I got my first solo earlier this spring, and for being one of the most inexpensive drones, I think the hardware and software are as good or better than many of the higher end drones. The only problem is that it loses gps lock and controller connection randomly. The first one I had was not too bad, the gps would go out randomly, about once every other flight or so, and the controller signal was pretty consistent as long as it had good wifi signal strength. It however ended up in the gulf of mexico as a result of a flyaway after about 50 or so flights, and was kindly replaced by 3dr. The new drone was considerably less reliable, with a gps loss or controller signal loss at least once per flight. These errors would occur in the open with no obstructions to either the gps or controller.
The random nature of the errors led me to believe that it might be electrical noise, so I made sure all the wires and cables were securely attached. Everything looked good, and all the ferrite beads were in all the right places. Running powerful motors with computers and sensitive radio equipment on the same power supply seems like a bad idea, so I added a second lipo to isolate the sensitive stuff from the noisy stuff.
I soldered wires from the main battery directly to the four motor pods to isolate the high amp loads. The secondary battery shares a common ground with the main battery, and I added a circuit which connects the second battery when the main battery turns on, and disconnects it when the main battery turns off.
After the mod there have been no gps or controller errors, so it looks like noise from the motors might have been the problem. I'll post some pics and a circuit diagram once I get some more flight time.
Has anyone tried anything like this or any other techniques to improve reliability?
The random nature of the errors led me to believe that it might be electrical noise, so I made sure all the wires and cables were securely attached. Everything looked good, and all the ferrite beads were in all the right places. Running powerful motors with computers and sensitive radio equipment on the same power supply seems like a bad idea, so I added a second lipo to isolate the sensitive stuff from the noisy stuff.
I soldered wires from the main battery directly to the four motor pods to isolate the high amp loads. The secondary battery shares a common ground with the main battery, and I added a circuit which connects the second battery when the main battery turns on, and disconnects it when the main battery turns off.
After the mod there have been no gps or controller errors, so it looks like noise from the motors might have been the problem. I'll post some pics and a circuit diagram once I get some more flight time.
Has anyone tried anything like this or any other techniques to improve reliability?