Compass calibration -- every time!

[cameraz]

My Mavic Mini requires a compass calibration every time I use it -- in the same city. I usually fly within a 7-mile radius. For example, I flew it one day on my street, and it told me I needed to calibrate my compass. About 5 days later I went to fly it at another location about 6 miles away. After turning everything on, I got a message asking me to calibrate the compass. This has happened about four times now. But it never used to. Years ago, I could drive to a city 250 miles away, and I wasn't asked to recalibrate my Mini's compass.​

I'm wondering if this is related to a crash I had last year. The only outward damage was some badly knicked propeller blades. But I did get an error message telling me to contact the manufacturer. I didn't try flying after that, thinking my drone was toast. But 6 months later, I turned it on and it worked fine. So I put some new props on it, and it works perfectly. That is, except for it requiring the calibration for every flight.​

 

[Cafguy]

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[drhitch54]

The compass calibration seems to be a random event on my Mini 1 as well.....I don't think it was crash-related in your case (or mine as well)...A minor inconvenience, but I consider it to be part of each flights' pre-launch checklist.

 

[KLJ5]

My Mavic Mini requires a compass calibration every time I use it -- in the same city. I usually fly within a 7-mile radius. For example, I flew it one day on my street, and it told me I needed to calibrate my compass. About 5 days later I went to fly it at another location about 6 miles away. After turning everything on, I got a message asking me to calibrate the compass. This has happened about four times now. But it never used to. Years ago, I could drive to a city 250 miles away, and I wasn't asked to recalibrate my Mini's compass.​

I'm wondering if this is related to a crash I had last year. The only outward damage was some badly knicked propeller blades. But I did get an error message telling me to contact the manufacturer. I didn't try flying after that, thinking my drone was toast. But 6 months later, I turned it on and it worked fine. So I put some new props on it, and it works perfectly. That is, except for it requiring the calibration for every flight.​

Hi there. May I suggest your setup is detecting magnetic influences closeby and asking you to calibrate to solve a problem that is solved by moving away from the magnetic influence. For example, in my case, if I'm within 20' of my vehicle, I'll be asked to calibrate. Hope this might help you.

 

[cameraz]

Hi there. May I suggest your setup is detecting magnetic influences closeby and asking you to calibrate to solve a problem that is solved by moving away from the magnetic influence. For example, in my case, if I'm within 20' of my vehicle, I'll be asked to calibrate. Hope this might help you.

It could be. I'll keep an eye on the next place I launch the drone. Thanks.

 

[dongfang_a]

The need to calibrate a drone is related to the amount and location of nearby metal objects. Today, I tried flying my drone on the roof of a 3-story parking garage. Not only did it prompt me to calibrate the compass, but I also kept failing the calibration repeatedly when I tried to rotate myself while holding the drone. Eventually, I succeeded by keeping the drone in the same 3D location and rotating it instead of moving myself. The calibration finally worked.

 

[Meta4]

Today, I tried flying my drone on the roof of a 3-story parking garage. Not only did it prompt me to calibrate the compass, but I also kept failing the calibration repeatedly when I tried to rotate myself while holding the drone.

Your compass doesn't lose its calibration and normally you should never need to recalibrate it.
Your compass was working normally and simply warning you of the magnetic interference from the reinforcing steel in the concrete structure you were attempting to fly from.

Eventually, I succeeded by keeping the drone in the same 3D location and rotating it instead of moving myself. The calibration finally worked.

The reason you had difficulty recalibrating there was the magnetic interference.
It can cause a yaw error incident which often results with the drone zooming off sideways and very fast and crashing hard before you can do anything about it,

When you get a compass warning, 99% of the time the cause will be magnetic interference.
Rather than unnecessarily recalibrating the compass, the correct action is to switch off, move away from the problem and start again.