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

[TeamYankee]

Re: Long cold start after upgrading to Ver 2.1 ESC and 2312

I crashed my P2 a while ago and shattered the ceramic GPS antenna.. when I bought a replacement to solder on I bought a thicker one with more gain.
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/e ... ND/2332642
2mm thicker and a little more gain...

Stock gain: 2dbi - new one.. 3.5dbi

Granted this is not your solution... shielding is... but in the event that anyone crashes and breaks the GPS, the link is above.

 

[terrylowe]

Re: Long cold start after upgrading to Ver 2.1 ESC and 2312

I crashed my P2 a while ago and shattered the ceramic GPS antenna.. when I bought a replacement to solder on I bought a thicker one with more gain.
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/e ... ND/2332642
2mm thicker and a little more gain...

Stock gain: 2dbi - new one.. 3.5dbi

Oh noooo.......$5.00 plus shipping to improve the gain? You shouldn't have told me this! Now I MUST get it!

 

[jason]

Re: Long cold start after upgrading to Ver 2.1 ESC and 2312

Having nothing better to do today I decided reroute the hire harness under the GPS's copper shielding. Of course that didn't any better in reducing the cold start as it took 2:30 minutes to get 7 satellites. Not going to try the aluminum shielding as it's a waste of time and energy.

Grounding the copper shielding I might give that a shot. What would do is ground it to the main board nor the ESC but instead ground it to the GPS module as it is grounded to the mother board. Replacing the GPS antenna with a higher gain antenna sounds allot better solution then aluminum foil. Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[terrylowe]

Re: Long cold start after upgrading to Ver 2.1 ESC and 2312

Having nothing better to do today I decided reroute the hire harness under the GPS's copper shielding. Of course that didn't any better in reducing the cold start as it took 2:30 minutes to get 7 satellites. Not going to try the aluminum shielding as it's a waste of time and energy.

Grounding the copper shielding I might give that a shot. What would do is ground it to the main board nor the ESC but instead ground it to the GPS module as it is grounded to the mother board. Replacing the GPS antenna with a higher gain antenna sounds allot better solution then aluminum foil. Just my 2 cents worth.

I don't think it cares where it is grounded as long as it is grounded. Mine worked grounding to the ESC.
I used the aluminum foil to shield the ESC's while I had the quad open. I don't know it is was a waste of time or not, but something worked.

 

[jason]

Re: Long cold start after upgrading to Ver 2.1 ESC and 2312

Having nothing better to do today I decided reroute the hire harness under the GPS's copper shielding. Of course that didn't any better in reducing the cold start as it took 2:30 minutes to get 7 satellites. Not going to try the aluminum shielding as it's a waste of time and energy.

Grounding the copper shielding I might give that a shot. What would do is ground it to the main board nor the ESC but instead ground it to the GPS module as it is grounded to the mother board. Replacing the GPS antenna with a higher gain antenna sounds allot better solution then aluminum foil. Just my 2 cents worth.

I don't think it cares where it is grounded as long as it is grounded. Mine worked grounding to the ESC.
I used the aluminum foil to shield the ESC's while I had the quad open. I don't know it is was a waste of time or not, but something worked.

I cannot blame the software for the length of time its taking to receive 7 sats because of the cold weather up here. When v3.6 came it took up 1 min 20 sec to get 7 sats and it was the same with v3.4 so that is why I don't the software. Since this past there has been an awful sunspot activity and we are not getting GPS signals from military grade satellites and the GPS antennas on the P2's are not putting out the highest gain available. So as cheap as the replacement antenna that TeamYankee posted may worth trying.

 

[ianwood]

Re: Long cold start after upgrading to Ver 2.1 ESC and 2312

Doubtful recent solar activity is interfering with acquisition time unless you're in the high latitudes or happened to start up right when the G3 event was happening. The higher gain antenna is tempting but I am going to copper shield the antenna and ground it first. I am going to assume that grounding away from the ESC and closer to the GPS board is probably best.

