Stage 3 created interference...

[Charlieb]

Hi Tony,

I trust all is well. I wanted to let you now that after installing the stage 3 antennas on the f2v+ I'm having trouble (lots) to get a lock on GPS signal. Before I could easily get 10-12 satellites consistently but now I struggle to get 6 and keep them!

Could the added signal strength be the culprit of the aforementioned? Also, I'm loosing the video too frequently as I've told you at different posts. My screen goes grey or with the pinwheel and no more video until I recycle everything and start fresh.

I've been flying at the same locations, checked for availability of GPS signals, no additional interference... The only thing that has changed is my phantom.

Ay clues??? Suggestions?

Cheers,

Charlie

 

[kondorfpv]

Hi Charlieb, if you have changed your phantom then it's possible that the problem is the phantom itself. I'd get it checked.

2.4 ghz antennas have nothing to do with the GPS signal which works on a very different band.

This problem has never been experienced by anyone with either stage 3 or stage 4,
We have them out by the thousands and this is the first such case, so my take is that's really unrelated.

TOny.

 

[allemtura]

Agree, the antennas shouldn't affect GPS at all.

It may be worth checking that the GPS cable which you unplug is properly interested into the connector on the main board. It might have become dislodged as you fastened the case back on, and is the only thing I can think of that would cause low GPS.

Also the time of day/weather might be the culprit. At the weekend I went flying while it was really overcast, and even though there should have been 8 sats at that time, (http://satpredictor.navcomtech.com), my GPS count kept jumping between 3 to 7 sats, resulting in ATTI mode and being difficult to fly.

 

[jefferykell]

Guys,

I have the same problem after installing the stage 4 kit. I have checked the cable and installed a Foil shield over the gps sensor. This is something to do with the antennas on the drone. I cant fly because I will lose gps down to 3 or 4 .. anyone found a solution for this issue?

 

[Charlieb]

Agree, the antennas shouldn't affect GPS at all.

It may be worth checking that the GPS cable which you unplug is properly interested into the connector on the main board. It might have become dislodged as you fastened the case back on, and is the only thing I can think of that would cause low GPS.

Also the time of day/weather might be the culprit. At the weekend I went flying while it was really overcast, and even though there should have been 8 sats at that time, (http://satpredictor.navcomtech.com), my GPS count kept jumping between 3 to 7 sats, resulting in ATTI mode and being difficult to fly.

Hi,

Being part of the telecom world for over 20+ years I know that the GPS, the control signal and the FPV feed operate at different frequencies. I'm also aware of the temperature, time of day, solar flares and availability of satellite signals in my area. I check satpredictor on a regular basis whenever I plan to go out with my P2V+.

I've been as always very careful with my installation. No cable was left unplugged or damaged during the installation as the engineer in me took over. But I find rather odd that:

1. I cannot lock in satellites as before.
2. I'm losing video sporadically for no reason at a very close distance, sometimes as close to 100 meters out. I thought it was the iPhone 5S or the 5 that was giving me some trouble. Since, I also have an iPhone 6 and the situation persists.
3. I started thinking that I was losing video feed for a defective dome antenna that became "unglued", but upon inspection (and reapplication of super glue) it doesn't look like the welding became undone.

I'm a huge supporter and advocate for TOny, but I'm at the point of taking everything off to isolate the problem. It cannot just be me out here that is experiencing these issues.

Cheers,

Charlie

 

[kondorfpv]

yes, guys by all means, if you do isolate the issue by removing the pinwheels and using the stock ones, then by all means you can return them.

What's odd is that Stage 3 and stage 4 have been used for the past 6 months, and the problems you are reporting are happening only now.
The number of stage 3 and stage 4 installs are between 500 and 1000 at least, so 1 or 2 people having this problem is not statistically relevant.

Now if you take the pinwheels off and your satellites return, I will be starting to ask you what firmware you are running.

Are you running a particular firmare version?

This is what matters to me.

 

[Charlieb]

yes, guys by all means, if you do isolate the issue by removing the pinwheels and using the stock ones, then by all means you can return them.

