I'm guessing I posted this in the wrong place so am reposting it here. I started a thread in the arduplane user group but not sure how much it's seen so will try here.
http://diydrones.com/group/apmusergroup/forum/topics/gps-stopped-working
I've been struggling with this for almost a week now and am starting to give up! I've got 2 APM1.4 boards with 1280 and both have the latest arduplane 2.6. They both work fine except for the fact that neither will report any sats found even though my 4 gps units get a solid blue. I'm using MP 1.2.10 mav 1.0.
I know it's a problem with the APM and not the MP because my ardustation that has xBee on it also doesn't report any satellites.
What I've done:
I have about 10 cables of varying length (most are new) and have tried them all.
I can't get into terminal mode on either board. It just ignores my 3 returns.
I reinstalled 2.6 more times than I can count :)
I've WIPE EEPROM using control F window.
I'm powering it from castle 10A BEC with 5.1V
I've reinstalled the GPS firmware on a few of them even though they probably didn't need it.
I would love to get into terminal mode so I test better. Is it disabled for the 1280?
What is going on here? I've seen other users report this and I have seen it on occasion but usually would just restart APM and all would be ok but this time it seems impossible and I'm even trying a spare APM1.4 board that is doing the exact same thing. They both have 2.6.
Replies
I upgrade my APM1 (1280) from Arduplane 2.5 to Arduplane 2.6 and now Mission ground reports "No GPS" and my airspeed sensor doesn't register any speed.
Same hardware, same configuration, just different software.
Well to end this story, with a little bit of guessing as to what happened. I think the molex connector was working it's way lose which is why MP didn't report the sats. Then I did an upgrade from 2.4 to 2.6 not realizing that 2.6 has an issue with GPS and then went trying all my GPS units and cables. In the end it was just 2.6 and going back to 2.4 solved it along with resoldering the molex connector. Today after a very nice flight 1km away, I lost radio contact at about the same time I lost video and telemetry. Last thing I heard was changing to circle mode. Then I waited a couple of seconds to see if it would return but it didn't so I put it in RTL but not sure if it got the signal or wait till the 20 second limit to switch to RTL but for some reason it didn't happen and I lost it. It's not somewhere in the forest making company with a couple other lost craft :) Now I need to start my scratch build :)
Satellites magically reappear in the sky above me after reverting to 2.4 :) I would like to try 2.5 but couldn't get that to install!?!
Now the red light is flashing as it waits for a 3D lock but it got 6 sats in under a minute and now has 3D fix.
I think what started all this was a loose molex connector on my GPS that I only noticed AFTER i upgraded from 2.4 to 2.6 and since 2.6 has a GPS problem with 1280 boards, I didn't catch it. Now the molex is resoldered on and both boards back to 2.4.
Let me know if it's possible to install 2.5 via Arduino or if I need a special version.
OK it detected a 2560 in the zepher so I upgraded to 2.6 and GPS is working fine! Now I will revert to 2.5 or 2.4 on the others to see if their GPS comes alive again :)
Thanks Monroe and Randy. I have the MediaTek GPS. I have 4 of them.
I don't think it's a 2D 3D issue because MP reports zero satellites and doesn't even change the map. What is really strange is I was flying this with 2.5 (or maybe it was 2.4) for the longest time with no problems. Thinking back, occasionally I might have seen a solid blue on GPS and 0 sats in MP so I would just restart APM and that usually solved it. Since my last flight last week, it just stopped reporting any sats.
I have 4 of these GPS units and last night I took one out of my zerpherII that I know was working last time I flew it a month ago. I put it on either one of the APM1.4/1280 and still same problem.So this morning I decided to check the zepher. I put it's GPS back on and turned it on. Connected via xBee and all is well! I had to open up prior version of MP1.2.0.0 with mav.9 since I had arduplane 2.3.4 on it. So I know that is working and I'm guessing if I reverted to 2.4 then they others would work also.
I'm going to upgrade the zepher to 2.6 and hope it doesn't get the GPS problem. Then revert to 2.4 on the others. 2.5 would be better if I get GPS working on it?
It's possible that the GPS is getting a 2D lock but not a 3D lock and that is why it's blue light goes solid while the APM doesn't (it won't go solid until it gets a 3D lock). It's a bit unlikely that this is the problem though..sounds more like you APM is not getting any messages from the GPS.
I wonder if loading one of the GPS example sketches onto your APM would allow you to check whether the GPS itself is getting a lock. I think this would work..