GPS new Firmware

[bkushner]

I'm finding no difference in GPS acquisition time and I'm still getting the GPS SIGNAL WEAK issue....Curious as to what others think.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

I'm finding no difference in GPS acquisition time and I'm still getting the GPS SIGNAL WEAK issue....Curious as to what others think.

Agreed, I tried many times today and just a hassle as always, I got up 80 ft before the home point registered.
So I don't think any changes were made on that issue.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your M3 in the Rain / Snow and land on the Water

 

[bkushner]

Agreed, I tried many times today and just a hassle as always, I got up 80 ft before the home point registered.
So I don't think any changes were made on that issue.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your M3 in the Rain / Snow and land on the Water

I didn't have the problem before the December 10th upgrade so it should be a firmware issue and hot hardware.

 

[TonyPHX]

I actually made it a point to see how long the M3 takes to get sats. And well, yes, you are right. It is slow. After a minute had ~9 and took a few more to have 15.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

I didn't have the problem before the December 10th upgrade so it should be a firmware issue and hot hardware.

So apparently another bug fix must be coming soon if this is truly a software fix ?

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your M3 in the Rain.

 

[BlairAir]

That is the hope. I agree it appeared after December 10th update. The question I guess is why, and why are they sticking with it this way. One member had all kinds of conspiratorial thoughts on why. I'm not convinced. At one point he said "No other drone from DJI has ever dine this" - actually if you google DJI drone slow/poor satellite acquisition, you will see that almost EVERY model, particularly folding droned since the original Mavic have had this at one time or another.

This one has it pretty bad though. I was really hoping for a fix. This business about cold boot of the GPS Module makes sense. No one sees it on successive battery flights, just the first one. Also, any flights I do within an hour or so grab sats right away. It's as if the module keeps a list for quite a while, then eventually clears volatile memory and a full reboot is required. There's also systems that use assist from an internet connection to get a base list, but I can't claim to know what is going on with Mavic 3. We could go back to the firmware it launched with and get faster locks. Who's with me?
*crickets*

 

[Meta4]

The question I guess is why, and why are they sticking with it this way.

Only DJI knows, and they don't share their thoughts.
It's a fault and not done for any purpose.

if you google DJI drone slow/poor satellite acquisition, you will see that almost EVERY model, particularly folding droned since the original Mavic have had this at one time or another.

I can't think of another DJI drone that has had GPS problems before.
They've always worked well out of the box.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

. It's as if the module keeps a list for quite a while, then eventually clears volatile memory
*crickets*

This is very true, When I first started the Mavic 3 after the firmware it took forever to get the sats than after I landed and restarted again it got quicker, so I see why you think there might be some kind of registration going on with the Sats or list. Maybe someone can explain it better. ?

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain.

 

[Glhs958]

I am wondering for the initial Mavic 3 firmware what was the gps satellite count for gps lock? I never paid attention to it. I noticed today it didn't get a lock until their were 12 sats vs all other dji drone I own have a lock at 8 sats.

 

[Meta4]

I am wondering for the initial Mavic 3 firmware what was the gps satellite count for gps lock? I never paid attention to it. I noticed today it didn't get a lock until their were 12 sats vs all other dji drone I own have a lock at 8 sats.

There is no single number of sats required for the Flight Controller to switch to P-GPS mode and record a home point.
The number will vary due to several factors.
With a drone that receives signal from multiple systems (like the M3 does), it would be normal for it to have more sats before recording a home point as several sats are likely to be bunched in the same part of the sky.

 

[Meta4]

It's as if the module keeps a list for quite a while, then eventually clears volatile memory and a full reboot is required.

It seems that way because that's how all GPS receivers work.
A cold boot will always take longer than restarting shortly after use.

 

[Glhs958]

There is no single number of sats required for the Flight Controller to switch to P-GPS mode

yea from the log file the moment it lifts off its in P-GPS mode. I guess what I was referring to was the gps lock warnings on screen with altitude limits. It wasn't till it hit 10+ sats in gps mode 2 then altitude limit was raised beyond 98ft. Once it went to gps mode 4 I no longer get the warnings.