What's odd is that Stage 3 and stage 4 have been used for the past 6 months, and the problems you are reporting are happening only now.
The number of stage 3 and stage 4 installs are between 500 and 1000 at least, so 1 or 2 people having this problem is not statistically relevant.

Now if you take the pinwheels off and your satellites return, I will be starting to ask you what firmware you are running.

Are you running a particular firmare version?

This is what matters to me.

I'm running the latest firmware version. Although correct from an statistics 101 course, I'm sorry you feel that we are not statistically significant... as I have been a repeat customer and have become an evangelist for your products. I would like to get to the bottom of the problem and solve it.

Cheers,

Charlie

 

[kondorfpv]

yes, guys by all means, if you do isolate the issue by removing the pinwheels and using the stock ones, then by all means you can return them.

What's odd is that Stage 3 and stage 4 have been used for the past 6 months, and the problems you are reporting are happening only now.
The number of stage 3 and stage 4 installs are between 500 and 1000 at least, so 1 or 2 people having this problem is not statistically relevant.

Now if you take the pinwheels off and your satellites return, I will be starting to ask you what firmware you are running.

Are you running a particular firmare version?

This is what matters to me.

I'm running the latest firmware version. Although correct from an statistics 101 course, I'm sorry you feel that we are not statistically significant... as I have been a repeat customer and have become an evangelist for your products. I would like to get to the bottom of the problem and solve it.

Cheers,

Charlie

Hello Charlie,
I want to get to the bottom of the problem myself, for statistically relevant, I meant that there isn't anything wrong with the antennas, otherwise it would be a wide spread problem, so yes there is a problem and we'll get to the bottom of it, but it has to do with the specific install, placement or firmware.
I will not let you down, or any other customer for that matter.

Can you please write the firmware number, even if it's the latest?
I want to confirm it's the same as Jeff of the other thread.

Tony.

 

[Charlieb]

Hi,

I'm running firmware 3.06. My GPS version is 6.0.1.4.

Cheers,

Charlie

 

[Charlieb]

Hello Charlie,
I want to get to the bottom of the problem myself, for statistically relevant, I meant that there isn't anything wrong with the antennas, otherwise it would be a wide spread problem, so yes there is a problem and we'll get to the bottom of it, but it has to do with the specific install, placement or firmware.
I will not let you down, or any other customer for that matter.

Can you please write the firmware number, even if it's the latest?
I want to confirm it's the same as Jeff of the other thread.

Tony.

Hi,

Wanting to get to the root of the problem I opened the phantom and carefully examined all connections. All were firmly placed. I did he same with the repeater, and all cables were properly connected. Since the problem was more related to the video I started to isolate the root cause methodically. I only have iPhones, and it's no secret that the phantom platform is Android first and iOS last. There are several undocumented problems when one uses and iPhone.

Well, I turn my iPhone 6 on airport mode selected my phantom signal from the repeater and got video. Repeated the same experiment with my iPhone 5S and same result. Looks like iOS is the culprit, at least for video loss. I need to go out later and try it out during regular flight stress. I will be able to report my findings by tomorrow. I will try different preview settings from 640x480 at 30 and 15 fps and also lower and see if the video feed gets broken.

Thanks TOny for not letting me out hanging.

Cheers,

Charlie

 

[kondorfpv]

that's very interesting.... I know of people who have found the opposite, their iPhone device would work better for them compared to the android.
I think it can depend on the apps that are installed at a given moment. IF there are apps that use GPS positioning and then update their status according to the gps location, or there could be other problems like preferred networks etc.

 

[Happyflyer]

that's very interesting.... I know of people who have found the opposite, their iPhone device would work better for them compared to the android.
I think it can depend on the apps that are installed at a given moment. IF there are apps that use GPS positioning and then update their status according to the gps location, or there could be other problems like preferred networks etc.

Just may be it. I had a clock widget on my tablet that never had a problem. When I used the DJI program a message would pop up telling me the clock has crashed. Switched to a different clock widget and no problem.

 

[Charlieb]

that's very interesting.... I know of people who have found the opposite, their iPhone device would work better for them compared to the android.
I think it can depend on the apps that are installed at a given moment. IF there are apps that use GPS positioning and then update their status according to the gps location, or there could be other problems like preferred networks etc.

