Mavic compass needs to be calibrated before each flight

Lopez0015 · Sep 30, 2018

After reading all this, looks to me than DJI go Backwards on Mp2. I own a Mavic pro Never has been compass calibrated and I travel a lot from Boston to Virginia and never have had a problem with compass. I have a question. maybe a little silly
can a battery like that of mavic 2 somehow interfere with the compass?

Meta4 · Sep 30, 2018

Lopez0015 said:
can a battery like that of mavic 2 somehow interfere with the compass?

The battery on its own should have no effect on the compass but electric currents running through the Mavic's wires and motors would have their own magnetic fields.
Measuring these fields is is exactly what calibrating the compass is for so they can be ignored and not have any effect on the compass data by the flight controller.

nasuisindaairnow!!! · Sep 30, 2018

most of the times recalinrate promt disapper when mavic is on ground for a while

Dronescuba · Sep 30, 2018

sar104 said:
A couple of small corrections:

Unlike the Mavic Pro, the M2P has only one compass.

Calibration isn't how the aircraft gets its information on the direction of true north relative to magnetic north.

And now you have everyone worried about magnetic north moving during the day. A disaster waiting to happen.

Hi ,sar104, thanks for your response and correcting my error, the Mavic 2 Pro has 2 x IMUs and 1 x compass, right? On the other point, if calibration isn't how the aircraft gets its information about magnetic direction, what is it for.

Meta4 · Sep 30, 2018

Dronescuba said:
if calibration isn't how the aircraft gets its information about magnetic direction, what is it for.

This has been mentioned in this thread in posts #17, 19, 44 & 82

DanMan32 · Sep 30, 2018

We're all assuming how the calibration is expected to work and why, but this is an assumption. We really do not know how DJI is implementing their compass initialization, use and calibration.
If what has been said was technically true, we wouldn't have to calibrate the compasses on our phones and tablets all the time. I've yet to see one that is accurate all or even amost of the time. GPS tends to compensate for map views since most of the time your moving, but use a compass app and you find you have to calibrate.

sar104 · Sep 30, 2018

Dronescuba said:
Hi ,sar104, thanks for your response and correcting my error, the Mavic 2 Pro has 2 x IMUs and 1 x compass, right? On the other point, if calibration isn't how the aircraft gets its information about magnetic direction, what is it for.

Easiest if I just direct you to this post:

Mavic compass needs to be calibrated before each flight

sar104 · Sep 30, 2018

DanMan32 said:
We're all assuming how the calibration is expected to work and why, but this is an assumption. We really do not know how DJI is implementing their compass initialization, use and calibration.
If what has been said was technically true, we wouldn't have to calibrate the compasses on our phones and tablets all the time. I've yet to see one that is accurate all or even amost of the time. GPS tends to compensate for map views since most of the time your moving, but use a compass app and you find you have to calibrate.

You are correct that the exact implementation is proprietary and unknown, but the basic concept of the compass calibration is well understood and technically correct. I don't understand your comment about it implying that there would be no need to re-calibrate phone compasses - it actually implies the opposite - you need to recalibrate those for exactly the same reason i.e. to subtract the magnetic field of the phone.

natbike · Sep 30, 2018

sar104 said:
Is yours over 30 days old?

I've just checked and it's nearly 30 days now. I'll let you know if it asks after 30.

stldan · Oct 1, 2018

tomic said:
Long time phantom owner here, the M2P is my first mavic.

I have flown about 12 flights and I’ve noticed the compass gives me an error before every flight. Reguardless of where I am I get a compass error when I take the mavic out of the bag, is this normal?

That is odd. I have the Mavic Air and the M2P and the Air gives me compass warnings before almost every flight. My M2P only warns me when my location has changed by several miles. And I fly in the exact same locations with both drones. I’m assuming software/firmware is current?

dan1951nc · Oct 1, 2018

Thunderdrones said:
Be careful where you turn it on. For example, I never turn mine on in or near my car, near a metallic table, or other metallic object.

