Dangerous behaviour of my new p4

[MacCool]

How would that make up for any accessories added to the bird or removed?

If you rely on a compass, it needs to account for the magnetic declination in any given geographic location. That can happen either by calibrating manually at that location, or the declination for any given locale can be programmed into firmware, accessed and accounted for when the drone registers its home point at initialization before a given flight. In other words, your Phantom can calibrate itself with more accuracy and consistency than the average drone pilot can provide. Given the amount of nonsensical mystery and voodoo that surrounds compass calibration on these drones, taking it out of the hands of the consumer would be a great relief to many, I'm sure, and may very well prevent some Phantom crashes.

 

[Pharm]

I was a calibrate everytime
Flyer until I learned my lesson! Only calibrate when you are at a new location!!


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And not even then if you're close to the previous location. I recently traveled 600 miles from my previous location. I forgot to calibrate my compass before flight. While the declination was markedly different from the previous location, it flew without a problem. I routinely re-calibrate only if I'm 200 or more miles east or west of my previous location. If I'm north or south, which is rare, I don't touch it.

 

[moswissa]

And not even then if you're close to the previous location. I recently traveled 600 miles from my previous location. I forgot to calibrate my compass before flight. While the declination was markedly different from the previous location, it flew without a problem. I routinely re-calibrate only if I'm 200 or more miles east or west of my previous location. If I'm north or south, which is rare, I don't touch it.

Yeah idk about that. I feel safer recalibrating whenever flying at a new location per the DJI manual. That way if u do get a fly away and post a thread about it people won't be like "well it's because you didn't calibrate the compass". In reality, as long as you are calibrating your bird in a safe location with no red flags. Nothing will happen.


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[Pharm]

Yeah idk about that. I feel safer recalibrating whenever flying at a new location per the DJI manual. That way if u do get a fly away and post a thread about it people won't be like "well it's because you didn't calibrate the compass". In reality, as long as you are calibrating your bird in a safe location with no red flags. Nothing will happen.


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I SHOULD have re-calibrated at the 600 mile site but I was fortunate. I used to calibrate before each flight like the manual said but it was too bothersome and didn't seem necessary when my next flight was <10 miles away so I quit doing it. If, while looking at a diagram of current declinations, there's a minimal difference, I forgo the loathesome and somewhat risky task of re-calibration. (Risking getting a BAD calibration when I already have a good one). Not saying you're wrong, we just have different methods to our madness.

 

[Pharm]

Yeah idk about that. I feel safer recalibrating whenever flying at a new location per the DJI manual. That way if u do get a fly away and post a thread about it people won't be like "well it's because you didn't calibrate the compass". In reality, as long as you are calibrating your bird in a safe location with no red flags. Nothing will happen.


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And If I ever have a flyaway, I'll probably not post about it for two reasons: 1. Embarrassment and the chance of losing the respect of those who think I'm a stellar pilot (I think there's one guy that thinks that), 2. I'll probably be able to figure out the cause on my own. Mostly, the embarrassment.

 

[Rutzki29]

In reality, as long as you are calibrating your bird in a safe location with no red flags. Nothing will happen

I disagree. This thread in my opinion is the proof of calibration gone wrong two times in a row at a "safe" place, when calibrating with one of the apparent two different methods of performing the calibration. No red flags other than the afterwards speculation of possible reasons, wich i am very thankful for, dont get me wrong.

 

[SteveNPhx]

If it asked you to calibrate your controller, I am certain this was part of your problem..

 

[RémyHeli]

Do you know if using the compass app within phone/tablet can help detecting magnetic anomalies for current location?


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[Mark The Droner]

Theoretically, yes, but when I tried it, it didn't seem to help.

 

[pe9999]

A little update on the situation. Had a friend over who has a p2 himself and he had a different technique in doing the calibration. He did not spin the bird in the same spot as i have done but he stood in the same spot and spun it around himself with his arm almost straight. Then he repeated the same process with nose tilted down. Question is, is that the right method or not? The app also asked me to calibrate the rc, wich i had not done before either. Worth to mention that we were in a different location too, all the calibrations were done there offcourse. The bird flew perfectly, no problems with anything at all. Interested of what happends in the future and how the bird reacts from revisiting the place where problems occured. Who knows, the soil might be rich of iron as mentioned in other replies. Thanks all for the help!

This is the old dance routine every APM uav owners learned by heart, very reliable on field calibration procedure.