Low Satellite Fix Count on Smart Controller

[Meta4]

I would disagree. For one, they can get their location (at least very roughly) purely based on cell tower connections.

Yes .. they can get approximate location from wifi and cell tower triangulation.
But that's it.

There's also the fact that the SC only shows 20 satellites as being "visible" (even though they aren't fixed) whereas my phone shows 30 (this is why I was speculating on the towers-as-satellites thing).

If your phone is showing more than 25 sats, the simple explanation is that it's accessing more than just the GPS and Glonass sats.
Check the specs to see what else it is receiving.
Is it getting European and/or Chinese sats as well?
Phone towers are not going to show as satellites.

If you load GPS Status on your phone it will show what sats and what kind of sats the phone is receiving signals from.

 

[adammhaile]

Yes .. they can get approximate location from wifi and cell tower triangulation.
But that's it.


If your phone is showing more than 25 sats, the simple explanation is that it's accessing more than just the GPS and Glonass sats.
Check the specs to see what else it is receiving.
Is it getting European and/or Chinese sats as well?
Phone towers are not going to show as satellites.

If you load GPS Status on your phone it will show what sats and what kind of sats the phone is receiving signals from.

Both the phone and SC are the same: GPS & GLONASS
That's why it's weird to me that the SC gets a fix on 8 but the phone gets over 20.

Not trying to get into a whole thing about it - it's just weird to me. I'm glad the newer SC works better than the previous. I'm just saying that DJI could definitely improve it.

 

[Meta4]

Both the phone and SC are the same: GPS & GLONASS
That's why it's weird to me that the SC gets a fix on 8 but the phone gets over 20.

Load an app called GPS Status & Toolkit on your phone and use that to check what the phone is receiving.
It will show the different types of sats with squares, circles and different colours

 

[adammhaile]

Load an app called GPS Status & Toolkit on your phone and use that to check what the phone is receiving.
It will show the different types of sats with squares, circles and different colours

That's one of the apps I'm already using to check along with another I like more called "GPS Test" and both show the same info. That's how I found that the phone is fixing to 20 satellites but the SC to only 8.

 

[Jon]

Got my new SC today (finally! Got lost in UPS for weeks)
So, loaded it up, updated the firmware to latest, and haven't even paired with my MA2 yet. Installed "GPS Test" and was able to pretty quickly get it to fix on 7 to 8 satellites with a positional error of < 4ft.
Still not as good as the satellite fix count on my phone (or the MA2 itself) but I think at this point I'm going to assume that:
1) mobile phones have some extra GPS magic that has to do with also having a cell tower connection allowing it to show way more satellites than is probably real (It also shows more "visible" satellites and I half think that some of those are actually cell towers)
2) The MA2 likely has a better GPS receiver. Which - I admit probably makes sense. It's SUPER important that the drone knows exactly where it is but less so that the SC does. So they saved some cost with a lesser component. Granted, for how much the SC costs, DJI should really have an awesome GPS receiver in there! Especially when my $300 phone absolutely crushes it on satellite fixes.

Will take the drone out soon - but already it seems like it will be a lot better.

Same problem here. I finally sent this photo to DJI. I loaded ‘GPS Status & Toolbox’ on both my SC and a 5.5” CrystalSky. Side by side, the SC way underperforms the CS: three fixes to nine. I finally figured out this was a problem, and started dialogue with Support three months after purchase, so I doubt it’ll be a ’free’ repair, but I’ll find out soon. They’ve had it at their shop for four days: I’ll find out soon what they think, and are willing to do.

 

[adammhaile]

Same problem here. I finally sent this photo to DJI. I loaded ‘GPS Status & Toolbox’ on both my SC and a 5.5” CrystalSky. Side by side, the SC way underperforms the CS: three fixes to nine. I finally figured out this was a problem, and started dialogue with Support three months after purchase, so I doubt it’ll be a ’free’ repair, but I’ll find out soon. They’ve had it at their shop for four days: I’ll find out soon what they think, and are willing to do.
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Interesting and glad it's not just me. And yeah, fortunately mine was early enough they didn't even hesitate to just replace it.
That's interesting to me though that your CS also is only picking up 9 satellites. Obviously that's more than enough to function, but it further proves my theory that there's something "extra" with phone GPS that's allowing it to fix on way more satellites.
Hopefully DJI will do right by you and fix/replace your SC! Good luck!

 

[Jon]

Finally heard back from DJI Support. They had my SC for a week, and reported back: "NFF: Acquired satellite signal normally." This in spite of my side by side photos of SC with 3 fixes and CS with 9. I'm done beating my head against this wall. The SC is still an exemplary flight tool, so I'll try to work within the constraint of 'poor to marginal GPS fix'. Maybe with the next drone release we'll see an update to the SC, or something to give me a push to trade up. Oh well.

 

[Cymru]

Not so much off position but my SC GPS is far less sensitive than my phone or tablets.

Its quite common to get a good, solid accurate lock on those whilst the SC next to them struggles to lock a few satellites.
Not convinced the SoC is great. OR antenna. Or someting.