3DR GPS Shield

[Pedals2Paddles]

I don't know what to tell you. Mine is a whole new bird with the new shield and 2.4.1-6. And most others have reported the same. I had a similar experience as you when I first changed the shield. Two days in a row the GPS was nearly useless. However, it the following weekend it was as it should be... lock in < 1 minute. I chocked it up to combination of atmospheric and satellite positioning at the time I was trying it the first time.

 

[SARDG]

I don't know what to tell you. Mine is a whole new bird with the new shield and 2.4.1-6. And most others have reported the same. I had a similar experience as you when I first changed the shield. Two days in a row the GPS was nearly useless. However, it the following weekend it was as it should be... lock in < 1 minute. I chocked it up to combination of atmospheric and satellite positioning at the time I was trying it the first time.

Yes, you said that before, so perhaps things will improve - though I've found most electronics not to be self-healing. One was newly fired-up for me as well - the Amazon Prime bird. Had a Rev B, now has the shield and SW update - but I boxed it back up for now.

If I am suitably impressed with the M8N, I'll install that in my birds, as needed.

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

I was actually really surprised that it went from nearly useless to epic. I told myself the same thing... electronics do not heal themselves or get over the flu. I don't believe 2.4.1-6 made it go from useless to epic either, but it does have contributing factors to improve it. So that's why I can only assume atmospheric and sat conditions were against me that weekend. It's the only other logical conclusion.

 

[Number 5 Solo]

I'm a new solo owner and bought my solo from best buy for $399 last week. I've been a drone pilot for almost 2 years now. I've started with the unreliable walkera x350 as my first drone and moved up to phantom 2 then phantom 2 vision plus. I've always been a Dji drone fan. I have a phantom 3 advanced which I think is the best drone Dji ever made and I also have an inspire 1 drone which I sent back to B&H Photo because it dropped like a rock 100 feet up in the air in mid flight. There was no warning or anything on the Dji go app and this was the first drone I've ever crashed since I started flying drones almost 2 years ago. I've been flying th inspire for almost 2 months and every time I have it up In the air I don't really feel confident that it would return home, at least not the same confidence I have with the phantom 3 advanced. I had a few closed calls with the inspire 1 right out of box. I had two compass errors issues in mid flight that made the inspire almost crash. After the inspire 1 fell out of the sky in mid flight I said to myself I'm never buying anything Dji product again. So that lead me in buying it my first solo. I'm very happy with the solo this drone has really great potentials especially with its smart shot features. First time I've flown the solo I went up 3500 feet with 200 altitude before I lost signal. Yesterday, I flew the solo like I normally do for the last week. I'm at a nearby football field which is my favorite place to fly because it's very open and I can see the solo coming from all directions. As I was 5 minutes into the flight I'm only about 2000 feet away 160ft altitude with %75 battery life and locked into about 13 satellites the solo lost gps signal in mid flight. I still have video feed but no control over solo. Being an an experienced pilot I didn't panic. I immediately pressed return to home but got an error on the solo app saying gps lost solo can't find its way home. I still didn't panic but then after losing gps signal for about 15 seconds the solo started to descent and app says landing solo. I still didn't panic but I was worried that it would land in the middle of a busy intersection or on the river I was flying over. I can seen the altitude dropping from 160feet to 100 feet and then a miracle happened and gps was restored. I was able to press return to home and solo came back in perfect condition. My question is what would cause the solo to lose gps signal? It was a court day but not enough to block satellite signals. Would it help if I replace the gps shield with the V2 gps shield? I flew the solo again a few times yesterday but it didn't lose gps signal anymore so I think it maybe just an isolated incident. I still love my solo and very happy with my purchased. Thanks for reading this and I hope this helps other solo pilots out there to not panic when they lose gps signal.

 

[Solo Keith]

Does sound isolated. I've replaced the V2 shield & had ok results. It's when I added the mRobotics neo8 coupled w/the V2. That literally changed Solo's flight characteristics. I get immediate connection even in cold start locations. I've maxed out @ 25 sats since this mod. I've put it through tests in areas I never would have flown Solo before, in "Fly" mode. For examples, under heavy tree canopy & in between structures, never losing connection. I've still got the original GPS set up on my second Solo which isn't bad. I don't use it for Smart Shots. So I definitely recommend starting w/mRobotics neo8.

 

[Mike Davis]

Hey guys, just wondering if anyone has purchased the GPS shield from 3DR lately. I want to order two. What I was wondering if 3DR still offers them for half price. Thanks!

 

[Deleted member 5038]

Hey guys, just wondering if anyone has purchased the GPS shield from 3DR lately. I want to order two. What I was wondering if 3DR still offers them for half price. Thanks!

Hi Mike,
Just bought 2 with promo code.

