GPS Signal and indoor outdoor flying

[Rchawks]

Here' a question I haven't seen on here and it's got me wondering.
When flying a MM indoors there's no GPS signal and it changes to ATTI mode.
When flying outdoors there's GPS . I've seen videos where people fly from their cars which would be awesome incognito.
So can you fly with your transmitter indoors and MM outdoors and have GPS and full range?? Does this kill the GPS connection?

 

[old man mavic]

Here' a question I haven't seen on here and it's got me wondering.
When flying a MM indoors there's no GPS signal and it changes to ATTI mode.
When flying outdoors there's GPS . I've seen videos where people fly from their cars which would be awesome incognito.
So can you fly with your transmitter indoors and MM outdoors and have GPS and full range?? Does this kill the GPS connection?

no its the drone that has to have the GPS lock but you would have to consider VLOS if you were inside ,you could have some loss of range as you would not have a clear line of site between you and the drone

 

[Rchawks]

I see. Thank you sir you are a wealth of information!

 

[lannes]

You'd also have a better RC to AC signal connection if the RC antennas were outside of the home or car

With something like this you would have to mod the RC

Online Store | titandronesinc

www.commandcase.com

 

[Rchawks]

WoW.

 

[OurAngryBadger]

Dumb question, but how come the drones can't get a GPS signal indoors, but our cell phones can?

 

[brettbrandon]

Dumb question, but how come the drones can't get a GPS signal indoors, but our cell phones can?

Are you possibly confusing GPS signal with the Cell signal?
From what I remember, my Tom Tom GPS unit would not work indoors.

 

[OurAngryBadger]

Are you possibly confusing GPS signal with the Cell signal?
From what I remember, my Tom Tom GPS unit would not work indoors.

Well for example I'm sitting on the far side of my house right now, and I open the google maps app. It puts the dot exactly where I am in the house. Can it really be that precise using cell network alone? I was under the impression that locations pinged off cell towers are only accurate down to a 1/4 mile.

Edit: So I just turned off mobile data and wifi, leaving only GPS location services on, and it has no problem finding my exact location inside my basement which has no windows.

 

[brettbrandon]

Cell towers triangulate the position and can be rather accurate. I don't think a phone has room for a GPS reciever but I may be wrong about that...

 

[umanbean]

I don't think a phone has room for a GPS reciever but I may be wrong about that..

???
Most people these days have a smartphone, and I don't know of a current smartphone that doesn't have GPS... maybe I misunderstood your statement?

 

[Deleted member 114292]

Cell towers triangulate the position and can be rather accurate. I don't think a phone has room for a GPS reciever but I may be wrong about that...

Of course cell phone have GPS. My experience has been the Wi-Fi/cell tower triangulation is far less accurate than GPS.
Without GPS Google maps has me sitting in my neighbors backyard. With GPS it shows exactly where in the house I’m sitting.
Cell phones don’t require as many or as rapid updates as your drone the drone has a higher standard for how many and the quality of the signal than on your phone.
It’s also possible the phone has a better quality GPS. If that’s true it would vary by phone make and model.

 

[sar104]

Dumb question, but how come the drones can't get a GPS signal indoors, but our cell phones can?

The aircraft GPS receivers are comparable or better than phone GPS, and will often get a position lock indoors. It depends on the construction of the buiding. But there are a couple of significant differences between the aircraft and phone.

Firstly, the aircraft only reports a position when it has a continuous position solution that it estimates is accurate enough to use for flight - typically requiring more than 7 satellites, whereas the phone will show an inaccurate solution based on just 3 or 4 satellites. Secondly, the phone will show a position even if it loses a real GPS solution, just based on where it last had a solution and other data such as cell towers and wifi networks.

 

[KB9Radio]

Dumb question, but how come the drones can't get a GPS signal indoors, but our cell phones can?

It depends on what the building is made out of, but for the most part GPS does not work indoors on anything. Your phone may show some coordinates on screen, but those are the last it received prior to going indoors. Your drone needs a constant flow of GPS signals to work properly in GPS mode. GPS transmissions are quite weak (5-watts) from 24000 miles away, it's actually amazing it works as well as it does.

 

[OurAngryBadger]

The aircraft GPS receivers are comparable or better than phone GPS, and will often get a position lock indoors. It depends on the construction of the buiding. But there are a couple of significant differences between the aircraft and phone.

Firstly, the aircraft only reports a position when it has a continuous position solution that it estimates is accurate enough to use for flight - typically requiring more than 7 satellites, whereas the phone will show an inaccurate solution based on just 3 or 4 satellites. Secondly, the phone will show a position even if it loses a real GPS solution, just based on where it last had a solution and other data such as cell towers and wifi networks.

Ok that makes sense. So GPS does work indoors, and chances are the mavic DOES get GPS signal indoors too, it's just that the GPS signal isn't strong enough for it to consider to be good enough for flying, so it says "no gps, using atti mode".

For the phone, a weak GPS signal is fine, it just needs your location quickly to display your position on the map, it doesn't need a continuous and accurate GPS lock.

That's the dumbed down version of what I'm surmising.

Right?

 

[sar104]

Ok that makes sense. So GPS does work indoors, and chances are the mavic DOES get GPS signal indoors too, it's just that the GPS signal isn't strong enough for it to consider to be good enough for flying, so it says "no gps, using atti mode".

For the phone, a weak GPS signal is fine, it just needs your location quickly to display your position on the map, it doesn't need a continuous and accurate GPS lock.

That's the dumbed down version of what I'm surmising.

Right?

Exactly - at least in small buildings that are not substantially made of metal.

 

[umanbean]

The aircraft GPS receivers are comparable or better than phone GPS, and will often get a position lock indoors.

This has also been my experience, inside my house.... an all-wood structure with a shingle roof. My bedroom suite, where I also have my home office, is on one end of the house and the kitchen is on the other end ~60 feet away - and on a good day my drone knows where it is in the house.

 

[sar104]

This has also been my experience, inside my house.... an all-wood structure with a shingle roof. My bedroom suite, where I also have my home office, is on one end of the house and the kitchen is on the other end ~60 feet away - and on a clear day my drone knows where it is in the house.

Sounds about right. Now if you replaced the shingles with Pro-Panel and added metal siding that would likely change.

 

[brettbrandon]

???
Most people these days have a smartphone, and I don't know of a current smartphone that doesn't have GPS... maybe I misunderstood your statement?

No you did not misunderstand my statement. Apparently I was way off on that one. Who would think that I would learn about my phone from a drone forum. I am quite a technical person but have never paid much attention to smart devices or social media etc.

 

[Sergey_Marvelmind]

Dumb question, but how come the drones can't get a GPS signal indoors, but our cell phones can?

Cell phones used not only "direct GPS" but A-GPS signal based on signal form near "radio towers" and WiFi signal of course.

 

[rogiervdheide]

Dumb question, but how come the drones can't get a GPS signal indoors, but our cell phones can?

Old question I know but here is an interesting answer:
Your WiFi is likely to communicate its location if your GPS reception is insufficient

Find out how to use Google to locate your home using just your Wi-Fi router!

Did you know that Google has a location search engine called "Wifi access point object"? This...

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