Air 2S GPS issues.

[makkax1]

I've had my Air 2S since last August, prior to that I had an Air 2 and before that a Mini. The Air 2S has always been a little slow to get a GPS fix but recently it has been really struggling, today in an open area it couldn't get a lock whatsoever and after about 10 mins I gave up. Has anyone else experienced similar issues?

 

[Faster]

I've had my Air 2S since last August, prior to that I had an Air 2 and before that a Mini. The Air 2S has always been a little slow to get a GPS fix but recently it has been really struggling, today in an open area it couldn't get a lock whatsoever and after about 10 mins I gave up. Has anyone else experienced similar issues?

I've never had satellites problems with mine but I'm running firmware 02.04.2040

 

[CorralesDan]

No problems with my Air 2s.

 

[ackdrone]

I've had my Air 2S since last August, prior to that I had an Air 2 and before that a Mini. The Air 2S has always been a little slow to get a GPS fix but recently it has been really struggling, today in an open area it couldn't get a lock whatsoever and after about 10 mins I gave up. Has anyone else experienced similar issues?

No issues with mine.

 

[MS Coast]

No issues with my Air 2S GPS fix acquisition. You haven't flown or stored yours near a Mavic 3, have you?

 

[YVRGUY]

I've had my Air 2S since last August, prior to that I had an Air 2 and before that a Mini. The Air 2S has always been a little slow to get a GPS fix but recently it has been really struggling, today in an open area it couldn't get a lock whatsoever and after about 10 mins I gave up. Has anyone else experienced similar issues?

I have had no problems with grabbing on to a GPS fix with either my A2S or MINI 2. I’m a bit obsessive compulsive when it comes to “resetting the world” , especially when flying in a new location other than my home, or, if I experience flight characteristics that bring up a red flag

The technology is awesome in these devices and just like the technology in new cars, cameras, and, my toaster oven they all have the occasional ’burp’ that can throw off the smooth operation. It may not be a big fault / out of calibration situation, but, it’s enough to warrant attention before something worse may occur. We’ve become so reliant on todays technology and may trust it a little more than we should…nothing is perfect.

Just like OBD devices…there’s always something requiring a reset or calibration out there and drones aren’t excluded.

Reset or recalibrate… it’s a start. There are literally thousands of A2S’s out there and they’re all flying fine.

 

[cpurick]

You haven't installed anything over the GPS antenna, have you?

 

[Meta4]

I’m a bit obsessive compulsive when it comes to “resetting the world” , especially when flying in a new location other than my home, or, if I experience flight characteristics that bring up a red flag

Launching from a new location shouldn't make any difference to the GPS or the drone.
Recalibrating things might make you feel safer, but it's unnecessary and doesn't actually make anything any better.

 

[YVRGUY]

Launching from a new location shouldn't make any difference to the GPS or the drone.
Recalibrating things might make you feel safer, but it's unnecessary and doesn't actually make anything any better.

Just last weekend I travelled 200 kilometres from home. So, I heard through the grapevine that it’s a good idea to recalibrate compass and IMU. As far as resetting “ the world”? Not a bad practice…takes a couple of minutes.

Regarding recalibrating, Yes, after the last firmware update on my mini 2 I did reset everything after my first restart … my mini 2 behaved very uncharacteristic on the test flight. It was far from normal. If ever, during a flight, I lose it up there…it will be solely my skill or lack of that will be to blame … NOT the drone. Look into a pre flight checklist for any private or commercial flight…reset, calibrate, adjustments…I just take that operation / procedure to a smaller scale. It’s in the DNA.

 

[Meta4]

Just last weekend I travelled 200 kilometres from home. So, I heard through the grapevine that it’s a good idea to recalibrate compass and IMU. As far as resetting “ the world”? Not a bad practice…takes a couple of minutes.

The grapevine isn't the place to get accurate information.
There is no need to recalibrate anything for travelling 200 kilometres, 2000 km or even 20000 km.
Because calibrating the compass or IMU has nothing to do with where you are or were.

To find out what compass calibration actually does, when it is needed (almost never) and why it has nothing to do with distance from anywhere, read the first post in this thread:

A short explanation of compass function, calibration and errors.

BACKGROUND The aircraft compass is often misunderstood, both in terms of function and purpose, but it is important to understand what the compass measures, why, and what happens to that information. At the most basic level the purpose of the compass is to measure the earth’s magnetic field in...

mavicpilots.com

Regarding recalibrating, Yes, after the last firmware update on my mini 2 I did reset everything after my first restart

After firmware updates, is another time that recalibrating things is completely unnecessary.

Look into a pre flight checklist for any private or commercial flight…reset, calibrate, adjustments…

Any pre-flight checklist suggesting that has been written by someone who has no idea what they are doing.
Understanding how things work will make your flying a lot safer than mindlessly doing things you heard on the grapevine.

 

[retiredNH]

Launching from a new location shouldn't make any difference to the GPS or the drone.
Recalibrating things might make you feel safer, but it's unnecessary and doesn't actually make anything any better.

Launching from a new location may lead to longer initial GPS location setting, because the GPS starts its location scanning from its last known location. Moves of a few miles shouldn't matter much, if at all. Moves of thousands of miles will, but probably only adding a few more seconds to location update.
Saying this, GPS in the past decade or so use multi-channel receivers which make location initialization much faster. Much, much older GPS used single channel receivers which took a long time to acquire new distant locations. I recall waits of 5 minutes or more, as it scanned the sky for satellites.

 

[Meta4]

Launching from a new location may lead to longer initial GPS location setting, because the GPS starts its location scanning from its last known location. Moves of a few miles shouldn't matter much, if at all. Moves of thousands of miles will, but probably only adding a few more seconds to location update.

You are just saying that if you move far enough the GPS receiver will have to make a cold start, just as it would if you launch from the same place as the last flight, but a couple of days later.
That's no real difference (beyond taking a little extra time).
But no matter where or when you fly again, there is nothing to be gained by recalibrating the compass or IMU.

 

[jwp721]

Never recalibrated my drone and usually get full gps lock in less than a minute or two at the most…..

 

[retiredNH]

You are just saying that if you move far enough the GPS receiver will have to make a cold start, just as it would if you launch from the same place as the last flight, but a couple of days later.
That's no real difference (beyond taking a little extra time).
But no matter where or when you fly again, there is nothing to be gained by recalibrating the compass or IMU.

You're close to correct, and it depends on how we use terms like "cold start". If a GPS receiver hasn't been used before, or hasn't been used in a long time, it will load updated ephemeris data, which is the data it uses to calculate locations. This could take place in background, or before it locks on a location, depending on many different factors. You could consider this a cold start, I guess.
In addition, most GPS receivers start their satellite search using the last known position, if it has one stored in memory. If that doesn't give a lock, it starts a broader search. IDK what algorithms it uses at this point.
Finally, GPS use what's called an "almanac" which is a directory of all GPS in the constellation (the collection of satellites in that particular "brand" of GPS satellites) which give it the rough orbits (and other data) of all the satellites in that constellation. The ephemeris is finer data for each satellite.

 

[Meta4]

You're close to correct, and it depends on how we use terms like "cold start".

What I suggested is completely correct, not just "close to".
I just used a lot less words than you do, to keep it simple and easy to understand.