Replaced GPS Antenna - need assistance

[justin00]

ok... first things first... dont drink b4 coming on forums

Anyways... so I installed to 4mm external gps antenna in place of the stock antenna.
I was getting the classic green, red,red,red flashs indicating I have 0 sattelites..

I then took the lid back off, and confirmed the gps cable was securely fastioned. It was..

Then I thouhght maybe the gps anntenna was damaged.. no porlbems.. I have a few... So I installed another one in..But now.. after phantom startup I just get yellow flashing lights... the R/C is bound so all that works, and I can connect via the DJI App but it says 0 satts..

I thought the flashing yellow meant compass dance required.. so did the dance.. but same thing.... it now seems to be worse of from when I was getting green, red,red,red,green.....

I'm not really sure what I should try now. This was supposed to be the simplist mod... the install went so well I really did not expect any of this.
I've done way more advanced mods and never had issues, so this is surprising me and annoying me !!

Anyone have any idea what I should try... at the moment when I power on I get the flashing yellow.. and like I said R/C TX is bound and I can move camera around going left and right

???

thanks

 

[justin00]

Ok accordin to wiki yellow yellow yellow means ready to fly non gps....
how do i switch back to GPS... GPS is selected in S1
Never had this happen before!!!

Just did a advanced IMU and same thing... yellow yellow yellow... how the hell I make it o back to where it eas before.. green, red,red,red, green.. then least it is in GPS mode....

Just don't understand whats happened.. havn't made such huge changes

 

[justin00]

ok in summary... i have the 2nd antenna in place.... and I get yellow yellow flash

how do i go back to green, red,red,red,green

its like it is not even using gps now ?

i have conformed S1 switches are set to GPS.

this whole thing is screwed... never had anything as screwwed as this before...... just dont no what to do to fix

its in yellow yellow yellow mode... and I can't change it to over to GPS mode... allthou according to the Assistant it is in GPS MODE... BUT yeah...

Normally I can sort these things out... but this is just a clusterfuck............it was al working fineish (minus not beng able to get any satts) and then I put the external antenna in for the second time.. then it all went to ****.

can anyone who repairs these please help

 

[justin00]

Grrr my drinking didn't help.

Anyways either the GPS module is some how screwed.... I'm going to see if I can borrow one from hobby shop and see if it fixes it... even if its just working with stock I'll be happy.

I don't don't no how I could of ruined it... such an easy job to desolder and remove old antenna, and even easier soldering in new antenna... it all went bad fro there lol...
still have no clue how I managed to stuf it so bad... but a new gps module will sort oout what is going on....

just annoying such a simple mod has taken such a bad turn and now rendered vision unflyingable, well not unless I have to fly with GPS..

And if someone who has done the mod... can you please tell me if the 4mm antenna gets quite hot and can be felt through the top of the phantom shell ?

thanks

 

[burlbark]

Its not a simple mod.... There are many things that can go wrong.

If you used too much solder to pin it down you effectively ran a direct path to ground and cooked it. If you bumped any components when soldering. If you pried on the board when removing the old one. If you didnt remove the plastic from the dome and screwed it down snug you have warped the board and lost surface mount component continuity. If you had electrostatic discharge through the antenna lead. The list of things goes on forever.

It should not be getting quite hot, you may be feeling hot air rising from the wifi unit. I hope you didnt kill the mother board and naza.

 

[justin00]

Are you saying I hope I didn't kill the naza / mainboard becuse you thought they are getting hot ?? Or is that based on something else ?

Its just the wifi module that is getting hot... no other components.

When I plug it into Assistant softeare everything looks good.. so I am assuming NAZA/Mainboard is good ?

Also it starts up fine... but now it just flashes yellow... yellow yellow.... could that mean i have killed naza ??
I would hope based on the above info, it should be fine..

Or were you just saying it could of killed naza/mainboard because of the heat ? cause yeah its literally just the gps module that is very hot.

