Beacon & Drone connection and GPS

[Arctic Play]

Beacon sync to skydio 2.0 seems to take for ever. even when i get my I-phone 11 involved. Dorky standing there in the cold of Alaska or the heat of hawaii waiting for syncing. Once it does take off it seams to loose connection allot. In the open flats of Alaska with scrub trees and on a wide open ridges in hawaii by the ocean. I carry beacon in my hand so it has clear signal. Thinking about mounting beacon on top of my hat to get over this mess. Yes i have had problems in hawaii jungle Valleys but that is to be expected. not in the opennes!

Love its AI just need to overcome this hassle so i can take it snowmachine riding with me in the mountains this weekend! Yes beacon and drone are fully charged. Yes all updated.

 

[Ridefreak]

Maybe D/L an app to see how well you're phone is pulling in the satellites. I've only got my experience to go by but when I connect the phone to the beacon (I do this every time) it's less then a min for it to give me the ready to fly button. Every so often it'll loose the connection before I launch and I see it go through the process again. It's still only a short time though.

 

[Trailryder42]

Maybe D/L an app to see how well you're phone is pulling in the satellites. I've only got my experience to go by but when I connect the phone to the beacon (I do this every time) it's less then a min for it to give me the ready to fly button. Every so often it'll loose the connection before I launch and I see it go through the process again. It's still only a short time though.

That implies that the beacon, when used with the phone, is relying on the GPS signal that the phone is getting. And not its own GPS receiver, as it does when using it alone. I thought when using both beacon and phone, the phone was only providing a wifi signal.

 

[Ridefreak]

I don't think that's the case from what we are all seeing with the GPS connection difference between the two methods. If it was only providing wifi why the improvement in GPS connectivity? Your phone keeps track of the satellites it's connected to, it might be something as simple as the phone passing that list to the beacon telling it what satellites it's likely to pick up. I definitely wouldn't rule it out, the alternative is sitting there for an extended period waiting for it to become ready.

 

[Arctic Play]

If I don't use my phone and just have the Beacon and the drone it makes syncing even longer. I will try the GPS app.

 

[kenmavic2zoom]

apparently using your phone will help speed up the initial gps connection between the drone and the beacon. i almost never use the drone and beacon alone and always trying to include the phone since it's super easy to simply put the phone in your pocket. however, for me the proper method is to connect the drone to the beacon when tracking. only pull out the phone if i can't figure out how to control or recover the drone with the beacon.

 

[Trailryder42]

I tried flying with the beacon today, connecting up with the phone (iPhone 11). I get the arrow at the top left of my phone screen to show GPS is active but the signal strength on the beacon is nil. Is that normal if the beacon is using the GPS signal the phone is getting?

Do you have to leave the phone screen on for it to continue to work with the beacon? I get it all ready to go, turn the phone screen off and put it in my pocket so I don't have to try to hold it also, and the beacon switches back to wanting me to use the app for better connection.

 

[kenmavic2zoom]

I tried flying with the beacon today, connecting up with the phone (iPhone 11). I get the arrow at the top left of my phone screen to show GPS is active but the signal strength on the beacon is nil. Is that normal if the beacon is using the GPS signal the phone is getting?

Do you have to leave the phone screen on for it to continue to work with the beacon? I get it all ready to go, turn the phone screen off and put it in my pocket so I don't have to try to hold it also, and the beacon switches back to wanting me to use the app for better connection.

are you connecting your phone directly to the beacon thru the wifi menu on the phone?

 

[Trailryder42]

are you connecting your phone directly to the beacon thru the wifi menu on the phone?

Yes.

 

[kenmavic2zoom]

Yes.

it is my understanding the beacon will use the phone to get gps quicker but no phone is needed to fly the drone and the beacon together. when your beacon has low signal, do you get warnings and limitations on flying? this happened to me once and the drone was very limited....meaning, you really have to wait until you get a good signal on that beacon. i don't think the beacon will use the gps from the phone in place of it's own. it's been awhile since i've flown it this way so i'll need to revisit this as soon as the weather improves. i do recall it being not the easiest to get it working right but when it worked right, it was solid.

 

[Ridefreak]

I tried flying with the beacon today, connecting up with the phone (iPhone 11). I get the arrow at the top left of my phone screen to show GPS is active but the signal strength on the beacon is nil. Is that normal if the beacon is using the GPS signal the phone is getting?

Do you have to leave the phone screen on for it to continue to work with the beacon? I get it all ready to go, turn the phone screen off and put it in my pocket so I don't have to try to hold it also, and the beacon switches back to wanting me to use the app for better connection.

I get that sometimes after I stick the phone in my pocket but the second time seems to be quick and I don't pull the phone back out. But I'm also in an area where there's pretty good signals and little if any RF interference.

 

[farmer brown]

found this buried on skydio’s site. maybe this’ll help. https://support.skydio.com/hc/en-us/articles/360036117254-How-does-Skydio-2-2-use-GPS-

 

[kenmavic2zoom]

found this buried on skydio’s site. maybe this’ll help. https://support.skydio.com/hc/en-us/articles/360036117254-How-does-Skydio-2-2-use-GPS-

this may be the part some people might find most helpful:

• GPS signal is independent of cellular data plans. Although the Skydio app does require location services to be ON while flying, you can still fly Skydio if you have no cellular data active on your device. Basically, you can fly Skydio using the Skydio app on a mobile device that is in "airplane mode", provided that you have location services/permissions ON.

 

[jferber]

when i try to connect my PHONE to the beacon's wifi as instructed it asks for a password, neither the one that came on the drone nor the one i changed it too (at their recommendation during setup) work - does anyone know the BEACON wifi password? otherwise cant connect? or am i missing something, thanks in advance! John

 

[kenmavic2zoom]

when i try to connect my PHONE to the beacon's wifi as instructed it asks for a password, neither the one that came on the drone nor the one i changed it too (at their recommendation during setup) work - does anyone know the BEACON wifi password? otherwise cant connect? or am i missing something, thanks in advance! John

sounds to me like the connection is failing regardless of the correct password or not....unless you get a message that says "incorrect password"

 

[ETdronehome]

when i try to connect my PHONE to the beacon's wifi as instructed it asks for a password, neither the one that came on the drone nor the one i changed it too (at their recommendation during setup) work - does anyone know the BEACON wifi password? otherwise cant connect? or am i missing something, thanks in advance! John

Welcome
Hope this helps.

https://support.skydio.com/hc/en-us/articles/4476132039579-How-to-pair-the-Skydio-Beacon-to-your-devices-

 

[farmer brown]

when i try to connect my PHONE to the beacon's wifi as instructed it asks for a password, neither the one that came on the drone nor the one i changed it too (at their recommendation during setup) work - does anyone know the BEACON wifi password? otherwise cant connect? or am i missing something, thanks in advance! John

password for the beacon is on the back of your beacon. should have a QR code there as well, to make it easier to connect to.