Problem with compass on a brand new Phantom

[salaro]

Hi

I would be grateful for some insight in what may be the issue with my Phantom

After a lot of deliberations, couple of weeks ago, I decided to purchase the phantom and GoPro and later if all successful - add zenmuse H3-2D. Plan is to video the family holiday by car to south of France in August and capture some nice footage both on the ground and above with Phantom

Last Sunday, finally had some time to put it all together, and managed to fly it with the grey battery that comes with it with no obvious problem (from a beginner's point of view)

The battery was low so I put the zippy 2200 that came 1/2 price from the dealer in it - and that is when the problems started.

Red lights and continues beeping - so I thought well the battery may be low - so I put it on charge for over 3 hours on 2A and still the same. I gave up and next day phoned the dealer and he assured me that I must have let the battery go too low and that is why the battery has failed - I should buy another one as that one is killed by now. I was sure that the issue was the charger that may have damaged the battery - But it seems to be ok for the grey default battery - so I dont really know.

I tried again the next day with the good original grey battery now charged - and decided to go through he motion of configuring the software, drivers - etc...

All was well but I noticed that the compass reading is zero - this to me looks like that the compass is not passing any data to the main computer.

DJINazam Assistant software connected up with no issue and most of the setup are in union with what the tutorial videos as expected. However upgrade to the latest 3.14 would go successfully but after power recycle and reconnecting the USB it forgets that it is already upgraded to 3.14 - I could repeat it many times and still reverts back to 2.1.4 - this is worrying but not essential yet as the update is mostly for Zenmuse Gimbal and should not affect standard nationalities.

The show stopper is the fact that I noticed that the Compass does not behave as tutorials suggest. It seems dead as no signal and therefore data entering the Phantom's on-board computer.

I wonder if you could have a look at the screenshot of compass. To me it looks that either compass is dead or something along its way is broken. I am certain it has something to do with the faulty battery

I opened it up and looked to see where the compass wires go - They go all the way to the top part which must be the GPS and navigation controllers of Phantom.

Questions: -
Can the faulty battery cause any of the phantoms components to fail like this?
I am also worried that if I send it to the dealer up north - they would send the unit to US (2-3 weeks at least) they would then send it to China (3-4 weeks) and I will not see it back in time for my trip?

If you could help me out with my conversations with the dealer - that would be great.

SG

 

[martcerv]

Its a strange one but if you want to save the hassle of sending it back you could first just try a new compass. You should be able to get them at many places pretty cheap here is the first link I found on a google search. Its only $15 to get a new compass unit so worth trying before sending back I think. http://www.flying-hobby.com/shop/dji-ph ... 11400.html

I don't think a battery could damage the compass only a big knock on it or a strong magnet could knock it out of calibration but that would still show some readings not all zero.

 

[rwalt]

Check to see if you have the compass cable connector inserted the right way into the compass module. I do not know if this is the problem, two other people are complaining of the same thing.

 

[martcerv]

Could it be possible that he pinched the cables at the back of the battery compartment when inserting the other battery. Possibly breaking one of the wires as its possible the compass cable may have got in between the battery stopper and battery. This could explain how it happened when changing batteries and I did notice on mine the cable was sticking out over the top left corner of the back plate inside the battery area so I moved it to the other side so the battery doesnt hit it.

Here is a pic showing the LED cables in front of the battery blocker at the back but the compass may also have been there and damaged when inserting a battery.

 

[rwalt]

This could explain how it happened when changing batteries and I did notice on mine the cable was sticking out over the top left corner of the back plate inside the battery area so I moved it to the other side so the battery doesnt hit it.

I took a close look in my older Phantom, same thing you had. Noticed that my newest Phantom had the cable behind the stop where it should be. That IS a problem. Very observant, thanks for posting this.

 

[salaro]

Many thanks to @rwalt and @martcerv

I opened the unit up again and I don't see any obvious puncher in any of the wires/going in and out of any of the circuit boards

They are all seem to be in good order and no obvious sign of DryJoints

For the magnet to be completely inactive - I would have thought that the problem exists somewhere with a failed component between compass circuitry and the on-board computer.

If I had the the circuit diagram then I could go about checking what has failed.

Computer is OK as all other functionalities are in good order becuase all the readings are as expected and interactions between the controller and the Phantom are near enough perfect - other than the fact that it refuses to upgrade the software from 2.x to 3.1.4. and the none functioning Compass.

However that could do with the fact that it cannot communicate with the compass.

