GPS issue ?

[S.C.C.]

I notice my Anafi's GPS icon ALWAYS takes more time to become green than the controller's or phone's, and if there are some trees or obstacle around, the green is much less stable than the controller's, is that the case for everyone ? I had a small crash just after hand launching a few weeks ago, despite the fact that I always wait for the green light to take off, I didn't touch the joysticks, but the drone climbed by itself a few meters high, then went to the ground just as fast. My hypothesis is that it was caused by bad GPS reception.

Today I was flying manually for 1-2 minutes, when I got a brown warning about GPS, something about no autonomous flight capacity, if I remember correctly (I always forget to record the phone's screen, so I'm not sure about the exact words), the drone was a few dozens meters high, a single tree 100 meters away... After landing I noticed the red drone GPS icon, tried to restart, still ZERO satellite (really ? zero ?) I have been flying from the exact same place many times, the icon never stayed red very long ! The green light came back later after I flew a few minutes just some meters away, resetted the battery, started again a few times, etc...

Note : I just shared my flights data with Parrot yesterday, after a few mails about the issue described in the 1st paragraph, and today I have this sudden loss of GPS and autonomous flight capacity (and most problematic, no more RTH) in flight with no obstacles around...

 

[Spectre]

After about two years of flying in about the same location, I had a complete loss of GPS on February 20th.
- Three take offs and landings - 3 batteries

I think a firmware update preceded the problems on February 20th and February 21st.

I emailed Parrot Support asking if GPS problems had been a reported problem after the most recent firmware, for my particular hardware build.

I received a response that I should take off and hover at 6 m until I obtain GPS locks.

When I flew on the 21st of February, I had the same problem for 3 flights = 3 batteries.

Then I think another firmware update occurred.

I've had no problems with the GPS for all flights since the 21st of February.

I'm located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

It could be that the GPS optimisation was not 'well-optimised' for my geo-coordinates?

 

[Rocky the FS]

I notice my Anafi's GPS icon ALWAYS takes more time to become green than the controller's or phone's, and if there are some trees or obstacle around, the green is much less stable than the controller's, is that the case for everyone ? ....

Yes, my drone always takes longer to get a green GPS, and the drone GPS signal is less stable, but only a little less if I have no obstacles. The more obstacles the worse it gets. Since I mostly fly in very isolated areas, and not under trees nor in canyons, my icons usually stay green.

 

[Ana789]

I notice my Anafi's GPS icon ALWAYS takes more time to become green than the controller's or phone's, and if there are some trees or obstacle around, the green is much less stable than the controller's,[...]

Your phone has A-GPS, to work with. PLUS the GPS
Anafi just has GPS
And near trees/houses, that needs a while/is impossible to generate a 3D position
this is also the reason, that "waiting" some meters up in the air for GPS can get you where you wanna be!

 

[S.C.C.]

Thanks a lot to all of you, I'll try again and see if it's back to normal, before contacting Parrot, or returning the Anafi for repair.

 

[Gipsz Jakab]

Thanks a lot to all of you, I'll try again and see if it's back to normal, before contacting Parrot, or returning the Anafi for repair.

Not enough talk: Use the UAV forecast application and you will see a field labeled "kp".
This is the index of the geomagnetic storm caused by sunbursts coming from the sun. Its value ranges from 0 to 9, but it is not advisable to fly above 3 as it will greatly reduce (interrupt) the signal of the GPS satellites, which makes the flight uncertain.
There are youtubers who test long-haul flight (eg, Dustin Dunill) and often measure different results, but do not realize that long distance radio and GPS (GPS) can vary depending on the sun. (radio amateurs know).

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Ah yes the old KP index debate LOL
I for one do not believe it has much affect with modern UAV's as the tech has improved since I started flying UAV's 6 years ago. I can say I have flown when it actually reached KP9 in my area a couple years ago and did not notice any problems. This was with a Yuneec Typhoon Q500. There are many that will argue one way or the other. If it makes you feel better not to fly when the KP is high then please do not fly. Here is a post from a few years ago that explains how I feel. This guy actually makes a lot of sense.

Does the K-index negatively effect DJI drones?

What Is the K-index? Per Wikipedia, the K-index quantifies disturbances in the horizontal component of earth’s magnetic field with an integer in the range 0–9 with 1 being calm and 5 or more indicating a geomagnetic storm. It is derived from the maximum fluctuations of horizontal components...

forum.phantomhelp.com

 

[Gipsz Jakab]

Ah yes the old KP index debate LOL
I for one do not believe it has much affect with modern UAV's as the tech has improved since I started flying UAV's 6 years ago. I can say I have flown when it actually reached KP9 in my area a couple years ago and did not notice any problems. This was with a Yuneec Typhoon Q500. There are many that will argue one way or the other. If it makes you feel better not to fly when the KP is high then please do not fly. Here is a post from a few years ago that explains how I feel. This guy actually makes a lot of sense.

Does the K-index negatively effect DJI drones?

