Hello,

First of all, Im a newbie and newly bought my mini 2. I am in a urban area, and after getting 14 satellites and take off, gps signal suddenly drops to 3-4 satellites. I experienced that 7-8 times. Only one time I got 23-24 satellites and had a flight without any satellite loss. Is it normal in low altitude zones (150m)? should I deliver the device to a warranty service? Please check this video about the GPS signal loss.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/FcUqSApTZQsU5cgm7

The risk I see, if it loses the RC reception too, drone wont be able to return to home, so I cant keep flying like this, right? Oh I also control the drone from my balcony, Im not sure if it affect anything.

Hi,

i do not see a link to your video in your post.

If you like upload your flightlog for this issue, use this > https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
Post the uploaded link on here

cheers
JJB

Hello there Blockmind. I am sorry for the trouble this has caused and thank you for reaching out. May we please know what is the model of the mobile device that you are using please and kindly please fly your DJI Mini 2 to a different location with less interference to see if the issue will still persist? The DJI drone might have picked up magnetic interference on the ground, and you took off from close to a buildings with rebar concrete metal objects on it. Thank you.

after getting 14 satellites and take off, gps signal suddenly drops to 3-4 satellites. I experienced that 7-8 times. Only one time I got 23-24 satellites and had a flight without any satellite loss. Is it normal in low altitude zones (150m)?
It's not normal to lose GPS if the drone is in open air with nothing blocking its sky view.

should I deliver the device to a warranty service?
Only if it's a hardware issue that is causing the problem.
One possibility is that there is some GPS jamming in the area you flew.
That's very uncommon, but I have seen  a report of it from your part of the world.
To check try flying about 20 km away and see if things are normal.

The risk I see, if it loses the RC reception too, drone wont be able to return to home, so I cant keep flying like this, right?
That is correct.

Oh I also control the drone from my balcony, Im not sure if it affect anything.
That won't affect your GPS.

@JJN* @DJI Stephen
Thanks for your answers. I will check if I can manage to load my flightlog soon (let me look for how it's done, and where to find).
My phone is Samsung S20 Ultra. Sure, I will test the device on different location in a week. I just wanted the share the current experience right now.

There is a GSM base station near me. Do you think it may cause this?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1v06TvNBsHiK3OOZjAAQ8OlRU2w1FnCI4/view?usp=sharing

Thank you @Labroides
Only thing I see so far is the GSM base station. Also I'm in a low altitude zone. Since I made a fly without loosing any GSP signal, I'm very confused. Maybe a jammer is activated from time to time. it's better try the drone on somewhere else to get more information I suppose.
I also moved away about 80 meters but no luck on recovering the GPS signal. Sometimes drone recovers back to 13-14 satellites but it loses them again.

@JJB*
I uploaded my flightlog as well

https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/1XW03VGGDHLEPR4VMLCG
I checked the map there, and I only flight around 50meter perimeter from the home point. Map shows interesting locations where I didnt went.

And this is the only successful flight I made without GPS loss
https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/7PLNPPSJN8ENNFD99511

I must say, this is very strange. I would try to fly in another location, far away from interference and see if that changes anything. Fly at least 5 times out of the city, preferably in different places to check the result.
Cell towers might interfere with GPS, but it's not common. GPS Jammers are also something to be aware off, not common in most countries, however in Russia there are everywhere in big cities. So it might be that.
Or it can also be a faulty GPS module in the drone.

Blockmind Posted at 5-26 00:23
Thank you @Labroides
Only thing I see so far is the GSM base station. Also I'm in a low altitude zone. Since I made a fly without loosing any GSP signal, I'm very confused. Maybe a jammer is activated from time to time. it's better try the drone on somewhere else to get more information I suppose.
I also moved away about 80 meters but no luck on recovering the GPS signal. Sometimes drone recovers back to 13-14 satellites but it loses them again.

There is a GSM base station near me. Do you think it may cause this?
No

The way your satellite number dropped looks very suspicious.
I don't think this is a failure of the drone.
Try flying somewhere outside the city and see how that goes.

