First some background:
Purchased Phantom 2 from B&H almost exactly one year ago. Phantom 2, 2-Axis Zemeus gimbal for Hero3, couple of extra flight batteries, props, carrying case, etc. Nice kit. A couple months later, added ImmersionRC video downlink and Black Pearl monitor. Very satisfied. All was well. Then in September, added iOSD Mini. All still okay. Love the flight telemetry.
In all, based on the flight battery discharge cycles reported by the flight assistant software, I've flown about 100 times without "serious" incident. I have flown only in GPS and ATTI modes. I use my $30 toy quad toy for manual control mode playtime. The toy has taken quite a lickin', but it keeps on ticking.
Come winter, I pretty much put the Phantom away. I didn't fly from early December through February. However, when I flew again in early March, I discovered that I was not routinely acquiring as many satellites compared to earlier flights. Where I easily acquired 7 or more satellites, and as many as 12 or even more, now I was getting 5 or 6, with the attendant flashing lights and OSD display warnings. I even had some automatic "return to home" activity...or at least that's what it seemed like while in GPS mode until I flipped to ATTI mode and took over. This continued for several attempts over several days.
So, I turned to these forums and discovered I was not alone apparently. I studied the threads and took note of the information. Good stuff, a lot of it. Some nasty fits and turns, but mostly decent information. THANKS!
I've taken the suggestions seriously and have performed some of my own repairs based on them. I've tried to be systematic about things, and have tested the results reasonably carefully.
First, I opened up the housing again and carefully checked the GPS connector on the main board. It appeared to be completely seated and reasonably "tight." No problem there. I also inspected the male and female parts carefully.....Mine seem to be gold plated. That's good. Even though somebody knocked gold as a "lousy conductor", it's my metal of choice. Gold is in fact and excellent conductor. Not the best of the best (silver still holds the record), but at 2.5 x 10^-8 ohms/m, it's resistance is almost negligible (jezzzzz....10^-8, for gosh sakes), and when you're dealing with only a couple thousands of an inch of plating, it's as close to zero as you can get. And not that an ohm or two would make any difference. Now even a slight impedance mismatch.....that could make a difference with digital communication.
So, I don't think my problem is the connector (resistance, impedance, or intermittent's). However, I did take the advice of some contributors, and I have jammed a small piece of tie-wrap end into the connector to further secure the two parts. I have also bent pins 2 and 4 ever so slightly out of alignment with the other two in order to add some tension to the assembly. Okay, so far so good. But still no improvement in satellite reception.
Next, I tucked the lead wires between the GPS module and the main board underneath the factory shielding. Doing this has added 1 or 2 satellites. Great.
Next, I covered the factory shielding with aluminum HVAC duct tape. Once again I got an improvement in satellite reception. Now I'm up to 8 in my driveway, and 10 or 12 under open sky. I'm actually starting to feel pretty good about things.
(I live in a house with a mostly wooded yard, including some 100' oaks and poplars, which are now bare of leaves but still obscure a lot of sky. So each time I test, I first power up in my driveway, then drive a quarter mile to an open fallow corn field, then back to the driveway. I always get a couple more satellites in the open compared to the driveway. I have also done my modifications and tests as quickly as possible to minimize the variation in the number of satellites visible. I have tested the results of each modification, one at a time. I don't have props on the bird, but I cycle the motors anyway. I also turn off and on the Hero3, wi-fi, and start and stop video recording during each test (doesn't seem to make any difference in satellites). The method isn't perfect, but it's pretty good I think.)
UPS brought me a sheet of adhesive-coated copper foil this afternoon. I plan to replace the aluminum shield with the copper. Personally, I don't expect this to make a difference v. aluminum, but we'll see. I also plan to cut a couple of strips of copper and encase the wire between the GPS module and main board in an extra layer of shielding. I will report on the results.
I'm interested to see how the copper does. I'm trying to be sensitive to adding additional weight. Frankly, if I find the copper is no more effective than the aluminum, I'll probably go back to the aluminum.
I have not installed a more sensitive antenna yet, even though some have reported to be helpful. However, I am really tempted. It looks really easy to remove the factory antenna and install the new one. We'll see. If anything, it's my ace in the hole if I need it.
MY QUESTION: Can anybody with more experience than me provide a good summary of what the other threads have said? I've been all over the place reading, including some pretty long and convoluted threads. I think I've filtered a lot of good from the bad or useless, but I'm not fooling myself into thinking I've got it all.
Thanks. I hope that what I've written will be useful. It is still a mystery why my satellite count has gone down. Maybe we'll never know....But if I can get the number up again, maybe whatever caused the change won't be a future operating factor anyway.
