Inexpensive fix: GPS function with the iPad WiFi only tablet

[Omnipotent]

Gotya, thanks guys. I do have an iPhone 5s that I can enable as a hotspot. I didn't know if this was ok to do since I've read that it's best to turn off any WiFi device near you while flying.

Its not a bad idea to turn off the WiFi during your flight just to be safe, however, before you take off enable the hotspot and open your DJI app to populate your maps. When everything shows up, you may turn off your hotspot and go fly. Don't forget to calibrate the compass before each flight

 

[Bonehead83]

Its not a bad idea to turn off the WiFi during your flight just to be safe, however, before you take off enable the hotspot and open your DJI app to populate your maps. When everything shows up, you may turn off your hotspot and go fly. Don't forget to calibrate the compass before each flight

Awesome! I will give that a shot tomorrow...

Also another question. I have flown numerous times using the iPhone and it looks to me like that live camera feed is much more clearer when using the iPhone than the brand new ipad mini I just purchased. Has anyone heard or witnessed this or is there a setting I don't have set right? Or maybe it's just all in my head...

 

[Omnipotent]

Awesome! I will give that a shot tomorrow...

Also another question. I have flown numerous times using the iPhone and it looks to me like that live camera feed is much more clearer when using the iPhone than the brand new ipad mini I just purchased. Has anyone heard or witnessed this or is there a setting I don't have set right? Or maybe it's just all in my head...

Hmm, that's odd. My iPad mini 2 works great, the FPV live camera feed coming back is crystal clear, regardless of the distance the phantom is from me. On the other hand, my Samsung Android phone is so-so.

How are your antennas on your RC remote when your flying? Are they both vertical and parallel?

 

[Bonehead83]

Hmm, that's odd. My iPad mini 2 works great, the FPV live camera feed coming back is crystal clear, regardless of the distance the phantom is from me. On the other hand, my Samsung Android phone is so-so.

How are your antennas on your RC remote when your flying? Are they both vertical and parallel?

Yes I always have them parallel and up... I'll have to try it again this weekend and check it out. I thought that it may just be me...

 

[skitchen8]

I would agree there are far better all-in-one solutions out there, but if your stuck with what you have then this works well. Having just bought the iPad, I didn't really want to take a loss and sell it right away. As far as it being awkward, I have to disagree, its so easy to use, push one button and your ready for the day, and the battery lasts a long time. Its also considered to be more accurate than the built-in GPS in most tablets, in fact many actual aircraft pilots use these for certain navigational aides in conjunction with a tablet.

I also wanted to keep the Phantom running on the Apple platform, since its nice to have the flight simulator. I've always been an Android user, so I've made the step "to the dark side" and bought my first Apple product just for the Phantom. As far as overall performance the iPad is amazing in comparison to other tablets I have tried.

The flight simulator works fine on my Galaxy Note 4

 

[WetDog]

Gotya, thanks guys. I do have an iPhone 5s that I can enable as a hotspot. I didn't know if this was ok to do since I've read that it's best to turn off any WiFi device near you while flying.

There is that recommendation. Not sure how grounded that is in reality. Turn your cellphone on. Look at all of the Wifi signals available to it. Turning off your cell phone's seems - well - futile. Anyway, I've done it dozens of times without problems. You could always turn the hot spot on, get the map and the GPS fix and turn it back off.

 

[Oso]

Gotya, thanks guys. I do have an iPhone 5s that I can enable as a hotspot. I didn't know if this was ok to do since I've read that it's best to turn off any WiFi device near you while flying.

It will work for internet access, but it wont share GPS data. See this link from earlier in this thread for a high level idea of what works with each option. Read the whole thing, it's just one post.
Tablets and phones that work well with DJI GO

 

[Mightymike]

So UOTE="Omnipotentwon't

If by the Google Earth, are you referring to the smaller map data in the lower corner of the pilot app? That app is sourced not by GPS data, but by a WiFi connection. Because our iPads are WiFi only (with no cellular, or roaming data service), you need to be connected to a wireless internet connection for that map to populate. I use a small wireless "hotspot" to give me a wireless internet connection when I am away from home. Or, if you are lucky there may be an open wireless network in the area you can "steal" from.