Remember that the first time you start up after not using it for 12 hours or more will take longer than the second time.

 

[jason]

Re: Long cold start after upgrading to Ver 2.1 ESC and 2312

Doubtful recent solar activity is interfering with acquisition time unless you're in the high latitudes or happened to start up right when the G3 event was happening. The higher gain antenna is tempting but I am going to copper shield the antenna and ground it first. I am going to assume that grounding away from the ESC and closer to the GPS board is probably best.

Remember that the first time you start up after not using it for 12 hours or more will take longer than the second time.

Think of it this way what would you gain if you ground to the mother board. Nothing in my opinion except that the top is now permanently attached to the base. Well since GPS module is already ground to the mother board why not ground the copper shield to it. The brown wire on the GPS connector is ground.

 

[ianwood]

Re: Long cold start after upgrading to Ver 2.1 ESC and 2312

Think of it this way what would you gain if you ground to the mother board. Nothing in my opinion except that the top is now permanently attached to the base. Well since GPS module is already ground to the mother board why not ground the copper shield to it. The brown wire on the GPS connector is ground.

That's what I am planning to tap.

 

[jason]

Re: Long cold start after upgrading to Ver 2.1 ESC and 2312

Think of it this way what would you gain if you ground to the mother board. Nothing in my opinion except that the top is now permanently attached to the base. Well since GPS module is already ground to the mother board why not ground the copper shield to it. The brown wire on the GPS connector is ground.

That's what I am planning to tap.

I think upgrading the ceramic GPS antenna with a higher dbi gain would help more then just grounding the shield alone.

 

[jason]

Re: Long cold start after upgrading to Ver 2.1 ESC and 2312

Just placed an order for the GPS antenna. Will know by the first of next week if it cuts down on the wait time for satellite lock.

 

[kirk2579]

Re: Long cold start after upgrading to Ver 2.1 ESC and 2312

Saw your post on better antenna, I hope this helps:

When I got home from work today the digikey box was waiting with 2 new gps antennas. I oem and the second a 4mm .

CGGP.25.4.A.02


Description
GPS GLONASS PATCH 1575.42MHZ

As it was 9 degree here in ohio I decided to fix my not really broken vision plus. I installed the new 4mm wider freq range patch. It fit tight but ok. I had about 2inches of foil wrap on my gps lead already but added another couple inches. Ran under the factory shield all the way to back and tested.

I have had only a few weeks but it takes 3 -4 minutes to hit the 5-6-7 sat range in my drive and it will drop in and out of lock at times. NEVER in the house even a peep on the satellites.

Tonight I got full sat lock in my fricken kitchen and lower level garage. Did not believe it so I restarted and retested again and again. Best $5.00 and half hour spent in long time. Can't wait to get it up to test in the air. I normally see 6 to 8 here once up about 30 ft

 

[jason]

Re: Long cold start after upgrading to Ver 2.1 ESC and 2312

Saw your post on better antenna, I hope this helps:

When I got home from work today the digikey box was waiting with 2 new gps antennas. I oem and the second a 4mm .

CGGP.25.4.A.02


Description
GPS GLONASS PATCH 1575.42MHZ

As it was 9 degree here in ohio I decided to fix my not really broken vision plus. I installed the new 4mm wider freq range patch. It fit tight but ok. I had about 2inches of foil wrap on my gps lead already but added another couple inches. Ran under the factory shield all the way to back and tested.

I have had only a few weeks but it takes 3 -4 minutes to hit the 5-6-7 sat range in my drive and it will drop in and out of lock at times. NEVER in the house even a peep on the satellites.

Tonight I got full sat lock in my fricken kitchen and lower level garage. Did not believe it so I restarted and retested again and again. Best $5.00 and half hour spent in long time. Can't wait to get it up to test in the air. I normally see 6 to 8 here once up about 30 ft

These replacement GPS antennas are thicker than the original. So did you have modify (shave down) the shell?

