Do you need to do a compass calibration if your last flight ended on a metal object ?

[glennal]

I am a wheelchair disabled mavic pro 1 pilot , i dont calibrate my compass each flight due to my flying is always within 50 km of where i live and I check i have north on radar and red triangle matches the map terrain before each take off and i have never had any issues. My last flight however ended with me landing on a large metal box. I recieved a warning of interferance upon landing /motor cutoff.
My question is will I need to recalibrate the compass before my next flight ? or will it be ok without recalibrating so long as i take off away from metal objects.?

 

[dirkclod]

The app should tell you if you need to I would thing.
Check everything when you go out again and see.

 

[Meta4]

I am a wheelchair disabled mavic pro 1 pilot , i dont calibrate my compass each flight due to my flying is always within 50 km of where i live and I check i have north on radar and red triangle matches the map terrain before each take off and i have never had any issues. My last flight however ended with me landing on a large metal box. I recieved a warning of interferance upon landing /motor cutoff.
My question is will I need to recalibrate the compass before my next flight ? or will it be ok without recalibrating so long as i take off away from metal objects.?

Recalibrating won't do anything about the steel that the compass was warning you about.
Move well away from the steel and your drone will be fine.
No calibration needed.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

I only calibrate when Go4 asks me to.
It's happened once, asked for a compass calibration, I did one.

Sometimes I have flown thousands of km from my home base, never asked for one even 3000km away.
I'm not sure how living nearer to the poles might affect how often this may be asked, maybe where declination occurs in greater variance, it will ask for it if moving say a few hundred miles or km.

 

[Meta4]

I'm not sure how living nearer to the poles might affect how often this may be asked, maybe where declination occurs in greater variance, it will ask for it if moving say a few hundred miles or km.

Compass calibration has nothing to to with where you are or how far you are from where you've flown before.
Compass calibration has nothing to do with magnetic fields that aren't part of your drone.
It has nothing to do with magnetic variation or declination.

DJI made things confusing by having the Mavic 2 automatically ask for compass calibration if you travel some distance or have not calibrated for 3 days.
Why they did this is a mystery as there is no physical reason for it.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

DJI made things confusing by having the Mavic 2 automatically ask for compass calibration if you travel some distance or have not calibrated for 3 days.
Why they did this is a mystery as there is no physical reason for it.

That'd be a pain with the M2 for sure, and it is strange DJI do this with that aircraft.

I always thought it was simply a local interference thing for compass, but having flown so many different places and terrains, I am still stumped at only ever having to do that once.

I have in fact only had one magnetic interference warning too, after a flight I put the M1P onto a heavy metal tube table to download a video quickly, and that warning came up.
Moved it to the back tailgate on the ute, and no issues . . . and yes, that is metal, with perhaps only a 5mm thick poly plastic tub liner.

 

[Meta4]

I always thought it was simply a local interference thing for compass, but having flown so many different places and terrains, I am still stumped at only ever having to do that once.

I have in fact only had one magnetic interference warning too, after a flight I put the M1P onto a heavy metal tube table to download a video quickly, and that warning came up.
Moved it to the back tailgate on the ute, and no issues . . . and yes, that is metal, with perhaps only a 5mm thick poly plastic tub liner.

Your Mavic has magnetic fields that are part of the drone.
Compass calibration only identifies and measures those fields so they can be ignored, allowing the drone's compass to respond properly to magnetic fields in the flying environment.
My main drone has never had anything recalibrated and flies just as it did when I took it out of the box 3.5 yrs ago.

I've heard of another case of the compass not complaining in the back of a ute.
I'm not sure how it works that way.
Perhaps it's a situation where the magnetic field of the ute is surrounding the compass rather than a situation where the magnetic distortion is off to one side.
btw .. That's just a guess

 

[Greekislandlover]

The only time I have been asked to recalibrate is after it has been transported long distances. I would be inclined to start up the drone where you normally do and see if it asks to be recalihbrated before take off.

 

[Gkinghrn]

i seem to have to calibrate mine every few flights ... go figure...

 

[Dave Maine]

Don’t forget the problems caused by taking off from an area with significant local magnetic anomalies. This has nothing to do with compass calibration, but will cause bad crashes. There are plenty of forum posts about this problem, and quick checks to avoid them.

 

[sar104]

That'd be a pain with the M2 for sure, and it is strange DJI do this with that aircraft.

I always thought it was simply a local interference thing for compass, but having flown so many different places and terrains, I am still stumped at only ever having to do that once.

I have in fact only had one magnetic interference warning too, after a flight I put the M1P onto a heavy metal tube table to download a video quickly, and that warning came up.
Moved it to the back tailgate on the ute, and no issues . . . and yes, that is metal, with perhaps only a 5mm thick poly plastic tub liner.

