No satellite positioning signal when updating RTH

[riterb97]

I almost lost my Air3 today. Was flying in an open area and updated my RTH position on the RC2 to where the controller new position were. I did not notice the message saying "No satelite positioning signal on mobile device. Move to to open Area". It did not accept the new RTH position and returned to the original launch position.

I tested it afterwards at other locations and got the same message. Satellites were 31. What can be the cause of this message and how can I correct it.

Thank you

 

[mavic3usa]

Why do you tink you almost lost your Air 3? Does it not fly to wherever you want even when you get a warning that says "no gps." It is likely the drone cannot find the correct RTH location but your drone shouldn't go out of control just because you were unable to reset the homepoint. You said the drone returned to the original launch position so does that mean RTH was triggered but the original homepoint was no longer viable for you? Were you able to cancel RTH? Or perhaps your drone was at the very end of the battery and you realized you needed a new homepoint at that time? When I see "no gps" on my drone, I absolutely make sure I don't go somewhere where I can lose the connection.

 

[Meta4]

I tested it afterwards at other locations and got the same message. Satellites were 31. What can be the cause of this message and how can I correct it.

Satellites were 31 ... You are saying that the drone was receiving signals from 31 sats.

"No satelite positioning signal on mobile device.".

The message was telling you that your controller or the phone/tablet you were using had no GPS reception, which is needed if you want to tell the drone to where the controller is now..

It did not accept the new RTH position.

There was no new RTH position to accept.
If you want to avoid this in future, you need to find the cause of no GPS reception by your controller or phone/tablet.

Some questions that might help solve the issue:
If you are using a phone or tablet, does it have a GPS receiver?
If it does, did you have location services disabled so it could not share location data?
Has it worked before or was this the first time you have tried it?
Were you out in the open with a clear sky view or somewhere with terrain, obstacles or tree cover blocked the skyview?

I almost lost my Air3 today.

Not being able to reset your home point shouldn't cause this.
You can fly the drone back to where you are yourself without pushing the RTH button.

 

[MS Coast]

Are there folks who rely exclusively or primarily on the RTH function to fly their drone back to the home point?

If so, please I encourage you to learn how to use the map feature to locate your drone and to fly it back home. The map feature clearly shows the drone's location and provides the flight path history and a dynamic direction line to the home point. If you have an Internet connection or have cached the information before the flight, it can even show a satellite view. Manually flying home is as easy as following the line. Flying is fun. Don't pass it off to the RTH function.

 

[Meta4]

Or learn to use the radar display.
It shows where the drone is relative to the homepoint.

It's a simple matter to use the left stick to turn the drone until it is pointing directly at the homepoint and push the right stick forward to fly there, watching the distance indicator to monitor progress towards home.

 

[twickers14]

Interesting responses above and from my experience very good guidance. All I can add (with my MA2) is, don’t panic. Think through what might be the cause and then try to remedy that or simply try the controls and if OK fly it to where you are. The use of the map is sound advice as per above. Good luck.

 

[riterb97]

Why do you tink you almost lost your Air 3? Does it not fly to wherever you want even when you get a warning that says "no gps." It is likely the drone cannot find the correct RTH location but your drone shouldn't go out of control just because you were unable to reset the homepoint. You said the drone returned to the original launch position so does that mean RTH was triggered but the original homepoint was no longer viable for you? Were you able to cancel RTH? Or perhaps your drone was at the very end of the battery and you realized you needed a new homepoint at that time? When I see "no gps" on my drone, I absolutely make sure I don't go somewhere where I can lose the connection.

Forget the background. My question is why do the RC2 give this message and what can be done to correct it.

There were plenty of battery power left on both the drone and RC2. In my other tests later on, I moved away about 100m from the original launch and home point, try to update the homepoint to where the controller was then, and received the same message

 

[riterb97]

Satellites were 31 ... You are saying that the drone was receiving signals from 31 sats.

The message was telling you that your controller or the phone/tablet you were using had no GPS reception, which is needed if you want to tell the drone to where the controller is now..

There was no new RTH position to accept.
If you want to avoid this in future, you need to find the cause of no GPS reception by your controller or phone/tablet.

Some questions that might help solve the issue:
If you are using a phone or tablet, does it have a GPS receiver?
If it does, did you have location services disabled so it could not share location data?
Has it worked before or was this the first time you have tried it?
Were you out in the open with a clear sky view or somewhere with terrain, obstacles or tree cover blocked the skyview?


Not being able to reset your home point shouldn't cause this.
You can fly the drone back to where you are yourself without pushing the RTH button.

My RC2 controller showed a lot of satellites. I do not use a phone. It was a wide open terrain. (even with my 2 tests afterwards.

Can you disable location services on the RC2 controller?? I mentioned in my question that I use the DJI RC 2 controller.

I have used this many times before e. g when I have used. "active track" Always worked before.

I know how to fly back to me. But this is a feature that should work.

I will try and download my screen capture when I'm at a PC and post it.

 

[riterb97]

Interesting responses above and from my experience very good guidance. All I can add (with my MA2) is, don’t panic. Think through what might be the cause and then try to remedy that or simply try the controls and if OK fly it to where you are. The use of the map is sound advice as per above. Good luck.

I will check my log files. Yes I did panic. I tried the find my drone map, but everytime I swiped to enlarge or make smaller, the display changed as well as compass positions. That confused me.

 

[riterb97]

Are there folks who rely exclusively or primarily on the RTH function to fly their drone back to the home point?

If so, please I encourage you to learn how to use the map feature to locate your drone and to fly it back home. The map feature clearly shows the drone's location and provides the flight path history and a dynamic direction line to the home point. If you have an Internet connection or have cached the information before the flight, it can even show a satellite view. Manually flying home is as easy as following the line. Flying is fun. Don't pass it off to the RTH function.

Thank you, I have done this in the past but this time I panicked be cause I though it updated the home point, and it did not. I was in the desert for days already and had no access to wifi, internet etc

I will exercise it more, but still want to know why the message on the RC2 controller. I have eliberate on the conditions in my other replies

 

[Meta4]

My RC2 controller showed a lot of satellites.

I don't know the RC2 controller.
How did it show a lot of satellites?
Was this sats that the drone was reporting or the controller?
If it looks just like this ....

.. that's showing you the number of sats the drone is connected to.
The warning message specifically mentioned that it had no location data from the controller, not the drone.

One way to check whether the controller is getting GPS data would be to take it outside away from any wifi and turn it on.
Open the app and check the map display and see if it's showing the controller's position.

 

[MS Coast]

I don't know the RC2 controller.
How did it show a lot of satellites?
Was this sats that the drone was reporting or the controller?
If it looks just like this ....

.. that's showing you the number of sats the drone is connected to.
The warning message specifically mentioned that it had no location data from the controller, not the drone.

One way to check whether the controller is getting GPS data would be to take it outside away from any wifi and turn it on.
Open the app and check the map display and see if it's showing the controller's position.

I just tried this with an RC2 controller. I switched wifi off on the controller, powered it down, and then restarted it. After about three minutes, it correctly displayed the location and orientation. As expected the on-screen satellite count (for the drone) remained at zero. I switched the controller into airplane mode and repeated the process with the same result.

I'm not aware of a way to disable GPS services on the controller or to display the number of satellites connected to the controller.

@riterb97, it sounds like your controller either did not have adequate satellite connections or perhaps it's faulty. I suggest trying the process I just did in a location where you get good GPS service. Also, does the controller location show correctly (blue dot with direction triangle) on the screen when you have a drone connected? If not, that's an indication of a controller fault.