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What Type Of GPS System Does Karma Use?

Lon Denard

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Does anyone know and can show what types of gps satellites Karma uses? It's surprising how difficult it's been to find out. I even called GoPro tech support and he didn't know!
 
Just based on the number of Sats I have seen mine pick up vs systems that use both GPS and GLONASS I would think that Karma only uses the GPS system. Just a guess though.


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Um follow up question, how do you see the sat numbers?
 
It's been a while since I've flown my Karma but I think they show up while it's acquiring them at the top of the screen. I almost think that I remember the satellite count goes away once you get lock though. If I fire my unit up anytime soon I'll try and get a screen shot.


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It's been a while since I've flown my Karma but I think they show up while it's acquiring them at the top of the screen. I almost think that I remember the satellite count goes away once you get lock though. If I fire my unit up anytime soon I'll try and get a screen shot.


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Thanks, I'll try mine as well.
 
Karma uses a Amotech GPR7 GPS antenna
According to GoPro Support it utilizes both GPS and GLONASS Re: Glonas - GOPRO SUPPORT HUB

Um that's my thread that you've linked to... I'm aware what a support person said and I'm aware of what module resides in the drone. Unfortunately, I've also been told by other members of GoPro support that it only has GPS. There is also zero info on the GPR7 antenna. I've fired off an email to them asking what it's capable of. It's just amazing to me that getting this type of basic info is this difficult.
 
just throwing in my two cents... im under the impression that the GPS/Accelerameter/Gyro data is coming censors in the camera.

While I've been digging thru the telemetry streams, I came across attributes for "Coyote Status" and "Coyote Sense" -- Im not sure WTF that means...
 
just throwing in my two cents... im under the impression that the GPS/Accelerameter/Gyro data is coming censors in the camera.

While I've been digging thru the telemetry streams, I came across attributes for "Coyote Status" and "Coyote Sense" -- Im not sure WTF that means...

So then the GPS must be an ACME unit... Hahaha! Get it? Wile E Coyote? Anyway, I'm not getting an answer from the GPS module manufacturer either and employees of Go Pro just state, "Go Pro doesn't publish component specifications". Every other drone manufacturer has that info readily available. What is the big flipping deal?
 
So then the GPS must be an ACME unit... Hahaha! Get it? Wile E Coyote? Anyway, I'm not getting an answer from the GPS module manufacturer either and employees of Go Pro just state, "Go Pro doesn't publish component specifications". Every other drone manufacturer has that info readily available. What is the big flipping deal?

I don't know if it's good or bad, but yeah, Im old enough to get the ACME joke LOL!
 
Although i dont recommend it for most. But i disable the GPS feature on mine for more control. So far so good. But the drone still looks for the sats. If the drone loses the signal regardless if you got it disabled. It seems to have a mind of its own. Im quickly realizing that i should have went with the dj drones instead. But too late. :( Love the concept and design but horrible software issues associated with the damn thing.
 
Although i dont recommend it for most. But i disable the GPS feature on mine for more control. So far so good. But the drone still looks for the sats. If the drone loses the signal regardless if you got it disabled. It seems to have a mind of its own. Im quickly realizing that i should have went with the dj drones instead. But too late. :( Love the concept and design but horrible software issues associated with the damn thing.

Yep, I think I'm done myself! The final straw relates to this thread. Before I purchased mine, I asked this question on the support forum and a Go Pro tech told me it had both. So I purchased it. Now another "Karma certified" Go Pro tech tells me that it doesn't. Plus my drone has decided that it needs a compass calibration before every flight and it's lost GPS on me twice with no recovery! Even my 3DR Solo recovers GPS after it loses it and that bad boy cost $160 for a refurbished one from Best Buy.

Luckily for me, I did some research and purchased my Karma from Wal-Mart of all places. 90 DAY RETURN no questions asked. Plus I bought a 3 year warranty for $70. Oh and they gave me 15% off. It was a good deal but I went ahead and ordered the Mavic Pro Fly More bundle. Got $200 off that as well. I'll take the Karma back once I receive the new unit and decide if I like it.
 
Yep, I think I'm done myself! The final straw relates to this thread. Before I purchased mine, I asked this question on the support forum and a Go Pro tech told me it had both. So I purchased it. Now another "Karma certified" Go Pro tech tells me that it doesn't. Plus my drone has decided that it needs a compass calibration before every flight and it's lost GPS on me twice with no recovery! Even my 3DR Solo recovers GPS after it loses it and that bad boy cost $160 for a refurbished one from Best Buy.

Luckily for me, I did some research and purchased my Karma from Wal-Mart of all places. 90 DAY RETURN no questions asked. Plus I bought a 3 year warranty for $70. Oh and they gave me 15% off. It was a good deal but I went ahead and ordered the Mavic Pro Fly More bundle. Got $200 off that as well. I'll take the Karma back once I receive the new unit and decide if I like it.

nice. I made the mistake buying it from best buy which were useless. "non-refundable". That same day i purchased it. That night my drone had a update which afterwards took off into a friends jeep. It also cut tips of his fingers with the blades as we caught it before it tried to take off toward a highway. :mad:. BestBuy was unforgiving. BEST BUY is a joke and hope they go under going against amazon and walmart. But after i fully updated the drone AGAIN after resetting the controller and the gopro hero 5. Its awesome. Very versatile and sturdy. Granted i already have about 5hrs of flight time so far and in 4-10mph wind. Im sure GoPro will get their shit together but i dont think its going to be anytime soon. They lost this customer after i fully utilize the $150 GoPro Care. If they improve i may go back. But they dont even have a "follow" mode with this Karma Drone. But its great for practice and flight time.
 
