Ground Station Keeps Dropping Connection, Short Range

HSR

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Hey all and thanks for any help given,

I have a Phantom 2 built by heliguy UK, so all set up correctly and tested. Been playing around with it a while now and am now having the following issue...

GS Running on laptop (Windows 7 64bit), RC on, power on P2... in open space about 10-15m away from where I'm set up with laptop ect... Flashes green fast as normal having found Sats for home location. Go to laptop and click connect, does handshake and GS moves to P2 location on map and all working fine. Take off using RC and get to about 30-40m altitude, GS looses connecting with P2 and reconnect does not work. Sometimes restarting GS on laptop fixes issue but then after staying hovering at the same location (20-30m high) for say 5mins looses connection again. Just keeps dropping out, never had this issue when using iPad GS before and successfully completed 1km flight, but now its dropping connection and having same problem with iPad.

Any help or suggestions would be great! Want to get GS working with my laptop properly and start flying!
 
Hi,

Thanks for the PM but cant reply as have only just registed, an this was my first post. Anwser to your question, nope, while yes I'm from england but just moved to New Zealand for 6 months. Got any ideas what the issue might be?
 
I have had the same issues for some time, contacted dji that this wasn't an issue months ago, but is a continual issue all the time with the ipad, I was hoping it's a firmware issue. but they wanted me to submit an rma request.
which i do not wish to do at this point.
Anybody have any suggestions or improvements?
 
Intresting, really annoying problem! Everything works perfect then just stops for no reason. I've tried everything I can think of, updateing everything, re-installing everything ground side. More annoying is that it's all worked fine for a few flights and didn't really get to use it properly as was only getting used to it. Now I'm ready to do some proper flights, it doesn't work!

Any suggestions would be great, ill try anything lol! Got to the point where I can't be bothered setting everything up because I just end up using all my battries hovering a few meters away trying to get a constant connection!
 
Try clearing blu tooth on Ipad. (reset blu tooth settings) I had similar issues and clearing blu tooth settings in Ipad cured it.
 
Still having this issue, have made sure everything is up to date. Tried turning off wifi on laptop and router in house, still keeps dropping connection. When its drops out my laptop makes the USB disconnect sound and both lights on ground end device go red and then re connects to air end but wont reconnected with ground station software until phantom is flown back to home point and at 10m ish altitude, even then connection is very unreliable. Need help! This is doing my head in.
 
Hey, thanks for the reply.

I've tried using the supplied double USB lead, had laptop on car roof and also shed roof (felt not metal)! My normal set up which has worked perfect in the past before this problem started is... Double plug USB lead into laptop then that connected to 10m USB extension, with Ground Station device mounted on 3m pole (plastic pole) in open area, or if at home mounted above roof hight on same pole! So don't think its line of sight are issues ect... Can someone confirm that if there is wifi's on in the area will it affect the connection to air end?
 
HSR,

I have the exact same problem. I am new to PC GS, I have had 5 missions and have lost communication on each mission requiring me to use the handheld controller to regain control and land the Phantom. I have not solved the problem but I have done some research and here is what I have found so far.

First, I think it is IMPORTANT to note that you don't need to fly the Phantom to troubleshoot this issue, you can duplicate the problem easily in the SIMULATE mode. Since SIMULATE mode requires ALL hardware, you can troubleshoot the issue without fearing loosing the Phantom. It also means you don't have to be outside, you can troubleshoot at night or when it is raining.

Second, I have run 4 simulated flight missions. I am running PC GS on full size desktop machine (not a laptop). The Phantom is stationary, it is just 20 feet (6 meters) from the data link unit, so loss of communication can't be due to loss of signal in my opinion.
Mission #1 - lost communication after 10 minutes
Mission #2 - lost communication after 13 minutes
Mission #3 - after 20 minutes I stopped mission, I did not loose communication
Mission #4 - after 25 minutes I stopped mission, I did not loose communication

Keep in touch, maybe together we can solve this together.
 
