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Satellite lock after firmware update

Here is a Video showing how bad it is.
At 1:00 it connects to Mavic 3
At 3:58 it got 12 Sats and immediately set Home Point
At 9:40 I pointed the Camera to show the Clear Sky.
At 12:20 it shows it drops to "Weak GPS" (8 minutes after Home point).
It dropped to 11 and Weak again quite a bit later too but only for a short bit.

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Bingo !!! You can downgrade your firmware with DJI Assistant 2

And guess what, it works like it used to on the old firmware. Home point in 30 seconds !!
It wasn't your imagination that it ran differently. And nothing to do with Cold vs Warm starts.

This isn't all good news though. In fact, I think it's bad news.

Very consistently, on V01.00.0400 it would establish Home Point at ~12 Sats.
Very consistently, on V01.00.0300 it would establish Home Point at ~8 Sats.

Now before the GPS police jump down my throat again. I'm well aware that all Sats are not equal and the requirement is not a SAT count. The requirement is an internal GPS accuracy and more Sats increases accuracy. The number of SATs just give us a rough estimate of the accuracy the receiver is getting and visibility to how the firmware labels those levels of accuracy.

It just so happens that around 8 SATS on the old firmware it had enough accuracy for Home Point.
it just so happens that around 12 SATS on the new firmware it had enough accuracy for Home Point.

It is quite clear to me that DJI increased the GPS accuracy requirements for home point and changed the "rating scale" as well. To reach that new accuracy it will typically need more Sats (or better ones).

Those accuracy requirements are now so high, they take a long time to achieve and the drone acts on those new levels. They changed the requirements drastically, in order for the end user see it jump from ~8 to ~12 to now reach Home Point. Not to mention the time it takes to achieve that.

The GPS "quality" didn't change between the different firmware revisions, the accuracy requirements did.
My Drone frequently dips to 12 Sats (old or new firmware) and takes a good while to reach 12.
But 12 is in the "Danger Zone" on the new firmware, it's well within the "Safe Zone" on the old firmware.

DJI saw it was necessary to raise the GPS accuracy requirements and now most of us are on the fringe of meeting it.
I'm now 99% sure this thing is going back. I have $4000.00 into this thing and this just doesn't smell right. Mavic 3 is dud.

They are putting hacks in to compensate for a NEW weaker GPS system/chip design.

GPS Quality/accuracy will vary with location and time. Some users not having any issue might be in better locations and time that allowed them more margin, today. They may suffer like many of us in other locations and times, tomorrow. Those having issues today, may improve in other places and times, tomorrow. But the average looks bad based on responses.

I counted 17 seeing issues, maybe 4-5 not seeing issues.

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Now before the GPS police jump down my throat again. I'm well aware that all Sats are not equal and the requirement is not a SAT count. The requirement is an internal GPS accuracy and more Sats increases accuracy.

It just so happens that around 8 SATS on the old firmware it had enough accuracy for Home Point.
it just so happens that around 12 SATS on the new firmware it had enough accuracy for Home Point.
You don't understand even the basics of how GPS works.
The number of sats is almost irrelevant.
The geometric spread of sats is much more important.

It's laughable that you put so much effort into complaining about this while you won't put any effort into finding out what your real issue is or if there even is a real issue.
 
You don't understand even the basics of how GPS works.
The number of sats is almost irrelevant.
The geometric spread of sats is much more important.

It's laughable that you put so much effort into complaining about this while you won't put any effort into finding out what your real issue is or if there even is a real issue.
Do you not agree there is a issue for the end user here? I find your comment pretty disrespectful to be honest.
 
You don't understand even the basics of how GPS works.
The number of sats is almost irrelevant.
The geometric spread of sats is much more important.

It's laughable that you put so much effort into complaining about this while you won't put any effort into finding out what your real issue is or if there even is a real issue.

It's quite obvious you don't get what DJI did.
 
Do you not agree there is a issue for the end user here? I find your comment pretty disrespectful to be honest.
He might have a real issue or maybe he doesn't.
He's demonstrated that he has no understanding of GPS basics.
For several days, he's been yapping on about his problem but won't post any data.
But his video shows that the location he launches from has half the sky view obstructed.

If he was at all interested in working out what his issue was, he would have put in a little effort days ago and whether there's a genuine issue could have been established.
 
He might have a real issue or maybe he doesn't.
He's demonstrated that he has no understanding of GPS basics.
For several days, he's been yapping on about his problem but won't post any data.
But his video shows that the location he launches from has half the sky view obstructed.

If he was at all interested in working out what his issue was, he would have put in a little effort days ago and whether there's a genuine issue could have been established.
It works "fine" in that location as soon as I put the old firmware back.
Because the GPS criteria is looser in the old firmware.

The log means absolutely nothing here. Sorry you don't get that.

I write GPS/3D Space software for a living.

And don't say "he" has an issue. 17 members here see an issue. Go get a log from them and then tell us all why we are fools.
 
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Has anyone tried if using a mobile phone as a hotspot with the RC pro improves GPS acquisition time?
Try if you like, but hotspotting only shares internet data.
It has nothing to do with the drone's GPS receiver or location data.
 
Has anyone tried if using a mobile phone as a hotspot with the RC pro improves GPS acquisition time?
SAT Acquisition times have NOT changed.

DJI changed how accurate it needs to be, to achieve a Home Point.

Also it's the same problem with RC Pro and using the Standard Controller with a Phone.

Your question is appropriate and I was hoping it was a problem with Assisted GPS.
The phones do use Assisted GPS for faster locks and that information could be passed to the drone to assist it.

What Is Assisted GPS?

Unfortunately that is not the case.

The only variable here is, the firmware changed the accuracy criteria for home point. It's dead obvious if you flip back and forth between the two versions of firmware and try it, it the same location. Watch the elapsed time, number of Sats and how it reacts differently to the conditions. GPS "lock" is not black and white. It's usually measured in meters. They might have lowered it from say 16 meters to 3 meters, or 3 meters to 1 meter for Home Point. Who knows, they don't share the real accuracy on the UI. Instead they have a map in the Software, something like.

100m - Poor
050m - Weak (Hover)
016m - Moderate weak (Limit Altitude)
010m - Good (Home Point)
001m - Strong

They changed that mapping !!
 
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Except the minor issue that 30 seconds after you get home point suddenly GPS accuracy is poor again.

It appears 12 Sats (regardless of quality) seems a crude measure it’s using now. It will get home point as soon as it hits 12. If it drops below 12 it immediately says weak GPS. Every time.

I don’t understand why folks keep defending the way it’s behaving. Because it’s absolutely crap now.
I'm not quite as worked up, but I totally get your points. Its beyond annoying and requires a hot fix immediately, nit along with some later FW package.

Interesting that it seems to be only cold boot behavior, though I have no idea if it's not using assisted acquisition in just slow on cold boot acquisition of satellites.

After flying a bit I came inside and was checking battery status/# of cycles, etc. This was perhaps 10 minutes after powering off outside. In about 15 seconds I got a good Homepoint lock I'm a location in my house that occasionally can do so. Oddly, here it was, working acceptably in an indoor location, many minutes after shutdown. Has me wondering how long it takes to lose the acquired satellites after shutdown and just how long before a gps module cold boot takes place once again.
 

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