To put it in very simplistic terms, a GPS receiver determines position based on triangulation of multiple GPS satellites. The sats don't receive anything from the receiver and so could not possibly know where the receiver is and so could not tell the receiver where it is.
Compass vs. GPS
- Thread starter snamvar57
- Start date
A quandary for many of us who might see a need for a GPS tracker in case our Phantom is lost, is that although the tracker "knows" where it is, it has to tell you by either a direct RF transmission from the tracker or Cellular data...if you don't have cellular signal (say down in the hills) you're S.O.L.
Along these lines...
Was in a canyon yesterday thinking I would video the snow runoff in the river which was flowing at a high rate of over 5,500 cfs. I wasn't crazy about the wind, but then the GPS had a low satellite count and some compass warning error too maybe due to the rock walls. The cellphone apps had my location pinpointed in some residential neighborhood (Last maps automatically cached?) in both the Be4UFly, Airmap, and Hover apps which was maybe 10 miles away which seemed very odd too due to bad triangulation by the GPS signals or cell tower data I guess. I decided not too fly there and pack up to go home.
On the way back, one lane was blocked by a lot of sheriff cars with the roof lights going. There were a few sheriffs looking over the guardrail into the river 100 feet below. I thought maybe a car went over, but seems it may have been a jumper and they were looking for a body as the guard rail was intact. Anyway they were alternating the lane flow around their cars and I thought I might offer the drone to search to the one who stopped me to wait.
However, sitting there waiting and thinking through that scenario and my prior bad experience with the signals in the canyon, I kept quiet when the officer finally directed me to move into the open lane to pass the scene. I already doubted my flying skills and how the drone might perform in the area and if the RTH would even function without the GPS, compass, and wind.
Question: Will these things fly in ATTI without the VPS, compass, and GPS safely if the signals are sporadic or does the compass play into the matter regardless? Wind already was one bad strike, but the electronics I wondered about with the bad signals or if it would even launch.
Was in a canyon yesterday thinking I would video the snow runoff in the river which was flowing at a high rate of over 5,500 cfs. I wasn't crazy about the wind, but then the GPS had a low satellite count and some compass warning error too maybe due to the rock walls. The cellphone apps had my location pinpointed in some residential neighborhood (Last maps automatically cached?) in both the Be4UFly, Airmap, and Hover apps which was maybe 10 miles away which seemed very odd too due to bad triangulation by the GPS signals or cell tower data I guess. I decided not too fly there and pack up to go home.
On the way back, one lane was blocked by a lot of sheriff cars with the roof lights going. There were a few sheriffs looking over the guardrail into the river 100 feet below. I thought maybe a car went over, but seems it may have been a jumper and they were looking for a body as the guard rail was intact. Anyway they were alternating the lane flow around their cars and I thought I might offer the drone to search to the one who stopped me to wait.
However, sitting there waiting and thinking through that scenario and my prior bad experience with the signals in the canyon, I kept quiet when the officer finally directed me to move into the open lane to pass the scene. I already doubted my flying skills and how the drone might perform in the area and if the RTH would even function without the GPS, compass, and wind.
Question: Will these things fly in ATTI without the VPS, compass, and GPS safely if the signals are sporadic or does the compass play into the matter regardless? Wind already was one bad strike, but the electronics I wondered about with the bad signals or if it would even launch.
In theory they should be able to fly in ATTI just using the IMU and the barometer, but I think that the FC relies on the compass, to some extent, to stabilize the aircraft rotationally. Certainly earlier versions (P2) were very difficult to fly in ATTI if the compass was faulty.
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