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Brian_MavicPro

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My Mavic Air seems to require a compass calibration each time I fly. Indoors, seems to be mostly normal but outdoors is another story. I fly in rural areas over forest, lakes, waterfalls. Today I launched from a frozen lake. My Mavic Air needed the usual compass calibration dance (3X) and my DJI P3A did not...typical of the P3A, solid.

So, I am curious if anyone else has a Mavic Air with the same issue. My particular Mavic Air also had the shakes from an overactive IMU until the latest firmware. I am curious if this compass calibration is another firmware issue that will hopefully be fixed or do I have an odd Mavic Air.

My typical outdoor weather is 20F (-6C) to 41F (5C). Don't blame me, lol. DJI chose to put a new drone out in the middle of freaking winter and I live in Ottawa Canada. I bet all those lab tests were done in nice warm weather. Thoughts anyone?
 
I fly my Mavic Air in similar conditions as you do, Brian, just 1‘000m higher, in the Swiss Alps. I experience rhe same request to calibrate the compass, at least once before every flight. Unless it‘s meant to „warm up the pilot“ it must be an overly sensitive configuration setting. Hopefully that‘ll be fixed in the firmware soon.
 
What type of watch are you wearing? Not one with a magnetic clasp like the Apple Watch? That was my problem - the Air’s compass is V sensitive to external magnetic interference & was being confused by my Apple Watch. I now take it off before going anywhere near the Air & everything has been fine
 
I am wearing a Citizen EcoDrive watch. No LED or battery. It functions off of motion and tiny solar crystals. My watch is not creating a magnetic disturbance. Also, my other drone (Phantom 3 Advanced) is not affected under the same circumstances and launching locations. It must be the cold, thus a sensor/firmware problem.

I keep my batteries warm...they perform like a champ in the coldest of temperatures...the drone sensors are another story. Again, I am of the opinion that the product launch in winter is to blame. The good news is that perhaps with the newness of the product, it will get the project teams attention and the firmware will get updated to "fix or work around" these odd problems.
 
actually ive noticed this too. It seems like the Air wants to recalibrate the compass often. My pro, I recalibrate about every 6 months, even when its still in the green, but the Air, I can almost guarantee that if I drive 10 miles from where I last started it up, its going to want to calibrate the compass.
 
actually ive noticed this too. It seems like the Air wants to recalibrate the compass often. My pro, I recalibrate about every 6 months, even when its still in the green, but the Air, I can almost guarantee that if I drive 10 miles from where I last started it up, its going to want to calibrate the compass.
Yep.. it's kind of a nuisance.
 
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yep....mine does it every time i fly. last weekend i went out with the 3 batteries.....had to recalibrate the compass after every battery change. doesn't take long but is annoying.
 
Been flying my Air a couple weeks. Temp in the 40’s, only had to calib it on initial setup, not been prompted to recalibrate since.
 
Yup, I have several DJI drones (as can be seen in my signature) and the Mavic Air seems to ask for CC just about every other time I fly even from the exact location. For example I can fly my drone from my deck today and it won't ask for a CC. Tomorrow, I can go out to my deck (conditions being the same) and it'll ask for a a CC.

My Mavic Pro nor my Spark asks for a CC nearly as often. Actually I think since I've owned the Spark (when it first came out), I've only done a CC once. And I even travelled across country and it never asked for one and fly just fine. My Mavic Pro has asked only a few times since purchasing it over a year ago.

I'm wondering if they've done some tweaking on the Compass tolerances, maybe to help avoid flyaways...

My Mavic Air seems to require a compass calibration each time I fly. Indoors, seems to be mostly normal but outdoors is another story. I fly in rural areas over forest, lakes, waterfalls. Today I launched from a frozen lake. My Mavic Air needed the usual compass calibration dance (3X) and my DJI P3A did not...typical of the P3A, solid.

So, I am curious if anyone else has a Mavic Air with the same issue. My particular Mavic Air also had the shakes from an overactive IMU until the latest firmware. I am curious if this compass calibration is another firmware issue that will hopefully be fixed or do I have an odd Mavic Air.

My typical outdoor weather is 20F (-6C) to 41F (5C). Don't blame me, lol. DJI chose to put a new drone out in the middle of freaking winter and I live in Ottawa Canada. I bet all those lab tests were done in nice warm weather. Thoughts anyone?
 
Other than initial calibration, I have not been promoted to calibrate again after at least two dozen flights. I manually calibrated when we took a trip about 1000 miles from our home just to be safe (and once again when returning), but have never had to recalibrate when flying different areas around my metro area.
 
Anyone figure out a fix for this or why it is happening. I also have to calibrate almost every time I fly. Just wondering if anyone figured out why? Thanks
 
Had that issue with my first Air. Crashed it on the 2nd day. Have not calibrated the replacement drone (Care & Refresh) since. It seems to be a bug, not a feature...
 
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Compass errors can quickly lead to disaster. Think of recalibration as “cheap insurance“ rather than “annoying”. Better for your blood pressure!
Agreed! I’d rather spend an extra 30 secs calibrating the compass each pre-flight, than suffer an error in flight!
 
When I get a calibration window I turn everything off and restart and it goes away- most of the time lol
 
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I recalibrate before every new flight. By new flight I mean break of 12+ hours or location change. Commercial pilots do the same. Simple changes like an 11Kv cable being on or off 6m underground (invisible to us) can throw off the compass of your very expensive aircraft. Why risk it?
 
Please tell me that your 'LOL' means you don't really mean this!!
actually, often that;s the best thing to do. If it is persistent then you should calibrate. But normally you should only calibrate after traveling hundreds of miles or after a FW update. Every time you calibrate you take the risk that the calibration is faulty due to magnetic interference that might be on that spot. A good calibration, done on a safe spot where you know there's zero chance for interference, is something you want to keep. I calibrate mostly on the same known safe spot and leave it for months.
 
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Simple changes like an 11Kv cable being on or off 6m underground (invisible to us) can throw off the compass of your very expensive aircraft.
For the compass to get permanently thrown off like that you would be flying only 1 foot from a heavy magnet. That's unlikely to happen. The biggest risk is interference DURING EACH CALIBRATION. You think it's calibrated OK but as soon as you take off the compass turns out to be faulty and there you have a 'fly away' as many people call it.
 
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