Ipad bluetooth disconection

[simon3000gt]

Hi all

having a few problem with the Ground Station, I have the ground end running from the external power of my Black pearl monitor.

But I keep loosing the connection between the Ipad Air and the BTU. So I can setup a route upload it and of the phantom goes, I am then watch the flight in the ipad and lose all connectivity. To the point that the ipad does not report any status in the connection panel at the top right.

The Red light show on the BTU, it then sometime just reconnects and I get the green solid light on the BTU

Any ideas ?

Simon

 

[IrishSights]

Not sure I quite understand your problem fully. Also I'm coming at this from PC angle and not Apple. So here goes. The ground end uploads your route to the data link end on your phantom and off it goes. The flight will follow the route irrespective of the ground end. You might be just flying out of datalink range? If you are in range you can pause the flight at any time or get control back by flicking into att and back to gps. The btu is just used for the communication between the ground end and your Air. At least thats my understanding of it.

Sent from my Galaxy Note 8

 

[OI Photography]

Simon, how far away from the BTU is your iPad?

 

[simon3000gt]

The manual says it should be more than 1.5 Metres. but tried less and more. The ipad signal strength moves up and down from full signal to zero, with out me moving either the ground station end or the ipad

What I don't understand is I can connect, and see the home point and current position. I can create a multipoint waypoint and up load it , The phantom starts flying and I can see the waypoints on the ipad, and then it just drops the connection so I cant follow the flight on the ipad.

I can try and manually reconnect and that does not work , and then it will auto reconnect, and I will get the current position back and my pre set waypoints

Simon

 

[OI Photography]

The 1.5 meters the manual refers to is the distance between the ground end and the air end.

How far away is the Phantom from you when the iPad loses signal? It sounds like the connection being lost is the one between the ground unit and the Phantom, not between the iPad and BTU.

 

[Diesel31]

It sounds like the connection being lost is the one between the ground unit and the Phantom, not between the iPad and BTU.

+1

I've had my Phantom fall off the iPad as I'm watching it follow its intended path. The first time was alarming because I lost visual contact, but the three times it happened, the Phantom went where it was intended to go. The three times were in a neighborhood. As long as you get a confirmed upload and know where the final waypoint is set, you shouldn't have anything to worry about.

Sorry if I missed it, but where are you flying? When I go fly out at the beach, I've flown a lot farther than in my neighborhood or park without losing GS connection. Maybe that has something to do with it?

 

[simon3000gt]

ok thanks for the help, maybe its not the BTU then

So I can upload and as you say it flighs the waypoint no problem.

What I can see is where it is on the ipad and the power level etc.

So I have the BTU flashing with a red light, and the ipad with no power levels in the top right hand side

I also get a flashing red light on the ground end, so it could be phantom to ground end disconnection

I have often wondered its power related, being new to this stuff I don't have lipos etc, so use usb or the black peal for power maybe then don't give out enough for distance

thanks for the help so far

Simon

 

[simon3000gt]

Well four batteries later and more testing

I have moved the air end Ariel's as I have seen on some of the shots here, and powered the ground end from a car jump battery

test 1 a circle run for 17 Mins not one drop out

test 2 uploading a 340m away and back success no problem

test 3 uploading 900m away the ipad dropped the connection at 380M and reconnected at 50M is that what others are getting

I guess I assumed it was going to track the phantom on the ipad so I was watching it all the time, and could use it as a tracker


So mine is power based and maybe a lack of understanding of what it was going to do for me

Simon

 

[klimon]

You basically have reached the BVR - Beyond Visual Range. It seems to me that maybe you do not have the antenna on the 2.4 ghz Phantom installed correctly? Where did you install the 2.4ghz transmitter on the Phantom? Internal or external? Also you should use a seperate power supply for the 2.4 receiver. I have found the the range decreases as the battery drains. You can also try a a larger antenna? BTW- you did not mention what type of Phantom you have?

As others have stated the Bluetooth is only used by the iPad to communicate to the 2.4ghz transmitter on the ground which actually sends the commands to the Phantom and then receives telemetry from the Phantom for display on the iPad. Seems like you are having problems with obstruction between the Phantom and the ground station receiver or power issues. You are also limited by the range of the 2.4ghz transmitter and receiver. Luckily it really does not matter if the iPad looses track of the Phantom because the waypoints will continue to be executed and the ground station will usually reconnect when the Phantom comes back in range. I have found better luck if If I keep the 2.4ghz GS receiver away from the FPV monitor since those usually run on the 5.8ghz. You may also want to place it on a spot that is least obstructed from the Phantoms flight path. If you can post a pic of your Phantom setup and the GS receiver then maybe I can offer additional advice.

It would seem that your stated range of 380 meters is at the maximum of the stock 2.4 GS transmitter/receiver with stock antennas...

 

[Timsytanker]

Is it worth changing the base station antenna for a cloverleaf to give longer range before drop out?

 

[klimon]

Is it worth changing the base station antenna for a cloverleaf to give longer range before drop out?

Give it a try and see? Please post your results since that would be good to know? I have tried a higher db 2.4 antenana but the results were actually worse. I did nt think of trying a clover leaf? In theory it should work?

 

[Nidge]

Is it worth changing the base station antenna for a cloverleaf to give longer range before drop out?

Give it a try and see? Please post your results since that would be good to know? I have tried a higher db 2.4 antenana but the results were actually worse. I did nt think of trying a clover leaf? In theory it should work?

You will only see the benefit if you use a cloverleaf/skew planar on both ends. The standard antennas on the GS are linearly polarised where as a cloverleaf is an omnidirectional circularly polarised antenna. It will work but at reduced efficiency if you combine a linear antenna with a circular antenna.

The air end has two antennas as part of a diversity system. The theory is if the signal drops on one antenna the system will auto switch to the other antenna in the hope that the signal is stronger. If both antennas are in the same plane the chances are if the signal is weak on one it will also be week on the other. However if one antenna is horizontal and the other vertical then if the received signal is skewed due to multipath reflections then there is a greater probability that the system will receive a usable signal.

On all my diversity systems I have the two antennas orientated 90 degrees to each other.... eg. on my Hex one antenna runs along the rotor arm while the other protrudes vertically downward from the main body.

On the many GS installations I've seen on Phantoms the owners have run both antennas down the legs so they are both in the same plane which defeats the object of having a diversity capable system.

Regards

Nidge