GPS and return home with bebop 1

[kevwing]

Hi All,
When flying my drone with my phone, my GPS signal on the 'safety' section has:
no green for drone
green for controller (is this meaning my phone? how can that be green but the drone not be highlighted
no green tick for 'return home position', i think the tick is supposed to be green.

I do have the flight controller, i often do not use it as I only have two batteries that work, my other two simply don't charge (any tips for this?).

Thanks
kev

 

[lpff]

No green icon for drone means GPS of the drone has not locked position. You need to leave it for a time to lock if you will fly too far, so for using RTH on the safe side. Usually, older Bebops have a not so sensitive GPS receiver and need time to lock.
On the other hand, green icon in the smart device does not help at all in an "accident", same with controller.
No problems if you will fly close and not too high!
From my experience, it helps to raise the drone around 40-50m high, in order to lock the GPS!

 

[kevwing]

Thanks for the tips.
Only issue with taking a few minutes for GPS to set is that the parot bebop 1 only has about 12 minutes fly time on its batteries!
Anyways, i'm not planning to fly a long way away, just wanted the gps and the rth feature so I felt more comfortable whilst learning.
I'll try your suggestion about flying it higher to lock.

 

[lpff]

1. Waiting idle to get GPS signal does not consume too much battery.
2. Once locked, it takes seconds to re-lock if you change battery.
3. I'm lucky because my red bebop 1 is of the latest ones, with the advanced GPS module, it receives and locks up to 16 satellites in seconds.
Happy flights!

 

[kevwing]

Ah thats good to know.
How do you know your bebop 1 has the latest GPS module? What Can I check? I'm pretty sure I won't.
I do have a sky controller, do you think that should help in anyway? I don't think so as its more to do with the Drone i'm guessing

 

[lpff]

Can you send me a screenshot of Freeflight Pro? Open app and press the top left bar with the name of the drone. Then you will see drone's last position and the GPS version. Make a screen shot and attach it to a reply post.

 

[kevwing]

Ok, I just saw this now after my test flight.
I hovered the drone 45m up and still no gps.
I"ll do the screenshot tomorrow. Thanks

 

[lpff]

This is a well known problem with old Bebops. Sometimes it needs a reset to help. Is the drone second hand?

 

[kevwing]

GPS is blank
Just attached the screenshots.

Yes it is second hand. In really good condition though.
Shall I try resetting it? it looks like the Gps might be easy to replace like the Wifi Chips etc?

Thanks again

 

[lpff]

1. Try to reset the drone keeping power button pressed for 12-15 seconds. Leave it for making the cycle (until the green light is on). Then power off and on again. You will loose all settings in Freeflight app, so set them again.
2. You can clean the top of GPS module with something like pharmaceutical alcohol, if it is not clear.
3. You can replace the GPS module with a new one but this is risky, if again the new is old version.

I propose to clean first, then reset the drone and then leave it on in a clear place until the battery ends. If it locks for the first time you will never face the problem again.

 

[Schutes]

1. Waiting idle to get GPS signal does not consume too much battery.
2. Once locked, it takes seconds to re-lock if you change battery.
3. I'm lucky because my red bebop 1 is of the latest ones, with the advanced GPS module, it receives and locks up to 16 satellites in seconds.
Happy flights!

Hello all... I'm sorry to jump into the discussion but I have some related GPS questions. If you think I should start a new thread just let me know. I'm new to Bebops and based on what I've heard, read, and now experienced first hand, the GNSS receiver in the Bebop 1 is marginal even when it is working. I'm in the process of repairing several used Bebop 1s and my questions are:
1. Has anyone tried the GNSS receiver from a Bebop 2 in a Bebop1
2. Does anyone have the board pin-outs/wiring diagrams for the 2 different receivers
Thanks!!

 

[Navyman]

Hi All,
When flying my drone with my phone, my GPS signal on the 'safety' section has:
no green for drone
green for controller (is this meaning my phone? how can that be green but the drone not be highlighted
no green tick for 'return home position', i think the tick is supposed to be green.

I do have the flight controller, i often do not use it as I only have two batteries that work, my other two simply don't charge (any tips for this?).

Thanks
kev

I had the same problem with my Bebop 1 I had to change out the ribbon cable for the GPS module to the motherboard. Somehow one of the wires got pulled out of the plug when plugging in the battery connector on and off. Hope this helps bought mine off eBay for $8

 

[Schutes]

If the drone icon is not green it's indicating that the drone does not have GPS lock so it would not be able to return home on its own. It's not at all uncommon to have the "GPS" green on the control screen, (you're right, that's indicating that your phone sees the satellites), but not have the drone icon green. Does your drone have the latest firmware in it? That's always a good place to start. Have you tried powering up the drone and letting it sit outside with a clear view of the sky for about 10 minutes and see if you get GPS lock. If that doesn't work I'd pop the hood off and check the cable from the GPS to the mother board. Make sure both ends are plugged in completely. You can unplug and reseat each end. While you're doing that you can twist the cable to help minimize interference. If that fails ebay does have VERY cost effective replacement parts: Parrot Bebop 1 GPS Board and Screws Manufacturer Refurbished | eBay
Have fun!

