Satellite lock after firmware update

[waternut13134]

Well, add me to the list of people that returned the drone today. I went flying out yesterday to watch this gator catch this massive fish and it was fighting with it, It took 11 minutes to get a full GPS lock and grab the home point (I refuse to take off until a home point is established for not only safety reasons but because there was a lot of brush and trees nearby) by this time the gator was done and already submerged back into the lake. It's a major PIA to have to wait this long for a home point lock, not to mention it's still missing some features and who knows when DJI will push that firmware update out. I feel the Mavic 3 was rushed out when it really should of been released a few months later than it did.

 

[Baja170]

I notice the same thing. Take forever to lock the satellites and is getting way less. Before the firmware, i was locking about 24. Now if a get 15 I am lucky.

Same here. I was wondering what was up.

 

[ianwood]

5 mins 7 secs on my last cold boot (more than 2 days since last power up) before the satellite icon changed to white. That feels like a long time with mostly clear access to the sky. But for a drone that flies so stably for 30+ minutes and shoots quality footage in ProRes422HQ, I can accept it.

It would be nice if DJI were a little more open about what is different. I doubt it is Beidou. I am sure they have a reason, whatever it is. It does seem that 12 is now the number it wants before the sat icon turns white.

 

[Meta4]

It does seem that 12 is now the number it wants before the sat icon turns white.

It's never been about a particular number of sats.
It's when the flight controller determines that GPS Health is 4/5 or 5/5.
That's when the GPS icon turns to white.

 

[bkushner]

5 mins 7 secs on my last cold boot (more than 2 days since last power up) before the satellite icon changed to white. That feels like a long time with mostly clear access to the sky. But for a drone that flies so stably for 30+ minutes and shoots quality footage in ProRes422HQ, I can accept it.

It would be nice if DJI were a little more open about what is different. I doubt it is Beidou. I am sure they have a reason, whatever it is. It does seem that 12 is now the number it wants before the sat icon turns white.

One of the bigger problems is if you wait the allotted time to get your 12 satellites you get your home point you takeoff and then it loses one or two and tells you that you got a problem.

 

[ZoneAerial]

One of the bigger problems is if you wait the allotted time to get your 12 satellites you get your home point you takeoff and then it loses one or two and tells you that you got a problem.

It's such a dumpster fire that DJI hasn't hot-fixed this. Given that they are about to not work for 2 weeks, we are looking towards March before any fix is implemented. At earliest. It makes you wonder if they even test their fw before release. Some of the bugs are just so obvious to even the most basic testing.

 

[ianwood]

It's never been about a particular number of sats.
It's when the flight controller determines that GPS Health is 4/5 or 5/5.
That's when the GPS icon turns to white.

Which seems to be at around 12 satellites. It may not always be 12 but there is indeed a correlation. "GPS Health" is essentially HDOP which is derived predominantly from the number, distribution, and quality of sats acquired. Since neither health nor HDOP are shown numerically in the app, it is helpful to associate with something that is.

It's such a dumpster fire that DJI hasn't hot-fixed this. Given that they are about to not work for 2 weeks, we are looking towards March before any fix is implemented. At earliest. It makes you wonder if they even test their fw before release. Some of the bugs are just so obvious to even the most basic testing.

What makes you think they are bugs? It could very well be functionality as intended. Maybe DJI raised the quality threshold. Maybe they're filtering lower quality SVs to lessen drift and jumps in flight. The M3 flies with unparalleled precision. I agree it's a longer wait for a cold start. DJI should implement A-GPS but I wouldn't hold my breath.

And if you think this is so terrible, you should really consider just how far the technology has come in such a short period of time. Not that long ago, it was the NAZA, A2 or Wookong M.

One of the bigger problems is if you wait the allotted time to get your 12 satellites you get your home point you takeoff and then it loses one or two and tells you that you got a problem.

It is pretty normal to lose or gain a few SVs right after take off. The drone's view of the sky tends to change a fair amount as it leaves the ground and gets up in the air. Are you getting an actual caution or warning?

 

[Meta4]

Since neither health nor HDOP are shown numerically in the app, it is helpful to associate with something that is.

The visible indication in the app is the GPS icon when it turns white

What makes you think they are bugs? It could very well be functionality as intended. Maybe DJI raised the quality threshold.

There's been no issue with satellite quality has been fine for years.
There was no need to raise any quality threshold.

For my kind of flying purposes with moving subjects that don't wait around, it's a huge bug.
If I had to wait that long for a cold start, my subject would be 1-1.5 miles away by the time I got moving.

 

[ianwood]

The visible indication in the app is the GPS icon when it turns white

Which normally happens around 12 satellites.

 

[Meta4]

Which normally happens around 12 satellites.

It might be around 12, but you can't count on it.
The actual number of sats is not the determining factor, but since the Fly app came out many users mistakenly believe that the number of sats is all that matters.

