Use an iPad for display and an iPhone for gps

Yes, I fly with my iPad most of the time and it is WIFI only. No GPS is noted. I do use my iPad sometimes when I want a smaller package and the video display is not needed to be large.
Thanks,
Jim
WA5TEF
 
OK, I need a brief lesson here. My iPad has GPS on it I think. At least I use the maps app and it seems to be accurate. I can also "find my iPhone" using it. Does this mean that I have GPS on my iPad? I do not have cellular connection, WIFI only.
Thanks for any answers,
Jim
WA5TEF
 
OK, I need a brief lesson here. My iPad has GPS on it I think. At least I use the maps app and it seems to be accurate. I can also "find my iPhone" using it. Does this mean that I have GPS on my iPad? I do not have cellular connection, WIFI only.
Thanks for any answers,
Jim
WA5TEF
Wifi only IPads don't have the GPS chipset.
 
Then, should I not be using the iPad? It seems to work OK. I thought it had GPS since the maps app worked fine. Am I wrong? Again???
Thanks,
Jim
WA5TEF
 
Then, should I not be using the iPad? It seems to work OK. I thought it had GPS since the maps app worked fine. Am I wrong? Again???
Thanks,
Jim
WA5TEF
It will be fine unless you want to use the follow me mode or change the home point during flight. Home point at launch and AC position on the Map in flight are provided by the onboard GPS in the AC...
 
Thanks for the info. I did not mean to hijack the posting here. I'll keep reading anyway.
Jim
WA5TEF
 
I'm just trying to keep from spending yet another outrageous amount of cash for my already expensive venture. I just figured if the drone can use my phone for gps AND screen maybe it could use the iPad for a screen and my phone for the GPS.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots
 
For what it's worth, I use a wifi-only (non-gps) iPad Air 2 and provide gps data to it with a Garmin Glo GPS receiver, which connects to the iPad via Bluetooth. Works great.

Keep in mind you only need gps on your tablet if you're going to use Follow Me or if you want to reset the Home point during flight to the current location of the tablet.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots
 
I think I can clear this up.

OP, by "GPS" is what you really mean being able to see maps on the tablet? This requires a data connection for the tablet to contact Google (or HERE) servers to get the map imagery. If you do not have a network connection on the tablet, it will be able to locate you with the GPS built-in to the tablet -- which virtually every tablet has these days -- but will not be able to give any meaningful visual location on the map because it has no imagery.

The solution to this is to use a phone that can be set up as a wifi hotspot/access point. I'm not familiar with iOS and iPhones, so I don't know if this feature is available, and how to set it up. I'll leave it to iPhone users here to address that.

If you have an Android phone, especially a pretty new one (last 12 months), it probably has a Wifi Hotspot or Wifi Tethering feature in the settings somewhere. Turn this on, connect your tablet's wifi to your phone, and now you have full-function maps on the tablet.

This is what I do.

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Now, if the issue is that you truly don't have GPS on the tablet, there is a solution on Android to make your phone act like a Bluetooth GPS module, transmitting GPS data over BT (this is an app on the Google Play Store). A different app (also on the Play Store) can be installed on the tablet to use BT as a GPS provider for the system. With this setup, even if you don't have GPS on the tablet you can use your phone GPS to provide location data to the tablet.

I don't know if there is anything similar for iOS -- those experts will have to speak up and cover that platform.
 

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