Andy T said:
This is only relevant to non-Phantom Naza units. It has been discussed numerous times and discovered that moving the GPS sensor won't do anything because in the Phantom it is independent (theoretically) from the compass.
Fixing DJI's Compass Problem
- Thread starter ianwood
- Start date
This is only relevant to non-Phantom Naza units. It has been discussed numerous times and discovered that moving the GPS sensor won't do anything because in the Phantom it is independent (theoretically) from the compass.
@sar104 Ahhh cool. Sorry, I made an incorrect assumption. I thought naza and phantom had the same setup.
Maybe me too, but it seemed to get better. :roll:
I'm in Southern California. Specifically, Los Altos in Long Beach next to CSULB. This is on my 2nd Phantom 2 I recently received on Wednesday. It's the latest version (if you will) with the H3-3D. Updated to 3.0 and enabled Naza Mode. Mini IOSD installed inside, Fatshark 250, and GS Mounted underneath. I took it to Arbor Park in Los Alamitos. Did the compass dance. Confirmed 11-14 satellites, basically enough. I watched Ianwood's vid, to test it the same way. First, it wouldn't hold its position without some input from me. I then went full forward then and it hooked left and began to TB. I pulled back and it hooked right then started to TB. I wanted to test more, but a seasoned flyer at the park had told me the MP's next door frown upon any sort of recording devices on flying models. I didn't want to cause a scene, so I packed up and bailed.
I went to another park, Whaley Park next to CSULB. Prior to my first flight I was getting a lot of red flashing lights. I then realized it was the picnic table. I put it on the grass and I was locked in with 14 satellites. Did the calibration dance for S&Gs. Lifted up and hovered in place. That's a good sign. Went full forward, released, no hook. Pulled back full speed, released, no hook. I flew 3 more batteries and it flew without problems.
Now, not really a controlled test since I was at two different spots, and it seemed to completely disappear at the other park. But Whaley Park is in a more densely populated neighborhood whereas Arbor Park is wide open comparable to the park in Ianwood's video. Anyway, I'm just happy I got her flying straight...for now. :?
I'm in Southern California. Specifically, Los Altos in Long Beach next to CSULB. This is on my 2nd Phantom 2 I recently received on Wednesday. It's the latest version (if you will) with the H3-3D. Updated to 3.0 and enabled Naza Mode. Mini IOSD installed inside, Fatshark 250, and GS Mounted underneath. I took it to Arbor Park in Los Alamitos. Did the compass dance. Confirmed 11-14 satellites, basically enough. I watched Ianwood's vid, to test it the same way. First, it wouldn't hold its position without some input from me. I then went full forward then and it hooked left and began to TB. I pulled back and it hooked right then started to TB. I wanted to test more, but a seasoned flyer at the park had told me the MP's next door frown upon any sort of recording devices on flying models. I didn't want to cause a scene, so I packed up and bailed.
I went to another park, Whaley Park next to CSULB. Prior to my first flight I was getting a lot of red flashing lights. I then realized it was the picnic table. I put it on the grass and I was locked in with 14 satellites. Did the calibration dance for S&Gs. Lifted up and hovered in place. That's a good sign. Went full forward, released, no hook. Pulled back full speed, released, no hook. I flew 3 more batteries and it flew without problems.
Now, not really a controlled test since I was at two different spots, and it seemed to completely disappear at the other park. But Whaley Park is in a more densely populated neighborhood whereas Arbor Park is wide open comparable to the park in Ianwood's video. Anyway, I'm just happy I got her flying straight...for now. :?
Diesel31 said:
That's weird , glad it's flying ok. I'm wondering how long before DJI comes up with the cause of the problem and a fix. DJI should at least let the consumers know the progress if any they are having in fixing this problem.
Personally I can't wait for a fix to come through. Being in one of the high declination areas I always have to deal with the effects. I would love it if my ground station flights would face forward and fly true never mind not having TBE and hooking. It's bad enough that I've dropped back to 1.8 which means no more ground station 
I hope DJI realizes the effect this has on us, I really can't recommend their products right now or have anyone try mine out without explaining about compass issues so they don't crash it by accident. I can only assume that eventually this problem will make its way back to DJI in a another, not so friendly, form where they are demanded to pay for repairs or replacements.
I am encouraged that DJI is having people do testing but am also concerned with how long this is actually taking with all the information available on this forum and others. Why is it the phantom 1 is not effected and yet the P2 is? Might be time to step things up a bit DJI, give us a solution already! This isn't a new problem! :evil:
I hope DJI realizes the effect this has on us, I really can't recommend their products right now or have anyone try mine out without explaining about compass issues so they don't crash it by accident. I can only assume that eventually this problem will make its way back to DJI in a another, not so friendly, form where they are demanded to pay for repairs or replacements.
I am encouraged that DJI is having people do testing but am also concerned with how long this is actually taking with all the information available on this forum and others. Why is it the phantom 1 is not effected and yet the P2 is? Might be time to step things up a bit DJI, give us a solution already! This isn't a new problem! :evil:
Hi Guys,
re the magnetic declination creating a possible problem. Can any of you guys tell me if the hook is worse the greater the mag declination is and does the hook direction alter depending of declination being to the East or West (pos or neg) ?
At present I do not own a Phantom 2 so cannot give feedback from my side.
Thanks.
Allen
Cape Town, South Africa
re the magnetic declination creating a possible problem. Can any of you guys tell me if the hook is worse the greater the mag declination is and does the hook direction alter depending of declination being to the East or West (pos or neg) ?
At present I do not own a Phantom 2 so cannot give feedback from my side.
Thanks.
