GPS issues: Android Oreo with solo 2.4.2

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I updated my galaxy s8 to Oreo last week and after that my solo promoted to update the firmware to 2.4.2. The updates did something to my gps as now I cannot use follow me mode at all. Whenever I engage follow me mode the solo just hovers on autopilot with an alert at the bottom of the phone stating “waiting for mobile device gps”. I also tried a galaxy s5 and a galaxy s7 (neither on android oreo) and both had the same issue as my s8 so its possible it was the solo firmware that broke the follow me mode. As a side note I tested an iPhone with iOS 11 and the follow me mode worked but the video from the GoPro4 didn’t. So not sure at this point. Still waiting for guidance from support. Any help oradvice would be appreciated. FYI everything worked flawlessly before those updates.
 
Only thing I can think of off the bat is this:

Is the GPS enabled on your phone?
Are you using the 3DR software or Solex? Either way, check the apps permissions and make sure they have permission to access your phones GPS or Location based services.
 
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Last I knew the follow me mode did not work with Android using 3DR Firmware. It was a known problem. I think it is the 3DR app for Android and not the firmware on the Solo.
 
Last edited:
There is no version of the app for Android that will work? Is it even possible to get an older version of the solo app for Android? Those questions aside I was able to make it work with an iPhone minus the known black screen issue which I am able to work around.
 
I have been reading about it. It really that much better? Well worth the $30? Also, I was talking to another member who said that it would not fix the known GPS issues with android.
 
Depends. I have a fleet of Solo's and I really like how it tracks time on each aircraft and batteries. It also has a lot of other features the Solo app doesn't. I do commercial work and have never tried follow me mode but I thought it worked with Solex.
 
Depends. I have a fleet of Solo's and I really like how it tracks time on each aircraft and batteries. It also has a lot of other features the Solo app doesn't. I do commercial work and have never tried follow me mode but I thought it worked with Solex.

Any chance you could test follow me with solex and an android device? Hate to splurge on it if it won't solve that problem for me. Looks like every Android device I own is not on the recommended list from 3dr. i have a s4 (not a mini) and a s5 (is a mini) and an S8. Their list includes the s4 mini and the s5 non-mini
 
I know solex is a third party app. However another member mentioned that even solex would not solve the mobile device GPS issue.
 
Hi Folks, I've used the "follow me" feature with Solex and had no issues with it. That was using a Galaxy S5 going down a mountain trail. The only thing I had to manually adjust was the altitude. The only issue I ever ran into was with another of my solo's, the follow me wouldn't work... but that was simply because I had set up a geofence and forgot to disable it. Otherwise, follow me worked just fine with Solex and my solo.
 
Ever since the drone updated to 2.4.2 the follow me mode (on the stock solo app) will not work with an android device. I have tried a galaxy s8, s4 and s5 mini. Before it updated itself everything worked fine with android devices. It will work with an apple device however (minus the known black screen issues). I have not yet downloaded the solex app but I am leaning that way at this point.
 
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Good choice, Solex is an excellent program with some very useful features. You should consider the open solo upgrade too. Easily done once you have Solex.
 
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Many improvements in flight software, especially the auto land (which no one uses since we all land in manual right folks?). No need to rely on 3DR servers if you do a factory reset, Open Solo installs itself on your golden image partition, so if you have to do a reset, you'll be resetting to Open Solo (hence, no more preflight update required).

