I have some older apj files lying around on my hard drive and as far as I can see the last time this kind of worked was after 4.6.0 beta 2 back in December. In other words.
4.6.0 beta 2 (from my build on 23 Dec 2024) is kind of working - it gets 12 satellites whereas 4.5.7 gets 24 in the same location.
subsequent builds after beta 2 (still investigating) are not working
Hi @tridge - can you explain how I can do a build with this low level GPS logging so I can help you to see what’s going on with my QioTek M10S GPS?
VT Bird
I have a different plane that I haven’t powered on in about a week. It’s running 4.6.0 beta 4 - after power on I got 11 satellites after about 2 minutes, but it won’t get any more than 14 satellites (Acc 2.24/3.03) even after waiting 10 minutes. Without moving the plane, I installed master including the fix above and got 15 satellites immediately on power up (Acc 2.54/2,92), but after 10 minutes peaked at 17 satellites (Acc 2.33/2.59), before dropping back to 14-15.
Next I installed 4.5.7, rebooted (power off) and instantly got 17 satellites (Acc 2.94/2.37), 17 satellites after 2 minutes and 18 satellites (Acc 2.320/2.20) after 10 minutes and 20 satellites (Acc 2.05/2.69) after about 30 minutes. This is also subjectively better as looking at the map in Mission Planner the plane is showing as sitting pretty much where it really is and not moving as much as with the more recent firmwares.
9:45 Log with 4.6.0 beta 4: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/uvf6sikd6y9fbyfk58d0y/log_185_2025-3-6-09-45-06.bin?rlkey=z7ev3j56asle7mjifz3vq8yuv&dl=0
10:55 Log with 4.70 master with fix: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/kdxft6wn3anudjlmpi1o3/log_186_2025-3-6-09-55-04.bin?rlkey=s40oti1rri3go2onnplz1kic0&dl=0
11:05 Log with 4.5.7 official: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qnbfmv5i0ruqjc1l7ic26/log_187_2025-3-6-10-05-30.bin?rlkey=4npq65cu8wbi734h37ribs06j&dl=0
I’ve installed master on this plane and powered off. Will wait 24 hours to power on again and report back.
12:55 After about 16 hours, powered on - came up with zero sats, but very quickly up to 15/16 (Acc 1.8/2.0) -. Map location looks good. After 10 minutes up to 19 satellites Acc 1.6/2.1. Map has drifted to about a 5-6m error from reality.
After 30 minutes, settled in at 20 sats Acc 1.6/1.9 and map location within 2-3m with a slow drift around the true location. Peaked at 20 after about 40 minutes, then slowly decreasing to 18 with a good real location.
Log here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/kdxft6wn3anudjlmpi1o3/log_186_2025-3-6-09-55-04.bin?rlkey=s40oti1rri3go2onnplz1kic0&dl=0
Djapana
Powered on after some weeks with 4.6.0 Beta 4 onboard. Started quite quickly and 15 sats (Acc .6/.8) after 2 minutes. Location on Mission Planner drifting all over the place at least 4-6 meters from the true location of the plane. After about 10 minutes it drifted back to about the right location but never got more than 16 sats.
I installed 4.5.7 It came up with 17 sats and started going up and settled in at 19 (Acc .6/,7). Location looked good on the map.
Installed 4.7.0 master fix - came up with 19 sats (Acc 0.8,/0.9). The map location looked good to start but then started drifting to 4-6 m from true location after about 10 minutes, but settled in nicely after 15 minutes with 18 sats (Acc 0.6/0.8)
Installed 4.6.0 beta 2 came up with 19 sats (Acc 1.05/1.25), good map location after about 1 minute. Then started drifting after about 5 minutes. But then drifted back to a good location after about 10 minutes. Got up to 21 Sats after 20 minutes.
Installed 4.5.7 again came up with 20 sats Acc 1.1/1.2 maps within 2m
Installed 4.7.0 master rebooted. Came up with 20 sats Acc .9/1.2 but the map was way off - maybe 10m from the real location. Dropped back to 17 sats after a 5 minutes map drifted closer to the try location.
Put 4.5.7 back on again came up with 21 sats. Acc 1.0/1.1 probably 10m off on the map. drifted back to a good location, 21/22 sats and Acc .6/.7 within 2 or 3 minutes
Put 4.7.0 Master back on again came up with 21 sats Acc 1.2/1.4 and 10m off on the map, but drifted back to a good location witiin about 2 minutes. Dropped back to 17/18 sats and a less stable fix on the map. After more than 1/2 hour it had dropped back to a very steady 15 sats and a very unstable fix on the map.
In this log you can see the satellites drift lower and lower over time.
3:10: log: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/w0bjrp7qxt5bi0lw7u56b/log_163_2025-3-6-15-11-10.bin?rlkey=l58burihlj3xu5abe08q5sz7s&dl=0
Put 4.5.7 back on again - came up with 16 sats and a good map location. Acc 0.8/1.1, after 5 minutes was up to 18 sats Acc 0.6/0.8 and a steady correct location on the map. And after 30 minutes back up to 20. And a steady correct location on the map. Sorry no log.
Put 4.7.0 master back on again shut down for 8 hours. Came up at 9:25 with 10 satellites - up to 14 after 2 minutes. 18 sats after about 10 minutes.
Log: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ig6ax2gistvq7tcvs4mpk/log_188_2025-3-7-13-54-12.bin?rlkey=pyv96pwklp1ug92uz3qtzkq7z&dl=0
Powered off for about 4 hours, rebooted, got 0 sats initially (it was a bit scary), then 4 then 6 after about 2-3 minutes. 10 satellites after 10 minutes (Acc 1.0/1.2) took about 30 minutes to get a solid fairly stable and correct fix with 19 satellites.
Just saying 30 minutes is a long time to wait for a good fix!
White Shark
I powered on after about 12 hours powered down, running 4.6.0 beta 2 (I think tbc) - started with zero sats at 9:10, stuck on zero sats.
10:05 installed 4.7.0 master with the fix. Power off reboot. came up with zero satellites. Still zero after 10 minutes. Rebooted at 10:15. Still showing zero sats. Rebooted at 10:18 with transmitter on. Still zero satellites.
10:20 flashed back to 4.5.7 - came up immediately with 10 satellites. But it’s all over the place on the map, up to 10-15 m from the true location with wild swings of up to 5-10 meters in different directions. After an hour I had 9 sats and drifting all over the place. Starting to wonder if this is a bad device.
11:25 installed 4.7.0 master. Power off reboot. Came up with 13 sats. Immediately started going up and down - all over the place. Got a “GPS Home acquired” the first time today I think.
Redback Spider
EDU 650 running Cube Red Primary with Here4 GPS - last night on 4.5.7 was running up to 28 Satellites. I flashed 4.7.0 master and this this morning after 8 hours powered down, I’m slowly getting 20 - 22 after about 30 minutes up to 28 sats. And showing 3-4m from true location on the map, but a very steady fix, not drifting. After an hour 30 sats and a very correct fix on the map with little drift.
Tridge says the compile option I need is AP_GPS_DEBUG_LOGGING_ENABLED
Here’s the video about how to use ucenter via CAN passthrough. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh8hrsp1c9A&t=995s
The idea seems to be something like moving the config backwards and forwards between the two GPSs.