How many satellites does a Typhoon H minimal need to operate without problems?

Dutch Nolke · Aug 28, 2016

With all functions available I simply are wondering how many satellites does a Typhoon H or a Typhoon H Pro (RS) now minimal needed to operate without any problems.

After reading the Typhoon H user manual V1.1, I only found the following: When the ST16 Ground Station is connected to less than 6 satellites, the ‘FOLLOW ME’ feature will be disabled.

Does this now means that minimal 6 satellites are needed to operate all the functions on a Typhoon H and Typhoon H Pro (RS) ?

DroneClone · Aug 28, 2016

That is what they are saying, I personally do not fly below 8 satellites

Rayray · Aug 28, 2016

Dutch Nolke said:
With all functions available I simply are wondering how many satellites does a Typhoon H or a Typhoon H Pro (RS) now minimal needed to operate without any problems.

After reading the Typhoon H user manual V1.1, I only found the following: When the ST16 Ground Station is connected to less than 6 satellites, the ‘FOLLOW ME’ feature will be disabled.

Does this now means that minimal 6 satellites are needed to operate all the functions on a Typhoon H and Typhoon H Pro (RS) ?

No.

DroneClone · Aug 28, 2016

Rayray said:
No.

Yes LOL ! But Yes! Read the manual!

Rayray · Aug 28, 2016

Can't you fly without GPS? I can.

DroneClone · Aug 28, 2016

Rayray said:
Can't you fly without GPS? I can.

Yes, but without GPS you do not have "ALL" the functions available like he was asking my good friend RayRay! CCC, Follow Me, on and on!

abinder · Aug 28, 2016

DroneClone said:
That is what they are saying, I personally do not fly below 8 satellites

I don't fly with less than 10 satellites locked.

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DroneClone · Aug 28, 2016

That's a safe number, but in some areas you would never be able to fly where I live! If it locks onto lower than 8, within reason (not less than 6) and states "Ready" so am I!

abinder · Aug 28, 2016

I've seen it when it's that low, intermittently it will display that it lost GPS lock.

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DroneClone · Aug 28, 2016

abinder said:
I've seen it when it's that low, intermittently it will display that it lost GPS lock.

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Possible at times. I have never had that issue. I have had loss of GPS at times and just fly it without GPS. Years ago alot of us did not have the luxury to even have GPS stabilization or tracking features!

RiverRunner · Aug 28, 2016

I launched today over water with 7 sats. After I got up high in the air, it showed 10. It flew just fine. I struggled to get 6 with my old Phantom in this location.

Rayray · Aug 28, 2016

RiverRunner said:
I launched today over water with 7 sats. After I got up high in the air, it showed 10. It flew just fine. I struggled to get 6 with my old Phantom in this location.

Not sure if you mean the ST-16 or the H itself. I think you meant the H..??

Because the H, the Pro at least, has better GPS reception, it seems to be normal for the ST-16 to have 8-10 GPS birds, and the H to have 10-14 for a good lock at takeoff. Also normal for the last birds to come up slowly, a good reason not to be hasty on lift-off.

Hunter_Michael · Aug 28, 2016

I was testing auto take off yesturday for the first time and it wasnt working then i jumped online to research why... I needed 10 sats locked on the ST16 for it to work. Had to wait a bit because I had 6 sats for the longest time.

CHARLES FISHER · Aug 28, 2016

I will not fly with less than 10 Sats. Today I was impressed as I had 18 Available and it said it was locked on 17. It was incredibly stable even in 15MPH gusts. I love the H.

glider · Aug 28, 2016

Once again, there's a difference between GPS lock and obtaining a good position estimate. This was always a bone of contention on Pixhawk; if the green light is on, people assume it's "ready", when in reality you should wait until the GPS negotiates a solid position estimate. They are now going to include that as a pre-flight check apart from >6 sats.

When the H says "Ready", I wait a few more minutes.

David Armstrong · Aug 28, 2016

What are some situations that I would want to fly with the GPS turned off?

Would that be only for indoor flight?

I have read of people crashing because they were flying indoors and their GPS was turned on.
I don't plan on flying indoors, but if I did, I assume that I should turn off the GPS?

DroneClone · Aug 29, 2016

When you have lost GPS signal and want to manually fly your sUAS, because with total loss of GPS it will not RTH and will flyaway!

Hoss · Aug 29, 2016

Hunter_Michael said:
I was testing auto take off yesturday for the first time and it wasnt working then i jumped online to research why... I needed 10 sats locked on the ST16 for it to work. Had to wait a bit because I had 6 sats for the longest time.

So that's why I couldn't get it to work.....thnks

Rayray · Aug 29, 2016

David Armstrong said:
What are some situations that I would want to fly with the GPS turned off?

Would that be only for indoor flight?

Are you talking about the Pro model? It has IPS, which is supposed to stabilize the H indoors.

Tuna · Aug 29, 2016

From the telemetry, it seems that the H has to cross a minimum number of satellites before it sets the 'ground altitude' - that is, resets altitude to zero at the take off point. So if you're using things that rely on that (CCC, RealSense and so on), you need to at least let it know where ground is.

When it comes to Follow Me, the calculation of the relative position between the H and the ST-16 relies on both GPS modules being pretty accurate. Again, it makes sense not to rely on Follow Me if either GPS has insufficient information to go on.

Depending on the number of satellites, GPS can be accurate down to a foot or two - but you'll still see a small amount of drift. If you're fifty feet in the air, it's largely irrelevant, but if you're a foot off the ground it's more noticeable. IPS solves that by using a downward facing camera to 'lock onto' a particular location. It doesn't really know where you are, but it can make sure you're not moving.

So, it depends what feature you're using and how accurate you want it to be. Turn GPS off and you can fly faster (much faster), but you loose the outstanding stability that the Typhoon has with GPS. Partial GPS is good enough for 'just flying around' (though you can't be sure it won't drop out completely). Full GPS (8 satellites?) is a safe place to be and enables all of the smart features to work properly.