 

[bkushner]

Which seems to be at around 12 satellites. It may not always be 12 but there is indeed a correlation. "GPS Health" is essentially HDOP which is derived predominantly from the number, distribution, and quality of sats acquired. Since neither health nor HDOP are shown numerically in the app, it is helpful to associate with something that is.



What makes you think they are bugs? It could very well be functionality as intended. Maybe DJI raised the quality threshold. Maybe they're filtering lower quality SVs to lessen drift and jumps in flight. The M3 flies with unparalleled precision. I agree it's a longer wait for a cold start. DJI should implement A-GPS but I wouldn't hold my breath.

And if you think this is so terrible, you should really consider just how far the technology has come in such a short period of time. Not that long ago, it was the NAZA, A2 or Wookong M.



It is pretty normal to lose or gain a few SVs right after take off. The drone's view of the sky tends to change a fair amount as it leaves the ground and gets up in the air. Are you getting an actual caution or warning?

Yes GPS SIGNAL WEAK and sometimes the drone stops or slows down.

 

[ZoneAerial]

Yes GPS SIGNAL WEAK and sometimes the drone stops or slows down.

Correct. This is a bug- through and through. How embarrassing this dumpster fire isn’t fixed.

 

[ZoneAerial]

#GPSGate is a total fail for DJI.
And considering DJI employees are off for a couple weeks for Chinese New Year, this doesn’t appear likely to be resolved anytime soon. Also since they don’t even acknowledge there is an issue at all.

 

[Mach25]

For what its worth department - (long time reader, newbie poster) I tried flying this evening to catch the sunset here in SoCal. Powered up my M3 as I normally have been doing since day 1 (same place at my home) of purchase back on release weekend. My satellite lock couldn't get past 7. I watched my battery go from 67% to 59% for about 10 min (sunset gone at this point) sitting on the ground. Tried launching from my backyard in hopes of maybe better satellite coverage but no luck. Normal my M3 locks on to about 11-13 sats but not tonight. Seems to me that before the S/W upgrade last year (Dec??), sat lock only took a few min. After the Dec & Jan updates, its just getting worse for me - now it takes me at least 5 min+ to get a lock/GPS. Today was the first time I couldn't acquire full GPS (I won't fly without GPS). My old Mavic 2 Pro would lock on sats pretty fast. I'm normally a patient guy and can tolerate hiccups here and there with new product rollouts but this is seriously getting bad. I purchased the M3 basic package and starting to feel buyers remorse. I sure do hope someone at DJI gets this fixed sooner and not later. Pretty sad and bad that a $2k drone can't get off the ground. Sorry, just had to vent.

 

[GadgetGuy]

It has been reported by others that Refreshing the latest aircraft and RC-Pro FW through the Mavic 3's" DJI Assistant 2 (Consumer Drones Series)" restores the quick satellite acquisition. I tried it tonight, and afterwards, it was acquiring more satellites indoors than it was outdoors before the Refresh. However, that is most likely a warm boot satellite acquisition, as the drone was probably acquiring all satellites indoors during the FW refresh. Nothing to lose by Refreshing everything, though. The truth will come out tomorrow, when I try a truly cold boot at a different location.

 

[Suren]

It has been reported by others that Refreshing the latest aircraft and RC-Pro FW through the Mavic 3's" DJI Assistant 2 (Consumer Drones Series)" restores the quick satellite acquisition. I tried it tonight, and afterwards, it was acquiring more satellites indoors than it was outdoors before the Refresh. However, that is most likely a warm boot satellite acquisition, as the drone was probably acquiring all satellites indoors during the FW refresh. Nothing to lose by Refreshing everything, though. The truth will come out tomorrow, when I try a truly cold boot at a different location.

Below is from my tests I have done for the whole day yesterday and posted those results in the Dji Forum. I am currently on the previous firmware with RC and Ac and get lock with 2 minutes or less which is not great but still more acceptable then the more then 6 minutes I was getting.

1. Downgraded Ac and RC to previous firmware which is .400
2. Powered on Ac then RC and connected phone with mobile data turned on in the iPhone
3. Drone connected to home point and locked 11 sats (which gps signal bar turned white) in under 2 minutes
4. Turned drone off and removed battery for 2 hours ( watched movies)
5. Turned on drone again then RC and connected iPhone but I turned off the phone mobiles data - Put it into Flight mode- drone connected to 11 sats-turned white and recorded home point in under 2 minutes again
6. upgraded RC to .500 and left drone on .400 firmware- Full sat lock took 3 minutes this time to record the home point. Locked 11 sats again which turned GPS bar to white
7. upgraded drone to .500 (latest firmware) and downgraded RC to previous firmware .400 and drone locked full 11 sats in 53 seconds after being turned off for 2 hours - cold start
8. upgrade both drone and RC to latest firmware .500 and turned on drone then RC with Mobile data on phone enabled and drone took 6 minutes and 36 seconds to locks 12 sats and record home point.
9. Downgraded RC again, left drone on latest firmware and tried after an hour and the drone locked full sats in 1 minute and 30 seconds.

