10 Satellites and lost GPS

Actually I was thinking in the $50 range, but you make a good point.
Better to crash a $399 drone than a $999 one.

I used to tell beginner to use sigma x5 which is about $50 at discount outlet. Lately, I recommend Eachine e010 which is only $20 and can fly indoor. It is very stable and will protection guard, it is almost indestructible. It is a nano quad it can fly in very tight spot. Once the flyer ready for bigger quad, I recommend DJI phantom 3 standards or ZMR 250 depending whether they want AP or racing. Lately, I add Solo to the list if they already own a gopro.

If money is no object, for AP I told them to get S1000 or P3P for outdoor or soup up tiny whoop for indoor.
 
I bought a Solo about 3 weeks ago. GPS gets 8+ sats in ~1 minute, then quickly 12.

I then ordered another with the backpack deal, just received it yesterday. It takes much longer just to reach 7, and refuses to go >10. After flying a couple packs, landed and still stuck on 9/10, sometimes dropping to 8.

Today I sat them next to each other and achieved the same results. These aren't my first Solo's so I'm familiar with the GPS issues from last year.

Hmm. I wonder if the first one has the rev B board because it does reach 12 sats quicker than I ever remember past ones.

On top of that, the mail ordered one (#2) was obviously a returned unit because the feet had landing marks on them. It is getting returned to BB for an exchange.

About the so called multipathing; it's BS. I can fly any of my AC copters with M8N GPS near structures without incident. The issue is 3DR screwed the pooch on the Solo 7M GPS design.
Chance are your second unit still had previous GPS data still retained in the memory hence when you booted up , it tried to resolve the conflicting data. You can test this with your first unit by moving to a new location at least several miles from previous launch location.

As for multiple path issues, it is a real problem and should do whatever you can to migrate the issue, eg not fly in wooded area, tall buildings, large body of water.

Replacing the GPS is a good choice , adding emf shield is a cheaper option and IMHO a better and must do for Solo.

BTW, if you only have the stock copper shield, I think you should do the cardboard mod immediately, it can potential shorten out the GPS antenna; a potential GPS lost.
 
I fly my x5 pretty much everyday, a manual flight mode, and my Solo several times a week to stay proficient. The Solo went out of control (two flipovers prior to that with no more than rotor damage) recently and broke an arm (the Solo's) along with two rotor blades when it went out of control. Yes it was near my house and it hit the house. Commercial (and other) uses of the Solo requires prudent operation near obstructions. There's a safety issue here that has to be addressed.
 
Having read many posts regarding the shield, I ordered and installed the V2 shield from 3DR. I have not had a chance to fly because of windy conditions.
 
Number of satellites is not a good indicator, if you fly in wooded area or surrounded by tall building, the GPS signal are bounced. A bounced signal is worse than no signal.

The original Solo GPS is an known issue, unless you have changed the GPS unit or replaced the shield, you will have the GPS issues

Im new to solo...know about the issues...upgraded to the MRobotics GPS...everything was fine till a few days ago...Solo lost GPS landed in a yard almost a mile away lol. Now wont hold GPS for more than 3 minutes then jumps to manual EVERY TIME. Even in super open area/fields. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Im new to solo...know about the issues...upgraded to the MRobotics GPS...everything was fine till a few days ago...Solo lost GPS landed in a yard almost a mile away lol. Now wont hold GPS for more than 3 minutes then jumps to manual EVERY TIME. Even in super open area/fields. Any help would be greatly appreciated.


this is very strange behaviour for the mRo, how many satellites do you have when it goes to manual ?
If you have zero satelites, it could be that the connector is loose or the copper shield could make a short to the mRo.
if you have more than 8 satellites and your solo goes manual, send your logs to mRobotics, i´m sure they can help you
 
this is very strange behaviour for the mRo, how many satellites do you have when it goes to manual ?
If you have zero satelites, it could be that the connector is loose or the copper shield could make a short to the mRo.
if you have more than 8 satellites and your solo goes manual, send your logs to mRobotics, i´m sure they can help you

Agreed. My mRo M8N is rock solid, even next to the house. Be sure you have a spacer between the copper shielding and the GPS board. RF shielding needs to have a small gap (couple mm) between the shielding and the board. The 3DR V2 shield isn't as sensitive.


