Normal Wookong Behaviour?

[gringers]

Hi All,

Having felt pretty good about the Naza and its functionality and because of all the A2 issues, I decided to have a crack with a Wookong 'for laughs'!

Having just taken it out for it's first proper flight, I only did one battery before coming back home because I was unsure what was normal behaviour. I'd be grateful if anyone can confirm whether the following is normal...!

Spec
Wookong with V2 GPS
Wookong V1 IMU
Standard LED module
Firmware 5.26

1) On startup, I just get one beep (I'm used to the Naza 'melody')

2) Getting a solid GPS lock has been really difficult. I powered up and powered down the copter around 8 times and at least 50% of the time, it didn't even try to acquire GPS satellites - no red flashes AT all. When I disconnected and repowered, it would try to acquire sats and I got red flashes but rarely did I ever completely lose all red flashes for more than a few seconds.

3) I didn't mange to get it to automatically record the home position AT ALL. I know it's supposed to do it when you first move the throttle but is that after you start the motors. All I did was wait until I had no (or just1) red flashes and then moved throttle without arming the motors but that didn;t work. I now think I may have been a bit stupid and needed to arm the motors before moving the throttle. (I did manage to record the home position manually however).

4) More of a comment than a question but does anyone else struggle with the LED colours? I can't tell whether it's flashing yellow or white (danger, danger!) most of the time. Similarly, I can't really distinguish the slow, intermittent failsafe blue from purple if in GPS.

TIA!

 

[gringers]

Ok, answered #3 - Yes, motors need to be armed before moving the throttle will result in auto recording of home point

 

[Benjamin Kenobi]

Once it has acquired GPS lock the first time it remembers them for the subsequent times, unless you move position quite a bit. Are you seeing just the purple flashing light? Then all good.

One beep is normal.

Moving the throttle without arming the motors is essentially not doing anything as the throttle isn't armed either.

Location is key to losing all the red flashes. Were you in a valley or had trees/buildings nearby? Did you lose the red flashes once in the air for a minute at a height?

I take it from all this you don't have an iOSD. I highly recommend one. It tells you how many sats you're locked onto and what mode you're in, plus the position data is great, like height and distance from home point.

 

[Tahoe Ed]

Benjamin I agree with you on the OSD. I don't fly anything anymore with the exception of my F330 trasher without a video link and OSD. I just feel naked without the information as to what is going on.

 

[gringers]

Thanks for the reply Ben (& Ed). I actually do have the iOSD MkII but (stupidly) as it was a first test flight I was trying to keep equipment to the minimum in case of 'unexpected' results! Quickly realised that was the one bit of kit I should defo have on for testing :embarrassed: I threw it on when I got back and won't fly without again!

Ben: yes, just seeing the purple light when in GPS and hovering. All seems good actually except the Sat lock which is continuing to be underwhelming at the moment. I've been taking it to the same place my Naza V2 F550 which has been acquiring Sat's easily but OSD Mk2 is showing the WKM as no more than 6 and mostly 5. With no OSD on the F550, I don't know exactly how many that has been getting but it never has even a single red so it's got to be at least more than 6 (consistently)

Ed: Yes, defo acquires the 5/6 sats quicker than the first time but is it right/expected that sometimes when powering on, the acquisition can be so instantaneous that you don't see a red blink at all? When I do see the blinks (approx 50% of the time after powering up), it seems to take a good 30 secs or so for them to reduce to to just 1 so seeing none at all sometimes just doesn't seem right.

Additional : It's so muggy here today, can atmospheric conditions like that affect GPS acquisiton. I didn't think it would be possible but read something today suggesting it might? Any categoric yay or nays on that?

Cheers

 

[Hexacrafter]

Can you post a picture of the set-up?
If the Puck is not mounted clear enough, you can get much reduced GPS reception.
Sometimes an inch can make a great bit of difference.
Many of the "puck protectors" on the market can actually reduce GPS reception.....especially when the aircraft pitches.
Just my experiences.. we fly all WKM.

 

[Benjamin Kenobi]

Hmmm, that does seem odd. Usually 7 is about the minimum number of sats I get in a normal location. Is the WKM and compass/GPS new? Got it mounted on the pole away from other stuff? (I'm grasping at straws to be honest) :nevreness:

 

[gringers]

Actually, you could be onto something....it's not mounted on the usual pole (like my naza is) but directly on a carbon plate. The plate is stood off from the main board about 40mm and there's nothing else on the plate. The theory was to try and keep it closer to the COG but could it be to close to the other electronics immediately below or would the carbon interfere with it?

Yes, new WKM and puck.

edit: didn't see Hexacrafters reply as well but now I have, I think I'll try it on the mounting plate to compare....watch this space!

 

[Hexacrafter]

We mount ours like you describe, but start out high & lower by using shorter standoffs until we keep contant GPS. Too close and GPS signal will cut in and out. This is about as short as we can go.
View attachment 19217

 

[gringers]

Ok, thanks for the info. Looks like mine needs to be at least another 40mm up but nice to know it's probably not down to the way it's mounted. Will continue to play around with different standoffs/positions and see whether I can get an improvement.

Cheers!

 

[gringers]

Just as a fyi, I finally had a chance to play around with the puck position and indeed, raising it up a bit more made a huge difference. Rock solid 8 sat GPS lock, sometimes, 9.

Thanks for the tip!