GPS Questions P4P

[Jason Porembski]

I've owned a P3S for some time and have NEVER had a GPS issue with satellites or ability to hold a strong signal with them. My P4P threw a GPS disconnect exception a few days ago and would not take off. I reset the drone and refreshed the latest firmware. I could not replicate the issue tonight but was losing GPS on the ground and approx. 180 feet up where I never had GPS issues with the P4P or P3S in the past. There have been no environmental changes in the area to cause GPS issues.

Two things I noted tonight. If I rocked the drone back and forth in the air with the control stick I would drop a substantial amount of satellites and even go into NO GPS mode. The other thing I noted was when I picked up the drone by the chassis top my satellites went immediately to 0. I realizes the GPS antenna is on the top of the bird but never realized a GPS signal loss when lifting this drone or my P3S prior.

Has anyone else been effected by this? I am at my wits end and at the point don't trust this thing 25 feet away from me.

 

[Jason Porembski]

Just pulled the log from HD for when this first started..

 

[John Locke]

Looks defective. Ship it back!

 

[Axidrain]

wow this is seems to be more common than i thought. There's another guy in this forum who posted the same issue. I replaced mine for the same reason. There's definitely something wonky with the gps chips on some of these p4p's. A bad batch maybe

 

[maseman88]

man, that's a bummer.. the range and signal on mine is incredible. My P4 used to drop signal very close to where I was flying because of how many houses and interference is in my area. my p4p has zero issues and a rock solid connection to both satellites and the video feed.

 

[ElCid79]

When did you all order yours?

 

[Aquarius4058]

When did you all order yours?

Ordered mine on 11-25-16 and received it on 12-2-16..

 

[Aquarius4058]

I've owned a P3S for some time and have NEVER had a GPS issue with satellites or ability to hold a strong signal with them. My P4P threw a GPS disconnect exception a few days ago and would not take off. I reset the drone and refreshed the latest firmware. I could not replicate the issue tonight but was losing GPS on the ground and approx. 180 feet up where I never had GPS issues with the P4P or P3S in the past. There have been no environmental changes in the area to cause GPS issues.

Two things I noted tonight. If I rocked the drone back and forth in the air with the control stick I would drop a substantial amount of satellites and even go into NO GPS mode. The other thing I noted was when I picked up the drone by the chassis top my satellites went immediately to 0. I realizes the GPS antenna is on the top of the bird but never realized a GPS signal loss when lifting this drone or my P3S prior.

Has anyone else been effected by this? I am at my wits end and at the point don't trust this thing 25 feet away from me.

I have noticed my p4p takes longer to acquire satellites when turn on inside the house. sometimes I can only acquire 4-5 satellites the most, while my p3p won't take long and will acquire at least 10 satellites in the same place. I have not really had a good observation in outside flights since I've only flown it twice outside due to weather.

 

[Sinisalo]

I got mine from B&H. After doing all the firmware updates and updating the firmware on all of my Phantom 4 batteries I took the thing outside to do a compass calibration and then test flight, I couldn't take off in PGPS mode, the error said [GPS]disconnect please reset and check connection. I called B&H and was transferred to a special extension to troubleshoot DJI products. After I told them the error code and that I had updated they said they would issue the RMA.

Whenever I have ordered a Phantom online they come in a cardboard box that is just the right size to fit the Phantom box inside, and I have always had to return them due to problems or send it in to DJI for repair. There is absolutely no room for shipping medium to be used to absorb impact. My Phantom 4 Pro shipping box had one corner slightly smashed that did a small dent in the Phantom 4 Pro box as well. I assume this impact had dislodged the cable that connects the GPS to the flight controller, who knows maybe there is a bad batch, or maybe the retailer that sends you the unit should repackage the Phantoms instead of using the same shipping box that DJI used to send to them which has no extra space because they were all packed together on a pallet or in a crate.

 

[ElCid79]

DJI ships in the same box you described.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

 

[Roamer105]

There is no way that any such shock should dislodge or sever any cables used within. It is simply a quality control issue.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots

 

[Sinisalo]

There is no way that any such shock should dislodge or sever any cables used within. It is simply a quality control issue.

Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots

The GPS unit is in the top half of the shell, the cable connects it to the mainboard in the bottom half of the shell, if there was already tension on the cable then it could very well be dislodged from rough handling during shipping.

 

[Snowwolf]

Yesterday took forever to acquire satellites, been having lots of issues with this P4P getting fed up with it now, I had it when they first shipped, do you think I can get a refund ?

 

[Roamer105]

The GPS unit is in the top half of the shell, the cable connects it to the mainboard in the bottom half of the shell, if there was already tension on the cable then it could very well be dislodged from rough handling during shipping.

I think the electronics, cabling and gps antenna setup is most likely quite different from what we all know well. Have you taken a P4P apart? (... and void warranty?).


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[Sinisalo]

Yesterday took forever to acquire satellites, been having lots of issues with this P4P getting fed up with it now, I had it when they first shipped, do you think I can get a refund ?

If you purchased from DJI, send it in for warranty repair