Unlike the M2, MP firmware doesn't have any triggers for compass calibration based on time or distance. It's not clear to me why they made that change, but perhaps they felt that with only one compass it was more important to ensure that it is in calibration.

 

[sar104]

Your Mavic has magnetic fields that are part of the drone.
Compass calibration only identifies and measures those fields so they can be ignored, allowing the drone's compass to respond properly to magnetic fields in the flying environment.
My main drone has never had anything recalibrated and flies just as it did when I took it out of the box 3.5 yrs ago.

I've heard of another case of the compass not complaining in the back of a ute.
I'm not sure how it works that way.
Perhaps it's a situation where the magnetic field of the ute is surrounding the compass rather than a situation where the magnetic distortion is off to one side.
btw .. That's just a guess

Other than time and distance (on the M2), the interference message is triggered when the total magnetic modulus goes outside a preset range of acceptable values (1200 - 1800 for the M2) and probably if the measured magnetic field inclination is significantly different than the calculated local inclination.

So it's quite possible that even in a location where magnetic interference might be anticipated, such as in a vehicle, that's not really a problem. And note that compasses often work just fine inside vehicles, so it's not that surprising.

 

[Guitarzan]

I only calibrate when prompted - most recently when I powered up with aircraft sitting on car's trunk lid...it didn't like that.

 

[sar104]

I only calibrate when prompted - most recently when I powered up with aircraft sitting on car's trunk lid...it didn't like that.

Right - but what's needed then is just to move it and reboot - not recalibrate the compass. Simply powering up in the presence of magnetic interference doesn't change the compass calibration or the magnetic state of the aircraft.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Compass calibration has nothing to to with where you are or how far you are from where you've flown before.
Compass calibration has nothing to do with magnetic fields that aren't part of your drone.
It has nothing to do with magnetic variation or declination.

DJI made things confusing by having the Mavic 2 automatically ask for compass calibration if you travel some distance or have not calibrated for 3 days.
Why they did this is a mystery as there is no physical reason for it.

One minor typo correction to your excellent post above. Instead of, "or have not calibrated for 3 days," I believe you meant to say "or have not calibrated for 30 days."
I believe the distance trigger is over 100km from your last launch point, but I haven't seen that trigger myself.

Either way, the Mavic 2 forced unnecessary compass calibration is annoying when it occurs, wasting precious battery and flight time, while losing daylight! When it is a time or distance based calibration trigger, a quick check of the compass calibration under sensors will still show it is still green, rather than a real issue. You can still fly without issue, but it will continue to erroneously generate the compass error message every time you fly, until you recalibrate the compass.

 

[sar104]

One minor typo correction to your excellent post above. Instead of, "or have not calibrated for 3 days," I believe you meant to say "or have not calibrated for 30 days."
I believe the distance trigger is over 100km from your last launch point, but I haven't seen that trigger myself.

Either way, the Mavic 2 forced unnecessary compass calibration is annoying when it occurs, wasting precious battery and flight time, while losing daylight! When it is a time or distance based calibration trigger, a quick check of the compass calibration under sensors will still show it is still green, rather than a real issue. You can still fly without issue, but it will continue to erroneously generate the compass error message every time you fly, until you recalibrate the compass.

50 km.

 

[ShadowCat]

I am a wheelchair disabled mavic pro 1 pilot , i dont calibrate my compass each flight due to my flying is always within 50 km of where i live and I check i have north on radar and red triangle matches the map terrain before each take off and i have never had any issues. My last flight however ended with me landing on a large metal box. I recieved a warning of interferance upon landing /motor cutoff.
My question is will I need to recalibrate the compass before my next flight ? or will it be ok without recalibrating so long as i take off away from metal objects.?

It is always good practice to run a compass calibration before each flight session a d should be part of your site and take off drill, each day and site has different layouts and interferences. Doing so will avoid complications during flights

 

[sar104]

It is always good practice to run a compass calibration before each flight session a d should be part of your site and take off drill, each day and site has different layouts and interferences. Doing so will avoid complications during flights

That's poor advice - there is no reason to calibrate the compass before each flight and the calibration process has nothing to do with external magnetic interference, and does nothing to correct for it.

 

[ShadowCat]

That's poor advice - there is no reason to calibrate the compass before each flight and the calibration process has nothing to do with external magnetic interference, and does nothing to correct for it.

Never said it had anything to do with magnetic interference it has to do with geo location and its return the home standing next to a metal structure interfers with that. Try it with a compass and see if you can find your bearings further l said flight session not each flight

 

[Thomas B]

I only recalibrate when my M2P asks for it. As they say, “If it ain’t broke, don’t..”