My first flyaway! What did I do wrong?

[Vertigo]

If magnetic offsets where somehow 'forgotten', then the compass would not work at all. It would not fail a little bit, there is no way you would be able to take off. And why would it forget that, and not everything else, like which transmitter to listen to?

As for why not recalibrate every flight; its for the same reasons you dont want to calibrate indoors or close to metal etc. The magnetic field of the earth does not change every day or every 5 Km. Nor does the interference of the metal parts inside the phantom (*). What does change is the very local disturbances by metal/electrical wires etc on the ground. Those are the things you do not want your phantom to base its calibration on. It might ensure the quad flies properly at low altitude at its take off position if that is right next to a giant iron structure, but then it will not work where you want it to work mostly: up in the air (far) away from the home position, and thus far away from the sources of disturbance that you calibrated with. If there is a big enough difference, you probably dont want to fly there anyway.

As for DJI asking its beta testers to recalibrate each time; that would make sense as they could change the compass calibration / navigation code. So each time you do a software/firmware update, I would also understand if you recalibrated for that same reason just to be safe. Otherwise, I just dont see how it could be helpful rather than harmful.

(*) yeah, i know, running electric motors generates a magnetic field and this can be an issue. But not one you'll solve by recalibrating every day while the motors are turned off.

 

[flyNfrank]

Not to get off the subject.....but I never have understood why a few of you choose to post under accounts from your original one. As long as you're not flaming, what's the point? Btw, I have admin'd discussion forums on my own domains and there is a little trick that blows your cover so to speak. Don't worry, I'd say 98.9% of the members don't know about it.

 

[FantomFlier]

Not to get off the subject.....but I never have understood why a few of you choose to post under accounts from your original one. As long as you're not flaming, what's the point? Btw, I have admin'd discussion forums on my own domains and there is a little trick that blows your cover so to speak. Don't worry, I'd say 98.9% of the members don't know about it.

Nothing but a diversion.

Anyway, not that I owe you any explanation, but just in case you are referring to me:- I am in the process of creating a commercial enterprise and decided to use my commercial name in order to help establish an online presence. I haven't used my original account in a long while, and if I knew how to delete it I would.

Ps. I assure you that I am not the least bit worried whether you or anyone else knows about it.

 

[flyNfrank]

Nothing but a diversion.

Anyway, not that I owe you any explanation, but just in case you are referring to me:- I am in the process of creating a commercial enterprise and decided to use my commercial name in order to help establish an online presence. I haven't used my original account in a long while, and if I knew how to delete it I would.

Ps. I assure you that I am not the least bit worried whether you or anyone else knows about it.

Nice to see you step forward. But just know that nothing was being directed solely at you. This forums has maybe a dozen or less from a group of members that tend to congregate to particular subjects. And for whatever the reason, there are a few that prefer to login with a different account to post. They don't need to go to that extent just because they are opposed to compass calibrating. It's only talk.

Anyway, I have been trying to figure out what sWave is which has a couple of data columns in the P3 flight log. Pretty much knew that wouldn't be anything in the manual about it, but I did download the most updated version of the manual to have a look. And I noticed that what is said about compass calibrating has been revised. It now seems to be more clarified then it had been in previous releases. It now to the point and states that the only time you need to calibrate is if you are fly in a different location from your last flight, and if the GO app or Status Indicator(small light of front of upper gimbal mount) prompt you to do so. It also gives a nice illustration of how to do the calibrating process.

 

[msinger]

I have been trying to figure out what sWave is which has a couple of data columns in the P3 flight log

It's VPS data.

I did download the most updated version of the manual to have a look. And I noticed that what is said about compass calibrating has been revised. It now seems to be more clarified then it had been in previous releases.

Interesting. The last time I reviewed those areas of the manual, it contradicted itself. It now clearly says not to recalibrate the compass before every flight.

 

[flyNfrank]

It's VPS data.


Interesting. The last time I reviewed those areas of the manual, it contradicted itself. It now clearly says not to recalibrate the compass before every flight.

VPS data......really?

Last night I created a new gauge in dashware just for the sWave data in trying to come some kind of conclusion what it might be associated to. Before running the data through the gauge(which is a graph number chart) I compared the data to other data columns. The only other column that was somewhat similar was the Height data, in some areas in the column. So the sWave data seemed to display data up to 83.7ft. I was thinking I had my VPS disabled, but maybe not if it's recording data?

So I sync'd the gauge with the video and the line on the graph begins climbing up the same time the a/c launches. Once the graph topped out at the 83.7ft it stayed at that point 20 seconds and then begin dropping down to zero. Now the a/c I had taken it to 170ft. The graph remained at zero until I lowered the a/c down to 11ft. It stayed while I hovered and then began climbing up and topping out again at that same 83.7ft point except time it only stayed at that point for 5 seconds and returned back down to the zero point. Only difference this time around that I went to a higher elevation then the 170ft. Plus I hovered a little bit.

So does the VPS produce a sound wave or sonic wave of some kind, and maybe that's where the sWave comes from?

 

[msinger]

VPS data......really?

For reals.

So does the VPS produce a sound wave or sonic wave of some kind, and maybe that's where the sWave comes from?

You know how DJI is with their naming in general. I'm still learning about the sWave data myself -- trying to incorporate it into my log viewer.

 

[flyNfrank]

For reals.


You know how DJI is with their naming in general. I'm still learning about the sWave data myself -- trying to incorporate it into my log viewer.

Here I just wanted to show the basic chart graph I put together to get an idea how the sWave works. As seen in the graph the 1st climb was at the beginning of the flight and graph max height top out at 83.7ft for about 20 seconds. Then as I continued flying around 170ft and reaching that 20sec point the graph dropped to ground level. I then flew a couple of minutes and brought the a/c down to my head level to observe a Vnose attachment I was testing, and then took the a/c back up to around 208ft. As you see the graph again maxed out at 83.7ft. You can look at the large gauge at the top of the image at the altitude graph and where the a/c height was in relation to the sWave graph during the flight.

After going through the setup above I just can't think of any real benefit of the sWave data as it is seen in this manner. Maybe to show that the VPS was functioning during a particular moment of the flight, but that's about it.

 

[Multicoptertec]

S wave may be Sound Wave. There are 2 transducers, one emitting ultrasonic waves, the other listening. The louder the return wave is, the closer you are to the reflecting surface. Doesn't the manual warn about pets getting upset when the VPS is active?

 

[Multicoptertec]

The higher you go, the reflection diminishes till you get to nothing.

 

[Multicoptertec]

One more thing. I imagine the received sound level would be highly dependent upon the reflecting surface. Carpet, tile, grass, water?

 

[Vertigo]

Sonar doesnt measure loudness, it measures the time it takes the soundwave to travel to the ground and back. And yes, surfaces will influence it; on some that absorb sound, it wont work as well, but that will just limit the range, not influence its measurement. Another limitation of these sensors is that they are limited in the angle at which they work. Too steep an angle, and the sound wave bounces off and doesnt reach the sensor again.

 

[Multicoptertec]

Right, timing, not loudness, thank you. So, can we call swave a sonic wave value?

 

[Sergio Gomez]

What does A/C stand for?

Aircraft