My solo takes a long time to acquire the satellites

deathsandwich · Apr 15, 2016

My solo is taking a solid 8-9 minutes to acquire satellites to fly. It is highly annoying because I have to wait to fly and I wants to fly now! I flew yesterday morning with clear skies, open field, 8 minutes to acquire the satellites....
Any suggestions before I contact 3dr?

SPP · Apr 15, 2016

If moving to new location from previous locked location and distance is say 20KM away, usually the Solo will try to log full almanac first and do what I call "stabilization" wait. I think Solo designer is being too careful, hence 8 minutes you get. Me had 9 minutes too 1st real flight. At home non flight but simulated only previous to 1st flight, because almanac is ready and tested many time and Solo did not detect far away movement from last sat locked, its very fast sat lock and I am in poor GPS location, block by my building.

Last weekend in a very open area but blocked by small leaves trees, first flight take like 3 minutes to get 8+ sats locked.
Later 4 flights under 1 minute I get READY TO FLY approval, as I take off only 30 meters difference of distance LZ to LZ.
.

Ed Beck · Apr 15, 2016

deathsandwich said:
My solo is taking a solid 8-9 minutes to acquire satellites to fly. It is highly annoying because I have to wait to fly and I wants to fly now! I flew yesterday morning with clear skies, open field, 8 minutes to acquire the satellites....
Any suggestions before I contact 3dr?

Read this thread Solo GPS Isolation Plate Mod Kit--Does this work?

Get the GPS Isolation Plate. I did and it worked wonders.

tomnjfl · Apr 15, 2016

Ed Beck said:
Read this thread Solo GPS Isolation Plate Mod Kit--Does this work?

Get the GPS Isolation Plate. I did and it worked wonders.

x 100000. Get it...and then come back and thank us.

deathsandwich · Apr 15, 2016

and this is why I joined this forum! Thanks guys!! Upon further research, due to the direction you all pointed me, the shielding coming in direct contact with the GPS board is the underlying issue. The mod kit is out of stock but I found this video which has a Solo owner using a piece of cardboard to create a barrier between the shielding and the board. I also saw one poster used painters tape as a barrier. I am going to try a combo of the painters tape and cardboard this weekend and report back. It seems like a VERY simply fix.

Ed Beck · Apr 15, 2016

deathsandwich said:
It seems like a VERY simply fix.

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It is, the problem is if you get any moisture in there the cardboard could hold it. I'd order the kit while you put the cardbord in place.

fpvsteve · Apr 15, 2016

There is a more simple resolution.
The problem of long wait times to get a fix is caused by sloppy shielding. The copper foil in some Solos is poorly applied, sometimes even in direct contact with the GPS board resulting in reception issues.

Resolution is to put either something in between the foil and the board (eg a piece of cardboard) or to isolate and ground the foil.
So before spending money, simply use some scotch tape and put it on the foil before you re-apply it. In addition you may solder a connection to the ground (-) pole.
This will reduce waiting time <1 min.

deathsandwich · Apr 16, 2016

Update: first I tried some cardstock paper with a rubber tape backing. I cut it to the entire shape of the GPS board thinking it would be even better. 12:56 to acquire 9 satellites. So that is a failure. Then I tried using cardboard in the same manner. Zero improvement. So out of anger and spite I cut the cardboard exactly like the guy did in the video. 56 seconds. I cannot explain it but I am tickled with the result. When the mod kit becomes available again (it is "Out of stock") I am going to order it. Another option is to try a GPS switch. This way I can get the glonass satellites

Mini uBlox M8N GPS GLONASS W/ (35x35mm) Mounting backplane and Compass V2

Has anyone tried this?