phantom 3 standard gps error

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total newbie to drones. had this ps3 for a few weeks now. first flight in beginners mode the drone would come out of gps at about 30 mtrs and drift on its own like in atti mode. very unsettling. I eventually crashed into a tree very lightly, everything fine,thank goodness.i packed up quick lol. took the ps3 out today for a second flight. everything fine safe to fly, 12 satelites available.hovered for 30 seconds all good.oh I took it out of beginners mode as well with rth height set at 50 mtrs..took it up and away . about 40 mtrs away no gps again . a slight wind as well.the ps3 drifted again. my heart went. rth again.. did the compass calibration again. exactly the same happened.my confidence is knocked now. can anybody help please?
 
I can definitely feel your anxiety. My AC came back from DJI repair to replace my gimbal and from then on, it wouldn't keep a good satellite lock. It would rarely set the home point within 5 minutes of starting it up and it would lose GPS location a couple times every minute for almost every flight. It totally freaked me out and I thought for sure I was going to lose it. I ALWAYS made sure I could see it because it would not be able to RTH without a good GPS lock. I took it from NC to NY state (family visit) and tried it up there. Still no better. Sent it back to DJI a second time. They said no GPS problem here! I got it back and it was exactly the same. That was in May. Finally in Sept. I got so frustrated, I kept nagging them and sending them flight logs documenting the problem and they had me send it again. Apparently the third time was the charm because this time they replaced the system board and lower shell that had developed cracks. That finally cured the problem. I still don't get the 17 - 18 satellites that I saw when it was new but it NEVER loses GPS lock now.

Hopefully your issue won't be as troublesome as mine. I really believe that mine probably started as a result of a crash. That wouldn't be the case for yours. I'd make sure all your software and firmware is up to date and that you do all the recommended calibrations before you fly next time. One other thing regarding GPS. DJI recommended the IMU calibration for my issue. I don't know if I would ever say it helped, but I would try that too.

Steve G
 
thanks for the reply. ive updated things.imu and compass are done before flight.got no idea about flight logs.before buying this drone I read up on the forums and noticed they always go wrong lol. wish id never bothered buying it now. just invested in two more batteries as well. total waste of money
 
my p3s picks up 8-12 sat inside my apartment (2nd out of 3 floors) so I've never had a problem . did you check for cel towers or power lines?
 
I used to get 5 - 6 inside my house too. Now, maybe 2 - 3......but that's under a roof in a wood frame building with no direct LOS to the sky. I've read that the GPS module caches some of the satellite info., so that may be part of that number. There's actually a small battery on the GPS module to maintain that cache from what I've read.
 
the landscape was free from power lines etc as far as I could see. from reading on this forum it seems a common problem with the p3. ive boxed it back up and returning it to argos store where I bought it from. they aren't having any back in till first week of dec so ill straight swap and see.
 
That's your best bet for sure. I wouldn't put up with it either. Ruins the sport for you worrying about it all the time. Good luck.
 
total newbie to drones. had this ps3 for a few weeks now. first flight in beginners mode the drone would come out of gps at about 30 mtrs and drift on its own like in atti mode. very unsettling. I eventually crashed into a tree very lightly, everything fine,thank goodness.i packed up quick lol. took the ps3 out today for a second flight. everything fine safe to fly, 12 satelites available.hovered for 30 seconds all good.oh I took it out of beginners mode as well with rth height set at 50 mtrs..took it up and away . about 40 mtrs away no gps again . a slight wind as well.the ps3 drifted again. my heart went. rth again.. did the compass calibration again. exactly the same happened.my confidence is knocked now. can anybody help please?
A lot of what has been discussed so far is irrelevant.
The GPS system in the Phantom is trouble free and you don't have a GPS Error.
You have a compass problem and because the flight controller can't deal with conflicting data from the compass and GPS, it drops the GPS data and you are in atti mode.
This is completely normal behaviour for a compass error.
ive updated things.imu and compass are done before flight.got no idea about flight logs.before buying this drone I read up on the forums and noticed they always go wrong lol. wish id never bothered buying it now. just invested in two more batteries as well. total waste of money
You've got the wrong idea from what you've read.
Phantoms are remarkably trouble free when you have them set up properly and know how to use them.
If you need to investigate an issue the way to check your flight records is to go to https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
Follow the instructions to upload your flight record.
If you want help analysing that you can post a link and get lots of help here.
 
Almost lost my p3s in the water today due to this. Scared the piss outta me. Has anyone come to a conclusion on this issue or is it a "good luck with that" kind of issue?
 

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