Can magnetic interference from my MRI Scanner permanently damage the compass on my Mavic?

[RawRock]

I brought my Mavic to work to download videos off of it and the MRI scanner is causing all kinds of compass chaos. Will a calibration fix everything when I get home? No permanent damage?

 

[sar104]

I brought my Mavic to work to download videos off of it and the MRI scanner is causing all kinds of compass chaos. Will a calibration fix everything when I get home? No permanent damage?

That depends on how strong a magnetic field it was exposed to. It's possible that it will need degaussing, but I would check the calibration first.

 

[RawRock]

That depends on how strong a magnetic field it was exposed to. It's possible that it will need degaussing, but I would check the calibration first.

Zone 3 of the 3Tesla scanner

 

[Simmo]

Gee you brought back some memories @sar104 !! Degaussing the tv in a home service call because the wife had vacuumed under it causing a purity error!! The kids thought I was a magician with my magic wand!!!

 

[Flawless]

In an ideal situation where your drone is unaffected, you shouldn't need to recalibrate your compass - if your app says you do, you probably need to degauss the drone (and if you recalibrate before doing so, it could cause some strange behaviour - you're telling the drone the unusual magnetic fields are normal).

Maybe next time just... take the **** memory card out.

 

[AnzacJack]

Mom. I wouldn’t be leaving mine around an MRI scanner. My son works with them and he says that it has on occasion pulled the glasses off his head

 

[RFaust]

I brought my Mavic to work to download videos off of it and the MRI scanner is causing all kinds of compass chaos. Will a calibration fix everything when I get home? No permanent damage?

I just read your post and I'm wondering what you've found regarding the magnetic field exposure.
I just realized I've been storing mine on top of my media center where there are 2 huge speakers pretty close by. I got a big "compass error/recalibrate" message when I turned it on while sitting there. I hope the magnets close by haven't screwed up the sensors. It has been flying normally with no messages though.
What have you learned?
FYI: I will find a new location for storing my MPP, even though it looks pretty cool there.

 

[sar104]

I just read your post and I'm wondering what you've found regarding the magnetic field exposure.
I just realized I've been storing mine on top of my media center where there are 2 huge speakers pretty close by. I got a big "compass error/recalibrate" message when I turned it on while sitting there. I hope the magnets close by haven't screwed up the sensors. It has been flying normally with no messages though.
What have you learned?
FYI: I will find a new location for storing my MPP, even though it looks pretty cool there.

The magnets won't screw up the sensors - what they might do is magnetize other components near the sensors, which would cause a problem.

 

[RawRock]

I have crashed my mavic under a bridge because of compass error and lost it in the river. I hope to get another, but I wouldn’t store it there and I would recalibrate the compasses every flight no matter what. They are very sensitive.

 

[RFaust]

The magnets won't screw up the sensors - what they might do is magnetize other components near the sensors, which would cause a problem.

Well, so far, so good. It still flies well, but I won't be storing my MPP next to my speakers anymore.
I remember back in the picture tube days when I discovered my speakers were "sucking" the color to the corner of the screen.

 

[RFaust]

I have crashed my mavic under a bridge because of compass error and lost it in the river. I hope to get another, but I wouldn’t store it there and I would recalibrate the compasses every flight no matter what. They are very sensitive.

Sorry for your loss. Flying under a bridge is not where you want to lose control - even momentarily.

My method has been to stick with a compass calibration that's working well. It's very possible to make things worse by re-calibrating. You don't always know what's under the ground where you are calibrating. There are exceptions, of course: software updates, travel to a new geographic location and probably other reasons too.

 

[JDawg]

I have crashed my mavic under a bridge because of compass error and lost it in the river. I hope to get another, but I wouldn’t store it there and I would recalibrate the compasses every flight no matter what. They are very sensitive.

You jumped from basically giving your drone an MRI to crashing it under a bridge and claiming the compass is very senstive. Anything happen in between?

 

[RawRock]

I promise not really

 

[RFaust]

I promise not really

Hmm...

 

[UAVNV]

I just read your post and I'm wondering what you've found regarding the magnetic field exposure.
I just realized I've been storing mine on top of my media center where there are 2 huge speakers pretty close by. I got a big "compass error/recalibrate" message when I turned it on while sitting there. I hope the magnets close by haven't screwed up the sensors. It has been flying normally with no messages though.
What have you learned?
FYI: I will find a new location for storing my MPP, even though it looks pretty cool there.

never thought of this before, good footnote for storage in my preflight checklist [emoji1360]

 

[sjnovakovich]

Why does someone own an MRI scanner. Am I misunderstanding something?

 

[Dragonfly]

It should not interfere or cause any permanent damage as the Mavics compass is a digital compass not a magnetic compass. The only problem that may occur is if you are very close and exposed it for a long period of time you can magnitize a part off the drone close to the compass location which would then throw out the digital compass when Mavic was powered on.

 

[RFaust]

It should not interfere or cause any permanent damage as the Mavics compass is a digital compass not a magnetic compass. The only problem that may occur is if you are very close and exposed it for a long period of time you can magnitize a part off the drone close to the compass location which would then throw out the digital compass when Mavic was powered on.

I just watched an interesting video showing how a digital compass works. The video says the compass must be recalibrated after exposure to a strong magnetic field. It's a good demo: