SB008 Alta X – Update RTK GPS Firmware

Date Released: Feb 16 2024

Subject: GPS dropouts affecting Alta X functionality

Effectivity: Effective immediately

Required Action: Update F9P GPS Firmware

INTRODUCTION

This service bulletin is being issued to let Alta X users know that Alta X’s manufactured between June 12 2023 and today may have shipped with the incorrect u-blox F9P GPS Parameters.  

BACKGROUND

In 2023, we received several reports of GPS dropouts causing unreliable positioning of Alta X. Investigation revealed that the issues were likely caused by environmental and geomagnetic factors impacting the F9P GPS module, triggering a potential firmware bug in the F9P module itself that resulted in sudden dropout of positioning during drone operation. The issue appears to be related to the differential positioning mode of the GPS, as a strong correlation was found between dropouts and this mode.  Similar issues have been seen on Freefly Astro, which uses the same GPS module.

Freefly issued a service bulletin at that time to all Alta X pilots instructing them to update their F9P configuration. Freefly released the new configuration internally for all new Alta X builds, but just discovered that this change may not have been loaded properly on some drones that shipped since June 12 2023.   

DISCUSSION

During a regular quality audit a Freefly Engineer discovered an Alta X that had the old u-blox F9P configuration installed.  This kicked off an internal audit which revealed an implementation failure during this engineering change order.

RECOMMENDATION 

We recommend ALL Alta X users confirm their u-blox F9P is up to date by reading and complying with SB007

If you have any questions please click the link below to contact us for assistance.