If I killed the gps module, does it make sense I would be getting the ywllow yellow yuellow flashing lights ? or could that be a symton of killing naza/mainboard ?

Don't mind If I killed gps module... but gonna be pretty upset if I killed naza/main...

Was able to do an advanced IMU, so would that of successfully passed if it was damaged ?

Any details info would be great.... I'm abit on nerves now lol... however I suspect its just the gps module that might be fried.... well I hope!!!!

 

[justin00]

btw FPV and all that stuff working.. so don't think mainboard is faulty...
reason I said GPS was hot was becuse I had the module out of the top lidd, just dangling down for a few mins... so I could tell it had a crap load of heat coming off it, no other parts luckily

Anyways I'm going to try get the stock gps module 2omorow and plug her back in and just confirm it is all still 100%... hopefully tis

 

[rickasaurus]

Just a tip, re your comment about it getting hot, when I have the unit operating for more than a couple of minutes without the props, I normally use a table fan to keep it cool, especially during IMU calibration. The unit is designed to be operating with four powerful fans cooling it!

 

[justin00]

Yeah this is beyond hot.. and generally its the wifi unit that is heating up under normal circumstances that you describe. ... this is getting a specific heat spot right where the gps is...
I also double checked and had the gps connected but dangling down and it was blooody hot.. so i'm 100% certain its the gps causing the extreme heat. Guess the GPS module must be fried... would of explain why i get constant yellow flashing which means "ready to fly no gps"
I just don't get how an amatuer like me managed to sucessfully install new motors, then put old ones back on... and then when I had to do 1 little solder joint it screwed it lol..
well the first antenna I put on it seemed to be better, no heat issues and the gps module was trying to work, I was just not getting any satts due to something gone wrong.

Then I put another antenna on and thats when I started to get the constant yellow... I just hope it is only the gps module that is fried and not the naza etc...

 

[justin00]

Lol put it back to stock antenna and gave it a good clean in a type of contact cleanerm.. all working again and picks up gps and flies properly.. thats with stock antenna..

gonna put new antenna back on and hopefully its all good. The clean must of done something.

Wish me luck!

 

[Sandman1962]

Good luck!

I'm sorry your experience was so different from my own.
I too had those nervous few seconds when the satellite read remained 0...
But it rapidly captured.
I'm glad your old antenna works.... But give it another go! Whatever you cleaned and adjusted
Seemed to have worked!

The flying is the most fun part

 

[burlbark]

Lol put it back to stock antenna and gave it a good clean in a type of contact cleanerm.. all working again and picks up gps and flies properly.. thats with stock antenna..

gonna put new antenna back on and hopefully its all good. The clean must of done something.

Wish me luck!

The flashing yellow is looking for satellites. I have had a hand full of bad GPS antennas. The get a micro crack around the collector pin where it is soldered and they will not pick up satts with any reliability. If its any consolation I have a customers Vision coming back to me that may have developed this problem. It happens.

 

[SteveMann]

can you please tell me if the 4mm antenna gets quite hot and can be felt through the top of the phantom shell ?
thanks

Whoah - the GPS antenna should not get hot. You sure you didn't wire it backwards?

 

[justin00]

lol no wasnt on backwards... tried instlaling a few times.. it doesn't get hot anymore..

what is pissing me off is that I can take the old one off, put it on and it works... and repeat a few times.. and its still working!!

I actually bought 5 of the new antenna's.. and I have tried taking the adhesive off 2... I find it hard to believe 2 out of the 5 are faulty!!!

The good news is I can put the stock one back on atleast and its working... so naza, etc etc is all still fine..

Do I need to do an advanced IMU or something after I put it on ? Once it actually picks up some satts I will do an advanced anyways.

