Handling RFD 868/900 Telemetry issues

Guideline for CS / sales / engineers how to deal with telemetry performance issues - especially on 868 / 900 planes

Short version

• Wing swap!
• Except if ground data terminal physically broken --> GDT swap, pre-paired by production
• If general complaints despite normal operation --> push for 2.4 Ghz upgrade

More details

link to flowchart source

For CS

• To assess performance (if requested by dev because data unclear)
  
  • 1 km range
  • 120m altitude
  • Unobstructed area
  • Follow Best practices for using telemetry
  • Provide logs
• In most cases issue resolved with
  • Emphasizing best practices
  • Increasing timeout
  • Emphasizing autonomy of drone (accept telemetry losses)
• Otherwise wing swap
  • Warranty → CS
  • Non-warranty → sales

For Sales

• Make sure to advertise overall improvement on 2.4 Ghz telemetry (in general more reliable but by now SAFE TO SAY that telemetry performance also much more consistent)

Relevant articles

• Best practices for using telemetry
• Increase telemetry timeout
• GDT replacement details  (to be update)

Reasoning
(because it feels so bad to swap a whole wing for just a small telemetry issue)

• … because general strategy …
• In detail
  • Repair / debugging effort very unsuccessful on telemetry issues

• • • No 100% success solution
    • Since even WITH ISSUE, flying still possible: where repair attempted communication with customer often died no because no priority for them
  • Large number of tickets overall
    • If complex approach accepted, takes a lot of time to each time consider large “potential” scope
  • Savings through repair attempts currently around ~1500 CHF/m
    • Not worth it given effort and worse outcomes for customers
  • Some data here to back up these statements
    • if you’re curious
    • accuracy not 100% - a lot work already at this level - but single cases with different outcomes don’t change decision outcome