 

[Appleswarm]

1. Try to reset the drone keeping power button pressed for 12-15 seconds. Leave it for making the cycle (until the green light is on). Then power off and on again. You will loose all settings in Freeflight app, so set them again.
2. You can clean the top of GPS module with something like pharmaceutical alcohol, if it is not clear.
3. You can replace the GPS module with a new one but this is risky, if again the new is old version.

I propose to clean first, then reset the drone and then leave it on in a clear place until the battery ends. If it locks for the first time you will never face the problem again.

I haven't powered up my Bebop 1 in several years. Maybe 5 yrs. Right off there was a motor error that gently pushing on the motor connector fixed.... but I'm going to disassemble and solder the motor wires, I already did that one one of the motor connectors it's time to do the other three. Can't have flaky motor connections!

Anyway, got no gps lock. I remembered something about new bebops requiring some time to build a gps table of some sort, but after an hour or so still no gps indication.

So I found this thread, and performed a reset as you mentioned. As soon as it finished... voila.. a gps lock!

The trouble is now, the gps is terribly inaccurate with the icon drifting around on the map with 50ft or so error. It has been accurate within one or two feet in the past. Not sure what's going on. It's been sitting out idle sniffing the sky for some time now and doesn't seem to be improving.

Haven't put her in the sky yet, not until I feel the motor connections are sound.

I guess I'll let it sit out through a few full batteries and see if the gps improves.

 

[Assemblybhz]

Hello all... I'm sorry to jump into the discussion but I have some related GPS questions. If you think I should start a new thread just let me know. I'm new to Bebops and based on what I've heard, read, and now experienced first hand, the GNSS receiver in the Bebop 1 is marginal even when it is working. I'm in the process of repairing several used Bebop 1s and my questions are:
1. Has anyone tried the GNSS receiver from a Bebop 2 in a Bebop1
2. Does anyone have the board pin-outs/wiring diagrams for the 2 different receivers
Thanks!!

Sorry for the very late answer, and yes i did it yesterday with my bebop 1. After waiting for GPS signal for like 10 min i decided to grab some tools and check how my GPS was burnt like everybody says. And for my surprise the GPS module was spitting the correct position of the drone location but no signal strength or live signal from the bebop system.

I used this command to grab the output of the gps in the bebop linux terminal after the wifi the drone and telnet:

/tmp # cat /tmp/gps_nmea_out | grep GNRMC

$GNRMC,164711.800,A,5532.4255,N,01213.4761,E,0.00,333.44,090822,,,A,V*06

$GNRMC,164712.800,A,5532.4255,N,01213.4761,E,0.00,333.44,090822,,,A,V*05

$GNRMC,164713.800,A,5532.4255,N,01213.4761,E,0.00,333.44,090822,,,A,V*04

$GNRMC,164714.800,A,5532.4255,N,01213.4761,E,0.00,333.44,090822,,,A,V*03

$GNRMC,164715.800,A,5532.4255,N,01213.4761,E,0.00,333.44,090822,,,A,V*02

$GNRMC,164716.800,A,5532.4255,N,01213.4761,E,0.00,333.44,090822,,,A,V*01

Using the homepage: GPRMC & GPGGA: Online Decoder for GPS NMEA messages i copied and pastet the line and the location was exact like perfect with no errors, and yet, no GPS green signal in the app. maybe this is a software error in the bebop? i tried to downgrade and upgrade again with no luck. My gps signal still gray. Maybe someone with more knowledge about ardrone software can give us answer to this problem.

So my gps is not burned but for some reason no GPS strength in the bebop app

 

[Terrafir]

....I used this command to grab the output of the gps in the bebop linux terminal after the wifi the drone and telnet:

I connected to my Bebop and am trying to telnet to it but I'm getting connection refused. Any insight here? I'm assuming I'm connecting to my "router" on the network. Basically just running:
```
telnet 192.168.42.1

Trying 192.168.42.1...
telnet: connect to address 192.168.42.1: Connection refused
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host
```

I did try pressing the power button 4 times to get the drone to enable telnet. Interestingly, I can connect with port 21 (ftp), no ssh (22) or telnet (23)

After a port scan (`nmap 192.168.42.1 -Pn`), I can confirm that only port 21 is open. Any suggestions on how to enable telnet here?

 

[Assemblybhz]

I connected to my Bebop and am trying to telnet to it but I'm getting connection refused. Any insight here? I'm assuming I'm connecting to my "router" on the network. Basically just running:
```
telnet 192.168.42.1

Trying 192.168.42.1...
telnet: connect to address 192.168.42.1: Connection refused
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host
```

I did try pressing the power button 4 times to get the drone to enable telnet. Interestingly, I can connect with port 21 (ftp), no ssh (22) or telnet (23)

After a port scan (`nmap 192.168.42.1 -Pn`), I can confirm that only port 21 is open. Any suggestions on how to enable telnet here?

you you din't change the port, the task is just connect via port 23

Are you sure you pressed the on/off button 4 times fast?