What Is the K-index? Per Wikipedia, the K-index quantifies disturbances in the horizontal component of earth’s magnetic field with an integer in the range 0–9 with 1 being calm and 5 or more indicating a geomagnetic storm. It is derived from the maximum fluctuations of horizontal components...

forum.phantomhelp.com

By the way, it does not really affect UAVs, but electromagnetic signals: RC radio, GPS reception.
Here is an excerpt from the article you quoted that might help for S.C.C. :
During a major geomagnetic storm, GPS signals from the satellite to our Phantom GPS receivers gets bent by the increased electron density, which increases the path length and introduces position errors. The disturbed ionosphere can also cause degraded signal-to-noise problems, meaning your receiver may loose lock on one or more birds. Also, the bending of signals can also cause “phase slips,” which can also cause the receiver to temporarily loose lock on the GPS, taking a few seconds to tens of seconds to relock on the dropped satellite.

 

[S.C.C.]

That's very interesting, I had heard and forgotten about these magnetic storms !

Now I see that yesterday was classified level 1 over 0 (NOAA publishes this K-index : Planetary K-index | NOAA / NWS Space Weather Prediction Center ), which should not be very remarkable, at least not strong enough to cause problems, I suppose, except for some isolated peak, not reported in these average numbers.

I had no GPS issues when flying today (which was to be expected, as for the 1st time I managed to record Free Flight's screen, and so would have a proof of the inflight GPS loss), only the usual delay to get a green icon, battery was already at 95% when I got the green ligh to take off ...

 

[Ana789]

....

(which was to be expected, as for the 1st time I managed to record Free Flight's screen, and so would have a proof of the inflight GPS loss)

The Yeti also knows: Everyone has a Camera with him, yet, so he has to hide even better as before.
Even Alien sightings are down a lot, since 2007

Sorry, couldn't resist!

 

[Gipsz Jakab]

Yeah, no corona virus either, because it does not seem to, people can't see, so there is no ...

 

[Nidge]

Hopefully this might quell some of the superstitions and pseudoscience surrounding Kp indices and effects on GPS pointing accuracy.

Taken from a study of solar storm activity and the eggects on GPS PPP

“The 3D RMS at this region based on all stations’ results during moderate, intense, and super storms are 0.393 m, 0.680 m, and 1.051 m,”

The full report can be read here:

Assessing the Performance of GPS Precise Point Positioning Under Different Geomagnetic Storm Conditions during Solar Cycle 24

The geomagnetic storm, which is an abnormal space weather phenomenon, can sometimes severely affect GPS signal propagation, thereby impacting the performance of GPS precise point positioning (PPP). However, the investigation of GPS PPP accuracy over the ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Regards

 

[Ana789]

Yeah, no corona virus either, because it does not seem to, people can't see, so there is no ...

That describes first and foremost the political decisionmaker, right?
Till one of 'em get's it. Andhe/she and all of them can then see it, therefore!
Unbelievable, that viruses are so political incorrect and doesn't conform to etiquette.
Isn't it?
Corona is another political crisis!
The EU p.ex. had a lot of time. And look what happend!

 

[S.C.C.]

The Yeti also knows: Everyone has a Camera with him, yet, so he has to hide even better as before.
Even Alien sightings are down a lot, since 2007

Sorry, couldn't resist!

Do not joke with that, you make me remember that I've spotted my first "UFO" a few months ago, not very impressive, but a weird cognitive bypass...

Back to the Anafi I recorded a weird loss of camera feed, today, after a bad wifi connection with the drone : when the connection gets better, I can see the map, position, data, pilot my drone a few meters away only, but no image anymore, the black screen remains ! I needed to go back to the home page of the app, then tap "Fly" again to get back the video feed... looks like a bug to me.

And I had bad GPS reception again. One issue in Flight Plan is that when the drone starts, it's oriented in the opposite direction than the setting of the first waypoint ! and also at least 5 meters off position. The second issue is more difficulties to land it in my hand when the GPS signal is bad...

I have recorded all these issues from the phone's screen, but not the total loss of GPS position in flight described in my 1st post.

 

[ConPhoto]

Did you get this resolved at all?

I've about 5hours flying with Anafi and sometimes getting GPS has been a struggle and now i cant get GPS reading at all, reset, updated, diff batteries, diff phones...
Parrot support seems to be a mystery wrapped in an enigma

After about two years of flying in about the same location, I had a complete loss of GPS on February 20th.
- Three take offs and landings - 3 batteries

I think a firmware update preceded the problems on February 20th and February 21st.

I emailed Parrot Support asking if GPS problems had been a reported problem after the most recent firmware, for my particular hardware build.

I received a response that I should take off and hover at 6 m until I obtain GPS locks.

When I flew on the 21st of February, I had the same problem for 3 flights = 3 batteries.

Then I think another firmware update occurred.

I've had no problems with the GPS for all flights since the 21st of February.

I'm located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

It could be that the GPS optimisation was not 'well-optimised' for my geo-coordinates?