Long cold start after upgrading to Ver 2.1 ESC //SOLVED

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I upgraded my phantom 2 non- vision with new motors, props and matching ver 2.1 ESC's. Now it takes a long time to start acquiring satellites. It used to do it within about 30 seconds. Now it takes sometimes 3 minutes. I often turn the bird off and back on and fly it a few feet without position lock. Then after it has "warmed up" it snags 9-12 satellites. I turn it off and back on and it locks them quickly and gives me home lock and works well. It behaves well with each subsequent battery during that outing. No new wires are looped near the gps and it is seated firmly in the connector. It connects with a bunch of satellites once it decides to do so

Any thoughts, tips or tricks?


//SOLVED//
The Ver 2.1 ESC and/or the 2312 motors caused a new interference for my GPS module causing it to take much longer to perform a cold start...it took 3-5 minutes to obtain satellite information on the first flight for the day. I grounded the copper shielding as shown in this video: http://youtu.be/BNpTPp6epvk. While I had it open, I went ahead and placed aluminum shielding over the ESCs. I have now tested it three times and the cold start time is now less than 60 seconds....just like old times!
 
Re: Upgraded to ver 3, now takes a long time to find satelli

terrylowe said:
I upgraded my phantom 2 non- vision with new motors, props and matching ver 2.1 ESC's. Now it takes a long time to start acquiring satellites. It used to do it within about 30 seconds. Now it takes sometimes 3 minutes. I often turn the bird off and back on and fly it a few feet without position lock. Then after it has "warmed up" it snags 9-12 satellites. I turn it off and back on and it locks them quickly and gives me home lock and works well. It behaves well with each subsequent battery during that outing. No new wires are looped near the gps and it is seated firmly in the connector. It connects with a bunch of satellites once it decides to do so

Any thoughts, tips or tricks?

Two things that can affect how long it takes to acquire satellites are solar flares and overcast skies.

  • P2, H3-2D, GoPro Hero 3+B, AVL-58, 5.8G clover-leaf antennas, iOSD-mini, Black Pearl 7" diversity receiver/monitor
 
Re: Upgraded to ver 3, now takes a long time to find satelli

Popular myth
Overcast skies have no impact on GPS at all.
The system was designed to provide all-weather navigation.
With 20 years using GPS for work, I suspect solar flares also have very little impact.
 
Re: Upgraded to ver 3, now takes a long time to find satelli

I'm having the same thing. From my rooftop I used to lock 7+ satellites within a minute, now since I upgraded to the newest firmware it can be a good 3 minutes or so before I get a home point lock... it'll lock 5 satellites right away, then it takes forever to get to 7
 
Re: Upgraded to ver 3, now takes a long time to find satelli

When you turn on the P2, the GPS system can only tell where it is if knows which satellites are in operation and where they are. To do this, it has to have up to date copies of the almanac and ephemeris. Almanac, an inventory of the SVs in use, stays valid for a relatively long time. Ephemeris, location information for each SV, is only valid for a few hours.

So, when you haven't used your P2 for a long time, it has to download both of these before it can figure out where it is. This takes time and is called a cold start. If you used your P2 in the past few hours near the same location, it will reuse the downloaded data in a warm start which takes much less time. There is also a hot start which is sometimes used in a reset of the GPS sub-system reusing all the same data as before and is very quick.
 
Re: Upgraded to ver 3, now takes a long time to find satelli

Meta4 said:
Popular myth
Overcast skies have no impact on GPS at all.
The system was designed to provide all-weather navigation.
With 20 years using GPS for work, I suspect solar flares also have very little impact.


True
 
Re: Upgraded to ver 3, now takes a long time to find satelli

From having a "Fly Away" due to what has been suggested was a false home lock of my position using the satellites. I would be scared to death if my Ph2 acted the least bit funny when trying to hook up. That's just me and I hope you never have problems, but mine was "acting locked" and it wasn't so I am concerned for anyone who experiences any satellite irregularities.
 
Re: Upgraded to ver 3, now takes a long time to find satelli

ianwood said:
This takes time and is called a cold start. If you used your P2 in the past few hours near the same location, it will reuse the downloaded data in a warm start which takes much less time. There is also a hot start which is sometimes used in a reset of the GPS sub-system reusing all the same data as before and is very quick.

Any idea why the "Cold Start" is taking so much longer since I upgraded?
 
