Mission Planner continue mission if WiFi signal is dropped

[bradley1152]

As the title states I'm looking for advice on how to keep Solo on its survey mission in Mission Planner instead of returning home if it loses the wifi connection with the controller. I'm pretty new to Mission Planner and unfortunately will need a detailed process description if this task is even possible.

Thanks for any help anyone can give.

 

[kneel23]

I had just saw another post where I think Pedals2Paddles answered this very question:

FS_THR_ENABLE is the parameter you are looking for - You set it for , which is "Enabled Continue with Mission in Auto Mode"

 

[jerryn]

I really think you should invest in one of those funky high gain antennas because legally we are responsible to take over the flight should anything go wonky.
I posted my mission plan. for my r/c club's airfield. I'm lucky, rf is low where I fly. I get a nice strong signal and I fly a mile out... possibly more. I use the Alpha antennas right now and fly at the 400ft ceiling.

If your bird falls out of the sky while running an automated mission you can ruin it all for the rest of us.

You should really familiarize yourself with the laws governing our hobby. Automated Aircraft need to have a radio control override.
Also on the long missions.. you need to calculate a 30% reserve for a safe landing. That's what I do anyway.
Also on my return home I like to ascend to the ceiling first.. then drop to the landing spot.

Also be aware Tower will not shut down your drone after landing... you have to take the aircraft over via r/c to shut down.
What I usually do is trigger "land" with the r/c just when I start the r/c decent.

 

[bradley1152]

Just to be clear I wasn't asking this question to run missions way out of LOS. But sometimes where I plan missions my controller may lose signal with bird due to the landscape(see 200ft evergreens). I have the alfas as well, but those trees can be a killer. And it's such a PITA the have to restart the entire mission due to dropped signal

 

[jerryn]

Can you fly at 400ft and land in a field with a clear view of the sky ?.. also where you and the controller are located should have a clear view to the sky and your solo.

That's how I fly anyway.

I have seen 800mw wifi cards that would be plug and play with the controller and the solo.

I am looking into it if it's legal in the USA. It might be like wifi Max.

 

[FlyGuy80]

Can you fly at 400ft and land in a field with a clear view of the sky ?.. also where you and the controller are located should have a clear view to the sky and your solo.

That's how I fly anyway.

I have seen 800mw wifi cards that would be plug and play with the controller and the solo.

I am looking into it if it's legal in the USA. It might be like wifi Max.

The Mikrotik R11e-2HnD 800mw PCI-e WiFi card is a direct plug and play replacement for the Solo WiFi cards installed in the Solo and the controller. I've replaced the WiFi card in the controller with the Mikrotik R11e-2HnD and my max range on stock antenna's increased from roughly 1500 feet to almost 2100 feet.. I have a second R11e-2HnD card that I am planning to install in the Solo itself when I can get around to it. With the MicroTik WiFi upgrade card in the controller, and using the the ALFA directional antenna's, I have reached max distance of roughly 5400 feet (with the help of a spotter) and WiFi signal strength still read -72dbi ... I've noticed that I will consistently lose signal with Solo and Solo will auto RTH once my signal strength hits -75dbi to -78dbi range.

I have read from various sources that by replacing both the Solo and controller WiFi cards with the Mikrotik R11e-2HnD upgrade, max distances of 2+ miles have been reached using the Solo FPVLR antenna.

 

[kneel23]

yeah there are a lot of replacement hardware for Solo that increases the range significantly.

I suppose that even if it was possible, you don't want to "let Solo go" by itself even if R/C connectivity is lost, because of possible danger you'd want to get it under control if needed. Seems that anyone <REALLY> using Solo for hardcore mapping would have to upgrade to some serious wifi hardware to get around this. Or is it possible to program it to go manually, using GPS alone, and only RTH if it runs out of juice?

 

[kneel23]

Just to be clear I wasn't asking this question to run missions way out of LOS. But sometimes where I plan missions my controller may lose signal with bird due to the landscape(see 200ft evergreens). I have the alfas as well, but those trees can be a killer. And it's such a PITA the have to restart the entire mission due to dropped signal

You shouldnt have to restart the entire mission due to this, read my previous comment in this thread about the parameter you need to change to pick up where you left off (no matter what the interruption reason was)