“NO GPS fly with caution” message MA2S

[DroneFlyGirl]

Hi there. I have a Mavic Air 2s. Everything has been going along just fine, I have plenty of satellites 16, but just a few days ago, flying in the same area, I get this message, “NO GPS fly with caution”. I was messing with some of the controls to get familiar with the Air2s, but I don’t know which one may have caused this. I don’t have any add-one. Just the stock drone. Help.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Sometimes you just need to sit longer until the Home point has been recorded and your GPS signal is confirmed. I think you might have just taken to flight to quickly.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Air 2S in the Rain. Land on the Water.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

That I know of there is nothing in the controls that could reduce the number of satellites available to the drone, was it the same time of day and was there different cloud cover? I do not know if cloud cover affects the GPS sigmnal but at times I do get the impression it does,

 

[Repaid1]

That I know of there is nothing in the controls that could reduce the number of satellites available to the drone, was it the same time of day and was there different cloud cover? I do not know if cloud cover affects the GPS sigmnal but at times I do get the impression it does,

Cloud cover has very little affect to GPS. As you mentioned there is no adjustment or control to the aircraft to adjust GPS, if she is showing 16 sats, then the OP needs to heed that warning and make sure it sets home point before launching (Insure aircraft lights are green), possible is the aircraft is not safe to fly. It is odd that the app reports sats, but she is receiving a warning. I would delete the app, reboot same device then reinstall. Possible glitch to the app, best to use a device that is flight only dedicated, but that is a bit of cost prohibited problem for some.

 

[don1cobb]

Sometimes it takes a while to get GPS. Relax and wait. They are up there.

 

[Meta4]

I do not know if cloud cover affects the GPS signal but at times I do get the impression it does,

Not even a little bit, despite the folks that swear by this myth.

 

[Meta4]

Hi there. I have a Mavic Air 2s. Everything has been going along just fine, I have plenty of satellites 16, but just a few days ago, flying in the same area, I get this message, “NO GPS fly with caution”. I was messing with some of the controls to get familiar with the Air2s, but I don’t know which one may have caused this. I don’t have any add-one. Just the stock drone. Help.

Post your flight data and it might help to tell if this was a real issue or a minor false alarm.

Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
That will give you a detailed report of the flight.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.
Or .. just post the txt file here.

 

[JustJeff]

I get that message often when taking off from my heavily wooded property. It will say what you've said, as well as "max altitude is limited to 98'" or something like that. If I just fly up to 75' or so, I'll quickly acquire more GPS signals, and all of the "warnings" will disappear.

If I'm not mistaken, if the drone senses anything less than 15 GPS satellites you'll get the message that you're getting. Once it's 15 or more, you're good to go.

 

[Zbip57]

I get that message often when taking off from my heavily wooded property.

Back in my crazy younger days, I used to compete in overnight winter car rallies on amazing twisty and icy roads. There were minimal instructions, only warning of particularly nasty corners. You were expected to maintain a target average speed, while driving "blind" (i.e. no prepared stage notes, just navigating what you see coming.) You get penalized for arriving late, or early, at surprise checkpoints along the way. The problem is, with the many blind crests and tight corners, you often couldn't see very far at all.

I sometimes relied far too much on glancing at my GPS display to warn me of any upcoming hairpins. As long as the GPS showed the road continuing relatively straight over this next blind crest, then I'd risk taking it at a bit more speed. I got a huge fright once when I suddenly realized the GPS display had frozen and wasn't updating because it lost satellite reception due to the heavy snow cover in all the trees overhanging the road. The display had been showing the SAME straight section of road all this time, and any one of these blind crests could just as easily have been followed by a sharp curve, and we would have launched off the road. Eek.

Here's a sample from before I even had a GPS.

 

[Gagey52]

Back in my crazy younger days, I used to compete in overnight winter car rallies on amazing twisty and icy roads. There were minimal instructions, only warning of particularly nasty corners. You were expected to maintain a target average speed, while driving "blind" (i.e. no prepared stage notes, just navigating what you see coming.) You get penalized for arriving late, or early, at surprise checkpoints along the way. The problem is, with the many blind crests and tight corners, you often couldn't see very far at all.

I sometimes relied far too much on glancing at my GPS display to warn me of any upcoming hairpins. As long as the GPS showed the road continuing relatively straight over this next blind crest, then I'd risk taking it at a bit more speed. I got a huge fright once when I suddenly realized the GPS display had frozen and wasn't updating because it lost satellite reception due to the heavy snow cover in all the trees overhanging the road. The display had been showing the SAME straight section of road all this time, and any one of these blind crests could just as easily have been followed by a sharp curve, and we would have launched off the road. Eek.

Here's a sample from before I even had a GPS.

Ballsy

 

[DroneFlyGirl]

Post your flight data and it might help to tell if this was a real issue or a minor false alarm.

Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
That will give you a detailed report of the flight.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.
Or .. just post the txt file here.

Thank you. I just packed everything up to move, so I will try all of these things and get back to you all at the end of the week.

 

[kayest]

GPS satellites work by line of sight (more or less). Their signals are diminished or blocked by trees with leaves, buildings, hills, etc. They are also constantly moving. Being in the same spot, at the same time of day makes no difference. Even over the course of a 30 minute flight many satellites will come in and move out of your usable constellation.

As @JustJeff said, as soon as you lock on to a few sats you can fly straight up until you are above the highest obstacles in the immediate area. You should then get a home point fix very quickly. The only caveat is don't try this if there are significant winds and you are not comfortable flying the drone into the wind manually to hold position. Until there is a solid GPS fix, you are in attitude mode and the drone can be blown downwind.