I am not sure why it sometimes drops connection. Flew two identical missions on Sunday to some targets 2K away using laptop, pole and USB extension. First mission perfect, GS didn't drop out and I could track it all the way there, through several turns and all the way back. Second mission lost contact about 2/3 through. Flew each mission back to back, altered nothing yet had a drop out. I don't have as many problems as some people but would still like to know why sometimes the air end and ground end loose connection.
 
I also can't maintain a reliable connection with the Phantom using PC GS. For the folks that don't have this problem, can you confirm that the TX/RX LED should blink Green and never RED. Mine blinks RED with a quick flicker of GREEN sporadically.

Knowing this may help me and perhaps others troubleshoot the problem.

Thanks,
 

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HSR,

You are correct about the LEDs, thanks for reply. I thought I was on to something that could help us. At present, I don't want to fly my Phantom until I get this data link issue fixed, it is very disappointing.

Rich
 
Completely in the same frame of mind here! Spent just over £1,600.00 pounds on my set up and it just sits in the corner of the office because I see it as broken and annoying, when it should be out all the time and fun! I've almost given up trying... I moved from England to New Zealand last month and brought it with me (thinking going to be cool flying down through rivers and mountainous countryside) and haven't left the back garden with it! My problem is there isn't anywhere here that stocks them/services them to get it checked by a pro. Not happy!
 
HSR,

We can fly the Phantom manually, but I believe GS can give us some wonderful video it if worked. I'm planning to visit NZ in February, it will be summer down there, right?

Here is a NZ video you may like to see, a portion was shot with a Phantom.
https://vimeo.com/83907617
 
HSR said:
Completely in the same frame of mind here! Spent just over £1,600.00 pounds on my set up and it just sits in the corner of the office because I see it as broken and annoying, when it should be out all the time and fun! I've almost given up trying... I moved from England to New Zealand last month and brought it with me (thinking going to be cool flying down through rivers and mountainous countryside) and haven't left the back garden with it! My problem is there isn't anywhere here that stocks them/services them to get it checked by a pro. Not happy!


Hi All,
Another GS user from New Zealand here. What most people on this topic seem to be talking about is that they are losing the connection between the GS (PC or iPad) and the Phantom itself, thus disabling them from tracking their pre-programmed flight course on the screen of their device, right??

OK, here's a couple of pointers. The antennas on the Phantom data link (air end) have virtually no transmitting or receiving power and as such, any kind of physical barrier (trees etc) will cut the connection almost immediately. Also, flying in areas where there are even medium levels of RFI will do the same. Flying while in the same space as anyone using 2.4ghz radio gear (such as a P2 non-vision transmitter) will cause enough RFI to severely inhibit your chance of keeping the data-link connection back to your ipad.

What you need to realize is that once you have uploaded your mission into the Phantom and it has taken off, you DON'T NEED the connection, other than for monitoring purposes. It is a little bit like telling your child to head down to the convenience store and buy some milk. Once he/she has walked out of sight, you already know where they're going because you told them. You don't need to walk right behind them to make sure they make all the right turns because you already programmed that into them (if only!) Sure, its a great feature to be able to see your Phantom flying happily along the course you set for it but it will actually continue this course regardless of whether you can see it on your iPad or PC. At least you can still monitor its progress for the most part on your FPV monitor assuming you have one. I did a GS flight the other day which went out 2200 metres in a rural and uninhabited area where I had full data-link connection the whole way, et I also use it to fly to areas where I cant with typical RC control because of loss of line-of-sight coverage but thems just the breaks.
 
Pete,

Thanks for your comments and willingness to help. You may be right, but during my troubleshooting of this issue, I have had missions where the Phantom was stationary, sitting on the ground at distances from 10 to 20 feet. I don't think it is a loss of signal issue.

I have also lost connection during SIMULATION where the Phantom never leaves the ground. You may wish to look at a previous post of mine in this thread.

I am still troubleshooting various scenarios and may agree with at some point, but my tests are inconclusive as of now.

Let me emphasize, I am loosing connection even when the Phantom is NOT flying, when it is sitting stationary 20 feet from a desktop PC. I have the same issue on my laptop PC.

Thanks,
 

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