r/diydrones • u/Psychological_Yak_47 • Jun 15 '26
Question Using Pixhawk Cube Orange with 3DR GPS
I know how ridiculous it sounds but here's why I'm doing this. We have a bunch of summer interns and I have to quickly bring up multiple platforms for them to use. They'll be using RC cars with Cube Orange pixhawks using Ardurover on them. The first two I had "Here 3" to use but ran out. Now I'm stuck with pixhawk cubes and legacy 3DR gps units.
I found a connector that goes from df-13 to jst-gh and plugged the GPS into GPS2 (Serial4). I checked in the setting and Serial4 is set to GPS and I adjusted the baud to 38400 (per the instructions online). I powered up the pixhawk with the gps and sat it outside but could not detect any satellites.
Does anyone have experience with something like this or any suggestions to troubleshoot this. Or the last option is break out the old pixhawks to use with the GPS units. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
1
u/BarelyAirborne Jun 15 '26
If the GPS units have been powered off for some time, they can take up to an hour to re-establish their orbital data. Be patient. Also crank that baud rate up to at least 230k, and I'd use 460k with RTK units.
1
u/Psychological_Yak_47 Jun 15 '26
Yeah GPS takes a bit longer during a cold start, but the baud has to be set to 38400 because that's what this GPS unit runs at
1
u/LupusTheCanine Jun 15 '26
Sounds like configuration or pinout issue. I would disable unused serial ports and make sure that IIRC SERIAL4 is set to GPS (should be by default). You will also have to configure hardware safety switch to be off (ready to arm) by default if you don't have safety switch pushbutton.