Five Minute Friday - Distance to Drone errors

Barry Houldsworth Dronelink Expert Dronelink Expert

A really quick one this week showing how far off the distance to drone can be if you are not using a tablet with a GPS (such as an iPad mini wifi model)

Here's the video link:  https://vimeo.com/767301654

Enjoy!

 

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Comments

7 comments

  • Comment author
    Martin Reading Dronelink Expert Dronelink Expert

    Wow Barry Houldsworth, that's a really big discrepancy, good one for bringing it up

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  • Comment author
    Bob Scheffler

    Barry I did some testing about the differences in distances with a Samsung S21 and the mini which has GPS and I got around 11 to 12 feet but someone else on this forum got over 600 feet.  Oh and by the way I watched your video on speed differences withe browsers.  I was using Edge and I now switched to Firefox and it is like you said, much faster, I made it my default.  Sometimes, maybe even often, when using edge and previewing a mission, Edge would just shut down.  Thanks for the info.

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  • Comment author
    Barry Houldsworth Dronelink Expert Dronelink Expert

    Martin Reading

    I know, right!  That's why I picked that location.  I fly there every 2 weeks and always noticed how bad it was. 

    Bob Scheffler

    Firefox is much faster.  I've switched to using it for just about everything now.

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  • Comment author
    Mike (Arizona Wyldwest) Dronelink Expert Dronelink Expert

    🤙🏼 Yep. Good info. I understand the use of using the devices location in rare situations but I think the mass majority of pilots need to know how far away the drone is from them. So Home location is probably the way to go which is the same as when using DJI Apps. 

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  • Comment author
    Bob Scheffler

    Mike I was so impressed with his work on his distance and browser studies that I signed up for them.  Distance for me has never really been an issue because in my area I can't go very far anyway.  But, now that I am experiment with On-The-Fly missions accuracy has become an issue.  I don't quite know if they are related but I have been experimenting with flying to a point and marking it through the program and marking the spot with small cones and then flying the mission.  I am finding that in one mission the accuracy can be off up to 12 feet and the more waypoints seem to make the accuracy even worse.

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  • Comment author
    Tony Simek

    Very good info.  I have not looked at this comparison myself, but suspect the GPS in the Tripltek android laptop is abysmal, and the ipad mini will likely be spot on.  May look at this today!

    As always, great FMF video!!!

     

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  • Comment author
    Barry Houldsworth Dronelink Expert Dronelink Expert

    Thanks folks.  Happy to contribute to the hive knowledge :)

    Tony Simek  Since the Tripltek has a GPS I would assume it would be accurate to the usual, which is within about 12m.

    iPad minis come in different flavors.  Wifi only and Wi-Fi + Cellular models.  The latter has a GPS and should be within 12m.  The former (which is what I was using in the demo) does not and can be wildly off.  Just know which one you have and consider that when flying.

     

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