Repeated mid-air APM reboot - only happens at one flying site - possible weather radar interference - Discussions

I have three flying sites that I use depending on weather and availability. My primary flying site is located only 800 meters from a weather radar and I have been having repeated in-air reboots when flying from that flying site only. Fortunately, being new to the ardupilot system, I put it in a slow flying high wing airframe and have enough years of RC experience to catch it and go manual each time.

Given that so far I have only experienced the reboots at the one location and the weather radar is the only powerful emitter I am aware of operating in the area, the weather radar is now the leading suspect. I was wondering if any other users have had experience making their hardware a bit more resistant to EMI (Electromagnetic Interference). As the hardware comes out of the box it contains little to no protection.

Knowing what mechanisms could cause the processor to re-boot would help me implement a more targeted solution than adding chokes to leads and wrapping leads and the processor in alumnimum foil.

Have you analyzed the logs for the flights in question?

If it is truly rebooting, as in a power-on reset, I would think a new log would be created while in flight. Your observations do lend credibility to the site as the problem, it only needs to be determined which part of your electronics is suffering from the interference.

That kind of energy could be simply overloading the rejection capability of the receiver and not the APM. It could also be soaked up by the servo leads and causing spurious/erratic function.

More data will be needed to be sure.

Because S-Band operates in the range of many 2.4 GHz Tx/Rx systems, your site is definitely suspect - if your RC gear is 2.4 GHz. From the Wikipedia article:

The S band is part of the microwave band of the electromagnetic spectrum. It is defined by an IEEE standard for radio waves with frequencies that range from 2 to 4 GHz, crossing the conventional boundary between UHF and SHF at 3.0 GHz

-=Doug

Replies

criro1999 February 5, 2013 at 4:43am

I did fly couple of time my copter with APM2.0 in Auto mode close to a weather radar and I did not notice any interference, but is good to know from other people experience.
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Graham Dyer February 4, 2013 at 9:23pm

Have you checked the 'vcc' value in the logs?
Stephen R Mann February 4, 2013 at 8:47pm

You probably will have to shield any long wire runs (more than a few inches) and use some .001 bypass capacitors on the DC lines.

Or, as you suggest, just don't fly in that area.
R. D. Starwalt February 4, 2013 at 4:08am

Have you analyzed the logs for the flights in question?

If it is truly rebooting, as in a power-on reset, I would think a new log would be created while in flight. Your observations do lend credibility to the site as the problem, it only needs to be determined which part of your electronics is suffering from the interference.

That kind of energy could be simply overloading the rejection capability of the receiver and not the APM. It could also be soaked up by the servo leads and causing spurious/erratic function.

More data will be needed to be sure.

Because S-Band operates in the range of many 2.4 GHz Tx/Rx systems, your site is definitely suspect - if your RC gear is 2.4 GHz. From the Wikipedia article:

The S band is part of the microwave band of the electromagnetic spectrum. It is defined by an IEEE standard for radio waves with frequencies that range from 2 to 4 GHz, crossing the conventional boundary between UHF and SHF at 3.0 GHz

-=Doug

This reply was deleted.