How to handle losing GPS?

[Philltayl]

You would have to enable it first in the go app as it comes with atti and sport mode disabled

When it loses GPS it goes ATTI whether enabled or not, it doesn't have much of a choice.....

 

[lomoch]

I realize this is a P4 forum, but would this argue that the mavic is not as great an option, as it does not offer ATTI to practice in as I understand currently? I ask as I'm somewhat new and am trying to decide on buying P4P or mavic and want the overall better machine/flyer...regardless of portability and camera.

 

[JimHarris]

I am very confident flying without GPS. I flew much less sophisticated quads for years before buying a DJI so flying in ATTI is second nature to me.

What is scary is if you lose GPS and VIDEO at the same time while flying out of line of sight. You can pretty much kiss your drone goodbye. You won't have any automatic RTH so you have to be extremely confident you remember your drones last orientation and its location relative to you and hope you are right as you pin the stick back toward you. A couple minutes go by and you don't hear it or see it and you can pack up and go home.

 

[Darren Roach]

I realize this is a P4 forum, but would this argue that the mavic is not as great an option, as it does not offer ATTI to practice in as I understand currently? I ask as I'm somewhat new and am trying to decide on buying P4P or mavic and want the overall better machine/flyer...regardless of portability and camera.

It really depends on what you want overall from the drone.
I don't own and have never flown a Mavic but going on the videos I have seen, the Mavic is not as good as the p4/p4p.
This said, there are always going to be pros and cons against both.
If you have no problems with transport, I would rate p4/p4p over the Mavic.
My judgement has been made after lots of research between the two models. I would suggest, watch all the videos on both, doe the sums and make your own educated decision. Alternatively, try and visit some where you can perhaps try out both models and go from there. Best of luck in your decision making.

 

[lomoch]

Thank you Darren. I've been reading everything I can find regarding. And this thread is one of the questions I've asked myself and in dealing with such, which machine would offer more.
All of my flying has been with small non-GPS drones, with altitude hold at best and no fpv. I've gotten comfortable with flying this way, and see an argument for ATTI training/flying. Unless I'm incorrect, the mavic does not offer this as a user selectable option.

 

[F3honda4me]

Correct you cannot choose ATTI as a flight mode for the mavic.

 

[Darren Roach]

Thank you Darren. I've been reading everything I can find regarding. And this thread is one of the questions I've asked myself and in dealing with such, which machine would offer more.
All of my flying has been with small non-GPS drones, with altitude hold at best and no fpv. I've gotten comfortable with flying this way, and see an argument for ATTI training/flying. Unless I'm incorrect, the mavic does not offer this as a user selectable option.

Your welcome, as I have said, I really don't know much about the Mavic on that matter but with the p4/p4p if you have set the home point "took off in p mode" change over to atti mode in mid flight then find its getting away from you you simply flick the toggle switch back to p mode.
The bird will hold position "provided there is gps" you can then if you cannot see it press return to home and back it will come

 

[Darren Roach]

Correct you cannot choose ATTI as a flight mode for the mavic.

simply on that statement alone I would not buy the Mavic as I do 99% of my flying in atti mode as its as close to true flight as you will ever get on a drone

 

[Meta4]

I realize this is a P4 forum, but would this argue that the mavic is not as great an option, as it does not offer ATTI to practice in as I understand currently? I ask as I'm somewhat new and am trying to decide on buying P4P or mavic and want the overall better machine/flyer...regardless of portability and camera.

On the Phantom you can select Atti mode yourself if for some reason you want the Phantom to ignore GPS and not have position holding ability but the Mavic does not give you this option.
But that doesn't mean that the Mavic is a poor choice.
In the extremely unlikely case that you lose GPS (I've never had that happen in 3 yrs of flying), your Phantom or Mavic will be in Atti mode without you doing anything.
Atti mode is simply all the usual sensors but no GPS.

 

[Darren Roach]

On the Phantom you can select Atti mode yourself if for some reason you want the Phantom to ignore GPS and not have position holding ability but the Mavic does not give you this option.
But that doesn't mean that the Mavic is a poor choice.
In the extremely unlikely case that you lose GPS (I've never had that happen in 3 yrs of flying), your Phantom or Mavic will be in Atti mode without you doing anything.
Atti mode is simply all the usual sensors but no GPS.

No one has said its a poor choice. Having a drone that will not fly in atti mode by pilots choice is a handicap that some do not want to have. I fly 99% of the time in atti mode so it wouldn't be for me, every body is different.

 

[Meta4]

No one has said its a poor choice. Having a drone that will not fly in atti mode by pilots choice is a handicap that some do not want to have. I fly 99% of the time in atti mode so it wouldn't be for me, every body is different.

In post #22 the question was: would this argue that the mavic is not as great an option?
And it was in the context of hypothetically losing GPS in flight
That was the question I answered.
You may use atti mode 99% of the time but probably 99% of Phantom flyers would be using P-GPS almost all of the time.
As you say .. everyone is different.

 

[John Locke]

I've not seen this suggested, but in my own experiences losing GPS I also lost video, and so my own moral of the story is to always be aware of where your drone is exactly and which direction it's pointing, especially if you are far away and cannot see it with the naked eye or hear it. .