 

[Coastwise]

What's behind the idea of using cardboard insert between GPS and copper foil and shield? Would not using a nonconductive lacquer on underside of GPS shield serve same purpose?

 

[cynfab]

There already is a non conductive coating on both sides of the original 3DR shield. One side is black, one side clear so the copper shows through. I had a heck of a time scratching through it to do an experiment with grounding the shield to the GPS board. The coating does not dissolve in isopropal alcohol. Just for grins take a multi meter to it. It is tough.
At microwave frequencies the very small capacitance between the shield and other components can have an effect on the GPS performance. So if the shield is close to the antenna, LNA or SAW filter or their connecting traces, the shield can (may) (will) detune the circuit. The shield will not short out the battery, at first I thought it might, but after poking at the shield with a multimeter I think not.

 

[yt lee]

I'm a new solo owner and bought my solo from best buy for $399 last week. I've been a drone pilot for almost 2 years now. I've started with the unreliable walkera x350 as my first drone and moved up to phantom 2 then phantom 2 vision plus. I've always been a Dji drone fan. I have a phantom 3 advanced which I think is the best drone Dji ever made and I also have an inspire 1 drone which I sent back to B&H Photo because it dropped like a rock 100 feet up in the air in mid flight. There was no warning or anything on the Dji go app and this was the first drone I've ever crashed since I started flying drones almost 2 years ago. I've been flying th inspire for almost 2 months and every time I have it up In the air I don't really feel confident that it would return home, at least not the same confidence I have with the phantom 3 advanced. I had a few closed calls with the inspire 1 right out of box. I had two compass errors issues in mid flight that made the inspire almost crash. After the inspire 1 fell out of the sky in mid flight I said to myself I'm never buying anything Dji product again. So that lead me in buying it my first solo. I'm very happy with the solo this drone has really great potentials especially with its smart shot features. First time I've flown the solo I went up 3500 feet with 200 altitude before I lost signal. Yesterday, I flew the solo like I normally do for the last week. I'm at a nearby football field which is my favorite place to fly because it's very open and I can see the solo coming from all directions. As I was 5 minutes into the flight I'm only about 2000 feet away 160ft altitude with %75 battery life and locked into about 13 satellites the solo lost gps signal in mid flight. I still have video feed but no control over solo. Being an an experienced pilot I didn't panic. I immediately pressed return to home but got an error on the solo app saying gps lost solo can't find its way home. I still didn't panic but then after losing gps signal for about 15 seconds the solo started to descent and app says landing solo. I still didn't panic but I was worried that it would land in the middle of a busy intersection or on the river I was flying over. I can seen the altitude dropping from 160feet to 100 feet and then a miracle happened and gps was restored. I was able to press return to home and solo came back in perfect condition. My question is what would cause the solo to lose gps signal? It was a court day but not enough to block satellite signals. Would it help if I replace the gps shield with the V2 gps shield? I flew the solo again a few times yesterday but it didn't lose gps signal anymore so I think it maybe just an isolated incident. I still love my solo and very happy with my purchased. Thanks for reading this and I hope this helps other solo pilots out there to not panic when they lose gps signal.

When it lost GPS, hitting rth will confuse Solo more, experienced operator will switch to manual, move the right stick a bit, see what the heading of solo is, if it is heading to right , then yaw right until the movement stop, then forward more until the quad coming back to you (if the movement is towards left, yaw left.).

Again the best defense for fly away is not letting the quad out of sight and always beware the heading of the quad.

The cardboard mod is mostly adding a layer to prevent possible shorting of the antenna. The better mod is the shield. The shield cut down the bounced GPS signals. Bounced GPS signals are the source for incorrect position . On the other hand, a wide open field is the best option.

 

[Chuck]

Was thinking of getting the GPS shield from 3DR. Can't say I've had many GPS issues until recently but that was due to some experimenting with Mission Planner - specifically trying to calibrate the compass with it. Anyway, I did a factory reset and reset all solo parameters to default and now I'm getting stable flight. Compass was so out of whack that Solo was toilet bowling Never seen Solo do that before. It was acting like a hand built quad with a sucky flight controller

Anyway, the recent problems have done a number on my confidence in Solo even though I think its stable now so I was thinking of getting the upgraded GPS shield. I never had problems aquiring satellites. My concern now is losing GPS while in flight which never happened to me before. Since I like to do a lot of Tower missions, the last thing I want is GPS loss when Solo is 1000 feet away. I know that can always happen but was wondering if the upgraded shield would help. If there are any cons to putting it in then I'll stick to the stock shielding. However, if there's a chance that the shield could provide even a small amount of GPS loss mitigation then I'll pay the $30 and give it a try.

Anyone have an thoughts on this?