You can also get around this by simply pre-loading the maps when your at home with an internet connection before you head out to fly. Open the Apple maps (not Google maps) in your iPad and zoom around a bit in your current location as well as your go-to location to populate the maps. They will stay cached in your iPad unless you turn it off. Then when you arrive at your new location away from home, the map data that was cached earlier should automatically show up in the DJI pilot app.

Let me know if this answers your question.

I too am running the P3A with an ipad mini 2 WiFi only. If I was to incorporate an external GPS unit like the Garmin GLO, would this allow me to see the google earth satellite view in the flight app?

If by the Google Earth, are you referring to the smaller map data in the lower corner of the pilot app? That app is sourced not by GPS data, but by a WiFi connection. Because our iPads are WiFi only (with no cellular, or roaming data service), you need to be connected to a wireless internet connection for that map to populate. I use a small wireless "hotspot" to give me a wireless internet connection when I am away from home. Or, if you are lucky there may be an open wireless network in the area you can "steal" from.

You can also get around this by simply pre-loading the maps when your at home with an internet connection before you head out to fly. Open the Apple maps (not Google maps) in your iPad and zoom around a bit in your current location as well as your go-to location to populate the maps. They will stay cached in your iPad unless you turn it off. Then when you arrive at your new location away from home, the map data that was cached earlier should automatically show up in the DJI pilot app.

Let me know if this answers your question.

ost: 674082, member: 49263"]If by the Google Earth, are you referring to the smaller map data in the lower corner of the pilot app? That app is sourced not by GPS data, but by a WiFi connection. Because our iPads are WiFi only (with no cellular, or roaming data service), you need to be connected to a wireless internet connection for that map to populate. I use a small wireless "hotspot" to give me a wireless internet connection when I am away from home. Or, if you are lucky there may be an open wireless network in the area you can "steal" from.

You can also get around this by simply pre-loading the maps when your at home with an internet connection before you head out to fly. Open the Apple maps (not Google maps) in your iPad and zoom around a bit in your current location as well as your go-to location to populate the maps. They will stay cached in your iPad unless you turn it off. Then when you arrive at your new location away from home, the map data that was cached earlier should automatically show up in the DJI pilot app.

Let me know if this answers your question.[/QUOTE]
So the Garmin GLO won't populate the dji go with the current map? I tthought that was that was the purpose.

 

[Oso]

So the Garmin GLO won't populate the dji go with the current map? I tthought that was that was the purpose.

GPS satellites do not transmit map/terrain data for you to download to your device.
If you do not have internet access where you plan to fly and you want to use maps, they must be downloaded (cached/stored) in advance via the internet.

If your mobile device does not already have built in GPS, external GPS devices such as the Garmin GLO provide GPS data at your RC's location to allows optional features to work such as FOLLOW ME and the ability to change the home point to the location of the RC if you've moved away from the launch location.

Some devices (android it seems most often) have maps available (already cached) through other apps, so some pilots think that GPS is providing the map data. Not so. GPS does not download maps to your device, so maps must already be cached on the device if you have no internet access in the field. You'd be surprised just how much a few pilots have insisted that GPS satellites download map data to them.

One more note - Maps are not required to fly, but many find them useful so it's a personal choice to use them or not.

 

[AWD]

OK. This discussion explains why my map on the screen (P4 and non-cell iPad) never showed up and all I saw was a green screen with my course plotted all over it on my last two flights in the middle of nowhere on a photo shoot.

It wasn't a problem but I didn't understand at the time why there was no map when I had it all the time on previous flights. Always being in a Wi-Fi area answered that.

I do have a mobile "hot spot" and will give that a try out there on the next go at it. They do have cell service out there, just no Wi-Fi. I'll also try "pre-caching" the mapped area on the iPad (and leaving it on) as a test too.

Thanks for the ideas.

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