GPS no fix with pixhawk 6x and m8n

Hardware Pixhawk family
1

dear all, i don’t know if this is the right place to ask for help, this is for me the first time using mission planner and using the pixhawk 6x.

I tried calibrating the compass gps from the M8N wich is directly connected to the pixhawk using the gps1 port. and they communicate but missionplanner keeps saying “no fix” even after hours. On the m8n the led from the button “switch” keeps blinking red (don’t know what it means and don’t find any info about it in the documentation). the rgb of the m8n keeps blinking orange. im going true the parameters of the m8n, but i can’t seem to find the problem. after an hour it gives me an location on missionplanner but usually somewere in afrika and i’m located in belgium so…
I tried it outside aswell, still no change. If somebody knows whats going on, then i would be extremely gratefull

2

Are you outside? If not, the fix will be poor to non-existent.

EDIT: I see you attempted outdoors. But for how long? Wait 15 minutes with a clear view of the sky. If it’s still an issue then, report back.

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3

Thanks for the response, i tried it outside for some time but in the citycenter, i will try it again in a field and let you know. i never worked with a drone gps before, but is the reception always that bad? I thought providing that my phone can give me an almost acurate location in a basement, that a big drone gps would be better and faster.

4

It’s highly dependent on sky view, antenna type/quality, and antenna position relative to sources of interference or blockage, environmental interference, and even varies day to day based on satellites in view.

It’s also entirely possible that a cheap module simply suffers from quality control issues and will never perform well.

Typically, an M8N will derive initial position within 15 minutes on first boot in a new area, and thereafter, it should only take a few seconds to minutes (there’s usually some onboard storage to help “warm start” if powered up in a similar location as it was last used).

Modern phones use a myriad of sources to determine position, including WiFi, cell signal analysis, and cloud services. It is not solely GPS based.

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5

Also set GPS_GNSS_MODE,65 to limit the number of constellations - too many satellites can overwhelm an ordinary GNSS unit and make it take longer to obtain a good fix.

2 Likes
6

thank you all, after i let it be in a garden for 30min it had a fix, and now indeed it takes only a few seconds to get a fix even inside or in a big city. it was just the first boot that woundn’t do it in the city. but now that it worked once outside it keeps working everywere. so thank you for all the tips and comments