To test now I am just soldering it in, plugging the cable in then holding it up (obviously not by the electronic part lol) and I am using anti static thingo. I didn't mount the lid properly or even at all as that would be 10000x more annoying!! but the same testing 'method' with the stock one... I can hold it up and the satts go up.. Not the preffered method to test, but I'm not gonna take it off 800 times :/

One thing I relies putting the stock one back on... less soder is definetly more! The area to solder is tiny if you put to much on its easy to not actually make contact.
I don't want to keep soldering it and potentially damage it... but I am determined! Its now a challenge...

But yeah... hopefully someone tells me when you put a new antenna on you need to hop on one leg and then it takes effect ?

One last thing... the direction does not matter right ? I suppose if it did me holding up the board wouldn't work.

 

[burlbark]

lol no wasnt on backwards... tried instlaling a few times.. it doesn't get hot anymore..

what is pissing me off is that I can take the old one off, put it on and it works... and repeat a few times.. and its still working!!

I actually bought 5 of the new antenna's.. and I have tried taking the adhesive off 2... I find it hard to believe 2 out of the 5 are faulty!!!

The good news is I can put the stock one back on atleast and its working... so naza, etc etc is all still fine..

Do I need to do an advanced IMU or something after I put it on ? Once it actually picks up some satts I will do an advanced anyways.

To test now I am just soldering it in, plugging the cable in then holding it up (obviously not by the electronic part lol) and I am using anti static thingo. I didn't mount the lid properly or even at all as that would be 10000x more annoying!! but the same testing 'method' with the stock one... I can hold it up and the satts go up.. Not the preffered method to test, but I'm not gonna take it off 800 times :/

One thing I relies putting the stock one back on... less soder is definetly more! The area to solder is tiny if you put to much on its easy to not actually make contact.
I don't want to keep soldering it and potentially damage it... but I am determined! Its now a challenge...

But yeah... hopefully someone tells me when you put a new antenna on you need to hop on one leg and then it takes effect ?

One last thing... the direction does not matter right ? I suppose if it did me holding up the board wouldn't work.

Direction does not matter and I got 5 bad ones out of one batch because they stacked them together. If the through hole is not perfectly clean and you try to force or even push the upgraded antenna through you have already broke it. You must make sure to use zero force when inserting the antenna. if you do assist it push it from the solder point on the pin.

No calibration is needed after installation.

You are breaking the reception plane or using to much solder. The adhesive must be used to keep the antenna from breaking in the future. I like to apply down ward pressure on the top of the antenna on the soldered pin location to keep the pin pulling down on the top as it cools and contracts.

 

[Sandman1962]

I hope you have it all sorted out...
Interestingly, I can not fathom why at all would your GPS board be getting hot.
The antenna is passive and should not get hot.

Hot usually means a short of some sort... Could there be some extra pressure from underneath
(Once installed)? That is, could something be pushing up against the board once you've replaced the top?
I'm grasping for straws obviously, but could the extra 2 mm cause issues from below? Any wire damage visible?

Good luck!

 

[justin00]

Yeeeeehaw!!! Finally working lol... didmt do amything diff.... not sure if naybe 2 out of the 5 were damaged... probs not...but finally working...

Will put the lid back on and install properly before I test it but it saw 6 satellites (outside). Will measure if any inside when shell on.

Thanks heaps for everyones help...and ya biggest tip is less soldee is more!!!

 

[justin00]

I still maimtain doing any work after a drink or two is not preffered. Reading over the ppsts im beyond coherent (more so than normal lol) my apologies :/

 

[justin00]

BTW I'm very happy with the tests results.
I get 4 satts inside my house... previously it was 0 inside.

And outside my house were I would get 6 or 7 flipping between the 2 values, now i get a consistent 8. Yet to try it out at my park where I fly often, I normally get anything from 8-10.. so can't wait to try it out tomorrow and see how that has improved.

To be honest though I would just be happy with 7, as long as its a nice solid 7 and doesn't change back to 6 etc etc..

 

[Mopar Bob]

Justin, sound like a good practice for anyone doing this is to order a few extra units just to make sure you get one that works. Fortunately they are cheap enough to do that.