First real problem I've had...

[drm]

I've been flying my P3P for about 14 months now. I've not had any malfunctions other than the usual newbie pilot errors and loss of video at a distance. A couple months ago I started using a reflector-type antenna booster on my controller, and have been able to go as far as one mile with reasonably good video signal.

Yesterday I felt I needed to exercise my skills (its been cold and windy) since the weather was nice. I headed out from my yard to about 1000 meters at about 50 meters altitude, maintaining good control and video feed, when suddenly DJI Go reported a compass error. My video feed looked like there was some loss of control for several moments, and the feed became intermittent. At this point I had visions of jumping in my truck and trudging through a field to pick up the pieces.

Since there was compass error, I thought I could not trust the yaw indicator on the app, so I managed to position the AC to where I could see my house in the video feed and headed (hopefully) toward home. The compass error went away, and I got it back to my yard and landed briefly. I had plenty of battery left, so I took off again and flew around, staying low and close to home with no trouble until until the battery warning appeared.

Between my location and the AC location when the problem occurred is a tall power transmission line. It was about 300 feet from where I was standing. I am aware of the potential for interference from power lines, and I can see how loss of control could occur, but could it cause a false 'compass error'?

 

[jdgilbert]

EMI (electro-magnetic interference) from high-voltage power lines can cause compass errors. The compass works off the earth's magnetic field and anytime you are close enough to an artificial magnetic field it can affect the compass reading.

 

[drm]

EMI (electro-magnetic interference) from high-voltage power lines can cause compass errors. The compass works off the earth's magnetic field and anytime you are close enough to an artificial magnetic field it can affect the compass reading.

I get that, but the AC itself was a long way from the power lines...probably a half mile or so. I was wondering if it was possible for the on screen message to be incorrect due to interference in the signal I was receiving from the AC, since I was much closer to the power lines. I suppose anything is possible.....but I will most likely perform a compass calibration before my next flight, and avoid the scenario in the future. I can take off from another location to fly to the same area. I will take a look at my flight log to see if there are any other clues.

 

[Numone]

Sometimes there doesn't seem to be any obvious reason for these weird errors, but clearly there is one. I too had one of these scenarios, albeit I didn't get anywhere near as far from the T/O point as your mishap. I switched to atti mode and got the AC back. I then moved literally 50' of so, changed the battery and took off and flew without a single issue; I didn't even calibrate the compass. I didn't bother to review all the data. I just put it down to being "one of those things". Fingers crossed I've never had another problem since.

 

[Meta4]

I get that, but the AC itself was a long way from the power lines...probably a half mile or so. I was wondering if it was possible for the on screen message to be incorrect due to interference in the signal I was receiving from the AC, since I was much closer to the power lines

At a half mile, there would be no effect on the Phantom's compass and any interference you may have experienced with the signal between you and the Phantom would not have shown up as a compass error.