Loud Speakers and the compass.

Trackman1 · Feb 12, 2016

Since I can't fly due to snow and cold for the last 3 days, and my battery was full. I thought it a good idea to play around with the go app and learn what everything does when ever I have a moment.
So I left the phantom on a table that is on 5-6ft away from some home theater speakers.

Question 1
Could this harm the compass? Or is 5-6 ft safe?

I know when I calibrated the compass the mod value was 1400. Last night it was 1700.
But when I look on it's map view the airplane symbol points exactly in the direction the phantom is facing.
If I move the phantom around the symbol points correctly.

Question 2
Is the airplane symbol pointing in the right direction a good indication of proper compass calibration?

4wd · Feb 12, 2016

A lot of car doors have speakers in them - probably nearer than yours at home.
It might do, the app will tell you if things are not right.
It's a good idea to manually look at the values in the app before you start anyway.

ianwood · Feb 12, 2016

Check the mod value outdoors before you recalibrate it. If the check you did at 1,700 was away from all metal and before calibration, that is bad. Indication that the compass be magnetized. You may need to degauss it.

Meta4 · Feb 12, 2016

Trackman1 said:
Question 1
Could this harm the compass? Or is 5-6 ft safe?

That's hard to be say. It might be OK or maybe not.
Further away would definitely be better.

Trackman1 said:
Question 2
Is the airplane symbol pointing in the right direction a good indication of proper compass calibration?

No. It is possible to "successfully" calibrate the compass in a bad area and everything will look right in the distorted magnetic field where the calibration was done.
If the Phantom flies straight and does not bring up compass errors in flight, that indicates a good calibration.

Trackman1 · Feb 12, 2016

ianwood said:
Check the mod value outdoors before you recalibrate it. If the check you did at 1,700 was away from all metal and before calibration, that is bad. Indication that the compass be magnetized. You may need to degauss it.

The mod value was out doors. Can't go out there now. I was wondering about degause. But have not noticed and option to do it.
Not planning on doing anything until I can take it out doors like you said.