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9 sats and no "GPS Lock"

Discussion in 'MōVI M5' started by Steve Maller, Aug 13, 2015.

  1. Steve Maller

    Steve Maller UAV Grief Counselor

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    I noticed I was getting sub-par GPS sat numbers with my MōVI M5 whilst under my ALTA. I figured maybe the Maxtenna might help according to the marketing literature. Coincidentally, I also installed the Wi-fi adapter, but that shouldn't matter.

    Basically, the MōVI seems to be doing OK, but I never see the "GPS LOCK" light up, even though the ALTA and MōVI were in an open field with nothing around. The ALTA was showing 10-12 sats and had a good lock. The MōVI was showing 9 sats, and I let it sit for at least 10 minutes powered up, and it never got the "LOCK" to light up. I went ahead and flew it, and it seemed to do OK.

    Any thoughts? I'm running FW 4.0.1.

    IMG_0467.PNG
     
  2. Steve Maller

    Steve Maller UAV Grief Counselor

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    Sending in to Support, too. Will report back if they shed any light on this.
     
  3. Derek Cooper

    Derek Cooper Active Member

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    Bit of a wild card, but what do you have for Heading Assist setting - are you using GPS, Compass, Fixed Mount or None?
     
  4. Steve Maller

    Steve Maller UAV Grief Counselor

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    Hmm, I did set Heading Assist to "GPS". Do you think that's an issue? I should turn that off and see what happens.
     
  5. Derek Cooper

    Derek Cooper Active Member

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    Like I said, wild card... what came to mind when I read your post.
     
  6. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    Steve: What was the solar weather doing on Thursday? I can see we've got a solar storm going on now....(see http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/wing-kp). n3kl.org shows Thursday as being pretty quiet (well KpIndex = 4 at 0600 UTC).

    Also, did you by chance turn off the ALTA's electronics to see if the MōVI's GPS did better? That would tell us if it was RFI from the ALTA swamping the MōVI GPS Rx (you gotta love alphabet soup...).

    Andy.
     
  7. Steve Maller

    Steve Maller UAV Grief Counselor

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    I was able to get a GPS lock with the MōVI by itself yesterday. Tried again today with the ALTA after doing a MōVI compass calibration (didn't know that was a thing). Still only had "GPS: GOOD" but not a lock. MōVI seemed to perform well, even with pretty severe flying (15 m/s!) but not sure if it eventually got a lock whilst in the air.

    Will have to do some more sleuthing.
     
  8. Jeff Scholl

    Jeff Scholl Distributor

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    I just flew our shop ALTA with the MoVI M5 and did not get the green GPS lock. After a flight I came in and landed and did see the green GPS lock. Also the number of satellites seen on the MoVI does not change if the ALTA is on or off. I do see some solar storm activity today.

    Jeff
     
  9. Steve Maller

    Steve Maller UAV Grief Counselor

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    Thank you, Jeff. That's very interesting. I will keep an eye on this.
    I'm wondering if there's some degree of data logging that I should look at. If I just stick a microSD card in my M5 and enable logging, what will I get?
    Freefly Support is also looking into this.
     
  10. Gary Haynes

    Gary Haynes Administrator
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    I think Andy's suggestion is a good one for you Steve. Lift off in flight watching the telemetry for the MoVI and then shutdown the Alta's electronics. That should help you diagnose the problem don't ya think ???? :mad:
     
  11. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    Yeah! Yeah! Gary's right.....that's exactly what I meant.
    (I'll split the commission on the sale of a second ALTA to Steve, Gary....)
     
  12. Steve Maller

    Steve Maller UAV Grief Counselor

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  13. Andy Johnson-Laird

    Andy Johnson-Laird Administrator
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    Wow. You've gained weight, Steve. :rolleyes:

    Andy.
     

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