Q500 4K No GPS Lock, No GUI

Foxtrot1 · Jun 13, 2021

WTFDproject said:
Your GPS issue is not a model compatibility issue. All versions of the Q500 are compatible with all cameras designed for the series.

To address the issue of true 4K or not, the main difference is the camera mount on the drone. The 4K camera mount has contacts in the mount itself, allowing you to mount and dismount the CGo3 camera without using the pigtail cable and the connector located on the drones belly just behind the camera mount. If your drone has the contacts (hotshoe mount), it is a legitimate Q500 4K.
The 4K also has the belly connector to use if needed for other camera models.

All good points on the matter.

The unit I have does NOT have contacts on the hotshoe mount itself, so I am obligated to use the pigtail cable to make the camera work through the belly connector. This might be because the previous owner changed to an earlier shell (?), yet still doubt this a factory original 4k Quad.

h-elsner · Jun 14, 2021

WTFDproject said:
If your drone has the contacts (hotshoe mount), it is a legitimate Q500 4K.

No, my Q5004K came without hotshoe contacts. This was a later improvement independent from CGO3 introduction. This is not really important, just only as background info...

br HE

h-elsner · Jun 14, 2021

Foxtrot1 said:
I am trying learn on what might be the cause before I render myself to just swap the camera.

Problems with so called "Electromagnetic Compatibility" are hard to debug but intresting...

A question related to that: Has the pigtail cable the ferrite core mounted?

br HE

Foxtrot1 · Jun 14, 2021

- Yes, it does have the ferrite core. I will be getting a new pigtail in the next few days also, to eliminate another item off the list of possibilities.
- When you state that the elimination of the hotshoe was an improvement, could you kindly expand or elaborate further? The reason I ask this is because we are using this pigtail, that carries a ferrite core and still we use the hotshoe with contacts to transfer the signal through three separate exposed wires back to the camera board. This does not make techncal sense to me.

h-elsner · Jun 14, 2021

No, the introduction of the hotshoe was the improvment. The Q5004K befor came without it although it already were 4K (with CGO3). So this is no indication that your drone was not an 4K. However, all Q500 FC are the same, frame the same but details changed during the production time. First improvement war to move the compass from landing gear to nose of the drone. Later came hotshoe and Y-cable for the receiver. The color changed from white to grey or black, motor color changed and it got better material for the propeller.
The marketing name of the drone depends on the camera that was mounted, not the drone itself (all Q500). There was also a black edition to what belonging the black motors.

br HE

Foxtrot1 · Jun 14, 2021

h-elsner said:
No, the introduction of the hotshoe was the improvment. The Q5004K befor came without it although it already were 4K (with CGO3). So this is no indication that your drone was not an 4K. However, all Q500 FC are the same, frame the same but details changed during the production time. First improvement war to move the compass from landing gear to nose of the drone. Later came hotshoe and Y-cable for the receiver. The color changed from white to grey or black, motor color changed and it got better material for the propeller.
The marketing name of the drone depends on the camera that was mounted, not the drone itself (all Q500). There was also a black edition to what belonging the black motors.

br HE

My aircraft has the grey and black shells (that are replacements, these don't even say "Yuneec" or "Q500 4K" on the side as factory shells do), but also has the black motors and no hotshoe, just the plug-in connector for the camera. I am leaning towards thinking that this Q500 was rebuilt using various year parts.

Foxtrot1 · Jun 22, 2021

Update,

Got a new 3-wire camera cable with core, a new GPS module and also a used camera hotshoe to replace the non-electric one that's currently on the 500, so as to have two separate power sources avaiable for the camera, all of this to be swapped this weekend. I am even thinking of putting the GPS module on the outside on a small pod that goes upwards about three/four inches from the body, like a few other generic hexacopters I've seen that have them this way, just for testing purposes and at the same time hopefully strengthen the operating range on the GPS itself. I'm sure someone has done this before, so if there's information (good or no-no's), please fire away. At this point, I'm willing to experiment a lot with this craft, since it's been a pain to get it up and flying like it should have and it is very obvious it's a "Frankenstein" previously built from spares.

A question I have now is, will the extra (custom) wiring needed to extend the GPS module that I plan to mount on the outside of the craft need to be shielded or should I just "pretzel" or interlace the wires to minimize crossover interference to other modules?

h-elsner · Jun 22, 2021

I would go one step after another in order to see what will help and what not. Do not change all at the same time. Debugging afterwards is nearly impossible then.

br HE

Foxtrot1 · Jun 22, 2021

But of course there's a flowchart:

Swapping the camera power cable is easy to do and compare. If that does nothing for the drone...
I'll hook up the hotshoe, if that works it would end there and I can go and shield the internal wiring.
If the issue persists, then there's the original GPS module I plan to leave alone where it is and use the new one on the pod.
If that works, I'll exchange the modules. If it still continues to work I would say it's safe that the problem definitely points to the GPS, wiring and or placement.
If none of the above works, I will then have to change the camera.

h-elsner · Jun 23, 2021

From easy to complex, step by step - the perfect plan.?

Foxtrot1 · Feb 17, 2022

Hello all,

I am sorry to revive this thread, as I have been away from this forum and have not been able to post updates for very a long period of time attending other matters that needed my immediate attention.

So I am still where I left. I recently purchased a wrecked-for-parts Q500 ("real" verifiable 4k) and to my surprise it has the same exact problem with not aquiring GPS. It is complete with all boards and a totally working 4k camera but has two broken motor nests and not flyable as-is, but definitely repairable. I can only hope that someone else has had this issue and a solution has been found?