 

[jjcombs13]

Due to weather I have only made one flight post-firmware, but my initial take is that the cold boot satellite acquisition is slower than the Air2S. However, I ended up with 21 satellites and maintained them for the entire flight. It was a very encouraging test flight considering where we were before the firmware.

 

[Meta4]

yea from the log file the moment it lifts off its in P-GPS mode. I guess what I was referring to was the gps lock warnings on screen with altitude limits. It wasn't till it hit 10+ sats in gps mode 2 then altitude limit was raised beyond 98ft. Once it went to gps mode 4 I no longer get the warnings.

The flight controller won't accept GPS data or record a home point until the GPS Health is 4 or 5.
It has nothing to do with the number of satellites.

 

[Glhs958]

Yea I have just started actually looking into the log files to try to learn and understand more. Very steep learning curve for sure lol.

 

[BlairAir]

Only DJI knows, and they don't share their thoughts.
It's a fault and not done for any purpose.

I can't think of another DJI drone that has had GPS problems before.
They've always worked well out of the box.

I'm not saying they were anything near what we see on M3. But I only joined the community a year ago, After Mini 2 but before Air 2S. Whatbi was referencing was the huge number of REPORTS of slow acquisition. I had it myself on my Air 2 or Mini 2 on one FW update, fixed with a new build (same FW version with either a changed build number or a new Fly Application build number, somewhere around 1.4.4 or 1.4.8 a few days later.

Here is what you get for search terms"DJI Drone slow gps lock" or "DJI slow satellite acquisition". I am not doubting your experience with previous models at all. If you were to look at these complaints, you would get the impression that it's not the first time DJI broke stuff while adding features I'm new SW/FW:

 

[ZoneAerial]

I'm not saying they were anything near what we see on M3. But I only joined the community a year ago, After Mini 2 but before Air 2S. Whatbi was referencing was the huge number of REPORTS of slow acquisition. I had it myself on my Air 2 or Mini 2 on one FW update, fixed with a new build (same FW version with either a changed build number or a new Fly Application build number, somewhere around 1.4.4 or 1.4.8 a few days later.

Here is what you get for search terms"DJI Drone slow gps lock" or "DJI slow satellite acquisition". I am not doubting your experience with previous models at all. If you were to look at these complaints, you would get the impression that it's not the first time DJI broke stuff while adding features I'm new SW/FW:
View attachment 142636

Since 2016 I have never had a DJI drone take as long as the M3 for satellite acquisition/home point update.

Unless you are in a completely and totally wide open prairie, it is unacceptably long. They definitely did something to it in the Dec 10 fw and they have done nothing to correct it. I can only hope more and more people report this.

 

[Crashdummytest]

That is the hope. I agree it appeared after December 10th update. The question I guess is why, and why are they sticking with it this way. One member had all kinds of conspiratorial thoughts on why. I'm not convinced. At one point he said "No other drone from DJI has ever dine this" - actually if you google DJI drone slow/poor satellite acquisition, you will see that almost EVERY model, particularly folding droned since the original Mavic have had this at one time or another.

This one has it pretty bad though. I was really hoping for a fix. This business about cold boot of the GPS Module makes sense. No one sees it on successive battery flights, just the first one. Also, any flights I do within an hour or so grab sats right away. It's as if the module keeps a list for quite a while, then eventually clears volatile memory and a full reboot is required. There's also systems that use assist from an internet connection to get a base list, but I can't claim to know what is going on with Mavic 3. We could go back to the firmware it launched with and get faster locks. Who's with me?
*crickets*

Close but not entirely correct with regards to my M3: If I move to new location just a mile or two away it takes forever to get lock again, and no change after latest firmware upgrade.

