Zippy1144 said:
Here are a couple of photos from a waypoint test flight I did today. I lost contact once and as you can see I wasn't very far away.
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This is a closeup of the power levels. Not great considering the distance and clear view.
I think the problem may be my underpowered usb battery output. I see that DJI recommends 9-20 volt...I discovered my output is only 5 volts.
My first test with iPad ground Station was successful after figuring it out. At first I had some issues of it starting from Go but it eventually worked as I figured it out.
My ground end was set up with the 2.4 ground transmitter with BTU and a Mophie Powerstation Duo USB battery. The mophie USB battery cost about $100, puts out over 6000ma and has 2 USB outputs. I connected the supplied USB cable from the 2.4 datalink one of the Mophie USB ports to power the ground end. I got all good lights on the LEDs.
I too noticed that the Bluetooth signal strength show on the app was as low as your picture. only getting 1 bar and I was about 2 meters away. Transmission bars for the ground end to air end were a few bars that when up and down which I assumed to be normal. Anyway, I set up 3 waypoints and had some trouble with initial test run. I thought I had everything set up but it did not start after pressing go. I saw it update on the iPad but no response. after a few tries, it finally took off and I forgot what I did to get it going. I will test again soon.
Anyway, it flew through the set up waypoints and I let it loop the mission. So it was a success. I selected the go home and the phantom 2 stopped what it was doing and returned directly above my position. rather than do auto landing, I picked up my transmuter which was still on, and quickly toggled from GPS to Atti to GPS on the S1 toggle switch and took control of the phantom for my landing.
I went to test it again with same waypoints mission. I observed that when the phantom took off it first goes up about 10 to 15 feet in the air and hovers for a bit before heading to its first waypoint. So I watched and observed that the bluetooth signal was still only one bar. during this test, my ground end lost connection between waypoints 2 and 3 and I had to think fast to regain connection, but remembered no to panic since the phantom would basically keep flying its mission loop. I regained connection by going to the connection menu in the app and selecting the name of my flight controller again in the menu. was scared for a moment.
Not really sure why I lost connection as I was within visual range of about 100 meters away or less. All was well as I landed by taking control again with the transmitter. Not sure I trust auto landing as I'd rather land it myself. I didn't use the joystick feature on the app, so I might test it out next time out, but only for just minimal flying.
As far as battery for the ground end is concerned, the Mophie Powerstation Duo did it's job. I do not know how many volts it is ,so I am wondering if I used a 9 to 12 volt power supply, would it make a difference in the bluetooth signal. Also wondering if it may have contributed to the loss of connection I had for a moment.
All in all, it was successful.
Here are things I will test that I did not do yet:
1. test the ground end with a different power source to see if I get better signals from bluetooth.
2. test gimbal tilt function using the dii transmitter while in the waypoint loop. (wondering if this is possible )
3. Figure out the heading settings so the phantom can face an object while in a waypoint loop. ( does anyone know how to to "point of interest")
4. go BVR but make sure one of my waypoints is within range of the DJI RC transmitter just in case.
I suppose I could also try some of these in the flight simulator mode