Improved GPS reception?

[davephantom]

Mine was like yours with the 3 layers, but I still saw an improvement after applying the foil: viewtopic.php?f=27&t=19099&start=70#p180517

Yes there was extra pressure closing the lid, but I was careful nothing was trapped or bent whilst closing.

Same here, I used alu tape and black electricians tape to isolate it. Works like a charm. Before I was unable to hold 5 sats in my back yard, now I get 7 no problems. On my trip to France it held 11 to 13 sats constantly


-David

Thanks for letting me know, did you move the cable as well or just add the phone (I mean move the cable under the shield)? I am thinking perhaps this is the help but added more shield because I had it open anyhow. The wire for PS is a little bent (I saw it putting pressure / dents in the 3 layers when test fitting. To address this I cut the shield to let the wire out a bit sooner so it had less stress on the cable. Something to keep in mind for people that have the 3 layers.

 

[rrmccabe]

I personally think the improvement comes from shielding the ribbon cable.

My latest one came last Thursday and has multiple layers as well. Aluminum table over the GPS and cable made a huge difference.

 

[davephantom]

Did you run your cable under everything or just the aluminum layer? I wonder if it helps isolating the cable from the gps too not just the stuff below?

 

[jarrah31]

I put my cable under the original shield as well.

 

[DaveMoi]

Mine was like yours with the 3 layers, but I still saw an improvement after applying the foil: viewtopic.php?f=27&t=19099&start=70#p180517

Yes there was extra pressure closing the lid, but I was careful nothing was trapped or bent whilst closing.

Same here, I used alu tape and black electricians tape to isolate it. Works like a charm. Before I was unable to hold 5 sats in my back yard, now I get 7 no problems. On my trip to France it held 11 to 13 sats constantly


-David

Thanks for letting me know, did you move the cable as well or just add the phone (I mean move the cable under the shield)? I am thinking perhaps this is the help but added more shield because I had it open anyhow. The wire for PS is a little bent (I saw it putting pressure / dents in the 3 layers when test fitting. To address this I cut the shield to let the wire out a bit sooner so it had less stress on the cable. Something to keep in mind for people that have the 3 layers.

I moved the cable as well...

-David

 

[Photogd]

Does this mod good for phantom 1?

I have one too and wondering the same thing. You P2 guys, is it the wifi stuff that's causing you to lose satellites, or what? Because us old schoolers don't have that problem.

I'm assuming that it couldn't hurt. We don't really have a way to see how many satellites we're hooked up to though. I don't know. I've never had a problem with mine as it sits, so I don't think I'm going to mess with it.

 

[Guipago]

I think thats what it's doing. Seems as if gps drops when recording without this.

Was thinking that the cameras noise might be causeing interference with the electronics as well, don't know if it could or not, is it possible??

 

[Mori55]

So how's every one making out with their sheilding ? Mine seems fine , nothing seems any hotter than usual.

 

[slicknet]

I'm going to try this on my PV2+. Hopefully it will work.
I have a PV2 which flies perfectly, holds GPS positions and altitude. This is a video I put up sometime ago in high winds, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ug1mq0M72E .
But, my PV2+ is terrrible, hard to get Sats, never get more than 7 and that takes 3 -5 minutes. Travels in 10- 20 foot circles in GPS mode when not touching contrils and does not hold altitude.

 

[The Flying Border]

I'd like to share my findings when experimenting a little with the GPS.
When i started i had problems to get more than 6-7 sats in open areas. It often dropped below 6 and my Phantom took off on its own and i had to do a couple of emergency landings to not loose it.
Anyway after studying this thread i took it apart to see how the shielding was done and directly realized that the cable from the GPS was running unshielded across all the rest of the electronics.
So i ripped off the entire shieldpad and turned it 180 degrees putting the cable behind the shield and pressed it in place again.
Before i put together the fusilage again i tested the GPS reception and to my surprise i got 11 sats after just a few seconds compared to 5-6 after several minutes before. So undoubtley the caple picks up noice from the rest of the electronics and is the part that needs to be shielded. Regretfully it started to rain heavily before i was able to do a test flight but i'm quite convinced that it will behave much more stable now.
I'll let you know how it works after i've hat a chance to fly it, eg when the rain has stopped.

 

[simonclarke2000]

would it be worth running shielding around the cable itself?

 

[Helveticus]

would it be worth running shielding around the cable itself?

YES ! Absolutely, it helps !

 

[M.Tigelaar]

Yep :lol:

 

[robinb]

What about mounting the GPS unit above the case like in some other drones.

Ie

 

[Panamon Creel]

external mount would certainly reduce interference however it exposes the unsealed P2V+ GPS board to the environment, puts it into harms way and requires far more mod work than the simple foil shielding addition which is much more than many P2V+ owners are likely willing to do.

 

[robinb]

yes, I agree but I found a new GPS V2 receiver on ebay (sealed one) that when it comes was going to give it a try if I can mount it easily.

 

[Mori55]

Why go through all that when you can do the foil mod ? I had one on a mast on my 450. Everytime you have a bad landing it got broke. Plus I had to sheild it from my camera I was using.

 

[rrmccabe]

would it be worth running shielding around the cable itself?

I honestly believe its the actual cable shielding that makes the difference!

So yes, shield it.

 

[Wally]

I keep wondering why DJI didn't do this from the factory in this otherwise quite sophisticated machine

 

[BlackTracer]

Is it necessary to cover such a large area like I see people doing? When I look at mine, I see the small factory shield has a copper layer and it covers the entire antenna. Seems to me either tucking the cable under the existing shield, or just placing a small elongated shield over the cable should do the trick? Am I wrong about this?