Compass direction reversed

[njsarge]

My son and I went to a lake we have never been to fly our drones. I have a mavic air and he has a p4. We fly for about 10 minutes or so when I noticed the compass arrow on the bottom left of the monitor was reversed. I tried to recalibrate the compass but it did not work. The p4 did the same thing. Has anyone experienced this? Can it be fixed? It was fine when we got home.

 

[genesimmons]

did u by chance launch near a boat launch? i launched my mavic near a boat launch and it had a compass error and flew all wonky for a few min till i got away from the boat launch, the only think i can think of is all the rebar and metal in the boat aunch caused some issues??? i flew at this boat launch 2 times and it did the same thing both times, i dont go there any more haha, thats the only place this has happend and it scared me as it flew weird and i didnt have full control for a few min

 

[sar104]

My son and I went to a lake we have never been to fly our drones. I have a mavic air and he has a p4. We fly for about 10 minutes or so when I noticed the compass arrow on the bottom left of the monitor was reversed. I tried to recalibrate the compass but it did not work. The p4 did the same thing. Has anyone experienced this? Can it be fixed? It was fine when we got home.

The compass arrow representing the aircraft orientation? On both devices?

 

[njsarge]

Yes it was on both devices. There was a drainage waterfall near where we launched. That might have been the issue.

 

[sar104]

Yes it was on both devices. There was a drainage waterfall near where we launched. That might have been the issue.

That doesn't make much sense - the aircraft will not fly controllably with enough magnetic interference to reverse the local magnetic field. You could post the flight logs, which would show any discrepancies in compass reading vs. true heading, but I think that the explanation has to be something else altogether.

 

[njsarge]

Ok I will see if I can post the flight log.

 

[InvisibleName]

Wow! Warning Will Robinson! You should NEVER even take off if the drone direction doesn't align with the compass direction - even it didn’t prompt you for a calibration. I’m gob smacked that you didn’t have a fly away! I’m guessing that you are right that the drain caused a magnetic influence on your drones

 

[Kevjones777]

Wow! Warning Will Robinson! You should NEVER even take off if the drone direction doesn't align with the compass direction - even it didn’t prompt you for a calibration. I’m gob smacked that you didn’t have a fly away! I’m guessing that you are right that the drain caused a magnetic influence on your drones

It sounds like happened while they were flying.... on both drones ??? Would love to have the answer to this one. If the heading was coming from the satellite it is possible there was a glitch but to reverse both aircraft at the same time in the same place .... pretty weird if you ask me.

 

[brantel]

Likely it was your phone’s compass that was backwards.

Try calibrating your phone next time this happens.

I can’t wear my Apple Watch 3 when flying because it does something similar to my IPhone when flying my Air. I remove the watch, calibrate my IPhone and all is well again.

 

[njsarge]

Likely it was your phone’s compass that was backwards.

Try calibrating your phone next time this happens.

I can’t wear my Apple Watch 3 when flying because it does something similar to my IPhone when flying my Air. I remove the watch, calibrate my IPhone and all is well again.

It was on a iPad mini 4 that is WiFi only. Will try that next time if it happens again.

 

[Kilrah]

It's often a phone orientation thing. Which orientation you hold the phone in has to be taken into account and in the past it has often been done wrong whether by the phone or app. When the shift is a multiple of 90° it's most likely that. It's if it's somewhere in the middle that you should worry.

 

[InvisibleName]

Likely it was your phone’s compass that was backwards.

Try calibrating your phone next time this happens.

I can’t wear my Apple Watch 3 when flying because it does something similar to my IPhone when flying my Air. I remove the watch, calibrate my IPhone and all is well again.

See my previous comment above! There are are other threads on this subject- it’s one of the top 5 pre-flight checks

 

[brantel]

K

It was on a iPad mini 4 that is WiFi only. Will try that next time if it happens again.

iPhone or IPad, both have a magnometer that the app uses. It can get outta whack really quick.

 

[njsarge]

K


iPhone or IPad, both have a magnometer that the app uses. It can get outta whack really quick.

Anyway to calibrate this? The iPad does not have a compass app like the iPhone. Should I download a compass app?

 

[ac0j]

do you have a smart cover on the ipad? those have magnets that dont play nice with the mavic.

 

[njsarge]

do you have a smart cover on the ipad? those have magnets that dont play nice with the mavic.

No just a thin plastic cover.

 

[Aloha_MavicPro]

Its best to recalibrate your compass at the location. Demagnetized your drone with CFIXER works great as well before recalibrate your drone.

 

[brantel]

Anyway to calibrate this? The iPad does not have a compass app like the iPhone. Should I download a compass app?

As far as I can tell, all iPads since the iPad 2 have a magnetometer. Calibrate similar to an iPhone. If you don't have an app, you can get one from the app store.

 

[njsarge]

I think it has to do with the orientation of the iPad. It happened again today and I turned the controller up with the iPad in it and it flipped the compass to the correct position.

 

[njsarge]

As far as I can tell, all iPads since the iPad 2 have a magnetometer. Calibrate similar to an iPhone. If you don't have an app, you can get one from the app store.

Would it be a compass app or magnetometer app?