I replaced the stock shield in both of my Solo's and it made a big difference. My satellite acquisition time was cut considerably, and the average # of satellites acquired during flight was up as well. With that said, I went ahead and replaced the stock gps with the upgraded u-Blox Neo M8N's, and along with the upgraded 3DR Shield's, I cut acquisition time in half with double the # of satellites acquired. Some may think that the upgraded gps is overkill, but I like overkill when it comes to any parameters I can improve on my birds.

 

[SARDG]

There already is a non conductive coating on both sides of the original 3DR shield...
At microwave frequencies the very small capacitance between the shield and other components can have an effect on the GPS..

...The cardboard mod is mostly adding a layer to prevent possible shorting of the antenna...

I'm going with @cynfab on this one - it's the slightly increased distance from the shield that the cardboard achieves - not any worries about shorts.

 

[Solo Keith]

I replaced the stock shield in both of my Solo's and it made a big difference. My satellite acquisition time was cut considerably, and the average # of satellites acquired during flight was up as well. With that said, I went ahead and replaced the stock gps with the upgraded u-Blox Neo M8N's, and along with the upgraded 3DR Shield's, I cut acquisition time in half with double the # of satellites acquired. Some may think that the upgraded gps is overkill, but I like overkill when it comes to any parameters I can improve on my birds.

I have the same mod and I don't agree if someone says it's over-kill. If I take the Shied away & reinstall w/the original copper, I consider that a downgrade. Or if I just added only the Shield w/out replacing original GPS w/mRobotics m8N

 

[Douglas A]

You must be a patient person. I ordered two shields, 1 week apart, and received the second order after 10 days. the first order has not shown up yet. They said they both shipped out on the same day and it takes 1-2 weeks in shipping. Well I received mine first class mail (regular stamp on envelope) which takes only 1-3 days in the continental US. Very frustrating, and shipping the new order first is even more nuts. I guess I will use the shield in my non upgraded unit and try the new GPS with the original shield. I was hoping to do the job once, but circumstance has not been favorable. I think I am starting to see why they do not do consumer any longer, I told them to employ a distributor or have it drop shipped. 3 weeks for a product in stock is akin to getting something direct from China on the slow boat. I hope service is better should I ever need it. One further note, they don't have tracking on the items, so I guess no evidence of when they did or didn't ship, nor if I received the item. This is 2017 right. I didn't get caught in some funny hot tub. </rant>

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

3DR's e-commerce and shipping/warehouse system is and always has been a mess. Since long before the solo was even a thought. Sadly.

 

[Douglas A]

I just don't like being treated as if I was an idiot. Nothing coming from within the US take 1-2 weeks to ship. It was a simple envelope with a stamp. 1-3 days max. I think the no tracking is a joke, or a great way to point the finger elsewhere. I would have been happy to pay the $1 for a tracked shipment, and they would net another $.50. Ugh!

 

[SARDG]

I just don't like being treated as if I was an idiot. Nothing coming from within the US take 1-2 weeks to ship. It was a simple envelope with a stamp. 1-3 days max. I think the no tracking is a joke, or a great way to point the finger elsewhere. I would have been happy to pay the $1 for a tracked shipment, and they would net another $.50. Ugh!

You are not "special" in your treatment. You are trying to equate 3DR with a real online, largely staffed, high- volume, completely automated operation like Amazon. I'd be willing to bet that 3DR doesn't care if you or anyone else ever orders another shield at $15 OR $30. They likely view this entire shield mess as a PITA and are not interested in any additional expense, or even the extra moment in time it may take to implement tracking.

Poor service regarding the shield is well-documented on here. Armed with that info, your choices are order it, or don't. And again, I suspect that 3DR will be just as happy if you or anyone else doesn't.

Look at it this way, 3DR service is only going to get worse from here.

 

[BigTulsa]

3DR's e-commerce and shipping/warehouse system is and always has been a mess. Since long before the solo was even a thought. Sadly.

This is unfortunately true. I was trying to buy some cables for to PH1 during the initial Solo ramp up in 2015 and even put a rush on it priority mail. It took them three weeks to even process it. I finally got the cables but in 3 weeks time. They got my wrath for sure. I stopped buying Pixhawk related stuff from them shortly after it.

 

[Douglas A]

Perhaps some enterprising soul among us can determine the 3m material they are using and sell them ourselves. Not exactly rocket science. I guess I just find it a pity. Technology takes care of most of the staffing issues these days, and vendors and sub vendors even manage the 3rd party logistics. If you haven't guessed, I am in automotive logistics as provider, and manufacturers and suppliers push their work on us daily. I guess you just need the right people at the table to negotiate agreements, and to depersonalize it. I think I would have had a better experience with a soho company cutting them in their dining room. Just saying.

 

[SARDG]

I just don't think there is much management/oversight at 3DR right now and therefore little incentive to pursue agreements and partnerships that require MOUs, NDAs, Teaming Agreements, etc. As you said, no one is at the table, or as I might say, no one is at the helm.