 

[jason]

Finally receive the new higher gain GPS antenna which is 2mm thicker then the original. Now to fit the module with antenna into the top shell the support ribbing would have to be sanded down to a point where there wouldn't any support left. While it was good idea it really isn't practical.

 

[mendezl]

Aluminum over the ESCs sounds a little scary, could be potential risk for a short if the aluminum touches the ESCs electrical parts???

 

[QYV]

Finally receive the new higher gain GPS antenna which is 2mm thicker then the original. Now to fit the module with antenna into the top shell the support ribbing would have to be sanded down to a point where there wouldn't any support left. While it was good idea it really isn't practical.

I've been waiting to see what your experience was before pulling the trigger on my own, thanks for the update.
What do you think about possibly either cutting an appropriately shaped hole in the top of the Phantom 2 shell, or even just mounting the new GPS module on top of the shell and drilling a small hole for the cable down into the body?
Are either of those viable options or still not worth it?

 

[jason]

Finally receive the new higher gain GPS antenna which is 2mm thicker then the original. Now to fit the module with antenna into the top shell the support ribbing would have to be sanded down to a point where there wouldn't any support left. While it was good idea it really isn't practical.

I've been waiting to see what your experience was before pulling the trigger on my own, thanks for the update.
What do you think about possibly either cutting an appropriately shaped hole in the top of the Phantom 2 shell, or even just mounting the new GPS module on top of the shell and drilling a small hole for the cable down into the body?
Are either of those viable options or still not worth it?

The antenna from Mouser down in Texas had a copper attached to the antenna mounting pin and of course that pin was to short to mount on the module when the plate was removed. See attached photo. I thought about drilling a small through the shell and hard wire the antenna to the board but I'm not thrilled with that idea either. As you can see in the photo I did solder a wire to the antenna. So i have been testing the P2 every day to see how long it's actually taking to get GPS lock and so far 27 seconds is the is the quickest.

Also I did not ground the copper shielding over the GPS module and with the testing I have been conducting daily it really isn't necessary.

On page 1 Inawood's statement about how long it takes to get a GPS lock is correct. Here is a link to see how many satellites are available at any given time of day.
http://satpredictor.navcomtech.com

 

[Hughie]

Aluminum over the ESCs sounds a little scary, could be potential risk for a short if the aluminum touches the ESCs electrical parts???

I simply applied a layer of paper masking tape over the top (inner facing side). I have had no issues.

 

[terrylowe]

Aluminum over the ESCs sounds a little scary, could be potential risk for a short if the aluminum touches the ESCs electrical parts???

I simply applied a layer of paper masking tape over the top (inner facing side). I have had no issues.

+1

 

[Phantom8529]

Re: Long cold start after upgrading to Ver 2.1 ESC and 2312

Saw your post on better antenna, I hope this helps:

When I got home from work today the digikey box was waiting with 2 new gps antennas. I oem and the second a 4mm .

CGGP.25.4.A.02


Description
GPS GLONASS PATCH 1575.42MHZ

As it was 9 degree here in ohio I decided to fix my not really broken vision plus. I installed the new 4mm wider freq range patch. It fit tight but ok. I had about 2inches of foil wrap on my gps lead already but added another couple inches. Ran under the factory shield all the way to back and tested.

I have had only a few weeks but it takes 3 -4 minutes to hit the 5-6-7 sat range in my drive and it will drop in and out of lock at times. NEVER in the house even a peep on the satellites.

Tonight I got full sat lock in my fricken kitchen and lower level garage. Did not believe it so I restarted and retested again and again. Best $5.00 and half hour spent in long time. Can't wait to get it up to test in the air. I normally see 6 to 8 here once up about 30 ft

Received same antenna today. 30 minutes later I was receiving 6 sats on my kitchen table, was receiving 3 prior to mod. Outside I got 13, the most I ever had before was 9, typically I would get 7 prior to mod but after it was steadily receiving 12 and 13.
Would be nice if DJI would spend a few dollars extra and install a better antenna to start with.