Allen
Cape Town, South Africa
Greater declination= greater hook: yesDeltafox said:
Hook direction is to the left when declination is positive, to the right when declination is negative.
Why I'm asking is because is because there are guys with a negative correction and others with a positive correction while both groups mentioning hooking to the left ?? (example California and Alberta)
Allen
Allen
California and Alberta both have positive magnetic declination. Looks like remedial geography for you.Deltafox said:
I have a phantom 2, and initially never had this problem. Then a few days ago I clipped a tree branch, fell to my roof, bounced and fell about 12 more feet to the ground.
The fall broke the last of my props that came from DJI, so I received a set of carbon self tightening blades from helipal and added prop guards. Almost immediately after takeoff I was about 2 feet above my 6 foot fence, went forward quickly and then released the control stick... normally the phantom would have leveled itself out, but it did a little TB and then flipped and broke the tip off a carbon prop.
Now it has non-DJI plastic props, and I get the J hooks now too. Left when I'm going forward, and to the right when going backwards. My hover is also much worse than it was before, wandering as much as 10 feet horizontally and 6-8 feet vertically. Sometimes it won't stay above the ground at all either and it continually loses altitude, and I still have quite a bit of instability when going from a full forward to stopped, it worries me.
Does it sound like my props are unbalanced or something? Hopefully nothing is wrong internally, but I haven't opened it up. I upgraded to firmware 3.0 last night, and have a zenmuse gimbal with gopro.
TL;DR Crashed, non-DJI props, now it J hooks and struggles with GPS, struggles with stability when coming to a stop, sounds like the magnetic problem plus maybe unbalanced props. Pleas HELP!
Here's a video of the initial crash (at the end) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMMtNMJ8Ft8
The fall broke the last of my props that came from DJI, so I received a set of carbon self tightening blades from helipal and added prop guards. Almost immediately after takeoff I was about 2 feet above my 6 foot fence, went forward quickly and then released the control stick... normally the phantom would have leveled itself out, but it did a little TB and then flipped and broke the tip off a carbon prop.
Now it has non-DJI plastic props, and I get the J hooks now too. Left when I'm going forward, and to the right when going backwards. My hover is also much worse than it was before, wandering as much as 10 feet horizontally and 6-8 feet vertically. Sometimes it won't stay above the ground at all either and it continually loses altitude, and I still have quite a bit of instability when going from a full forward to stopped, it worries me.
Does it sound like my props are unbalanced or something? Hopefully nothing is wrong internally, but I haven't opened it up. I upgraded to firmware 3.0 last night, and have a zenmuse gimbal with gopro.
TL;DR Crashed, non-DJI props, now it J hooks and struggles with GPS, struggles with stability when coming to a stop, sounds like the magnetic problem plus maybe unbalanced props. Pleas HELP!
Here's a video of the initial crash (at the end) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMMtNMJ8Ft8
Deltafox said:
I'm in PA negative declanation. Mine pulls right and hooks right. Most dramatic in a full forward climb.
OK.. So here is my latest video.. Sorry about the shakiness, but I think that may be caused by a mistake I made, buying a set of props for a vision 1, instead of a vision 2.. (they are shorter, and a different design) So what I did, because of the major left swing, and straight runs that would skew left, with my copter, I rotated the compass about 20 degrees on the leg, in a clockwise direction (as viewed looking down on the copter).. My declination here is +17.. Major improvement!! Although, I'm wondering if perhaps I may have a cracked GPS chip, as I couldn't seem to acquire more than 8 satellites, and it took forever to get a fix on them.. I also calibrated the compass via the normal dance, however, for the vertical (where you turn your copter on edge), I turned the one side down-- ie: where one leg is pointing 20 degrees down, in order to keep the flat side of the compass parallel to the Earth.. Without rotating the compass, I had major toilet bowl effect.. The shakiness, I hope is from the wrong props, but I ordered a couple of spare motors, just to be sure. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeNcgWBLxYc
I think I would prefer the copter to be bang on, at the start, even if it starts to over-correct, over the time of the flight.. Most of my flights have been 5 minutes or less.. It would do me no good, if it took 5 min. for the copter's brains to finally get it right.. In retrospect, I think my copter was bad, with the drift, left hook etc., right from the start.. However, when you're just starting out, you don't bother to watch for these things..
I live in Sonoma County and purchased the P2 with a gopro about 3 weeks ago. My phantom has this same exact problem. Thank you for starting this thread and working with DJI. I am thinking about returning it and getting the P2 Vision+ to see if that has the same problem.
I have been emailing and talking to the California support team on the phone. Both of them don't act like the've heard of this problem. From the support email department, they said I need to point the unit in the magnetic north direction when I'm starting the calibration. I've tried everything and nothing works. The west coast support team offered for me to send it in, which would take 3 to 4 weeks, and they would work on it. I think they are hiding the fact that this is a problem. For me it is a major problem and is preventing me from my income stream. I hope DJI comes up with a solution ASAP!!!! I have over $2,000 invested in this device and expected it to work correctly.
I have $1500 invested in mine and I'm loosing faith in DJI products and DJI solving issues with their products. Their solution will be to come out with a phantom 2.1 instead of fixing this world wide problem.fredkusin said:I have been emailing and talking to the California support team on the phone. Both of them don't act like the've heard of this problem. From the support email department, they said I need to point the unit in the magnetic north direction when I'm starting the calibration. I've tried everything and nothing works. The west coast support team offered for me to send it in, which would take 3 to 4 weeks, and they would work on it. I think they are hiding the fact that this is a problem. For me it is a major problem and is preventing me from my income stream. I hope DJI comes up with a solution ASAP!!!! I have over $2,000 invested in this device and expected it to work correctly.
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