Hey guys, smagana says losing GPS triggers losing video. I've never lost GPS but one time, and I don't recall losing video, however I wasn't looking at the screen either. I was busy navigating LOS under a bridge with wind at my tail. I would have never guessed losing GPS would turn off the video feed, since video shouldn't be dependent on GPS. I have noticed that when I lose the control signal connection, this automatically disables video, for some strange reason, but I still have GPS connection in all experiences and auto RTH worked fine.

So can anyone confirm gmagana's experience that losing GPS always results in losing video?

I really doubt this true because flying indoors with no GPS would give no video, and I know flying indoors works fine with video.

 

[Meta4]

Hey guys, smagana says losing GPS triggers losing video. ... I would have never guessed losing GPS would turn off the video feed, since video shouldn't be dependent on GPS. I have noticed that when I lose the control signal connection, this automatically disables video, for some strange reason, but I still have GPS connection in all experiences and auto RTH worked fine.

So can anyone confirm gmagana's experience that losing GPS always results in losing video?

There is no connection between GPS and video signal and no way GPS has any effect on video signal.

I have noticed that when I lose the control signal connection, this automatically disables video, for some strange reason

You may lose video signal for the same reason you lose control signal ... obstacles in the way, interference or extreme distance.

 

[John Locke]

There is no connection between GPS and video signal and no way GPS has any effect on video signal.

You may lose video signal for the same reason you lose control signal ... obstacles in the way, interference or extreme distance.

Has anyone lost control signal while retaining a video stream in P4? It's been my experience that when I lose control signal, I lose my video stream, even though I had several HD bars when I lost control signal. With my P3P I always lose video signal first, about 2 to 3mi out, however I usually have control signal. Many times all I have to do is ascend 100' and I can get video back. However, with P4 my RC is weaker, and very often with the GL300C I would lose control signal first, even though I have HD bars showing. This pattern of losing video even though I have HD bars is kinda odd, but it's always triggered with losing control signal.

 

[gmagana]

Hmm, I'm NOT saying that losing GPS triggers losing video. I'm saying that my own P4P+ lost both at the same time (one time out of maybe 30 total "serious" flights with the P4P+) and it scared the crap out of me. I've lost only video feed a couple other times, and then it actually recovered the stream a couple seconds later. I think I have a bad unit, because it's not normal to lose either if you're not pushing any limits (the drone was a couple hundred feet away from me when I lost GPS + video). So to the folks who have never lost GPS, I envy you

I would like to get a chance to fly more to see if my drone has a pattern of doing this and if it's truly defective, but the weather sucks right now. So take my experience as just one data point. If more people are not having this problem, then probably I have a bad unit, or maybe it was a one-time thing.

 

[John Locke]

Hmm, I'm NOT saying that losing GPS triggers losing video. I'm saying that my own P4P+ lost both at the same time (one time out of maybe 30 total "serious" flights with the P4P+) and it scared the crap out of me. I've lost only video feed a couple other times, and then it actually recovered the stream a couple seconds later. I think I have a bad unit, because it's not normal to lose either if you're not pushing any limits (the drone was a couple hundred feet away from me when I lost GPS + video). So to the folks who have never lost GPS, I envy you

I would like to get a chance to fly more to see if my drone has a pattern of doing this and if it's truly defective, but the weather sucks right now. So take my experience as just one data point. If more people are not having this problem, then probably I have a bad unit, or maybe it was a one-time thing.

I've seen other P4P owners reporting GPS loss at close range, even though range has nothing to do with it. You're not alone, but losing video at 200' is odd.

 

[gmagana]

I've seen other P4P owners reporting GPS loss at close range, even though range has nothing to do with it. You're not alone, but losing video at 200' is odd.

Yeah, it's really strange. I know losing GPS + video means two different devices losing connection (the drone and the RC), which is really fishy. I'm thinking maybe there is a common radio component for GPS receive + Video transmit on the drone, but it's NOT shared with whatever receives the flight controls from the RC, since I lost GPS + video but I could still control the drone to land it. I'm glad to see losing both seems to not be a common problem.

 

[PSL]

What if your drone is too far to see it, like 1km from you, and drone lost GPS . It goes automatically to Atti mode. I heard, that if DJI sees less then 7 GPS it goes to atti. But even in ATTI mode drone can make it to home point. But what if drone sees only couple of gps? Will it return to home with one or two GPS?

P.S. When we say "Drone lost GPS" it means that drone cant see any GPS or it sees less then necessary amount of them (like 7 gps) ?

 

[msinger]

I heard, that if DJI sees less then 7 GPS it goes to atti. But even in ATTI mode drone can make it to home point. But what if drone sees only couple of gps? Will it return to home with one or two GPS?

If your Phantom auto switches to ATTI mode due to a poor GPS connection, it will not be able to return home on its own. You'll need to manually fly it back to the home point.

 

[Meta4]

What if your drone is too far to see it, like 1km from you, and drone lost GPS . It goes automatically to Atti mode. I heard, that if DJI sees less then 7 GPS it goes to atti. But even in ATTI mode drone can make it to home point. But what if drone sees only couple of gps? Will it return to home with one or two GPS?

P.S. When we say "Drone lost GPS" it means that drone cant see any GPS or it sees less then necessary amount of them (like 7 gps) ?

If you have a P3 Standard, it needs a minimum of 6 GPS sats.
But if you have a P3 Pro or Adv or one of the P4 models, you need a minimum of 6 of either GPS or Glonass sats which means you probably need about 9 or 10 sats.
Unless you are flying in a canyon or under cover, you should always have more sats than you need to maintain P-GPS mode.