Hi,

i asked myself if you guys have any GPS plans in common. It would be awesome to have a spirit with GPS.

Maybe you could share soem thoughts about this toppic.

cheers

What would the GPS be used for?

The main reasons for GPS on a 3D Heli I can possibly think of would be for a Geofence (setting a box that it doesn't let you fly out of), or for speed measurements.

It seems like a lot of code writing and development for not a major improvement. You can create a hard deck (minimum altitude where rescue is automatically activated) quite easily using telemetry from an external barometer, I will be doing this soon as posting the instructions to do so once completed on Helifreak and i will post it here as well.

Consumer grade GPS Accuracy is not very good for precision implementations. It is extremely useful for autopilot devices, but, I don't think the Spirit was ever intended for autopilot use and I would highly doubt that it will ever be developed for that application.

I am also interested in a GPS module and my expectations would be:

- Flight Limits.
Ability to restrict the flying height and distance of the heli related to the home point.

- Attitude Mode
For training a attitude mode could help to keep the hell in a defined attitude such as 5-20m. I don’t know how exact such a function could be realized to be safe enough to keep the heli over the ground.

- GPS lock
After a critical maneuver I would like to get the chance to calm down for a short while, before I take control over the heli again.

- Come-home function
If the hell is too far away and I am not able to realize the flight attitude anymore, or due to any other reason I am not able to control the heli anymore, I would appreciate to let the GPS bring the heli back to the home point. Ideally by climbing about 10-20m and then come back. Landing would be fine, but this is not high priority. If this could be realized for TX signal loss, landing should be implemented.

GPS is also useful for scale birds or if you want to use your heli for aerial photography. I'd be intersted.

I would be surprised to see these features added to a FBL designed for 3D flying. If you want all those features, the 3DR Pixhawk can do it all, but it's designed for automated flight and more commercial application.

The inplimentation and reliability of those functions with consumer grade GPS is not simple and seems like the amount of work for the development and testing of these features on a FBL designed for 3D would be wasteful as the majority of users would most likely not use these features. Many of these features are far more complex than 3D flying

Well, we are not limited in any way, so if time will allow, our unit can support it in the future,

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Spirit System developer