Looking to see if it's only me or if there is a fix to the Beacon Charging while it's in use. I would like to be able to plug my beacon in to charge either with a battery stick or in a vehicle while it's being used. It's easy enough to land the S2 and replace it's battery but if you have to wait for the Beacon to recharge it's a bit pointless. When I do plug into power with the Beacon on it will show message "USB in Use" and not connect.
Beacon Charging while in Use.
- Thread starter KC_Motorsports
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Same.
I plan ot mount the Beacon to my Motorcycle handlebar and looking to keep it plugged in and charging. Can the Beacon be charged while being used?
I plan ot mount the Beacon to my Motorcycle handlebar and looking to keep it plugged in and charging. Can the Beacon be charged while being used?
I have reached out to Skydio but have not received a response yet. Mine just says "USB in Use" and won't let me connect.
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I know this doesn't directly answer your question but I often take 5 batteries out with me, the beacon's battery will last all of those flights and longer, I think it only gets down to like 1/4 or 1/3 left after five 20 min flights. By that time I've got 5 dead batteries and about 2.5 hrs of charging ahead. I tested it and the
beacon will charge up off a 10,000ma USB backup battery about the same time as it takes one of the main batteries to charge. I keep the backup battery with me but have never needed it.
It's an option if the constant power connection doesn't work out.
beacon will charge up off a 10,000ma USB backup battery about the same time as it takes one of the main batteries to charge. I keep the backup battery with me but have never needed it.
It's an option if the constant power connection doesn't work out.
That may be true but what can happen is when the Beacon is in an area where it is constantly trying to update and find a good GPS signal it drains the battery much quicker...same as when a phone is in a poor reception area and uses more battery life to acquire a signal. Some of the remote areas tend to have the Beacon searching for a GPS signal lock and it drains the battery faster than the flight time of the drone battery.
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You describing a situation that doesn't exist. The beacon doesn't update by searching, when the app is first opened up it checks for updates. If there's a new update it downloads it. Not until the next time you connect ether the drone or the beacon to the app will the update get pushed from the phone to the beacon and it's likely you'll be forced to also update the drone before it will let you fly. You really don't want to find out there's an update when you're out somewhere and turn it on. There's only been 4 or 5 since the drone came out over a year ago so it's very unlikely. More importantly the drone will use a 5 min of so of it's battery if there's an update. Better to turn it on at home, if there's an update it gets done then, not when you're not out somewhere getting ready to fly, when that happens you'll waste allot more then the beacon's battery.
It's only acquiring a GPS signal for a min or so right after it connects to the drone. If you turn on the app it acquires acceptable GPS signal far quicker. If the signal gets weak the drone will tell you and stop flying. Keeping the beacon turned on will not help with acquisition, every time you connect the beacon with the drone it's going to start over acquiring signals. It's not like keeping it turned on gets you anything. Your description of what a phone does when confronted with signal loss isn't correct, a receiver is far more sensitive then the transmitter, when the phone comes in range of a signal the phone attempts to communicate with the tower. Since the receiver picks up the tower before the phone can actually communicate with it, the phone is designed to increases it's transmitter strength to speed up that link. That's what wears down the phone's battery when signals are poor, its transmitter, not it's receiver. The GPS doesn't work that way, it's a receiver only, when a GPS signal strength is low aka high signal to noise ratio. It can't turn up it's receiver, it can try and improve the signal with an algorithm if it's smart enough GPS but that's a few cpu cycles, not like cranking up the power in a phone's transmitter to establish a link. GPSs are used globally with relatively small batteries because they do not require much power.
I know 2 other guys flying SD2s and all will go multiple flights with a single beacon charge, For all of us it's a once a day thing, in their case 3 flights or drone batteries, in mine five 20 min flights and there's some battery to spare. My beacon is over a year old with well over 75 flights so it's is far from new, every flight it get's connected to the drone and the app so there's 2 WiFi connections, not sure how much extra that uses but it's more traffic then the drone alone. As far as I know you're the first person I've seen mention the beacon's battery as a limiting issue and the drone has been out over a year. If the problem you describe is happening, you may want to talk to them about it before it gets too old, it sounds like your beacon may have a weak battery.
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No I am actually describing exactly what happens. I didn't say it was updating anything...when it loses the GPS signal it beeps loudly and states that it is searching for a GPS signal...once it reacquires the signal then it goes back to normal operation...happened to me 3 times in one flight yesterday...so me describing a situation is exactly what happened. If you weren't there you can't speak on what I experienced.
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It's not using extra power when it looses gps lock. A receiver can't increase power to pull in a signal better, signal strength is a function of the antenna and the receiver's ability to discriminate the signal. That's why a gps will lock on to multiple satellites, usually more then it needs, it's pulling into from them all to maintain it's position information even when it has a poor signal from some of them, when it can't get a min fix it gives you the error you saw. It's not cranking up trying to pull in signal better, it doesn't work that way in a receiver. If it did your phone battery would wear down quicker every time you went into the house.
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skydioconvert
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Ridefreak is correct in his explanation about how very little receiver power is involved in detecting GPS signals. Receivers are pretty much passive devices that use very little power and in reality are not "searching" for signals ... they're just "waiting" until their antenna crosses the path of a signal they're designed to detect. Unfortunately anything that weakens a GPS signal (poor overlapping satellite coverage, sun spots, etc.) also cause GPS drop outs.
Some else to check.... other apps on your phone that use GPS can interfere with each other making it harder to maintain GPS locks. Try shutting such apps down before flying to see if it helps.