STOCK SOLO SPECIFIC UPDATES: The following applies only to stock solo Pixhawk cubes and does not apply to Green Cube solos.
  • ArduCopter Solo 1.5.4 upgrading you from the 3DR stock 1.3.1 version from about 2yrs ago.
    • Distance based battery failsafe: Triggers RTH to be on the ground at approx 10% remaining. If you want to adjust this yourself, you can manually tweak parameter FS_BATT_CUR_RTL. A value of 22 gets you on the ground with about 10% remaining. A higher value will RTH sooner leaving a higher % remaining.
    • Improved landing detection: This greatly improves the solo's ability to detect it has landed. In the past, it could get confused by a rough, fast, or jerky landing. This results in it refusing to disarm or and sometimes flipping over. The new landing detection algorithm is greatly enhanced. You will notice it now takes and extra second or so to disarm once you're on the ground. And you may see a little twitch in the throttle. It is literally testing the ground. It works quite nicely.
    • Low battery thrust priority: If the battery is getting dangerously low, it will allow itself to sacrifice yaw (rotation) control to increase thrust to prevent a crash. This could give you the thrust you need to land softly rather than dropping out of the sky.
    • Smart shot altitude priority: Will not lose altitude by going too fast in Follow Mode! In Smart Shots, the solo will not allow itself to go "too fast" causing a loss of altitude.
    • No more 3DR: This version was compiled by the Open Solo team in the Open Solo repositories. It cuts the cord from 3DR's firmware server for Pixhawk firmware.
    • Corrected parameters: 3DR's last release was 1.5.3 and only for commercial site scan solos. The Open Solo version 1.5.4 has corrected parameters that account for the consumer solo being much lighter weight.
GREEN CUBE SPECIFIC UPDATES: The following applies to Green Cube equipped solos and does not apply to stock Solos.
  • The most recent stable production release of ArduCopter, which today is ArduCopter 3.5.4
    • Boat mode! You can arm and take off from moving vehicles/vessels
    • Improved landing detection: This greatly improves the solo's ability to detect it has landed. In the past, it could get confused by a rough, fast, or jerky landing. This results in it refusing to disarm or and sometimes flipping over. The new landing detection algorithm is greatly enhanced. You will notice it now takes and extra second or so to disarm once you're on the ground. And you may see a little twitch in the throttle. It is literally testing the ground. It works quite nicely.
    • 3 improved IMUs in the green cube, 2 of which are vibration isolated and heated.
    • Ability to use RTK GPS for surveys, ADS-B aircraft avoidance, lidar laser altimeters, terrain awareness and following, IR precision landing, and even an “indoor GPS”.
    • Hundreds of enhancements since 2015, and continued development by the ArduPilot team.
    • Solo's required default parameters baked in. No parameter file loading needed!
  • AWESOMENESS FOR ALL
    • Single install package: Added detection of which Cube you have installed in your solo. This will be used to install the proper version of ArduCopter. This is why there isn't a green cube vs stock version. One does it all.
    • Cut the cord from 3DR! Factory reset update: This updates the factory reset (recovery partition) to no longer require 3DR servers or an internet update. If you factory reset, it will come back up with a clean installation of Open Solo that is fully operational! No internet needed. No update needed. Calibrate and fly.
    • Controller: short and long hold button functions: Added short hold (2-seconds) and long hold (3 seconds) events to the A, B, Pause, camera preset, and camera trigger buttons. This allows you to assign and use functions based on short and long holding the buttons. The assignments can be edited in /usr/bin/extSettings.conf.
      The defaults are as follows:
      • A single press: Manual
      • A short hold: Stabilize
      • A long hold: Auto mode
      • B single press: Position Hold
      • B short hold: Drift
      • B long hold: Sport
      • Camera Preset top long hold: None
      • Camera Preset bottom long hold: None
      • Camera trigger long hold: Gimbal lock ("FPV race mode")
    • Controller: CH7 on/off improvement: Long hold pause button to turn CH7 option on. Short hold pause to turn CH7 option off. This removes the conflict with the pause function, which still uses the normal single click. If you use landing gear, you should keep using this for now.
    • Controller display and haptic: Updated numerous displayed messages and haptic feedback to be more useful and helpful to the user.
    • Safety & Mode Reliability: Removed numerous unnecessary layers from communication between the controller and ArduCopter. The fly, home, and pause button functions now communicate directly to the Cube and ArduCopter rather than going through layers of handling in the smart shot manager. Also made mode changes better handle a smart shot that didn't properly close.
    • Smart shot cleanups and compatibility fixes:
      • All the compatibility fixes needed for the green cube.
      • Standardized horizontal acceleration to 2/m/s/s across all shots for consistency and smoothing.
      • Entering shot reduces copter pitch/roll acceleration for smoothing and consistency, especially with green cube solos that have more power.
    • Added compatibility with Solex geotagging functions
    • Home button and RTH failsafe now use ArduCopter RTL Mode instead of the old "Return Home" smart shot. This is more reliable and eliminates numerous points of failure. They have the same end result.
    • Newer version of some system files to make troubleshooting and recovery from problems easier.
    • Factory reset will now reset the ArduCopter parameters on the pixhawk to default as well. This was always a troubleshooting problem, and eliminates unnecessary extra steps.
    • Lost functionality: Unfortunately, two things had to get sacrificed in this due to compatibility and incomplete development from 3DR. The impact should be rather minimal.
      • Rewind has been removed. The 3DR Solo app still has the option to turn it on/off, which also never worked right, and they will not do anything. This was a feature 3DR was in the middle of developing when they closed shop. It is not compatible with ArduCopter RTL mode. It is something that may be revised in the future as something that isn't connected to any failsafe and is executed with a button push. But not right now.
        -Hover instead of landing in return to home or return to me has been removed. This was intertwined with the rewind code and the old return home smart shot. It is not compatible with ArduCopter RTL mode. And it also was incomplete and not really safe to use anyway. This again is something I'd like to revisit in the future, since it has some use cases (like boating). But for now, it's only returns home (or return to me) and lands when it gets there.
      • Alternative for now: If you need the hover option, you can manually increase ArducCopter parameter RTL_LOIT_TIME. It is in milliseconds. It is the amount of time the copter will hover prior landing. If simply turn it up to several minutes or whatever suites you needs, you will have the same effect.
    You can find the complete list here:
 
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I updated my galaxy s8 to Oreo last week and after that my solo promoted to update the firmware to 2.4.2. The updates did something to my gps as now I cannot use follow me mode at all. Whenever I engage follow me mode the solo just hovers on autopilot with an alert at the bottom of the phone stating “waiting for mobile device gps”. I also tried a galaxy s5 and a galaxy s7 (neither on android oreo) and both had the same issue as my s8 so its possible it was the solo firmware that broke the follow me mode. As a side note I tested an iPhone with iOS 11 and the follow me mode worked but the video from the GoPro4 didn’t. So not sure at this point. Still waiting for guidance from support. Any help oradvice would be appreciated. FYI everything worked flawlessly before those updates.
Why update yo 3.0 versión. I think that solution it
 
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