Re: Upgraded to ver 3, now takes a long time to find satelli

I found on a google search that an Advanced IMU calibration should help, but it did not.
Turning on the props to idle seemed to speed it up some. My battery drops from 98 to 92% while waiting on satellite link.

Anyone else have any thoughts?
 
Re: Upgraded to ver 3, now takes a long time to find satelli

Wouldn't this upgrade be considered v2.0? With v3 pertaining to the Vision model? Any way the title could get changed to reflect it's actually an v2.0 upgrade? This could be confusing to others...

(Unless there's actually a v3.0 mod for Phantom 2 non vision owners. I'd be interested to know more.)
 
Re: Upgraded to ver 3, now takes a long time to find satelli

Only thing I can think of is the new electronics and/or motors are creating more interference somehow. The v3 units come with copper shielding on the GPS, don't they? That may be the next step if your problems persist.
 
Re: Upgraded to ver 3, now takes a long time to find satelli

phenom3030 said:
Wouldn't this upgrade be considered v2.0? With v3 pertaining to the Vision model? Any way the title could get changed to reflect it's actually an v2.0 upgrade? This could be confusing to others...

(Unless there's actually a v3.0 mod for Phantom 2 non vision owners. I'd be interested to know more.)

I updated the title to more accurately reflect my question. Thanks.

This is a phantom 2 Non-vision.
I installed ver 2.1 ESC's and 2312 motors.
 
Re: Upgraded to ver 3, now takes a long time to find satelli

ianwood said:
Only thing I can think of is the new electronics and/or motors are creating more interference somehow. The v3 units come with copper shielding on the GPS, don't they? That may be the next step if your problems persist.

I had confused people (and myself) with my title in this thread. It is a phantom 2 non-vision.

Yesterday, when it finally did start connecting, I connected with 12 satellites.

It has factory copper shielding over the GPS. I added shielding over the GPS WIRE when this issue started. No improvement. (This copper shielding over the GPS unit is NOT grounded as far as I can tell; I am not seeing a ground wire attached anywhere).

I have a "clean install", so I have more internal wires than normal. I am making sure that those extra wires are tucked away and not resting near the ESC's or right beneath the GPS. I had performed this clean install long before I had performed the ESC upgrade and it did not affect cold start sat connection.

I agree with you, I assume there is some sort of new interference coming from the new ESC's. There is no shielding over the new ESC's. Although the GPS is already shielded, I wonder it would be more worth while to try to add some shielding over the ESC's or to try to ground the copper shielding over the GPS unit?
 
Maybe SOLVED!

I opened my quad and put some insulated aluminum foil over the ESC's. I also grounded the copper shielding over the GPS.
On testing it, it took about 30 seconds to obtain satellites....just like the good ole' days!

I will try a few more cold starts and if these results are consistent, I will change the title of this thread to SOLVED. Crossing fingers.....
 
Re: Long cold start after upgrading to Ver 2.1 ESC and 2312

I hope you didn't impede airflow over the MOSFETs, they run hot.
 
Re: Maybe SOLVED!

terrylowe said:
I opened my quad and put some insulated aluminum foil over the ESC's. I also grounded the copper shielding over the GPS.
On testing it, it took about 30 seconds to obtain satellites....just like the good ole' days!

I will try a few more cold starts and if these results are consistent, I will change the title of this thread to SOLVED. Crossing fingers.....

And make sure the foil isn't exposed. Get some packing tape to insulate so you don't short anything.
 
Re: Long cold start after upgrading to Ver 2.1 ESC and 2312

Spudboy said:
I hope you didn't impede airflow over the MOSFETs, they run hot.

Nope....airflow is wide open
 
Re: Maybe SOLVED!

Mako79 said:
And make sure the foil isn't exposed. Get some packing tape to insulate so you don't short anything.

I insulated it. Thanks
 
Re: Long cold start after upgrading to Ver 2.1 ESC and 2312

Where did you ground the shielding? I have some copper tape waiting to go into one of my birds to see if I can improve GPS sensitivity.
 
Re: Long cold start after upgrading to Ver 2.1 ESC and 2312

ianwood said:
Where did you ground the shielding? I have some copper tape waiting to go into one of my birds to see if I can improve GPS sensitivity.


I used this youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNpTPp6epvk

My phantom has this shielding that is seen in the video. If you look closely, it looks like it is TWO layers. So I grounded both layers. (The video shows only grounding one layer)
 

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