Yaros1 Posted at 5-26 01:27
I must say, this is very strange. I would try to fly in another location, far away from interference and see if that changes anything. Fly at least 5 times out of the city, preferably in different places to check the result.
Cell towers might interfere with GPS, but it's not common. GPS Jammers are also something to be aware off, not common in most countries, however in Russia there are everywhere in big cities. So it might be that.
Or it can also be a faulty GPS module in the drone.

Cell towers might interfere with GPS
Not true ... Cell towers have no effect on GPS.

Or it can also be a faulty GPS module in the drone.
That looks unlikely seeing how the number of sats dropped.
A hardware failure would probably just see zero sats.

Thank you for your comments. It's important for me to get professional ideas about this issue. I will fly on somewhere 50 km away from my current location this weekend and share the results here. Thanks so much.

Blockmind Posted at 5-26 00:54
@JJB*
I uploaded my flightlog as well

Hi,

Thanks for uploading your flightlog.
Very interesting to see what happend to your LatLon positions! see your data in my chart.
Max distance out  3594 meter, and your drone only within 50 meters away from you .
Have no idea what can cause this....only thing you can do is to calibrate the IMU and fly again.

For me intersting to see the GPS health values and when your Mini2 went into ATTI.

Your FlyApp max height setting set to 120, with low GPS reception the true max altitude is changed when flying in a altitude zone (as you did)to 150 meter.
"GPS signal weak. Fly with caution | Aircraft in Altitude Zone | Max altitude set to 150m | GPS signal weak (Max altitude 150m)"

Read a NOTAM once about airfield in Cyprus to warn pilots not to trust their GPS data, signals jammed (Syrian war)Mayby the same jamming for the Ankara airfield/airspace, due to the Ukrain war. (did Erdogan used the airport that time ??)

in that 'cyprus' flightrecord exactly the same issues, also far away LatLon positions ect  as in your log.

cheers
JJB

JJB* Posted at 5-26 02:21
Hi,

Thanks for uploading your flightlog.

Very interesting to see what happend to your LatLon positions! see your data in my chart.
Max distance out  3594 meter, and your drone only within 50 meters away from you .
Have no idea what can cause this....only thing you can do is to calibrate the IMU and fly again.

Maybe you should explain where you got that number from, because it's not at all clear.

Hi JJB,

Thanks for examining my flight log. I read something about GNSS spoofer equipments used by defense purposes by government. ILTER is one of them, as widely used on govenrnment buildings in istanbul and Ankara to spoof coordinates for the drones to mislead them on RTH. Maybe something like this is activated constantly in my area even there is no govenment building around.

Anyway, the altitude zone I'm in belongs to a military landing zone. Also signal loss occur when rising 20-30 meters high. not on the ground level. Which makes it interesting as well. I better check my drone on somewhere out of this area.

@Labroides
You can see it on the map on my flightlog as well. I fly 3-4 buidings away but on the map my drone is recorded somewhere far away.

https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/1XW03VGGDHLEPR4VMLCG

Labroides Posted at 5-26 02:54
Very interesting to see what happend to your LatLon positions! see your data in my chart.
Max distance out  3594 meter, and your drone only within 50 meters away from you .
Have no idea what can cause this....only thing you can do is to calibrate the IMU and fly again.

wich number?

50 meters is the info from Blockmind.
3594 is the max distance reached using the  incorrect GPS data, also seen on the PH 'map'.
Interesting to see that with a GPS health of 2 the mode = P-GPS   ;-)

cheers
JJB

An update about my situation. I talked to a professional technical service in my lcoation, and they said that there is ILTER (which is a brand of drone spoofing / defense system) is activated in my city with a big area of coverage! So they said that the buildings are shielding ILTER signals, so it's better to fly between the buildings but after passing out building level, GPS signal is spoofed or dropped which is exactly same with my situation. When I get pass the roof level, GPS signal is dropping.

It seems like that I have made a good timing when that jammer / spoofer is turned off on one specific time and I flied with a good GPS reception. After 10-15 trial there is no luck like that.

Anyway, to be sure about that I will add one more update after flying outside the city to tell you that there is GPS-loss or not that time. Thanks again for all your help.