I am about to send it over to the dealer - I will ask him for replacement as it is less than 2 weeks old and has only been flying for less than 10 minutes. All the other tests - such as replacing the magnet etc... can easily be done in their workshop rather than sending it to US.

I will let you know what happens.

Many thanks again for all the posts.

 

[Mindtheater]

Same thing happened to me. Out of the box, did the 10 clicks to calibrate compass. Did 360 turn and got green light. Did second 360 face down and got a flashing red light. Tried many times but got same response. Took it home and tried again but now the 10 clicks does nothing!! Tried everything including update drivers, firmware and naza assistant. I can't get it to go into compass calibration mode with 10 clicks. When looking at Naza assist, all looks good except for compass has all 0 for values.
So disappointed! I really wanted to fly today, been waiting for a long time!!

 

[UTR]

Hi

I would be grateful for some insight in what may be the issue with my Phantom

After a lot of deliberations, couple of weeks ago, I decided to purchase the phantom and GoPro and later if all successful - add zenmuse H3-2D. Plan is to video the family holiday by car to south of France in August and capture some nice footage both on the ground and above with Phantom

Last Sunday, finally had some time to put it all together, and managed to fly it with the grey battery that comes with it with no obvious problem (from a beginner's point of view)

The battery was low so I put the zippy 2200 that came 1/2 price from the dealer in it - and that is when the problems started.

Red lights and continues beeping - so I thought well the battery may be low - so I put it on charge for over 3 hours on 2A and still the same. I gave up and next day phoned the dealer and he assured me that I must have let the battery go too low and that is why the battery has failed - I should buy another one as that one is killed by now. I was sure that the issue was the charger that may have damaged the battery - But it seems to be ok for the grey default battery - so I dont really know.

I tried again the next day with the good original grey battery now charged - and decided to go through he motion of configuring the software, drivers - etc...

All was well but I noticed that the compass reading is zero - this to me looks like that the compass is not passing any data to the main computer.

DJINazam Assistant software connected up with no issue and most of the setup are in union with what the tutorial videos as expected. However upgrade to the latest 3.14 would go successfully but after power recycle and reconnecting the USB it forgets that it is already upgraded to 3.14 - I could repeat it many times and still reverts back to 2.1.4 - this is worrying but not essential yet as the update is mostly for Zenmuse Gimbal and should not affect standard nationalities.

The show stopper is the fact that I noticed that the Compass does not behave as tutorials suggest. It seems dead as no signal and therefore data entering the Phantom's on-board computer.

I wonder if you could have a look at the screenshot of compass. To me it looks that either compass is dead or something along its way is broken. I am certain it has something to do with the faulty battery

I opened it up and looked to see where the compass wires go - They go all the way to the top part which must be the GPS and navigation controllers of Phantom.

Questions: -
Can the faulty battery cause any of the phantoms components to fail like this?
I am also worried that if I send it to the dealer up north - they would send the unit to US (2-3 weeks at least) they would then send it to China (3-4 weeks) and I will not see it back in time for my trip?

If you could help me out with my conversations with the dealer - that would be great.

SG

You might want to check the manual/videos if you are using the stock charger I'm pretty sure it says to set it to 3A. Also 2.14 is the assistant software version not the firmware the firmware is 3.14. If your phantom is reasonably new I would be very surprised if you have a v2.x.x firmware. The zippy battery was most likely dead from the start. Also if you are taking compass readings inside then numerous things may be interfering.

When upgrading firmware I found that I needed to install the firmware, load the default parameters file from their web site. Go outside do a compass cal, come back in connect to my PC and re-enable the IOC and then do an IMU cal. If you then go outside again you can always re-cal the compass if it works on the lights then all is good.

Brian

 

[UTR]

Same thing happened to me. Out of the box, did the 10 clicks to calibrate compass. Did 360 turn and got green light. Did second 360 face down and got a flashing red light. Tried many times but got same response. Took it home and tried again but now the 10 clicks does nothing!! Tried everything including update drivers, firmware and naza assistant. I can't get it to go into compass calibration mode with 10 clicks. When looking at Naza assist, all looks good except for compass has all 0 for values.
So disappointed! I really wanted to fly today, been waiting for a long time!!

Connect it to your PC and if you are using the stock radio gear check to see that the rx is set to PPM if not the 10 clicks doesn't work. This happens if you do a firmware update and don't load the default parameters file. Also all your flight characteristics might be off and even though it says you don't need it do a IMU cal.

Always load he default parameters file from their web site after doing a firmware upgrade

Brian