Moving the GPS and COMPASS MODULE.

[PatR]

I use similar “footies” (pool noodles) on my 920, in orange color. For me they are used to add a little more landing cushion, elevate the landing gear Tee coupler up and off rocky surfaces, and increase in flight visibility a little.

 

[John Hennessy]

That Is a great thing your doing.we are lucky to have many people on this forum that have researched at their own expense to find better more efficient ways for other pilots to more enjoy the drone they have been flying .thank you all for your time and effort.

Hi Slick,
Thank you for the complements, the idea came from a conversation with PatR and reading about the GPS DROP OUTS and Mainly all the COMPASS WARNINGS that everybody were encountering. Like I said we fly our H's in between steel clad buildings and to this day I have not had any warnings and I have had the mods on both of my H's and my business partner still has the stock standard configuration. This is a good measuring stick to make sure we are going in the right direction. I did this so that we could fly in our inspections with confidence and safety. I am at present putting together a kit if people are so inclined to want to mod there's, and we are bringing out a video of some comparisons for you to see. My next is to look at moving the barometer and themn making a lithium-ion battery for our H's so that we don't have that dreaded having to do storage modes as with lipo's and they are a lot more robust. Johnno Hennessy.
Keep flying on the green side of the grass.

 

[John Hennessy]

John, I see that your TH with pink foam footies has the CGO3+ antenna dangling below the camera. I assume the footies are to make landing clearance for the antenna. Have you seen any significant improvement in video transmission with this arrangement? It looks similar to the new TH+ camera antenna configuration.
BTW, great job on the GPS module relocation! Its wonderful to see user innovations like that. The only GPS errors I have experienced (audible complaining from ST16) is when I lean over the TH while affixing propellers or ND filter.

Hi Rubik,
No hiding it from you or PatR ,I stole the grand sons pool noodle and that was the colour choice of need. As for the wifi to the st16 , since doing the antenna ( operation get me into open space ) my video has been fabulous and as I said earlier with our line of work with steel building roof inspections it was a problem until we gave it FREEDOM . And the floaties give it clearance on landing. I am very ,very happy with all my mods so far and especially the GPS TOWER, it is so good knowing that you won't have drop outs from either the COMPASS or the GPS and this has been since early JANUARY and we do a lot of jobs, steel ,Concrete, brick , all have a huge amount of steel in them and touch wood I have not had so much as one drop out. As you will read I am trying to bring this to more H owners and am doing some coatings to put it in the affordable cost range ,but postage is a killer. Johnno Hennessy .
keep flying on the green side of the grass .

 

[John Hennessy]

I use similar “footies” (pool noodles) on my 920, in orange color. For me they are used to add a little more landing cushion, elevate the landing gear Tee coupler up and off rocky surfaces, and increase in flight visibility a little.

Hi PatR,
I have finally got something working for a more reliable working H , only wished that Dario would come back with that GPS MODULE that he was working on. But this is proving more than my expectations for what I originally set out to do. I will be getting a video out soon with a comparison to a standard one for people, to see and they can evaluate from there. As I said it has made doing inspections on steel buildings so much more reliable and accurate . I am very happy with it and now looking at moving the Barometer which looks heaps harder but I will put the thinking cap on and see what we can achieve.
I will keep you informed on my progress along the path to a more stable H . Johnno Hennessy.
Keep flying on the green side of the grass .

 

[davemh]

John, FWIW a folding mast for the GPS would be an design improvement. I also fly SOLO's and have done the GPS relocation on them. It was a major performance upgrade. Look at the SOLO GPS mod. A folding mast might allow continued use of the H's backpack.

 

[John Hennessy]

Hi Davemh,
I get where you are coming from, but there is no clearance on the top of the backpack to have a fold-down mast for the GPS Module. the photos I posted yesterday should show you where we are so restricted, is in the height of the protective foam cover that comes with the Backpack. I appreciate the good info and hope that everybody looks at this constructively with good feedback like yours and heaps of others.
Thanks, Johnno Hennessy. Keep flying on the green side of the Grass.

 

[PatR]

The shell of the H is too flimsy to support a mast mount. It would not be very long before the action of folding and unfolding would pull it off the shell. It would be possible to add a clamp type mast mount to a motor boom but the cable would need to remain exposed and be pretty long to allow folding the mast. The mast itself would need to be on the long side to elevate above the top of the shell. Another issue with boom mounting a mast is it would be located directly over wiring carrying signal and power from ESC’s to a motor. Definitely not an ideal location for a GPS/compass module.

 

[thetrecker]

The shell of the H is too flimsy to support a mast mount. It would not be very long before the action of folding and unfolding would pull it off the shell. It would be possible to add a clamp type mast mount to a motor boom but the cable would need to remain exposed and be pretty long to allow folding the mast. The mast itself would need to be on the long side to elevate above the top of the shell. Another issue with boom mounting a mast is it would be located directly over wiring carrying signal and power from ESC’s to a motor. Definitely not an ideal location for a GPS/compass module.

thanks pat was wondering why nobody mentioned mast mounts and now understand why this mod has been developed so much

can somebody who has open there shell tell me what gps patch antenna we have

 

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thanks pat was wondering why nobody mentioned mast mounts and now understand why this mod has been developed so much

can somebody who has open there shell tell me what gps patch antenna we have

Ublox G100 for the H+ dunno about the H

 

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Or this Typhoon H GPS Specifications
Typhoon H GPS Specifications

 

[John Hennessy]

thanks pat was wondering why nobody mentioned mast mounts and now understand why this mod has been developed so much

can somebody who has open there shell tell me what gps patch antenna we have

The tracker,
The GPS and Compass are on a board of 40 mm x 40 mm Sq, the 480 has 4 fixing brass screws and the 520 and H + has 3 fixing points only with one being taken by the rechargeable li- ion battery for power to computer when turned off. On the top side is the g100 GPS aerial 25 mm Sq . Also the H 480 has a GPS 200 aerial on nearly the identical boards except the running software is not interchangeable ( tried ages ago ).
Johnno Hennessy. Keep flying on the green side of the grass.

