Compass Error?

RocketmanTurbo · Sep 14, 2020

Flying MA2 with Samsung Tab A 8 inch tablet. My compass indicator at the bottom of my screen, (the one that shows my aircraft and my controller position) is not much use and it always shows a static point to the left or right of the arc. Even though the aircraft is directly in front of me???

Tomcat16 · Sep 14, 2020

RocketmanTurbo said:
Flying MA2 with Samsung Tab A 8 inch tablet. My compass indicator at the bottom of my screen, (the one that shows my aircraft and my controller position) is not much use and it always shows a static point to the left or right of the arc. Even though the aircraft is directly in front of me???

How did you download the DJI Fly app? I have a new Samsung Tab A 8 inch tablet and when I try to download the app it tells me my tablet is not compatible.

RocketmanTurbo · Sep 14, 2020

Tomcat16 said:
How did you download the DJI Fly app? I have a new Samsung Tab A 8 inch tablet and when I try to download the app it tells me my tablet is not compatible.

Hi.... Yep, I have same tablet....Mine is only a few months old and I think they call it the 2019-version. Maybe the newer one is 64 bit and the older one is not? I'll tell ya though, it works fine although twice, the app quit and went to a black screen during flight. It happened today. My heart nearly stopped but the app seemed to re-boot itself after about 30 seconds. .... To answer your question specifically though, I downloaded it through the apkmirror site. Why it doesn't show up on the playstore, I have no idea. Tonight I tried to download the 1.18 just released version and God help me, I can't find it anywhere.....so frustrating. Do I just wait until the controller tells me I need to update or something?

boblui · Sep 15, 2020

RocketmanTurbo said:
Flying MA2 with Samsung Tab A 8 inch tablet. My compass indicator at the bottom of my screen, (the one that shows my aircraft and my controller position) is not much use and it always shows a static point to the left or right of the arc. Even though the aircraft is directly in front of me???

Usually it's because the compass of the tab is inaccurate. Try running a compass app and see if the direction reading is correct. I bet not.

Pappy · Sep 15, 2020

10 days ago I noticed the "Aircraft Orientation" indicator was way off.

The screen capture above was with the antenna pointing straight at the aircraft about 300m away. Brought the aircraft back in and did a compass calibration from Google Maps and and all is well once again.

RocketmanTurbo · Sep 15, 2020

boblui said:
Usually it's because the compass of the tab is inaccurate. Try running a compass app and see if the direction reading is correct. I bet not.

Getting a compass app for my Samsung Tab A? I could be wrong but may have read somewhere that my tablet doesn't have an existing compass as it is wifi only and not a cell tab?

RocketmanTurbo · Sep 15, 2020

Pappy said:
10 days ago I noticed the "Aircraft Orientation" indicator was way off.
View attachment 113049
The screen capture above was with the antenna pointing straight at the aircraft about 300m away. Brought the aircraft back in and did a compass calibration from Google Maps and and all is well once again.
View attachment 113050

Just what my aircraft looks like in the "above" shot although it's closer to the bottom of my tablet's screen. Do you mean I should calibrate Google Maps on the tablet?

Pappy · Sep 15, 2020

RocketmanTurbo said:
Getting a compass app for my Samsung Tab A? I could be wrong but may have read somewhere that my tablet doesn't have an existing compass as it is wifi only and not a cell tab?

I checked on GSMArena.com for Tab A 8.0 2019/2018 and for both years this tablet does not have a compass, only an accelerometer. So lacking a compass the "Aircraft Orientation" indicator will never function as intended with this tablet.

RocketmanTurbo · Sep 15, 2020

Pappy said:
I checked on GSMArena.com for Tab A 8.0 2019/2018 and for both years this tablet does not have a compass, only an accelerometer. So lacking a compass the "Aircraft Orientation" indicator will never function as intended with this tablet.

Thanks Pappy....Will just have to live without it functioning I guess. Not a huge deal as long as I have situational awareness. Wish I had it though. I bought this tablet because it met the requirements and was only $120. Can you recommend another tablet that works well and has a compass?

G Randy Brown · Sep 15, 2020

RocketmanTurbo said:
I Why it doesn't show up on the playstore, I have no idea.

Same happened to me and I was told it's because my tablet was not 64 bit.

Pappy · Sep 16, 2020

RocketmanTurbo said:
Can you recommend another tablet that works well and has a compass?

Sorry can't help you much on tablet recommendations. You can get a let of known devices that work with the Fly app app at The Latest DJI Fly (Mavic Mini / Mavic Air 2) Compatible Phones list | Cult of Drone . GSMArena has all of the specs for various phones/tablets and a great search tool you can use to filter by specific requirements, such as compass, android version (9 or 10) , memory (at least 3GB), CPU (snapdragon), etc. Here's a direct link to the tablet search page - Tablet Finder - search for a tablet by feature - GSMArena.com .

RocketmanTurbo · Sep 16, 2020

Pappy said:
Sorry can't help you much on tablet recommendations. You can get a let of known devices that work with the Fly app app at The Latest DJI Fly (Mavic Mini / Mavic Air 2) Compatible Phones list | Cult of Drone . GSMArena has all of the specs for various phones/tablets and a great search tool you can use to filter by specific requirements, such as compass, android version (9 or 10) , memory (at least 3GB), CPU (snapdragon), etc. Here's a direct link to the tablet search page - Tablet Finder - search for a tablet by feature - GSMArena.com .

Thanks...That GSM Arena site is awesome!

RocketmanTurbo · Sep 16, 2020

G Randy Brown said:
Same happened to me and I was told it's because my tablet was not 64 bit.

Yep or not enough memory...One or both of the two

RocketmanTurbo · Sep 16, 2020

RocketmanTurbo said:
Flying MA2 with Samsung Tab A 8 inch tablet. My compass indicator at the bottom of my screen, (the one that shows my aircraft and my controller position) is not much use and it always shows a static point to the left or right of the arc. Even though the aircraft is directly in front of me???

Well after reading all the good information here regarding my compass issue, I decided to upgrade my Tablet to a Samsung Tab S4 10.5 inch. (Hopefully) unless anyone here tells me differently, I would then have a Tablet with a compass, be able to download the Fly app on the PlayStore, have 4mg RAM, and a 64 bit processor. The Samsung Tab S4 came out in 2018 but it gets real good reviews and they seem to upgrade it. (Presently running Android 10)

Seems to be $499 and some places don't even sell it any longer but I'll wait a couple of days here and unless I hear anything negative, I'll pull the trigger on it. Too bad, I was pretty happy with the Tab A except the compass didn't work and downloading the software was cumbersome and annoying.