Compass calibration

[Scooped]

I noticed on my Mavic 2 Zoom i seem to be told to do a compass calibration almost everytime i fly. Depending where i am.flying i do and don't calibrate. Any suggestions why now the drone is asking all the time to calibrate?

 

[old man mavic]

@Scooped it could be that there is metal in the ground which will cause a compass calibration request or it could be the distance from where you last flew ,sometimes the drone can become magnetised and needs a degaussing tool to get rid of it ,the next time it happens just try moving the drone a few feet away and try it again ,and try not to wear a apple type watch as they can give a compass error

 

[Scooped]

@Scooped it could be that there is metal in the ground which will cause a compass calibration request or it could be the distance from where you last flew ,sometimes the drone can become magnetised and needs a degaussing tool to get rid of it ,the next time it happens just try moving the drone a few feet away and try it again ,and try not to wear a apple type watch as they can give a compass error

Much appreciated. I am able to calibrate it eventually but find it weird. I often, because of the terrain I am in hand launch. That way its also not on the ground. Thanks for the comment. Your wisdom and knowledge is incredible.

 

[Thomas B]

Above is true.., also... Often a takeoff spot > 50 miles from last calibration has been known to do this from reports I have seen.

 

[Scooped]

Above is true.., also... Often a takeoff spot > 50 miles from last calibration has been known to do this from reports I have seen.

Also thanks for the reply. It is quite often I am more than 50km from last take off spot

 

[stonecherub]

Compass calibration ... do it every time you fly, just because you can. Takes me about 30 seconds.

 

[DanMan32]

Not necessarily a good idea to do it each flight, since you can lose a great calibration for a mediocre one for having calibrated in an area with some magnetic influence.
Just do it when told to and having already tried moving elsewhere.

 

[Meta4]

Compass calibration ... do it every time you fly, just because you can. Takes me about 30 seconds.

That's completely unnecessary.
A better idea is to find out what compass calibration really does and when it might be needed (almost never).
The first post in this thread explains what it's all about:

A short explanation of compass function, calibration and errors.

BACKGROUND The aircraft compass is often misunderstood, both in terms of function and purpose, but it is important to understand what the compass measures, why, and what happens to that information. At the most basic level the purpose of the compass is to measure the earth’s magnetic field in...

mavicpilots.com

 

[TreeHugger]

I noticed on my Mavic 2 Zoom i seem to be told to do a compass calibration almost everytime i fly. Depending where i am.flying i do and don't calibrate. Any suggestions why now the drone is asking all the time to calibrate?

Calibrate every time is probably a more serious version of myself.
Use good sense. I talk about my personal experience in another thread here. Pay heed to software generated alerts, coupled with your sense of the world.

Edit:
Post #2 by @old man mavic has been part of my issues. (Rebar / concrete / metal)

 

[stonecherub]

Meta4:

I work in a strange place, a basalt volcanic field where the magnetic field can vary significantly over distances of meters. About half of my flights start from the calm desert floor and end uneventfully. Others are from cone ridges where lightning strikes have made quite powerful natural bar magnets and the Mavic cannot be calibrated because of the interference. I move and calibrate somewhere else. All of those flights ended with a hand-catch, the reason for which is obvious from the image. One day, I flew from the inside of a crater, surrounded by basalt walls. Calibration worked, I got my pictures, and did not drop the drone into an explosion pit.

Done there, I moved up a ridge about 50 m to another location but did NOT recalibrate the drone (dumb). It took off sideways from my plywood launch pad, never flew straight, and I got it back by trial and error. Once calibrated, I was able to finish my photography without further incident. Calibration seems to habituate the sensors to the launch location and, once launched, the drone figures out grid North. Mine has always gone where I wanted it to go so that I don't even think about it.

That Mavic changed my whole life as a field geologist, too bad I'm so old and retired.

 

[Meta4]

I work in a strange place, a basalt volcanic field where the magnetic field can vary significantly over distances of meters. About half of my flights start from the calm desert floor and end uneventfully. Others are from cone ridges where lightning strikes have made quite powerful natural bar magnets and the Mavic cannot be calibrated because of the interference. I move and calibrate somewhere else. All of those flights ended with a hand-catch, the reason for which is obvious from the image. One day, I flew from the inside of a crater, surrounded by basalt walls. Calibration worked, I got my pictures, and did not drop the drone into an explosion pit.

What's the reason you are re-calibrating the compass?
I'm puzzled at what you are trying to achieve since calibration of the compass is completely independent of things in the drone's environment and only measures the magnetic fields that are part of the drone.
Recalibrating a compass that is already working perfectly won't make a scrap of difference to the issues that might be caused by magnetic effects in your launching environment.
If the launching environment has variable magnetic effects, recalibrating your compass is not the solution.

Done there, I moved up a ridge about 50 m to another location but did NOT recalibrate the drone (dumb). It took off sideways from my plywood launch pad, never flew straight, and I got it back by trial and error. Once calibrated, I was able to finish my photography without further incident. Calibration seems to habituate the sensors to the launch location and, once launched, the drone figures out grid North. Mine has always gone where I wanted it to go so that I don't even think about it.

Not recalibrating in this instance wasn't the problem.
Launching from an environment with a magnetic influence deflected the compass which is used to initialise the Mag yaw value used by the flight controller was the problem.

 

[OIS]

Mine does a similar thing. I live on a quarry and launch from my field which has no visible signs of interference.

I can fly without worrying about it and it's never caused an issue but it would be good to know why it happens

 

[eaglesurfing]

If you do some searches on YouTube you can find that some of the problems is in the device that you use.
If I am correct they bought a longer cord and turn their phones 180 degrees.
The problem was not in the drone but in the controller's speaker was affecting the app.