FC40 GPS Signal

[Robmyaing]

Please tell me how I am able to tell that my FC40 has found a good GPS signal. Turn on transmitter, connect drone batteries, wait till I see a series of flashing green, lights, then I get a continual stream of orange lights. Do I wait to see another series of green lights to know that a GPS signal has been found? How long do I wait? Thank you for your help.
Rob

 

[wattage]

When you switch it on it'll start hunting for satellites. First indication that it's finding them will be a green followed by 3 reds (less than 5 sats) then green followed by 2 reds (five sats), green followed by 1 red (6 sats) and finally 20 quick green flashes to indicate homelock secured and more than 6 satellites found. After this you should just have a green flash every 2 seconds or so and you're good to go.

Usually takes a minute for this process on mine.

 

[CarlJ]

When you switch it on it'll start hunting for satellites. First indication that it's finding them will be a green followed by 3 reds (less than 5 sats) then green followed by 2 reds (five sats), green followed by 1 red (6 sats) and finally 20 quick green flashes to indicate homelock secured and more than 6 satellites found. After this you should just have a green flash every 2 seconds or so and you're good to go.

Usually takes a minute for this process on mine.

And all perfectly correct, but didn't add that the TX has to be in GPS (S1 all the way up by default). If the S1 switch is in the middle position you'll get a flashing orange light.

 

[wattage]

Aha! Yes, what CarlJ said

 

[Robmyaing]

Thanks to all. I followed your directions and get a steady green light. So am I all set to test Fail Safe - turn off transmitter while in flight - and it will return "home". Some posts stated that I have to activate via software in order for the Phantom to return "home".
Rob

 

[wattage]

Return to home should kick in once the TX s switched off. The S1 switch can also put the Phantom into failsafe mode but you need to enable that in the assistant.

 

[Cajvol94]

Thanks to all. I followed your directions and get a steady green light. So am I all set to test Fail Safe - turn off transmitter while in flight - and it will return "home". Some posts stated that I have to activate via software in order for the Phantom to return "home".
Rob

Just like Wattage said. It's best(at least for me) to set the bottom position of S1 to RTH in the software. A lot easier to just hit a switch rather then turn the TX off. Also during RTH if you want to gain control you just switch it back to GPS or Atti.

 

[lake_flyer]

When you switch off the radio, the quad looses the binding with the transmitter. It will do a RTH but it is not 100% guaranteed (by DJI) that you can regain control by switching it back on. With setting the RTH switch you can simulate a control loss but the quad remains bounded to the radio giving you instant control when you switch back to GPS or Atti.

Switching off the radio is like russian roulette. It is bound (no pun intended) to go wrong some day.

 

[J.James]

But if the S1 switch ever fails the only way to get it to go in to fail safe is to turn the tx off or fly it out of range and let it go in to rth on its own.

Somes times tho when Its out of my site and I flip the switch to fail safe and not seeing it come back just to be sure its in fail safe I will turn the radio off. But then I always forget and when I try to retake control by flipping the s1 switch back to atti or gps it takes me a few seconds o saying wtf to my self why is it not regaining control before I remember to flip the power switch back on. lol

A good bit of advise for any one testing out fail safe and rth. DO IT before you ever need to relay on it so you know it works right. and also do it while its still way in your site and if it dont work right or starts flying away instead of back to the home point be ready to flip it in to atti mode and be able to fly it back manually and land it. asap and then check it in the naza software to see what may of been wrong.

 

[biomedchad]

i program the bottom of s1 to manual mode just in case all else fails. you dont want to risk flicking that switch down there when you could actually have a good use and still have the ability to turn off the radio and activate rth. sometimes you will lose gps when flying and your controls will get a little flaky. you will need to switch to atti or even to manual to gain control and then back to gps if you need it to regain stability. remember that in manual mode you control the elevation..its not a set it and forget it like in atti or gps.

 

[Robmyaing]

Are there any instructions on how to set one of the S1 positions to Fail Safe mode. I have successfully installed the driver, connected the FC40 to my computer and downloaded and started the Assistant software. Thank you for your help.

 

[thevolkp]

Do a YouTube search. I found one that walked me through it.