It looks to me like if the system is recharging and GPS isn’t in a fixed lock (status 4) at the time a schedule starts then the schedule never gets kicked off. I would have expected it to pick up and start executing when the GPS signal does recover?
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This definitely seems like a flaw in the scheduling design. But, the bigger question would be why don’t you have GPS. As I understand it, the machine wakes up 10 mins or so before the scheduled start so the GPS receiver and everything is fully initialized and ready to work. If you are having GPS signal issues on the dock, you should probably consider relocating the dock to somewhere with a better signal. You can do this with minimal issue and no need to remap, it just deletes your pathway(s) from the dock and the schedules and work plans. All easily recreated.
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I’ve moved the dock 4 times so far. It shows that it has good GPS and then after awhile seems to lose it when sitting there on the charger. It kind of goes in and out from what I see. I think it might be due to GPS multipath issues, possible reflections from the brick. It’s not uncommon for it to have 20-26 satellites and 10 L2’s on the diagnostics page and still show a degraded status to floating point (5) when on the dock. Then have it recover at some point.
I think my next attempt is trying out the taller RTK mounts - even though in theory that shouldn’t really matter.
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I think it might be a current firmware anomaly. I’m seeing similar issues periodically and haven’t ever had an issue since installing in October.
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I have this exact same issue. The GPS signal is strong at my dock. It navigates to the dock just fine and charges but after sitting on the dock for a while and charging, it loses gps and the only way for it to recover is to manual start to drive it around. I’ve tried rebooting, moving the dock, nothing helps other than driving it around. It’s like the GPS circuit can’t wake up while on the dock.
Same. and waking it up and waiting seems to work. I also found that removing the wifi connection (and using HaLoW only) seemed to wake it up faster.
Short term fix - I drive it off the dock about 6", wait 30-40 seconds, then start the work plan manually. It is a pain however…
Currently…
Status: 5
Heading Dop: 0.84
Satellites, ~27
If I move it (even just a nudge), or wait about 2 minutes, I’ll get to status 4, DOP ~1
What’s your L2? It is supposed to wake up 10 mins before schedule I believe and acquire GPS to go on the scheduled plan. If it’s not getting status 4, it won’t. It could be L2 or something else. The rest of the numbers look good.
@mbieszka @alex I reached out to our tech team to check both of your machines from the backend. Based on their findings, it seems that the GPS signal at your docking station location may not be strong enough, which could be causing the issue.
We recommend relocating the docking station to an area with stronger GPS signal. Please make sure there are no obstructions within about 7 feet of the docking station, and avoid placing it under overhangs, or near any large structures that might block the signal.
Hope this helps and let us know if you continue to have issues!
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@alex, @bryan.wheeler, @Yarbo-Forum I just did a little experiment.
Yarbo was on the dock charging and I checked it and it had no GPS signal. It has 20 satellites and 10 L2. Status 5.
I then clicked the end charge and within 30sec, I had a strong GPS signal. 19 satellites, 13 L2. Status 4
Also, it’s quite amazing that you guys took it upon yourself to check my little robot buddy in the background to see if something was wrong. Thank you!
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It can take up to a couple of minutes to fully wake up the rover from sleep mode and acquire satellites. It’s usually 10-20 seconds, but can be up to 2 mins sometimes.
@bryan.wheeler yes that is true. I understand that. My issue is that the GPS won’t connect unless I click the stop charging from the app or start driving it around, even a couple inches. Does that make sense?
Driving it a bit does. It might be just on the fringe of usable. Stopping the charge and seeing instant differences doesn’t make any sense to me but perhaps @Yarbo-Forum has some ideas.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. After confirming with our tech expert, we can clarify that the end charging command is not related to the GPS signal. The root cause of this issue is likely the location of the docking station. This is why when you drive it a little further, the GPS signal resumes. We hope this helps explain the situation better!
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@Yarbo-Forum @bryan.wheeler. I know, I though it was weird too. I didn’t know if the wireless charging could possibly be causing some mild electrical interference that’s making the GPS signal to not be quite strong enough. thanks all for your help! I’ll move the dock a bit and see if that helps.
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I can confirm that stopping the charging has caused my Yarbo to change to show GPS is good, without moving the rover at all… I installed 2 other gps synchronized radio devices 8 feet above the yarbo rover. They never see a gps issue. I feel like this is a firmware issue and not really a gps issue. I will have limited availability for the next week.
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@doug1 I am incline to agree with you. Thanks for commenting.
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I’m pretty sure there is a glitch with AdjustAngle behavior. Here, the core is presently charging. I’m grabbing this screenshot with 20 seconds of connecting with the app.
There’s nothing weak about the GPS signal, but AA is -2. Heading is 1, somehow.
Two minutes later, AA is 0 and Status is happy.
But just as often as not, AA will stay -2, despite a bunch of L2 and a DOP in the low 1s.
Hopefully they found something in the upcoming firmware that’ll resolve this.
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If AdjustAngle goes to -2, it’s game over (as you know), but I’ve noticed that it takes several seconds after HeadingDop becomes “reasonable”, L2 pops up a few, and Heading goes positive before AdjustAngle will get back to 0. HeadingDop can be “fairly low” where the rover would have continued to run normally, but after AdjustAngle is -2, HeadingDop has to be well less than 2. So it takes better signal to turn the rover back on than it does to cut off (which kinda makes sense, as the rover has a navigation buffer for when the GPS signal gets low).
I have also noticed that GPS is sometimes red when I attach to the rover in the App, but I haven’t seen what the Diagnostics say at that point. It is likely it’s the same thing that you are seeing. Something in the “I’m idle right now” routine in the firmware would be my guess.
Various comments on FB imply that other automowers with similar RTK configurations handle GPS a bit better overall. A Work Plan in a dodgy GPS area yesterday had the rover against a tree and almost roll over. HeadingDop was nearing 200, but the rover kept thinking it should be mowing. So it’s that same “threshold when the rover should really be stopped” issue that had my rover run into the woods and then almost into the road last week.
I finished a Work Plan yesterday in that same slightly dodgy GPS area, and the rover seemed to be heading back OK (it was around a corner and I could just see the lights through some brush, I think it was heading to the Pathway), and I gave it a new Work Plan with one Deadend in it. The rover changed its navigation and dove into the woods where it ran off-track before, as if to have calculated a straight line to the Deadend in the Work Plan. That could be “here we go again” with the dodgy GPS threshold, OR it could be the bug where the rover trashes my Peanut No-go Zone when it’s going from mowing one Deadend to another and my Peanut is in the way.
This Picture of Carnage is what it’s done when it has finished the “From” Deadend and is navigating to the “To” Deadend. One time I told it to go to the “To” Deadend while sitting next to the Peanut – the rover turned the mower straight toward the “To” Deadend and trashed the Dr. Seuss plant. Yes, the Peanut is a No-go Zone. The rover sometimes seems really serious about getting to the start of a Deadend regardless of what’s in between.
Anyway, kinda conflating a couple of issues, but there you go.
- Improvements are needed in GPS in general (which they are always refining, as we know)
- The rover’s “I lost GPS, when should I stop trying to move around and wait for a better signal” threshold
- Navigation between two Deadends or from some point in the map to a Deadend that’ll take a straight line and mow down whatever’s in between
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