On my part, I replaced the extra parts I was able to buy off the bay I mentioned on my last post, but still no GPS lock with camera plugged in.

Happy to be back online.

WTFDproject · Feb 18, 2022

It's easy to assume the same symptoms are the same problem, but that's not always so.
1.) Does the new drone acquire GPS when the camera is removed?
2.) Have you tried mounting the new camera on the old drone to see if the old drone will acquire GPS?

h-elsner · Feb 18, 2022

3. When switched off GPS support, will motors start then?

Momchil · Feb 18, 2022

power the camera from an external 12v source, as - (GND) is connected to - (GND) of Q500, PWM should be connected to the drone, maybe the camera spends more than it should

Foxtrot1 · Feb 18, 2022

Hello guys,

Thanks for looking into my issue. What a troubleshooting journey (drone initiation, lol) this has been for me.

A reply before leaving to work:

WTFDproject
1. Yes, it does, takes a few seconds and I have GPS locked on the remote.
2. Yes I did, same issue, no GPS.

h-elsner - I initiallly started the motors on the "new" Q500 with the GPS locked but without the camera and found that one of the motors had a burning smell and decided to shut it off until maybe tonight when I can disassemble the shells and check the wiring, but the "burning" motor was indeed working and the lights below all of the motors blinked perfectly. So I will need to get back to you on switching off the GPS and turning the motors on hopefully tonight.

Momchil - Will power the camera off the drone and on an external source this evening and report back. But then again both drones are reacting the same way when i plug the camera on them and turn the drone on to initialize. and both provide good video when the camera is on and I have up/down pitch control over the camera.

Now, I noticed that on both Q500's, the camera moves slowly/smooth as it should but the video seems a tad jerky in certain parts of the moving curve when doing so, not really an issue maybe this is normal (?), it would seem that the camera is not getting enough power, but then again, two drones with that issue?...and if it was a power drain on the camera, why no GPS lock when the camera is not even moving to drain power to begin with. I have experienced lack of power on my home pan/tilt security camera and they reacted in a jerky motion just this way when they were underpowered and had to upgrade the power source, not saying this is it, just where my visual judgement comes from.

h-elsner · Feb 18, 2022

Sorry, I didn't read this right. No general GPS lost but caused by camera. GPS goes away when camera was booted up or immediatly when camera is powerd on? Could you try to move the compass to another place just for a test? It must have the same direction as at the original mounting.

br HE

Momchil · Feb 18, 2022

Foxtrot1 said:
Now, I noticed that on both Q500's, the camera moves slowly/smooth as it should but the video seems a tad jerky in certain parts of the moving curve when doing so, not really an issue maybe this is normal (?), it would seem that the camera is not getting enough power, but then again, two drones with that issue?...and if it was a power drain on the camera, why no GPS lock when the camera is not even moving to drain power to begin with. I have experienced lack of power on my home pan/tilt security camera and they reacted in a jerky motion just this way when they were underpowered and had to upgrade the power source, not saying this is it, just where my visual judgement comes from.

the camera even at rest - without movement - consumes a lot of electricity, check whether 12v. there is a voltage drop on the gimbal controller pins

WTFDproject · Feb 18, 2022

WTFDproject said:
It's easy to assume the same symptoms are the same problem, but that's not always so.
1.) Does the new drone acquire GPS when the camera is removed?
2.) Have you tried mounting the new camera on the old drone to see if the old drone will acquire GPS?

Another thought.
Are you using the same controller on both drones?

Foxtrot1 · Feb 26, 2022

Ok, lol, it took me a while once again.

I have done all except connect the camera/gimbal to an external power source.

- I am using the matching controller for each Q500, have not "cross-paired" them.
- Switched cameras on both, same exact results, no GPS.
- Drone/remote acquires and locks on "GPS Ready" soon after the camera is removed from the hotshoe, at this point (two hours in) I was drained with this issue and did not care to power OFF the drones, so I did a hot swap and removed/switched cameras with the power still ON. When the Q500 is turned ON, and there is no camera connected, it will reach "GPS Ready" status. As soon as I attach the camera and the camera does it's thing and I get the small frontal green light on the camera, the drone looses GPS and the remote alerts me that I lost GPS and to "land" immediately (of course I am on my test bench).

I am starting to believe that this issue is related to a problem within the main board (lost resistance on small scale resistors/or capacitors/capacitance?) as I am not the only one reporting this; the video on Y/T proves without a doubt this is an ongoing issue, maybe a soon-to-go-bad mainboard batch at some point during assembly? Companies change component parts suppliers all the time during manufacturing. I need valid V-test points from a known working board and I'll lick this problem in minutes as I know there's no service manual to guide us. Disconnecting the camera and using an external power source might prove that there's a voltage regulation issue on the main board.

On the other hand, the camera may be feeding directly off the battery and that would cross out any voltage regulation and I am using a brand new 7500mAh battery for power.

WTFDproject · Feb 27, 2022

Foxtrot1 said:
I need valid V-test points from a known working board and I'll lick this problem in minutes as I know there's no service manual to guide us.

....and I am using a brand new 7500mAh battery for power.

There is not much pedigree to these voltage values. But it is all I have to offer.

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

Have you been using the same battery for all checks on both drones? Do you have another battery (or a power supply) you can use to see if the battery may be an issue?