this phantom - a flyaway is imminent ;-)
so I ordered a batch of GPS replacements (only the antenna - from digikey) and see if I can fix it.

greetings,
RCSchim
 
Well at least you are getting feedback from the module (LED indicator pattern) so any changes you make should be evident in their indication.
 
just a quick follow up here:
I got my GPS Antennas (really fast delivery) but unfortunately the repair didn't help. I was able to unsolder the old (didnt show any cracks) and installed a new one.
But my problem still exists. Once I had the copter "open" and held the GPS device in my handy - and suddenly I got GPS fix - but then after I screwed the copter together (and yes, I used the copper foil to isolate) I never got GPS fix again.
My conclusion: it's not always the fault of the ceramic part - in my case it looks like the GPS board (with some electronics) may be faulty. If you fiddle around with it it may work - also after one flight (where the vibrations might have helped) it worked - but not on a reliable base here ;-)

Next step: I just ordered a GPS replacemant off ebay for 100€ (best deal I could find - most of the times it's 150€ or more...

I keep you updated but hopefully this will now help.
 
forgot to mention:
prior to my repairs I already tried to eliminate all possible interferences:
disabled immersion RC Video TX
unmounted Gopro3

so it was just a "naked" phantom 2

the fact that I installed an X8R FrSky 2.4 Receiver shouldn't maka a difference here!
 
QuarkOfNature said:
I don't relish the idea of paying $160 or so for a new GPS module...so I desoldered the GPS antenna from the existing board. It came off with just a little coaxing from the soldering iron and some tweezers. Now...how to get a new one. I could buy an entire uBlox NEO-6M from ebay for about $25 (plus a 2-3 week wait for it to come from China). Can you get just the ceramic antenna piece anywhere? I'm not exactly what to search on, the part number printed on mine (1575R-A) doesn't turn up any promising hits.

I saw someone mentioned that this works and it's $4.75

http://www.digikey.com/product-search/e ... .25.2.A.02
 
yawnalot29 said:
QuarkOfNature said:
I don't relish the idea of paying $160 or so for a new GPS module...so I desoldered the GPS antenna from the existing board. It came off with just a little coaxing from the soldering iron and some tweezers. Now...how to get a new one. I could buy an entire uBlox NEO-6M from ebay for about $25 (plus a 2-3 week wait for it to come from China). Can you get just the ceramic antenna piece anywhere? I'm not exactly what to search on, the part number printed on mine (1575R-A) doesn't turn up any promising hits.

I saw someone mentioned that this works and it's $4.75

http://www.digikey.com/product-search/e ... .25.2.A.02


Yes.. that one works fine.. used it myself.
 
That one you quoted is 4mm thick and the stock antenna is 2mm thick... don't know if it will fit correctly without rubbing the top shell etc.
I used the 2db one.. the other one would improve the signal to noise ratio but not by much.

I doubt it would make any operational difference to the Phantom.
 
TeamYankee said:
That one you quoted is 4mm thick and the stock antenna is 2mm thick... don't know if it will fit correctly without rubbing the top shell etc.
I used the 2db one.. the other one would improve the signal to noise ratio but not by much.

I doubt it would make any operational difference to the Phantom.

yeah, doubt there will be any big differense. but i´ve ordered it, just around 5$ for it so its worth ta try until anyone find a better solution :roll:
 
I had better luck last night with the satellites, dont know if it was time of day or something else. but im going out again soon for more testing with stock antenna :)

Did change to Naza-m mode last night, and when im calibrating the compass before flying i think its important to not hold on the top of the phantom and cover up the gps antenna. This gave me a better lock on last night, dont know if its just a one timer, hope not.

And another thing, it cant lock on more satellites than there is in the sky atm, and with the app GPS Plan for IOS some times of the day i could have as little as 6 satellites where i live. i also check the http://http://satpredictor.navcomtech.com/

But ofcourse, a stronger gps antenna could hold on to the signal better, so a solution there would be fine :)
 
I had same problem with no GPS lock after a crash.
Ordered the new ceramic disc - soldered it on - still no lock. Thought I must have fried that little board.
So, I ordered a new GPS unit for $165.
Just installed it - still no GPS lock.

I have not screwed the top back on - just connected the GPS unit and closed top. Would that make a difference?

Any ideas?
 

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