endotherm
Captain
Flight distance : 503241 ft
Australia
Offline
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I use a wifi-only ipad just fine. You will "lose GPS", so to speak, just for the transmitter/iPad home position, not the aircraft. Depending on where you are in the world, it might still be able to figure out your location, not as accurately as GPS but within a short distance. iOS can calculate your position from other wifi and cellular tower locations if you are in "developed/populated" areas. Open the MAPS app and see if it can find your location. If that works, your location can be determined. I also tend to carry a pocketWIFI for cellular data over wifi, which might assist in locating my position, and for downloading map data etc. If you are in the middle of nowhere, you might not be near any cellular towers or wifi base stations for the device to calculate where you are. This is where an ipad with GPS would be advantageous. If you don't have GPS built in to your ipad and you are in a remote location you still have another option. You can get an external GPS unit and connect it via bluetooth. iOS will see it as a native part of your device and you will get all of the functionality of an ipad with gps built in. The downside is another separate device to buy/carry/charge. These units are actually more accurate than the built-in GPS devices. Unfortunately you can't just use a cheap Chinese $10 GPS unit, you have to use an Apple approved receiver. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3013785?tstart=0 I believe you need one which is WAAS-capable (Wide Area Augmentation System). Garmin GLO, DUAL Xgps150a, Bad ELf, GNS 2000 are a few to look at, there are more expensive units beyond these. Most if not all have GPS and GLONASS receivers , just like in the Phantom, for improved accuracy and reliability. I don't think the iPad has GLONASS so you are ahead there as well. Pilots use these inside their aircraft to use GPS with their iPads in flight, as the internal unit is HIGHLY unlikely to work. They are around $100 or more, but you might find them cheaper, especially second hand or on ebay. It worked out cheaper for me than buying the cellular iPad, as I don't use cellular data from the device, but use the pocket wifi for multiple devices, depending on what I'm doing, saves me having multiple accounts and bills... I haven't fully tested what the "follow me" feature is tracking - the GPS unit or the iPad. I should put one on the ground and walk off with the other to figure it out one day. However if you keep them together, you wouldn't know the difference. Hope that helps. |
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