 

[thetrecker]

The tracker,
The GPS and Compass are on a board of 40 mm x 40 mm Sq, the 480 has 4 fixing brass screws and the 520 and H + has 3 fixing points only with one being taken by the rechargeable li- ion battery for power to computer when turned off. On the top side is the g100 GPS aerial 25 mm Sq . Also the H 480 has a GPS 200 aerial on nearly the identical boards except the running software is not interchangeable ( tried ages ago ).
Johnno Hennessy. Keep flying on the green side of the grass.

thanks john
cant find anything on the g100 has anybody changed theirs
I changed my phantom 2 to a better gps antenna and gained much better sat reception and more sats and faster acquiring time.
having said all that the typhoon is a much better craft anyway gaining much more sats as it is
would you no if the 100 is 2mm and the 200 4mm thickness as if this is the case then it would be easy to change to this one
CIROCOMM GPS & GLONASS Ceramic Patch Antenna 25x25x4mm and would be a good to do at the same time as this mod

 

[davemh]

I have a spare HERE GPS module that I would love to install on my H.
If someone could give me the wiring diagram to convert stock to HERE I would give it a try. Have had very good results with the HERE on other craft. I think a flush mount on top of H could improve greatly the GPS & compass performance.

 

[John Hennessy]

thanks john
cant find anything on the g100 has anybody changed theirs
I changed my phantom 2 to a better gps antenna and gained much better sat reception and more sats and faster acquiring time.
having said all that the typhoon is a much better craft anyway gaining much more sats as it is
would you no if the 100 is 2mm and the 200 4mm thickness as if this is the case then it would be easy to change to this onen
CIROCOMM GPS & GLONASS Ceramic Patch Antenna 25x25x4mm and would be a good to do at the same time as this mod

Hi thetrecker,
I can see what you are saying, but the GPS and COMPASS are all on a circuit board and would not be easy to change over. The 520 and H plus are running on different firmware or hardware which ever is correct, I have changed the complete modules from the 520 to the H 480 but it will not connect as the system for the 520 is a 64 bit processor and won't communicate to the H 480 which is 16 or 32 bit processing. You may have more knowledge about this than me as my computer skills and understanding can be written on the back of a postage stamp with a 4 inch paint brush. I will send you photos of the 480 module and the 520 - H plus ( both the same ) for you to look at and the thickness is visible . The 480 has the Grey wires with colour coded ends. JohnnoHennessy

thanks pat was wondering why nobody mentioned mast mounts and now understand why this mod has been developed so much

can somebody who has open there shell tell me what gps patch antenna we have

 

[thetrecker]

changing the chip is quite easy its finding a better and compatible one ( not my filed use forums for that lol with somebody who understands)
also see that the g100 is a 2 pin got to say they are hard to get off but give you a link ( sorry for swearing on here ( to dji upgrade )
4mm gps upgrade

 

[John Hennessy]

Thetracker,
From what I understand they are a very good chip and I have been able to achieve very satisfactory results by elevating the module up out of the way. In the thread foiltastic RPR has had very good success with small mods with shielding. So the module is capable it is just the position of it and the temperatures around the whole interior of the electronics. I will look at that tonight after my next two roof inspections. Johnno Hennessy.

 

[mrchris]

So I just picked up a Typhoon H a few months ago, used but in great condition. It didn't look like it was used much and probably not even turned on for quite a while. Flew it a few times without issue and then figured I should probably make sure all the firmware was up to date.

Immediately after all the updates I am getting constant, every time I turn it on, compass calibration warnings. I go through the calibration and it appears to work but doesn't and eventually I can get it to spin up and fly and then it does so without issue.

I've been digging into it and came across this thread and was considering moving the GPS module and while shopping for a spare GPS module came across this. Not as cheap a solution but potentially a little more elegant. It looks like a standard Typhoon H GPS module in an external housing with a mount. It says both "typhoon h" and "intel aero" in the description. Yuneec made the Intel Aero RTF so it is quite possible the same GPS module with a different mount, and an extension for the cabling.

Anyone try one of these or have any idea if this would work or be of similar benefit to what was done here with the GPS relocation?

Typhoon H GPS Module Set | Yuneec USA

 

[AH-1G]

I'm curious what type of stability it has during high winds, lets say 15 to 22 knots? Yes I fly in those conditions.
What about CG, have you factored that in?

 

[mrchris]

I was more curious if it was known to be the same/compatible GPS module as it appears to be. If so the questions you ask wouldn't be much different than the OP's moving the GPS to a 3d printed tower as done above. I'm sure it would have some effect on center of gravity however the drone seems more than capable of adjusting. If it provided better GPS and Compass input and at least minimized the constant compass errors it would be a trade off I am willing to make.


If this is a compatible module it means its just an off the shelf approach to what the OP had done which is worth the $80 to me.

 

[rdonson]

Before I went that way I'd consider what @John Hennessy has been working on for quite a while.

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