GPS Location and Mounting

[u2builder]

I have a couple GPS sensors I am getting ready to mount on two EPO flying wings. The purpose of the GPS is to provide air speed and altitude telemetry and also serve as a lost plane finder.

It would be the most convenient and neatest to mount them in the equipment bay under the foam canopy. This of course means the GPS will be fairly close to the motor, ESC and the S6R receiver. Is this OK? Can it be under the foam Canopy? If it needs to be mounted more remotely, how far away should it be, and what should it be farthest from, motor, esc, RX?

Thanks.

 

[Wayne]

Very good questions and I am not sure on a solid answer for you.

It should be fine under the foam canopy, just not sure if close proximity to the other items will cause any issues, I don't think it will. Usually the biggest deal is getting it at the top of the model with a "clear view" of the sky. I suspect you will be fine.

The initial power up for the GPS can take a little time to lock into the satellites in your area. Once it has done that and knows where in the world it is, it should require for all future startups. (It remembers where you are located and what satellites to look for.)

Just a heads up, you will get ground speed from a GPS, not airspeed. These numbers on a calm day should be similar when flying level, but on a windy day they will have a high error rate depending on direction of flight.

If you are flying combat, we really like to slip one of these into our planes, makes finding a plane in the bushes much easier:
https://alofthobbies.com/lost-model-alarm-657.html

 

[u2builder]

Thanks. I have tried it in one wing and it seemed to give reasonable readouts of groundspeed with no glitches, but I wanted to check. The lost model alarm is a good idea. We located my buddies plane in the woods a 1/4 mile away last summer using the GPS signal, but it took a long time to "see" it hanging in a tree. A buzzer would have helped.

 

[Wayne]

Do you know about the "tracking" feature using the RSSI feedback with a telemetry receiver? Works pretty darn well too!

 

[u2builder]

Yes, I think so.

We used RSSI signal strength in conjunction with GPS in the rescue of my friends plane which h=was hanging in a tree in a pretty dense forest, luckily only 20' up.

We just looked at the display on the radio.

I also located my lost quad (no GPS) in a field of 6' goldenrod by maximizing the RSSI. Actually, it was almost 100 when I practically stepped on the quad.