NO GPS

[mrself58]

Somehow my GPS quit working. I am getting a yellow flashing light. When I hooked it up to my laptop and tried to change some things it said GPS required for this. I was told that the switch in my Tx went out. Is there any way to check the GPS first or what is my best method to try and find the problem. If the switch went out after only several months then maybe a different model Tx?

 

[fear345]

Has it taken a hit on the top ? this is where the gps unit is and is fragile.

 

[Mandrake]

There's been a few switches that have lost their wires ..Open up the Tx and check the wiring on S2...
Mandrake

Sent from the thing that does everything.

 

[mrself58]

yes it did land on it's top but was blinking yellow before that. Could it have cracked the GPS?

 

[J.James]

The switches they use are the biggest pos switches ever. My S1 crapped out with in the first few days of getting my FC40 then a few days later my S2 crapped the bed and stopped working. and when looking around on the web I see its real common for others to have theres fail on them. and when they fail and you are flying they can cause all sorts of problems and erratic behavior.

when my s2 was not working right it would break contact just by moving my transitter around and it would cause the switchs connection to rapidly toggle on and off from the course lock or homelock which would cause the home point to keep getting rerecord in flight on its own WAY not cool and then right after putting a new switch in the other on failed so it would not say in gps mode and kept going in to atti mode which is not cool either being if you get it some place in the air and cant see it and let go of the sticks its going to keep flying what ever way the wind will blow it. and with it also not going in to fail safe because of the switch. it would not try to come home unless I turned the transmitter off to get it to go in to a fail safe and return to home. .

Being that the switchs almost all fail on every one and in a real short time and other wise return to home never fails to bring on home if the switchs are working right and some one makes sure they didn't take off till they had all green steady flash on the back led I'm highly suspecting that is the main cause of most of the fly always many seem to of experienced.

 

[WillWort4Beer]

Have you opened her up yet and had a look? I have only had mine a few days and last night for some reason it pitched fwd on a slow takeoff, I think I was being too gentle with the throttle. It pitched fwd far enough to catch the front props on the concrete and upon inspection I noticed the the front right motor was making a rattle type sound if I manually spun the prop. I decided to open the shell (remove props and 12 screws), apparently the rattle sound was due to my gps wire being unplugged from the board. I was really suprised how easily this plug was to push in and pull out.

Anyone else run into this or have a quck easy way to fasten this more securely.

 

[J.James]

Anyone else run into this or have a quick easy way to fasten this more securely

I havn't had that exact problem yet. But For all sorts of other things like that. I prefer to use a tiny dab of hot glue. It holds when you want it to and yet is still super easy to peel off cleanly if you ever want to remove it.

 

[WillWort4Beer]

Thanks for the tip J.James, had not thought of hot glue yet but Im pretty new to this hobby. I dont want to hijack OP's thread, however I am interested in hearing more about the fragile switches you mentioned. Specifically the continutity testing and replacing/soldering if required, do you have an existing thread that goes into more detail? Possibly with pics?

 

[J.James]

I don't have a specific thread about the crappy switches. Tho i did mention them in a few other threads. and was planing on getting around to getting a video on them to help others. ix or even avoid the problem before it starts.

One way to check them tho with out a multi meter and with out even havering to open up the transmitter is to hook up the phantom to the naza assistant with the controller on and toggle the switches and make sure the right modes show up in the assistant for all the positions and to also try to giggle them in each position to make sure they are making good contact and not coming out of the modes they are set at. The ones I replaced mine with don't even need to be soldered and have screw connections on the tabs tho soldering is less apt to even come off.

But ya I'll try to get a vid of how to check and replace the switches and post it to utube and post a link here. I also want to show off some of my other simple mods I did to the tx while I have it open to. and a super easy and cheap mod that keeps you from even loosing the fc40s camera while in flight that I promised some one I would get pics of. That mod has saved me from losing my camera at least 10 times. already when the lid poped open and the camera fell out of the holder and most always some place were I would of never ever even had a hope of finding it alive had it fell to the ground in flight. Thats to important of a mod not to share or for any one to not do. Cost under 5 cents and not above any ones diy level if they can even tie there own shoes they can do this one no problem.