External NEO-7N Mod

Ian [P13] · Aug 11, 2015

Completed in around an hour. Now to test it for a little while before making any conclusions, if it works noticeably better than being installed inside, I'll go through the mod in detail.

For now the end results (other than I may change for a black GPS mount to better match), this mount is collapsible, so I'm hoping I can still get in a backpack..

erikgraham · Aug 11, 2015

Very nicely done. I think this will be a very popular mod.

lsmith1981 · Aug 11, 2015

This would be very interesting along with the uBlox M8N GPS performance in comparison.

Ian [P13] · Aug 11, 2015

I've a friend who also has a Solo so the plan is to do some side by side comparisons. You'd expect being away from the internal electronics that on a mount the lock should be a bit better.

Adimuzio513 · Aug 11, 2015

Yea I'm curious if it makes enough difference to be worth being outside mounted like above or if i can keep the sleek stock look and have a good enough lock with the m8n inside. I'd much rather keep the stock look if performance is adequate, I'm still running stock gps now but plan on one of these two mods and swapping wifi cards once Im sure the gimbal is smooth. I'll hold off a bit longer and make sure gps isn't fixed with an update first I guess I'm sure wel get one shortly after gimbals go out.

Adimuzio513 · Aug 11, 2015

Does look good though, nice work let us know if it works with the case or backpack you end up using.

Ian [P13] · Aug 11, 2015

I should add I've not had any problems with the GPS to date, so I didn't feel I had to do this mod but I figured it wouldn't do any harm to try it out.

I've been impressed by how easy the Solo is to mod and maintain so thought I'd join in the fun.

Adimuzio513 · Aug 11, 2015

Yea I've had issues so far keeping my hands off or out of solo shell so far, trying to avoid any warranty issues should I need it. Once I feel the bugs are gone or am at least comfy with those left I plan to chalk up my warranty and dig in for sure.

rrmccabe · Aug 11, 2015

Ian [P13] said:
I've been impressed by how easy the Solo is to mod and maintain so thought I join in the fun.

Yea a lot better than trying to pry open a phantom. I do wish the manufacturers would come up with a threaded boss or something for screws as these things don't these screws removed too many times.

Adimuzio513 said:
Yea I've had issues so far keeping my hands off or out of solo shell so far, trying to avoid any warranty issues should I need it. Once I feel the bugs are gone or am at least comfy with those left I plan to chalk up my warranty and dig in for sure.

I would not worry about taking it apart. 3DR seems to be pretty good about stuff like this. Not one of those warranty if this sticker is removed type companies.

So give up your virginity and open that thing up.

Adimuzio513 · Aug 11, 2015

rrmccabe said:
Yea a lot better than trying to pry open a phantom. I do wish the manufacturers would come up with a threaded boss or something for screws as these things don't these screws removed too many times.

I would not worry about taking it apart. 3DR seems to be pretty good about stuff like this. Not one of those warranty if this sticker is removed type companies.

So give up your virginity and open that thing up.

Yea not too many companies like that I have noticed some folks seeming to keep warranty valid after tinkering a bit. At this point unless something goes terribly wrong I doubt I'll ever use it anyway, thanks for the heads up.

Adimuzio513 · Aug 11, 2015

Sourced those wifi cards locally the other night think I may give that a go first

Ian [P13] · Aug 11, 2015

Technically 3DR don't have to honour the warranty after mods such as this, but they're generally pragmatic depending on the circumstances. The Iris for example was often modded by users, often to improve it and make it better to fly. If for example a clear software bug caused a crash I'd be surprised if 3DR ever tried to get out of that of the basis you'd done a mod totally unrelated to those circumstances.

rrmccabe · Aug 11, 2015

They are a rarity for sure. Not many companies deal with customers on a case by case basis. Modern America is typically "sorry that's against company policy".

Got to like that about 3dr.

Erik Schneider · Aug 12, 2015

I can't STAND IT when I get a "that's against our policy" or, "there's nothing I can do for you" when it is clearly a common sense answer... Really drives me nuts

Ian [P13] · Aug 13, 2015

This is ONLY a single test so far, so don't read much into yet. There's also a VERY simple GPS mod that's far less drastic being discussed on the Facebook Solo Mod Club, so I suspect very few people will even need to consider a mod like this.

I'd like to do 3 tests at least in different locations before deeming this one a success.

Jubalr · Aug 13, 2015

Ian [P13] said:
This is ONLY a single test so far, so don't read much into yet. There's also a VERY simple GPS mod that's far less drastic being discussed on the Facebook Solo Mod Club, so I suspect very few people will even need to consider a mod like this.

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I'd like to do 3 tests at least in different locations before deeming this one a success.

Good Test Ian. Because of the GPS Cache I am wondering if either or both Solos had flown at this location recently. Or did you do a lock first then power down and do a re-lock for the test?
Thanks for the results and keep us posted on other tests.

Ian [P13] · Aug 13, 2015

They'd both had their batteries removed and so the battery in the ublox should have run flat I hope, they've flown in locations near here before, but typically both together anyway and not for days, this was them being powered up the first time for over 24 hours together in this precise location.

Thinking about it though the external NEO-7N being a new install, won't have ever been near this location even though the Solo itself has in the past, so it's most certainly not able to have had anything cached.