mid mission battery swap RTK disconnect

[kevin_kss]

ok so what do I mean by that? So I start the mission and I have RTK, does its thing comes back and wants a new battery. I put one in and for the life of me I cant get RTK to connect up again. Not on the ground or in the air. The only way I can get it to attach up again is restarting the controller. When I do that it forgets where it was in the mission and I have to scramble to copy the mission and delete the area it already did.
So am I missing something I can do to make it save the mission status so when I do restart it, it still knows ?
or anyone got any tips on trying to get the RTK to connect back up again. Sometimes I can go into RTK settings and set my username wrong and set correct and it will save and connect back up but most of the time that doesnt work.

Just looking for any tips for future flights.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

This sometimes comes down to software, recommend you use something like Drone Deploy ect. This pro software will allow you to swap battery and the drone to fly out to the very last place it took a picture from for modeling an such. You may find other software that can do it also. But this one i know for sure has that ability.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain. Land on the Water.

 

[kevin_kss]

Thanks, DJI Pilot mission will allow the same thing. Just doesnt seem to like it when I restart the controller. I dont know a ton about Drone Depoy since its another cost I'm trying to avoid. If you restart the controller and bring up their app again will it know its still mid mission or think you started over ? thats what DJI pilot 2 does..

 

[Dogpilot]

Actually, I do the surveys in smaller chunks to avoid the battery swap issue. There is no issue merging it all later in software. My big gripe is waiting for RTK to converge each time. Wish we could plug a power supply into the USB port while it takes its merry time to converge. Yesterday it took 15 minutes for some unknown reason, then dropped out and started over twice before the second run could commence. My batteries are down to 85-90% when it finally converges. I do suspect the military guys are playing with GPS jamming locally in the Military Operating Area (MOA) overlying where I am working at the moment. It is a fairly unpopulated area with almost no resident population and no airways passing through.

If anyone has a suggestion on how to bypass the USB so it powers externally while converging, I am totally open to suggestions.

 

[kevin_kss]

I actually had this same issue yesterday.. swapped battery and lost RTK... so I tried something different. I disconnected from my phone hot spot and reconnected then went into RTK and hit save on the settings and it said "save successful" and connected back up.. so I guess I'll try that in the future.

 

[Dogpilot]

That seems worth a try. There is a bit of an issue with the hotspot not being all it can be at times as well.

 

[yarrr]

I actually had this same issue yesterday.. swapped battery and lost RTK... so I tried something different. I disconnected from my phone hot spot and reconnected then went into RTK and hit save on the settings and it said "save successful" and connected back up.. so I guess I'll try that in the future.

Yup, I find that method of 'resaving' is effective for getting rtk to connect. You could also try turning off rtk on the controller before shutting down the vehicle, swap your battery and then turn rtk back on after the vehicle reconnects to the controller.

 

[skyskandrone]

I have the same issue. It’s not consistent though. Sometimes I land, swap batteries and the RTK reconnects in less than 10 seconds, other times I have to resave the NTRIP network info, or restart the controller, or move the drone 5 feet, or after I do everything that worked before I just walk away from the controller while it’s converging and 5 minutes later it connects. Even if I land and take off in the same spot. I was mapping an almost 900 acre solar farm last week, I wrote down when I landed and took off for battery swaps and I lost about 2 hours dealing with the RTK. Kills my batteries, luckily I can recharge almost constantly. I have to map this farm about 14 more times this year and there has to be a way to not waste my time and batteries so much (I use the Pilot 2 app and it lets you resume from the break point even when you turn the controller off)

 

[skyskandrone]

Ran a bunch of tests today; I would land, turn RTK off, turn WiFi off, change battery, drone on, WiFi on, take off to about 150ft, RTK on.
Each time I had an RTK connection less than 10 seconds after activation. For some reason, doing this same process but leaving the WiFi on while swapping the battery would lead to the RTK taking a long time to connect. Going to the solar farm again Monday, I’ll report back if this process holds true.

 

[StevenBrodsky]

I fly a Mav3E and an M30. The best way I have found to get convergence immediately is to. First, turn on my RC, 2nd. Connect it to my hotspot, 3rd, turn on my drone(s), 4th, turn off RTK, 5th, take off to 100ft. 6th, turn RTK back on. When I do this I get immediate RTK connection 90% of the time.

If I don't take off to 100 ft and just sit on the landing pad, it takes several minutes and about 6% of my battery, for convergence to complete and a connection to occur.

Even though the M30 isn't any good for mapping, It has hotswapping batteries. Once I get an RTK connection with the M30 and do hot swaps, the RTK never loses connection. Knowing this, it's to bad DJI can't figure a way to keep power to the RTK on the MAV3E while the battery is changed. It would be like a mini hot swap. Just have an internal battery that keeps the RTK system powered on for a few minutes, while the pilot changes the battery.