Blockmind Posted at 5-27 05:56
An update about my situation. I talked to a professional technical service in my lcoation, and they said that there is ILTER (which is a brand of drone spoofing / defense system) is activated in my city with a big area of coverage! So they said that the buildings are shielding ILTER signals, so it's better to fly between the buildings but after passing out building level, GPS signal is spoofed or dropped which is exactly same with my situation. When I get pass the roof level, GPS signal is dropping.

It seems like that I have made a good timing when that jammer / spoofer is turned off on one specific time and I flied with a good GPS reception. After 10-15 trial there is no luck like that.

thanks for the update.

happy many landings,
cheers
JJB

JJB* Posted at 5-27 09:32
thanks for the update.

happy many landings,

Thank you!

And one final update!
Today I was out of the city center, and I made 6-7 flights with no interruption on the GPS signal. So I can confirm that GPS signal is messed up with some spoofing system in my current area with the issue I reported above. Thank you so much once again to all of you, for helping on my issue.

Blockmind Posted at 5-27 05:56
An update about my situation. I talked to a professional technical service in my lcoation, and they said that there is ILTER (which is a brand of drone spoofing / defense system) is activated in my city with a big area of coverage! So they said that the buildings are shielding ILTER signals, so it's better to fly between the buildings but after passing out building level, GPS signal is spoofed or dropped which is exactly same with my situation. When I get pass the roof level, GPS signal is dropping.

It seems like that I have made a good timing when that jammer / spoofer is turned off on one specific time and I flied with a good GPS reception. After 10-15 trial there is no luck like that.

I have the same problem with mavic 2 pro and mavic mini 2.. I have this problem for the last 2 years at the same locations...is it legal to use gps jammers? You can do more damage when a drone loses position and crash..

userc2f3482696 Posted at 9-24 06:15
I have the same problem with mavic 2 pro and mavic mini 2.. I have this problem for the last 2 years at the same locations...is it legal to use gps jammers? You can do more damage when a drone loses position and crash..

Yes illegal for common folks but not for the government. Government always exempts itself.

userc2f3482696 Posted at 9-24 06:15
I have the same problem with mavic 2 pro and mavic mini 2.. I have this problem for the last 2 years at the same locations...is it legal to use gps jammers? You can do more damage when a drone loses position and crash..

You can do more damage when a drone loses position and crash.
Your drone won't crash if it loses GPS.
It won't have brakes or horizontal position holding ability or be able to RTH.
But it will maintain altitude and still be fully controllable.

Labroides Posted at 9-24 20:07
You can do more damage when a drone loses position and crash.
Your drone won't crash if it loses GPS.
It won't have brakes or horizontal position holding ability or be able to RTH.

I know but most people don't know how to fly in atti mode.. also the drone (mavic 2 pro) reacting kind of strange when gps signal is on and off..

Falcoc Posted at 9-24 07:54
Yes illegal for common folks but not for the government. Government always exempts itself.

That's true..

JJB* Posted at 2022-5-26 02:21
Hi,

Thanks for uploading your flightlog.

Hi JJB,

I'm in Cyprus and seem to be having the same issues the OP described. Could you share the Cyprus flight record/discussion you're referring to?

djiuser_HjmgA65pAz3n Posted at 1-14 08:29
Hi JJB,

I'm in Cyprus and seem to be having the same issues the OP described. Could you share the Cyprus flight record/discussion you're referring to?

Hi,

I have no idea what you are asking....

cheers
JJB

JJB* Posted at 1-14 08:39
Hi,

I have no idea what you are asking....

Just going to back to post #15, you mention something about Cyprus, and I was wondering if you happen to have that flight log. I flew in Cyprus today for the first time and here's what mine looks like. Seem to have similar problems that the OP did. Here's what mine looks like.  www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/8PT9PXEYNF02ONYP9CNH/

djiuser_HjmgA65pAz3n Posted at 1-14 08:44
Just going to back to post #15, you mention something about Cyprus, and I was wondering if you happen to have that flight log. I flew in Cyprus today for the first time and here's what mine looks like. Seem to have similar problems that the OP did. Here's what mine looks like.  www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/8PT9PXEYNF02ONYP9CNH/

Your GPS data suggests either intermittent GPS jamming.