Purchased Phantom 2 from B&H almost exactly one year ago. Phantom 2, 2-Axis Zemeus gimbal for Hero3, couple of extra flight batteries, props, carrying case, etc. Nice kit. A couple months later, added ImmersionRC video downlink and Black Pearl monitor. Very satisfied. All was well. Then in September, added iOSD Mini. All still okay. Love the flight telemetry.
In all, based on the flight battery discharge cycles reported by the flight assistant software, I've flown about 100 times without "serious" incident. I have flown only in GPS and ATTI modes. I use my $30 toy quad toy for manual control mode playtime. The toy has taken quite a lickin', but it keeps on ticking.
Come winter, I pretty much put the Phantom away. I didn't fly from early December through February. However, when I flew again in early March, I discovered that I was not routinely acquiring as many satellites compared to earlier flights. Where I easily acquired 7 or more satellites, and as many as 12 or even more, now I was getting 5 or 6, with the attendant flashing lights and OSD display warnings. I even had some automatic "return to home" activity...or at least that's what it seemed like while in GPS mode until I flipped to ATTI mode and took over. This continued for several attempts over several days.
So, I turned to these forums and discovered I was not alone apparently. I studied the threads and took note of the information. Good stuff, a lot of it. Some nasty fits and turns, but mostly decent information. THANKS!
I've taken the suggestions seriously and have performed some of my own repairs based on them. I've tried to be systematic about things, and have tested the results reasonably carefully.
First, I opened up the housing again and carefully checked the GPS connector on the main board. It appeared to be completely seated and reasonably "tight." No problem there. I also inspected the male and female parts carefully.....Mine seem to be gold plated. That's good. Even though somebody knocked gold as a "lousy conductor", it's my metal of choice. Gold is in fact and excellent conductor. Not the best of the best (silver still holds the record), but at 2.5 x 10^-8 ohms/m, it's resistance is almost negligible (jezzzzz....10^-8, for gosh sakes), and when you're dealing with only a couple thousands of an inch of plating, it's as close to zero as you can get. And not that an ohm or two would make any difference. Now even a slight impedance mismatch.....that could make a difference with digital communication.
So, I don't think my problem is the connector (resistance, impedance, or intermittent's). However, I did take the advice of some contributors, and I have jammed a small piece of tie-wrap end into the connector to further secure the two parts. I have also bent pins 2 and 4 ever so slightly out of alignment with the other two in order to add some tension to the assembly. Okay, so far so good. But still no improvement in satellite reception.
Next, I tucked the lead wires between the GPS module and the main board underneath the factory shielding. Doing this has added 1 or 2 satellites. Great.
Next, I covered the factory shielding with aluminum HVAC duct tape. Once again I got an improvement in satellite reception. Now I'm up to 8 in my driveway, and 10 or 12 under open sky. I'm actually starting to feel pretty good about things.
(I live in a house with a mostly wooded yard, including some 100' oaks and poplars, which are now bare of leaves but still obscure a lot of sky. So each time I test, I first power up in my driveway, then drive a quarter mile to an open fallow corn field, then back to the driveway. I always get a couple more satellites in the open compared to the driveway. I have also done my modifications and tests as quickly as possible to minimize the variation in the number of satellites visible. I have tested the results of each modification, one at a time. I don't have props on the bird, but I cycle the motors anyway. I also turn off and on the Hero3, wi-fi, and start and stop video recording during each test (doesn't seem to make any difference in satellites). The method isn't perfect, but it's pretty good I think.)
UPS brought me a sheet of adhesive-coated copper foil this afternoon. I plan to replace the aluminum shield with the copper. Personally, I don't expect this to make a difference v. aluminum, but we'll see. I also plan to cut a couple of strips of copper and encase the wire between the GPS module and main board in an extra layer of shielding. I will report on the results.
I'm interested to see how the copper does. I'm trying to be sensitive to adding additional weight. Frankly, if I find the copper is no more effective than the aluminum, I'll probably go back to the aluminum.
I have not installed a more sensitive antenna yet, even though some have reported to be helpful. However, I am really tempted. It looks really easy to remove the factory antenna and install the new one. We'll see. If anything, it's my ace in the hole if I need it.
MY QUESTION: Can anybody with more experience than me provide a good summary of what the other threads have said? I've been all over the place reading, including some pretty long and convoluted threads. I think I've filtered a lot of good from the bad or useless, but I'm not fooling myself into thinking I've got it all.
Thanks. I hope that what I've written will be useful. It is still a mystery why my satellite count has gone down. Maybe we'll never know....But if I can get the number up again, maybe whatever caused the change won't be a future operating factor anyway.
