minimum amount of locked satellites to fly?

[Xray64]

I’ve just got myself a Mavic Air but I have a Mavic Pro as well. I’ve noticed that the Mavic Air doesn’t seem to lock into too many GPS signals. I’ve only had it for a day so don’t know what’s normal. But using the UAV app it’s indicating 12 GPS locks but if I add Glonass it estimates 18 in total atm. However the mavic Air fluctuate between spirit 10-11 which maybe suggests it’s not locking into the Glonass Satellites. Is there somewhere in the settings I can check that it’s using the Glonass system as well as the GPS system. Thanks in advance.

 

[Meta4]

However the mavic Air fluctuate between spirit 10-11 which maybe suggests it’s not locking into the Glonass Satellites. Is there somewhere in the settings I can check that it’s using the Glonass system as well as the GPS system.

The only way to confirm you are getting Glonass sats would be to have sat numbers higher than you can get with US GPS sats alone.
But having lower than max numbers is not proof that you aren't getting the Glonass sats.
But if yours isn't getting Glonass sats, it's the only one that isn't.

Try another day and send it up 100 ft, out in the open and see how many sats it gets.

 

[sar104]

The only way to confirm you are getting Glonass sats would be to have sat numbers higher than you can get with US GPS sats alone.
But having lower than max numbers is not proof that you aren't getting the Glonass sats.
But if yours isn't getting Glonass sats, it's the only one that isn't.

Try another day and send it up 100 ft, out in the open and see how many sats it gets.

If needed, the numbers of both GPS and GLONASS satellites locked are logged separately in the mobile device DAT file.

 

[BerndM]

I flew my first quadcopter, a DJI F450 Flamewheel for several years WITHOUT any GPS function, until I bought the optional GPS module from DJI. As long as you stay within line of sight, GPS is not a requirement for safe flight unless your particular "drone" (I hate that word) is set up to require a certain number of satellites to allow a takeoff.

 

[SqFt]

It takes a minimum of 3 satellites for a ground fix, and 4 to get an altitude. The more satellites, the smaller the circle of error. If the DJI 4 app says its good, thats good enough for me.

 

[sar104]

It takes a minimum of 3 satellites for a ground fix, and 4 to get an altitude. The more satellites, the smaller the circle of error. If the DJI 4 app says its good, thats good enough for me.

DJI aircraft require a minimum of 7 to operate in P-GPS mode (non-VPS).

 

[FoxhallGH]

Well it's not going very high but it is often traveling at 75 miles per hour.
My point is that a GPS only requires 4 satellites to get a 3D Lock including altitude.
So I don't get why DJI needs so many. Is it simply for redundancy?
That I would get

Your Garmin SatNav would either be for a vehicle or hand-held for hiking - yes? Although altitude is important in those situations, it doesn't help much in fixing your position and rate of change on the surface of the earth. In other words, 4 GPS sat's will pretty much guarantee you a 2D positional fix. By insisting on at least 7 sat's to lock its GPS, the Mavic will stand a better chance of getting a 'wider' spread of sat's across the sky, which will give a much more precise 3D location in space.

 

[lee82gx]

I’ve just got myself a Mavic Air but I have a Mavic Pro as well. I’ve noticed that the Mavic Air doesn’t seem to lock into too many GPS signals. I’ve only had it for a day so don’t know what’s normal. But using the UAV app it’s indicating 12 GPS locks but if I add Glonass it estimates 18 in total atm. However the mavic Air fluctuate between spirit 10-11 which maybe suggests it’s not locking into the Glonass Satellites. Is there somewhere in the settings I can check that it’s using the Glonass system as well as the GPS system. Thanks in advance.

I have both the air and Pro and have the same experience. The pro locks on to satellites further inside my house and more satellites outside, and faster.
Not to mention if you super patch the pro then the number of satellites grow much faster for the pro, again.

In my experience as long as its green in P-GPS then it's good to launch, flying up straight initially will enable both aircraft to get more sats and you can then double check your home point. If it's good and stable then fly away.