How is this possible that the RC when on the latest firmware causes the drone to take longer to register sats. When the drone and RC is on the previous firmware which is .400 the drone only needs 11 sats to register the home point but on the latest firmware needs 12 sats to register. The story about mobile data and using the phones A-GPS has been debunked here but something is not right in the firmware for the RC which should have nothing to do with locking in satellites. One thing I can be 100% sure of is that when I downgraded both the drone and RC to the previous versions I also managed to get alerts again from AirSense. This proves beyond a shadow o doubt that the newest firmware, although gave us all the missing features caused major issues for some, if not the majority of us with GPS and AirSense. I hereby urge Dji to hurry up and produce an update that will gives AirSense back and working GPS times with all the features that we paid for.

 

[mobilehomer]

Below is from my tests I have done for the whole day yesterday and posted those results in the Dji Forum. I am currently on the previous firmware with RC and Ac and get lock with 2 minutes or less which is not great but still more acceptable then the more then 6 minutes I was getting.

1. Downgraded Ac and RC to previous firmware which is .400
2. Powered on Ac then RC and connected phone with mobile data turned on in the iPhone
3. Drone connected to home point and locked 11 sats (which gps signal bar turned white) in under 2 minutes
4. Turned drone off and removed battery for 2 hours ( watched movies)
5. Turned on drone again then RC and connected iPhone but I turned off the phone mobiles data - Put it into Flight mode- drone connected to 11 sats-turned white and recorded home point in under 2 minutes again
6. upgraded RC to .500 and left drone on .400 firmware- Full sat lock took 3 minutes this time to record the home point. Locked 11 sats again which turned GPS bar to white
7. upgraded drone to .500 (latest firmware) and downgraded RC to previous firmware .400 and drone locked full 11 sats in 53 seconds after being turned off for 2 hours - cold start
8. upgrade both drone and RC to latest firmware .500 and turned on drone then RC with Mobile data on phone enabled and drone took 6 minutes and 36 seconds to locks 12 sats and record home point.
9. Downgraded RC again, left drone on latest firmware and tried after an hour and the drone locked full sats in 1 minute and 30 seconds.

How is this possible that the RC when on the latest firmware causes the drone to take longer to register sats. When the drone and RC is on the previous firmware which is .400 the drone only needs 11 sats to register the home point but on the latest firmware needs 12 sats to register. The story about mobile data and using the phones A-GPS has been debunked here but something is not right in the firmware for the RC which should have nothing to do with locking in satellites. One thing I can be 100% sure of is that when I downgraded both the drone and RC to the previous versions I also managed to get alerts again from AirSense. This proves beyond a shadow o doubt that the newest firmware, although gave us all the missing features caused major issues for some, if not the majority of us with GPS and AirSense. I hereby urge Dji to hurry up and produce an update that will gives AirSense back and working GPS times with all the features that we paid for.

The Airsense situation has been explained by DJI. With the new firmware, they adjusted the sensitivity downward. It was picking up craft that were not near enough. Since we were accustomed to that, it now seems as though it is not working. I would rather have too much info than not enough!!

 

[Suren]

The Airsense situation has been explained by DJI. With the new firmware, they adjusted the sensitivity downward. It was picking up craft that were not near enough. Since we were accustomed to that, it now seems as though it is not working. I would rather have too much info than not enough!!

Yes they did explain but it just did not work for me. How did I test this - My client manages a small local airport, I went to him to test this and debunk Dji's nonsense claim of turning down the AirSense. His helicopter that was in the air and hovering around 100 meters away, which showed up in Flight Radar app and the Mavic 3 hovering at 5 meters off the ground did not see it. The AirSense was another thing, like GPS that Dji broke with their latest update.

 

[mobilehomer]

Yes they did explain but it just did not work for me. How did I test this - My client manages a small local airport, I went to him to test this and debunk Dji's nonsense claim of turning down the AirSense. His helicopter that was in the air and hovering around 100 meters away, which showed up in Flight Radar app and the Mavic 3 hovering at 5 meters off the ground did not see it. The AirSense was another thing, like GPS that Dji broke with their latest update.

That is ridiculous!!!! To disable something that us that beneficial! WAY TO GO DJI!!!

 

[Suren]

That is ridiculous!!!! To disable something that us that beneficial! WAY TO GO DJI!!!

I sent a very long, nasty email to the admin of the Dji forum. I see after that a moderator came on my thread and fed us some BS about using mobile data to the Fly app to get GPS lock. Hopefully if many of us that are having these types of similar issues can raise them collectively and keep bombarding Dji with our complaints, they will have no option but to initiate a fix for this.