Discussions

Warning! Camera Interfering with GPS lock

Posted by Dave C on November 5, 2012 at 6:02am

Hi All,

Just a quick heads-up for those of you flying with an onboard camera and using GPS. I use a gopro with no problems, it doesn't seem to interfere with anything.

However today I decided to try a different cam

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=17200

I did a quick auto flight without the camera, everything went beautifully well, so i decided to do an onboard video for your viewing pleasure.

I turned the camera on, tried a loiter and it just wandered. I checked the mission planner - NO GPS FIX!?!?!?

What? I've just done an autoflight perfectly.

Thankfully before i stripped it all down my helpful friend pointed out that the only thing that i had changed was the camera - so i took it off and hey presto - a instant full 3D fix. This must be one hell of a noisy camera!

Watch this!

You need to be a member of diydrones to add comments!

Join diydrones

gps, camera, interference

Email me when people reply –

Replies

Nick June 25, 2013 at 11:24am

Have the same cam.

Yes I crashed with it onbaord...Most likely motor fail...but my GPS lock was 10 sats all the way through.
So no issues there.

Cam was about 10cm from the GPS module.
Its Ublox.

Maybe only the mediatek is affected.
- James Cureton > Nick May 10, 2014 at 7:22pm
  
  Same problem....I have a HK wing cam on the front of my quad running NAZA...I had great GPS lock....even did a great compass calibration.....then i noticed I had bad sat lock everytime I took off.....I noticed ( and by chance noticed)...that when I turned my wing cam on...I would lose sat locks....even did a calibration with the wing cam on...to see if that would callobrate in....NOPE.....took that cam off for sure...also at one point before I noticed the problem...I went out of controll for like two or three seconds and I switched from gps atti to just atti....and landed fine
Sergey Pigida February 3, 2013 at 1:31pm

Hello mate! The same problem! My last flight could finish very sadly. The plan wanted to fly away. Just quick return to manual mode saved it.
Richard Bruno February 1, 2013 at 3:58am

Did you try to wrap a bit of tin foil around the camera and then check it?
Martin Demin January 30, 2013 at 11:23pm

Hi!

I was using the 720p HK Wing camera extensively with GPS for quite some time now and I did not see any problem.

I am using Venus638FLPx GPS and the camera was as close as 15cm from the unit.

It could be possible that your GPS is sensitive to some other frequency than L1.

Would have to run the camera on spectrum analyzer if needed.
Ron Perry November 5, 2012 at 6:21am

Thanks for the heads up, I've been waiting for a dry day in Seattle to fly with my new wing cam, you just $aved us! Cheers!