Wanting to have a larger display I purchased a refurbished Ipad Mini 2. Unfortunately I neglected to notice the fact that it was wifi only and without a built in GPS there is a red GPS displayed for the controller in the FF6 app and no telemetry. After doing some research I purchased the Garmin GLO portable GPS unit and glad to report it works as advertised. Charge the battery, sync it to the Ipad via Bluetooth and start up the FF6 app and I now have a green GPS indicator for the controller in the FF6 app and telemetry. Simple as 1, 2, 3. The GLO unit is tiny, easily fits in my jacket pocket but still gets good satellite reception. It's great when something works as advertised without going through a bunch of set-up and programing hassles.
Ipad Mini 2 Wifi only and Garmin GLO
- Thread starter pmh1nic
- Start date
I have the garmin Glo as well, it’s actually nicer than the built in gps in most devices anyway, it updates 10 times per second, and has GPS and glonass for extra accuracy.
It’s also a plus that you can place the glo device up high facing sky and not worry about how the device in the controller faces to get signal.
Only downside of course is now you have to have another wireless device on, potentially causing interference in the 2.4 GHz range, but it’s low power and transmits differently, so doesn’t usually pose as big a problem as an interfering wifi device.
Bluetooth jumps around a lot too, so that interference will be intermittent - you may want to more strongly consider switching to 5Ghz when using this, saving 2.4 GHz for when you need the range it provides. You probably don’t want the kind of dronie follow modes at long range anyway, they’re more for close in work.
It’s also a plus that you can place the glo device up high facing sky and not worry about how the device in the controller faces to get signal.
Only downside of course is now you have to have another wireless device on, potentially causing interference in the 2.4 GHz range, but it’s low power and transmits differently, so doesn’t usually pose as big a problem as an interfering wifi device.
Bluetooth jumps around a lot too, so that interference will be intermittent - you may want to more strongly consider switching to 5Ghz when using this, saving 2.4 GHz for when you need the range it provides. You probably don’t want the kind of dronie follow modes at long range anyway, they’re more for close in work.
I also have a Garmin GLO that works flawlessly with my iPad mini 4.
I’ve never thought about the interferences that can occur in the 2,4 GHz band between WiFi and Bluetooth ... they may be in different bands so they do not ‘overlap’ ?
I’ve never thought about the interferences that can occur in the 2,4 GHz band between WiFi and Bluetooth ... they may be in different bands so they do not ‘overlap’ ?
They use the same small chunk of spectrum in 2.4GHz, and bluetooth jumps around every few seconds while in use, but tries to identify bad bands among the 70 channels it divides the spectrum into. The 70 is a bit misleading, as they aren’t really discrete channels but overlap a bit.
Wifi divides it into 11 channels, but really the ends and the middle are the ones that don’t really overlap, you really only have those three in use without overlap, the other channels are really just good for splitting the difference between two equally strong sources of interference. Anyway the first 23 channels of bluetooth correspond to the fist 1-3 channels of wifi, second 24-48 is the middle channels etc.
now since wifi tries to pick a good channel starting out and sticking with it, and bluetooth jumps around, but notes collisions and then avoids those channels for a bit, you should be okay if you’re by yourself - bluetooth will end up jumping around the unused 6 or so wifi channels of space.
But if there are one or two other sources of interference, bluetooth is going to crowd that that limited space further. Other devices might up their transmit strength to compensate.
TLDR, Probably fine most of the time but consider, if you run into interference, turning off gps if you aren’t using it, or switching to 5GHz if you are.
Wifi divides it into 11 channels, but really the ends and the middle are the ones that don’t really overlap, you really only have those three in use without overlap, the other channels are really just good for splitting the difference between two equally strong sources of interference. Anyway the first 23 channels of bluetooth correspond to the fist 1-3 channels of wifi, second 24-48 is the middle channels etc.
now since wifi tries to pick a good channel starting out and sticking with it, and bluetooth jumps around, but notes collisions and then avoids those channels for a bit, you should be okay if you’re by yourself - bluetooth will end up jumping around the unused 6 or so wifi channels of space.
But if there are one or two other sources of interference, bluetooth is going to crowd that that limited space further. Other devices might up their transmit strength to compensate.
TLDR, Probably fine most of the time but consider, if you run into interference, turning off gps if you aren’t using it, or switching to 5GHz if you are.
Thanks for this precious set of info, I didn’t know about the ‘bouncing’ of the Bluetooth signal on the same 2,4 GHz frequency searching for the less populated band.
In the end of your post, you mention ‘turning off GPS’ ... did you mean ‘turning off Bluetooth’ ? As GPS signals that are all around cannot be ‘switched off’ from satellites and no phone or drone does emit GPS signals ?
In the end of your post, you mention ‘turning off GPS’ ... did you mean ‘turning off Bluetooth’ ? As GPS signals that are all around cannot be ‘switched off’ from satellites and no phone or drone does emit GPS signals ?
Yes, I meant turning off your bluetooth gps device, really turn off both your garmin glo ( or whatever bluetooth gps reciever you’re using ) and disable bluetooth.
Turning off any navstar satellites in your vicinity will cause somewhat of a hullabaloo, and will likely result in a stern talking to from a series of angry people when they eventually find their way to you via sextant or maybe loran-c.
