Satellites , Litchi, OH MY

Joined
Jul 5, 2016
Messages
572
Reaction score
165
Age
44
So, I do a fun waypoint mission sometimes to my sisters house about 2 miles, takes only about 13 minutes at whatever fast speed I have set it .

Now here is my major concern, I noticed right away I wasn't getting my normal 14-18 satellites rather just sitting at 8-9, I figured after waiting 5 minutes I would just get more at altitude.

I get a few more around 11-12, start my mission and off she goes, now thanks to my antenna I pretty much have signal the whole way, unless I'm lazy and just sit on my lawn chair which is what I did this night.

I stood up at about the point I knew it was half way back and reconnected, I saw everything was good on the video/map, when all of a sudden I saw the yellow ATTI mode on the top for a good few seconds, thinking WTH, I might have noticed the sat. count lowered a little too, (I forget was just worried about the atti mode)
It went back to GPS mode but here is the issue, the **** drone just sat there, it completely stopped and never moved again.

I mean what in the world is going on here? I mean technically 3 satellites should be enough for basic navigation, but even if it loses satellites a few of them, and regains them it shouldn't just stop the mission, and if does it should resume, this thing saves all information, every single split second, it knows telemetry information by the micro meter, I really think this is something Litchi needs to look at.

side note, not to spin the topic, but the reason for my lowered sat count, I realized after I came back something new was on my drone, that was the polar-pro light kit, first time using it.
Big ol' battery on the top of the drone is obviously blocking reception some.
 
You are right any metal on top of the drone will block/ weaken GPS signals.

During mission flights all the controls are handed over to the drone and Litchi practically does not control anything. I am sure there is a way for drone to work out the direction it needs to go to reach home in case of loss of satellites but DJI has not implemented that kind of SW yet.
 
You are right any metal on top of the drone will block/ weaken GPS signals.

During mission flights all the controls are handed over to the drone and Litchi practically does not control anything. I am sure there is a way for drone to work out the direction it needs to go to reach home in case of loss of satellites but DJI has not implemented that kind of SW yet.

thanks, this sucks though, obviously I can't use that light anymore, I was lucky, because there are times at that distance I could lose signal and if that happened at that time I'd be screwed.

What a terrible design for that light though, wish I would have known that. I guess I could still use it, just make sure I'm super close to home.
 
During mission flights all the controls are handed over to the drone and Litchi practically does not control anything. I am sure there is a way for drone to work out the direction it needs to go to reach home in case of loss of satellites but DJI has not implemented that kind of SW yet.

I'm very confused by this. Without GPS, how would it have any idea where Home is? While it still has the compass, knowing where north is would not be of much value if it no longer has any idea where it is.
 
You might want to compare the light kit with and without a few times each just to get a decent idea. I fly with that light kit on the bird full time without satellite issue thus far. If you like the light kit just be sure it's actually that giving you the problem. I usually get 15-17 sats with the kit on full time. Sometimes it's lower on the ground before reaching altitude, depending on where I am. When hit 10 on the ground and home point is logged, I'm off. Keep in mind it's not a 'big old battery' in the pp light kit. It's a decent size piece of plastic that is needed to attach to the top of the bird, but I think the battery is very small.

Btw- you didn't mention how you corrected the situation and got the bird moving and home again.
 
Last edited:

Recent Posts

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
143,066
Messages
1,467,352
Members
104,933
Latest member
mactechnic