Hi,

The situation with the video seems to be stable, but the GPS acquisition problem persists. Yesterday night I tried to fly and it would not secure more than 5-6 satellites. The position of the antennas on my P2V+ is optimal. I will remove the 2.4Ghz antennas and see if the situation remains the same.

Cheers,

Charlie

 

[jefferykell]

that's very interesting.... I know of people who have found the opposite, their iPhone device would work better for them compared to the android.
I think it can depend on the apps that are installed at a given moment. IF there are apps that use GPS positioning and then update their status according to the gps location, or there could be other problems like preferred networks etc.

Hi,

The situation with the video seems to be stable, but the GPS acquisition problem persists. Yesterday night I tried to fly and it would not secure more than 5-6 satellites. The position of the antennas on my P2V+ is optimal. I will remove the 2.4Ghz antennas and see if the situation remains the same.

Cheers,

Charlie

Charlie

I am having the same problems with GPS after I installed stage 4. I have been working with tony but he has not come up a fix. I did remove the 2.4 antennas and that fixed the problem. I am not very happy with the Stage 4 kit.

 

[Charlieb]

Charlie

I am having the same problems with GPS after I installed stage 4. I have been working with tony but he has not come up a fix. I did remove the 2.4 antennas and that fixed the problem. I am not very happy with the Stage 4 kit.

Hi,

The problem seems to affect both video at the faster frame rate and satellite acquisition. Removing the 2.4GHz antennas does have an impact on the satellite acquisition. I truly hope we can find the cause of these problems to be able to get a solution soon.

What type of phone are you using for FPV?

Cheers,

Charlie

 

[jefferykell]

Charlie

I am having the same problems with GPS after I installed stage 4. I have been working with tony but he has not come up a fix. I did remove the 2.4 antennas and that fixed the problem. I am not very happy with the Stage 4 kit.

Hi,

The problem seems to affect both video at the faster frame rate and satellite acquisition. Removing the 2.4GHz antennas does have an impact on the satellite acquisition. I truly hope we can find the cause of these problems to be able to get a solution soon.

What type of phone are you using for FPV?

Cheers,

Charlie

IPhone5 s .. I am getting the same thing .. If I use 720 its fine. once I get into 1080 its drops the gps. I was not having this problem before I did the stage 4 upgrade. Its making me nuts. I removed the 2.4s and reinstalled the stock ones.

Jeff

 

[allemtura]

It may not help but have you tried the suggestion by Dom to connect to the Phantom software and do an update (even though you're on the latest firmware)? Details here: viewtopic.php?f=54&t=27889&start=10#p258011

It is bizarre the issues you're having as I have an iPhone 5S with Stage 4 and don't have any problems.

In case it helps, my foil mod completely covers all arms of the lid and so I wondered if yours is like this as well?

 

[jefferykell]

It may not help but have you tried the suggestion by Dom to connect to the Phantom software and do an update (even though you're on the latest firmware)? Details here: viewtopic.php?f=54&t=27889&start=10#p258011

It is bizarre the issues you're having as I have an iPhone 5S with Stage 4 and don't have any problems.

In case it helps, my foil mod completely covers all arms of the lid and so I wondered if yours is like this as well?

Thanks, But I did this mod and did not see the problem get any better. don't know what to try next.

 

[allemtura]

Do you have a Flytrex Live? I ask because I know its GPS cable is quite exposed inside the phantom so I wrapped mine up in lots of foil and insulation tape.

 

[Charlieb]

IPhone5 s .. I am getting the same thing .. If I use 720 its fine. once I get into 1080 its drops the gps. I was not having this problem before I did the stage 4 upgrade. Its making me nuts. I removed the 2.4s and reinstalled the stock ones.

Jeff

Jeff,

The video situation improved by setting the iPhone in airport mode before enabling the WiFi. But even then, the video has to remain at 15fps in order not to lose it. As per the the GPS situation, it remains just as bad as before. At best, it secures 6 satellites and it loses 1 while flying. No idea what is happening... But I would certainly would like to find out why this situation is persisting.

I have not done the foil mod, as I think it would not change the current situation.

Cheers,

Charlie