Yep, I think I'm done myself! The final straw relates to this thread. Before I purchased mine, I asked this question on the support forum and a Go Pro tech told me it had both. So I purchased it. Now another "Karma certified" Go Pro tech tells me that it doesn't. Plus my drone has decided that it needs a compass calibration before every flight and it's lost GPS on me twice with no recovery! Even my 3DR Solo recovers GPS after it loses it and that bad boy cost $160 for a refurbished one from Best Buy.

Luckily for me, I did some research and purchased my Karma from Wal-Mart of all places. 90 DAY RETURN no questions asked. Plus I bought a 3 year warranty for $70. Oh and they gave me 15% off. It was a good deal but I went ahead and ordered the Mavic Pro Fly More bundle. Got $200 off that as well. I'll take the Karma back once I receive the new unit and decide if I like it.

You'll love the Mavic.

Moving from a Karma to Mavic is a step forward. (Mavic -> Karma would be a step backwards). The Karma is like a Honda Civic -- its good as a "my first car". The Mavic is the Ford Mustang -- great second car with great performance & options that you want to take out on the weekends. (I wouldn't necessarily recommended a Mavic for a first-time driver/pilot due to the variables involved with the set up. The Karma can be flown right out of the box, pretty much literally). Just be aware you will need to do research & testing to see how stable your phone/tablet will mate with the Mavic controller.
 
You'll love the Mavic.

Moving from a Karma to Mavic is a step forward. (Mavic -> Karma would be a step backwards). The Karma is like a Honda Civic -- its good as a "my first car". The Mavic is the Ford Mustang -- great second car with great performance & options that you want to take out on the weekends. (I wouldn't necessarily recommended a Mavic for a first-time driver/pilot due to the variables involved with the set up. The Karma can be flown right out of the box, pretty much literally). Just be aware you will need to do research & testing to see how stable your phone/tablet will mate with the Mavic controller.

Yea, I've had several drones, even including a Parrot AR Drone 1.0 ! I actually still have it. I like the Karma and I've defended it fiercely against Mavic pilots and others. It's just so versatile, quiet and easy to fly. Go Pro is so close with this drone, they just needed to take it a small step forward. Dual band gps would have been a good start! Crash avoidance, follow me, GPS flight planning, better range or at least a more consistent connection, optical sensors, record to the controller so you can see what happened if it takes off or crashes. Water resistance would have set them apart!

There's so much to love about the Karma system but the drone leaves a lot to be desired for sure.
 
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nice. I made the mistake buying it from best buy which were useless. "non-refundable". That same day i purchased it. That night my drone had a update which afterwards took off into a friends jeep. It also cut tips of his fingers with the blades as we caught it before it tried to take off toward a highway. :mad:. BestBuy was unforgiving. BEST BUY is a joke and hope they go under going against amazon and walmart. But after i fully updated the drone AGAIN after resetting the controller and the gopro hero 5. Its awesome. Very versatile and sturdy. Granted i already have about 5hrs of flight time so far and in 4-10mph wind. Im sure GoPro will get their shit together but i dont think its going to be anytime soon. They lost this customer after i fully utilize the $150 GoPro Care. If they improve i may go back. But they dont even have a "follow" mode with this Karma Drone. But its great for practice and flight time.

Yea but now I've got that nervousness going whenever I fly it. Which isn't much since the last gps loss! I want to enjoy flying. I want to be able to take it out of the bag and have a reasonable expectation that the thing will do what they claimed it would when I bought it. I don't have that now.
 
Yea but now I've got that nervousness going whenever I fly it. Which isn't much since the last gps loss! I want to enjoy flying. I want to be able to take it out of the bag and have a reasonable expectation that the thing will do what they claimed it would when I bought it. I don't have that now.

Unfortunately its a side effect of owning anything that is you cannot have full control over. Always best to be calm and collected even in a risky situation. Meaning the calmer you are during flight the better you can control any drone even in a out of control situation like wind and propeller loss. The more you practice the better you get. ive crashed my drone 3 times already and spent about $60 for blades. Always keep extra blades, more likely to brake them before anything else. Very durable drone which makes it that much better for a starter.

i would not like crash avoidance mainly because if you get into a tight location like a alley or trees when making a aerial video. Though if you can disable it manually, then it would be nice. In my experience with electronics. The more features you have, the more that can go wrong.
 
Unfortunately its a side effect of owning anything that is you cannot have full control over. Always best to be calm and collected even in a risky situation. Meaning the calmer you are during flight the better you can control any drone even in a out of control situation like wind and propeller loss. The more you practice the better you get. ive crashed my drone 3 times already and spent about $60 for blades. Always keep extra blades, more likely to brake them before anything else. Very durable drone which makes it that much better for a starter.

i would not like crash avoidance mainly because if you get into a tight location like a alley or trees when making a aerial video. Though if you can disable it manually, then it would be nice. In my experience with electronics. The more features you have, the more that can go wrong.

I don't disagree with any of this post! It's not even that I need crash avoidance, I'd just like it as an option. I'm weird, I've been flying drones for 7 years now and flew a few model helicopters before that. When I first got my 3DR Solo last year, I literally flew every day for months! I have two TB's of drone footage on external hard drives right now! I guess my main point is that, I don't expect them to be perfect but I demand, again, a "reasonable expectation" that they operate within the parameters initially proposed when I purchased it. The Karma claims to operate with certain characteristics, I'd settle for half of what they claim consistently. I don't even get that.
 

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