Compass Calibration Required

[Tricky]

As I said...There is no good or bad calibrations

You CAN complete a calibration standing on a magnet! And get the green light to fly. That obviously doesn't mean its a GOOD calibration

Two phantoms diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not fly both...

 

[III% Streve]

When you fly a plane, you do a pre flight check each time before you leave the ground. You don't complain about redundancy and you don't wait until the day before the wing falls off to make sure it is securely fastened. You never know when that day will come, or if it ever will.

The idea of calibration is to make certain the GPS locator is pointing to the correct longitude, latitude, and altitude. Most of the time recalibration is not necessary, and it may never be necessary. However, as responsible pilots, we are concerned for eliminating every possible error before we leave the ground and before it is too late to correct it. Redundancy is a proven technique for increasing a pilot's safety record.

Not only should we be recalibrating at every new site and on every new day, but we should be checking for cracks, bug damage, buildup on the motors, prop damage, wind speed, other things flying in the air, wildlife in the area, power lines, and in general, any obstacles in the environment including properties we might damage with a collision.

When I hear hacks talking about how unnecessary it is to do a recalibration I roll my eyes thinking they will be posting the next "I didn't see that coming" thread.

When you fly a real plane you don't do a compass calibration, or a pitot static test and calibration. I get what you are saying, but your justification is largely flawed!

 

[flyNfrank]

You CAN complete a calibration standing on a magnet! And get the green light to fly. That obviously doesn't mean its a GOOD calibration! And you almost always get the green lights to fly WITHOUT first doing a calibration. Its like stirring a cup of coffee for 5 minutes vs stirring for 1 minute. Does 5 minutes REALLY make a difference? Nope! But you are welcome to do it anyway.

The magnet only means something if it is near the compass which is located in the landing gear.

In my opinion doing the compass calibration that dji referenced to is like added insurance.

Or

Doing the compass calibration is like preventative maintenance.

It really is rather ridiculous to be objective to calibrating the compass prior to flight.

 

[robinb]

It really is rather ridiculous to be objective to calibrating the compass prior to flight.

I don't think anyone is objective to doing it but its not necessary, for example do you check your oil in your car before every trip ?

Do you check the air in your tyres before every trip ?

Etc.

The app will tell you if it needs to be done.

 

[III% Streve]

If everything, and everyone, was equally intelligent and capable.. I would agree. But you said yourself that people are either not completing calibrations, or not doing them properly. If a complete idiot does one calibration in 6 months and it happens to be successful, that person is "safe" for 6 months. If that same idiot calibrates every day, the likelihood for incomplete calibration sky rockets! And god knows how long they MIGHT get to fly before a crash.

 

[N017RW]

It seems there are a lot of assumptions about what exactly is occurring during calibration which lead to some pretty creative 'theories' about this and that.

You can visit this site or find your own but it explains the calibration process pretty well.

Magnetometer - VectorNav Library

 

[robinb]

It seems there are a lot of assumptions about what exactly is occurring during calibration which lead to some pretty creative 'theories' about this and that.

You can visit this site or find your own but it explains the calibration process pretty well.

Magnetometer - VectorNav Library

Really ???
If you are Einstein and can follow the maths.!

 

[flyNfrank]

I don't think anyone is objective to doing it but its not necessary, for example do you check your oil in your car before every trip ?

Do you check the air in your tyres before every trip ?

Etc.

The app will tell you if it needs to be done.

Exactly....so click on the bright yellow icon with "?" and see what message instructions it gives you.

 

[N017RW]

Really ???
If you are Einstein and can follow the maths.!

Ahhh, It talks about the two types of distortion with graphs on how they effect the measurements.

The math has been presented here before. Not saying I worked it out.

Just look at the pictures then

 

[III% Streve]

Exactly....so click on the bright yellow icon with "?" and see what message instructions it gives you.

That's strange... There is not yellow question mark?!?!

 

[flyNfrank]

If everything, and everyone, was equally intelligent and capable.. I would agree. But you said yourself that people are either not completing calibrations, or not doing them properly. If a complete idiot does one calibration in 6 months and it happens to be successful, that person is "safe" for 6 months. If that same idiot calibrates every day, the likelihood for incomplete calibration sky rockets! And god knows how long they MIGHT get to fly before a crash.

No you get someone that did not do the calibration, but thinks that they did, and still see's the same Calibrate/Normal/"?" and writes it off as being ok when it's not. Btw, you will also see it each time because it is to your better judgement to do it and be safe, then not do it and end up posting how your A/C freaked out after doing the same techniques you always do.

 

[flyNfrank]

Ahhh, It talks about the two types of distortion with graphs on how they effect the measurements.

The math has been presented here before. Not saying I worked it out.

Just look at the pictures then

Are you referring to the P3 or the older phantom's?

 

[N017RW]

Talking about magnetometers.

 

[III% Streve]

Just to prevent the inevitable response that I set that SS up.. here is a video doing it again. Currently processing, so give it a few minutes.

 

[flyNfrank]

That's strange... There is not yellow question mark?!?!

**** this just leads for one thing to the next and each of thing needs an explanation.

Ok you have a Gimbal Overload. I don't know why, but you do. When we do firmware updates the single most important thing dji tells us to do is Calibrate the Gimbal. Now this is speculation, but I'm guessing what is taking place with the app has an effect on other area's. I do know that each person that has told me about having the Gimbal Overload appear my advice was to uninstall the app and reinstall and it did in deed fix 95% of them.

 

[Oso]

Two active "compass calibration" threads at the top of the first page of the forum, both with gloves off and fists flying. I'm not bored anymore. Thanks fellas!

 

[III% Streve]

**** this just leads for one thing to the next and each of thing needs an explanation.

Ok you have a Gimbal Overload. I don't know why, but you do. When we do firmware updates the single most important thing dji tells us to do is Calibrate the Gimbal. Now this is speculation, but I'm guessing what is taking place with the app has an effect on other area's. I do know that each person that has told me about having the Gimbal Overload appear my advice was to uninstall the app and reinstall and it did in deed fix 95% of them.

We aren't talking about gimbles.. so who cares? Why deflect to another subject instead of stick to the topic? I didn't take off my gimble lock in the SS. Next?

 

[BudWalker]

.......
I have now viewed the flight logs of P3 owners who have had their aircraft takeoff suddenly and begin flying crazy. I looked at maybe 12 different peoples logs now. Around 6 of those people said they calibrated before hand. Out of the 12 flight logs viewed, none were actually calibrated before starting flight. So either these people thought they did, or they did not complete the process properly? So out of the 12 flight logs with known crazy behavior, none were calibrated prior to flight.
.

I'm curious. How can it be determined from the log if the compass had been calibrated before flight? I'm presuming that you're looking at the .csv that gets generated by djilogs.com from the FlightRecordXXX.txt file.

 

[flyNfrank]

We aren't talking about gimbles.. so who cares? Why deflect to another subject instead of stick to the topic? I didn't take off my gimble lock in the SS. Next?

You seem to have a hard time having sensible conversation in most threads you post in. You do not need to expect a response from me as I will not engage. May need to enter you on the Ignore list anyhow.

 

[III% Streve]

You seem to have a hard time having sensible conversation in most threads you post in. You do not need to expect a response from me as I will not engage. May need to enter you on the Ignore list anyhow.

No need to cry... you are the one that stepped outside your topic to address something unrelated rather than see that you glorious yellow question mark isn't there. I was simply trying to see how a gimble overload was causing a compass calibration indicator to not exist.