Risks of Low Satellite Counts?

[kyrvas]

Using Litchi with a P3P, I flew a mission manually to set waypoints in real time.
During the flight, according to AirData, there were mostly 4,5,6 satellites; I have only flown when there are primarily 12 satellites.
However, I had no problems but I noticed that the mode changed often from P-GPS to P-Opti; although the uplink & downlink were always 100%.

My question: if I automate this flight in Litchi, what are the risks since the location will again probably produce primarily 3,5,6 locked satellites.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Meta4]

Using Litchi with a P3P, I flew a mission manually to set waypoints in real time.
During the flight, according to AirData, there were mostly 4,5,6 satellites; I have only flown when there are primarily 12 satellites.
However, I had no problems but I noticed that the mode changed often from P-GPS to P-Opti; although the uplink & downlink were always 100%.

The uplink/downlink is just the signal connection between the drone and controller.
It has nothing to do with GPS.
A Litchi waypoint mission requires good GPS for the drone to:
Know where it is
Know where the waypoints are
Know how to get to each waypoint in turn.
Unless you have full GPS, the drone can't carry out the mission.
Without GPS, the drone also cannot RTH on its own.

My question: if I automate this flight in Litchi, what are the risks since the location will again probably produce primarily 3,5,6 locked satellites.

The drone requires a bare minimum of 6 sats (and it could take more) to have full GPS.
You cannot reliably use Litchi in the flying environment you described.
I suspect that Litchi will advise that it cannot run without GPS if you try to.

Maybe it won't affect you but another side effect of not having good GPS is that height would be restricted to 400
feet. (120m).

 

[kyrvas]

The uplink/downlink is just the signal connection between the drone and controller.
It has nothing to do with GPS.
A Litchi waypoint mission requires good GPS for the drone to:
Know where it is
Know where the waypoints are
Know how to get to each waypoint in turn.
Unless you have full GPS, the drone can't carry out the mission.
Without GPS, the drone also cannot RTH on its own.



The drone requires a bare minimum of 6 sats (and it could take more) to have full GPS.
You cannot reliably use Litchi in the flying environment you described.
I suspect that Litchi will advise that it cannot run without GPS if you try to.

Maybe it won't affect you but another side effect of not having good GPS is that height would be restricted to 400
feet. (120m).

Meta4 - thanks for your reply.
"The uplink/downlink is just the signal connection between the drone and controller." Yes, having a good signal was one thing I was counting on if the Litchi mission went awry; then I could switch from F to P mode and take control. I will always be within VLOS; the drone only travels from the HP ~50' to 70'.

"Unless you have full GPS, the drone can't carry out the mission." . . . "The drone requires a bare minimum of 6 sats (and it could take more) to have full GPS." This is what I needed to know!

Looks like I will have to fly this mission manually in P-GPS mode.