Calibration frequency?

[Gobuchul]

How often do you calibrate each set of sensors?

Do you wait until you get a warning or more often than that?

I saw 1 guy on youtube who calibrated his compass every flight. Anyone else do this?

What about the vision sensors and IMU?

Is it possible to "over calibrate"?

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

I have never calibrated any sensors or IMU etc.
My M1P has asked me twice in 3 years to calibrate the compass, and I obey ?
It has rewarded me by staying in the air . . . well, except once, but that was my fault hitting that silo, lol.

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

Unless I get a warning, I calibrate all and change the props every 300 flights. Like Remo said in Casino... "Why take a chance?"

 

[Meta4]

I saw 1 guy on youtube who calibrated his compass every flight. Anyone else do this?

Only people that don't understand what compass calibration really does and when it might be needed.
I haven't calibrated anything on my main work drone since I got it over three years and >5000 kilometres ago.
It flies as well today as when I first took it out of the box.

 

[Kilrah]

Someone handed me an M2P yesterday to use for a job and the thing had the IMU cal completely our of whack, one of the gyro bars full red, the other gyro and accels yellow about middle of the bar... No idea how that could even happen, never seen something that bad before. Thing had flown a week earlier in another country, wonder if it was banged during transport or something...
It calibrated fine and flew great after that though.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

and the thing had the IMU cal completely our of whack, one of the gyro bars full red, the other gyro and accels yellow about middle of the bar...

So you got a warning, or did you go in for a look see for safety sake ?

 

[Kilrah]

I was going to go see since when I get an unknown machine I go through every single setting, but it sure did pop up the error before I got a chance to.

 

[Silverfox53]

Only people that don't understand what compass calibration really does and when it might be needed.
I haven't calibrated anything on my main work drone since I got it over three years and >5000 kilometres ago.
It flies as well today as when I first took it out of the box.

Can you explain further please ?

 

[Meta4]

Can you explain further please ?

The kind of people that calibrate their compass every flight are people that think recalibrating the compass somehow makes their flight safer and that recalibrating somehow "fixes" something.
But calibrating the compass isn't like that at all.

The only thing that calibrating the compass does is to identify and measure the magnetic fields that are part of the drone.
Once identified and measured, these can be subtracted from the compass data so the only magnetic field data the flight controller is working with, is the earth's normal magnetic field.
The compass doesn't lose calibration and the drone's own magnetic fields shouldn't change unless you modify or rebuild the drone.

DJI add to the confusion and superstition by forcing some of their recent drones to ask for recalibration after a certain time period or moving some distance from the last flying location.
There is no physical reason for this but someone at DJI thinks it's a good idea.

 

[Silverfox53]

The kind of people that calibrate their compass every flight are people that think recalibrating the compass somehow makes their flight safer and that recalibrating somehow "fixes" something.
But calibrating the compass isn't like that at all.

The only thing that calibrating the compass does is to identify and measure the magnetic fields that are part of the drone.
Once identified and measured, these can be subtracted from the compass data so the only magnetic field data the flight controller is working with, is the earth's normal magnetic field.
The compass doesn't lose calibration and the drone's own magnetic fields shouldn't change unless you modify or rebuild the drone.

DJI add to the confusion and superstition by forcing some of their recent drones to ask for recalibration after a certain time period or moving some distance from the last flying location.
There is no physical reason for this but someone at DJI thinks it's a good idea.

Very interesting perspective - thank you for adding some detail to your original comment. I wonder why DJI build in the feature then - because when i do my pre flight checks, the compass section is often highlighted which suggests to me the drone wants some more data in order to orientate itself in relation to the controller. I comply with this, as a 30 second twirl is not a waste of my time. When I go home ( SE Asia ) it will be interesting too see if it asks to be "calibrated" again. A very intriguing argument you have, I will have to research this.

 

[Meta4]

when i do my pre flight checks, the compass section is often highlighted which suggests to me the drone wants some more data in order to orientate itself in relation to the controller.

The relative positions of the drone and controller are irrelevant.
The drone has no requirement to orientate itself in relation to the controller.

There's a lot of confusion and some superstition around compass calibration.
DJI has contributed to this with poor documentation in some of their manuals and lately by making recent models ask for recalibration when it is not needed.
The science of what compass calibration actually does (and doesn't do) and when it is (and isn't) needed has been properly worked out, but you;ll still find a lot of misunderstanding about it in the forum.