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Im new to solo...know about the issues...upgraded to the MRobotics GPS...everything was fine till a few days ago...Solo lost GPS landed in a yard almost a mile away lol. Now wont hold GPS for more than 3 minutes then jumps to manual EVERY TIME. Even in super open area/fields. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Sudden GPS lost normally means connection lost or antenna issue. But you said your GPS lost sign after 3 minutes, that is new to me. Does it lost sign sitting on the ground after certain time. If you haven't tested it, please test it. If it lost signal sitting on the ground, your GPS unit may be faulty.
 
this is very strange behaviour for the mRo, how many satellites do you have when it goes to manual ?
If you have zero satelites, it could be that the connector is loose or the copper shield could make a short to the mRo.
if you have more than 8 satellites and your solo goes manual, send your logs to mRobotics, i´m sure they can help you
I agree, very strange. Like I said. it was working beautifully, now this. Has 15+ sats and .08 or .09 HDOP. when the sats go it never recovers. Logs to MRo is my next step.
 
Its very strange. Like I said. it was working beautifully, now this. Has 15+ sats and .08 or .09 HDOP. when the sats go it never recovers. Logs to MRo is my next step. As for spacer, I have a good homemade one between the coper shield. checked it last night and it looks fine...nothing shifted. Im just confused.
 
Does it crap out after 3 minutes of flight, or after 3 minutes of being powered on?
3mins of flight. Has 15+ sats and .08 or .09 HDOP. when the sats go it never recovers. Logs to MRo is my next step. Havent tried a long test but from what I can tell it wont lose connection until I start flying? Also this all started the first time I tried to use smart shots. Was practicing cable cam. Not sure if that may have caused an issue.
 
You may have a faulty GPS card. Although the MRO design is clearly superior during normal operation, that doesn't mean an individual card won't fail or behave erratically due to construction or component failure after powering up and running. If you have the original Rev A or Rev B card, swap it in and do your ground tests and maybe a flight test.

You may also want to pull the MRO module, connect it to your laptop or PC and run the ublox ucenter software. The packet and text console logs may shed some insight if the problem is that the module starts malfunctioning in the 3 minute window you are experiencing. If there are obvious problems, I suspect MRO will replace the module after a review of the ucenter log info.
 
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You may have a faulty GPS card. Although the MRO design is clearly superior during normal operation, that doesn't mean an individual card won't fail or behave erratically due to construction or component failure after powering up and running. If you have the original Rev A or Rev B card, swap it in and do your ground tests and maybe a flight test.

You may also want to pull the MRO module, connect it to your laptop or PC and run the ublox ucenter software. The packet and text console logs may shed some insight if the problem is that the module starts malfunctioning in the 3 minute window you are experiencing. If there are obvious problems, I suspect MRO will replace the module after a review of the ucenter log info.

Yea, I was actually just about to check the old REV B card. As for hooking the MRO up to my computer...I hate to sound like such a newb, but how do I do that?
 
I just noticed the mRO module does not have a dedicated USB connector. A module (from another vendor) I'm evaluating for use on the Solo does have this connector. There are lands on the circuit board indicating USB power and connections are available. I think you may have to contact MRO about accessing the USB connections, probably using a I2C to USB adapter.
 
You'd be better off probably using an FTDI header cable and mapping the Clikmate wiring to that. My brother and I bought a mRo and connected to the UBlox center software that way.
 
Be aware that the market is flooded with fake copies of the ftdi chipsets... and it creates a driver nightmare.
So usually if you buy a usb serial adapter that seems too cheap... then you'll no doubt have troubles. Try stick with a reasonable name brand adapter and you should do better.

That said, I have some cheap crap chinese ones that I did get working with much older versions of ftdi drivers (from before they put in code to disrupt the fakes)
 
Agree with Dogman. It's not just M8N chipsets that are counterfeit. A good medium price for an FTDI adapter cable that's not junk is probably around $15 US. Any less and you're taking a risk.
 
If you are just running Ucenter to the GPS, remember you don't need a cable at all. You can connect Solo or other Arducopter through MP and Ucenter will run fine. Like anything that allows you to change parameters though, be very careful.
 

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