 

[Deleted member 154956]

I have to chuckle about everyone's impatience with GPS acquisition times! Travel back with me to the year 1989. The average time to acquire enough satellites to calculate a 2D position (3 satellites) or a 3D position (4 satellites) was 10 to 15 minutes! Almost every single time!! I remember, as a young sailor in the us navy, standing in a Westwood marine supply store in Long Beach, CA in December 1989, as a Garmin representative was setting out a table with a brand new item that just came to market, a handheld GPS marine plotting device. It was a Garmin GPS model 45, and it could tell you your location anywhere in the world. That was truly an amazing concept back then. The price was approximately $500, pretty steep for a device with unknown capabilities. Well I went ahead and took the plunge and bought one. My ship, a Guided Missile Frigate was departing for a 6 month tour of the Western Pacific later that week and I wanted to see my ship's location without having to always go find the quartermaster in plot. Despite it not having a moving map display, it was amazingly accurate, even with the commercial Selective Availability (SA) (intentional degradation) of public GPS signals (implemented for national security reasons), applied. The other issue we had to contend with back then was the Dilution of precision (DOP), or geometric dilution of precision (GDOP) as there were only 24 satellites orbiting earth, with only 12, at any one time, viewable per hemisphere. But even then, my accuracy was always less than 50 meters, sometimes less than 30 meters. My commanding officer saw me out on the bridge wing one morning using my Garmin, he was very curious as to its capabilities, as he had never seen one before. My GPS 45 had impressed him enough that after we got back from deployment 7 months later, the Skipper insisted we get GPS navigation for the ship! Long story short, my ship, the USS Reuben James FFG-57, was the first frigate to receive the new technology, and we were featured in GPS World magazine for that accomplishment. As I was also the ship's Intelligence photographer, some of my photographs were included in that issue of the magazine, so I also got some by-lines. I guess it's all about perspective! A minute or two is no big deal!!

 

[ZoneAerial]

I have to chuckle about everyone's impatience with GPS acquisition times! Travel back with me to the year 1989. The average time to acquire enough satellites to calculate a 2D position (3 satellites) or a 3D position (4 satellites) was 10 to 15 minutes! Almost every single time!! I remember, as a young sailor in the us navy, standing in a Westwood marine supply store in Long Beach, CA in December 1989, as a Garmin representative was setting out a table with a brand new item that just came to market, a handheld GPS marine plotting device. It was a Garmin GPS model 45, and it could tell you your location anywhere in the world. That was truly an amazing concept back then. The price was approximately $500, pretty steep for a device with unknown capabilities. Well I went ahead and took the plunge and bought one. My ship, a Guided Missile Frigate was departing for a 6 month tour of the Western Pacific later that week and I wanted to see my ship's location without having to always go find the quartermaster in plot. Despite it not having a moving map display, it was amazingly accurate, even with the commercial Selective Availability (SA) (intentional degradation) of public GPS signals (implemented for national security reasons), applied. The other issue we had to contend with back then was the Dilution of precision (DOP), or geometric dilution of precision (GDOP) as there were only 24 satellites orbiting earth, with only 12, at any one time, viewable per hemisphere. But even then, my accuracy was always less than 50 meters, sometimes less than 30 meters. My commanding officer saw me out on the bridge wing one morning using my Garmin, he was very curious as to its capabilities, as he had never seen one before. My GPS 45 had impressed him enough that after we got back from deployment 7 months later, the Skipper insisted we get GPS navigation for the ship! Long story short, my ship, the USS Reuben James FFG-57, was the first frigate to receive the new technology, and we were featured in GPS World magazine for that accomplishment. As I was also the ship's Intelligence photographer, some of my photographs were included in that issue of the magazine, so I also got some by-lines. I guess it's all about perspective! A minute or two is no big deal!!View attachment 142641

People used to use slide rules as well and personal computers never existed in the distant past. Your point is irrelevant although you are trying to be endearing.
For some people it takes a lot longer than a minute or 2. It isn’t acceptable.