Thank you, I will be more aware of my surrounding before powering my Mavic 2 Pro - I do get compass errors more than 50% of the time, however I am near my f-150 most of the time. I also have a Mavic Air and Mavic Pro Platinum. The Mavic Air really gave me a fit with this nearly 100% of the time. The Mavic PP I don't recall having many issues as with the other two. I'll report back later how this may go.

Former Member · Oct 1, 2018

dan1951nc said:
Thank you, I will be more aware of my surrounding before powering my Mavic 2 Pro - I do get compass errors more than 50% of the time, however I am near my f-150 most of the time. I also have a Mavic Air and Mavic Pro Platinum. The Mavic Air really gave me a fit with this nearly 100% of the time. The Mavic PP I don't recall having many issues as with the other two. I'll report back later how this may go.

Yep, just a few steps away from the F150 should do the trick. PITA, bu necessary.

Drgnfli · Oct 2, 2018

Meta4 said:
None of that is normal.
Distance has nothing to do with it.
The manual is quite wrong about this and moving 5 miles or 5000 miles makes no difference to compass calibration.
If you think the app is telling you, that you need to calibrate your compass, look closer at what it's actually saying.
I can think of two possibilities.
1. Some people think that the Calibrate Compass wording in the app is a warning to calibrate the compass when it's just the button you press when you actually need to calibrate.
2. It could be that your compass is warning you of magnetic interference and no amount of calibrating will fix that.
Moving the Mavic away from the problem is the solution.

Yes, I agree! I've been flying for a year now & have only had to recalibrated the compass once & that is flying from approximately 20 different locations with many at least 20 miles apart.

DanMan32 · Oct 2, 2018

But the M2 has only been out for a month and a half. You've been flying yours for a year?

MAvic_South_Oz · Mar 28, 2019

AvatarWings said:
Note: I also owned the original Mavic Pro for over a year and only calibrated the compass once before the first flight. Never did it again. So the behavior between the two does appear to be different.

This is how it appears to me, just from the number of posts now about the issue, and the number of posts now about compass errors and fly aways with new Mavics vs pure MP / MPP era . . . compass errors of 180 degrees for example !!

Sure there were MP and MPP fly aways, but none of the analysis threads I read here (like form SAR103 and other great forumites) actually came out saying it was a 180 degree error in compass reading (without mag interference warning) and it flew off with nothing that can be done to stop it happening.

It just SEEMS to me there are more incidents with new models, maybe it isn't the case.

sar104 · Mar 28, 2019

MAvic_South_Oz said:
This is how it appears to me, just from the number of posts now about the issue, and the number of posts now about compass errors and fly aways with new Mavics vs pure MP / MPP era . . . compass errors of 180 degrees for example !!

Sure there were MP and MPP fly aways, but none of the analysis threads I read here (like form SAR103 and other great forumites) actually came out saying it was a 180 degree error in compass reading (without mag interference warning) and it flew off with nothing that can be done to stop it happening.

It just SEEMS to me there are more incidents with new models, maybe it isn't the case.

I don't think it's any more common with the M2 than with the MP or MPP. I recall numerous cases with them too.

Gray52 · Mar 29, 2019

Try formatting for sd card in the mavic before each flight. Sorted my issues.

Meta4 · Mar 29, 2019

Gray52 said:
Try formatting for sd card in the mavic before each flight. Sorted my issues.

Formatting the SD card won't hurt anything but it has absolutely no effect on compass issues.

kilomikebravo · Mar 29, 2019

FWIW, other than the one time I tried to takeoff from the driveway, I have never seen a compass error on my M2P despite many flights in various locations. I haven't moved it more than 15 or 20 miles since last August. I would say that there is SOMETHING going on with the new bird as compared with the M1P series but I'm certainly not the guy who can figure it out. There just doesn't seem to be anything consistent with these errors. Some get it all the time, some get it when they move a good distance, and some just sporadically. I'd guess there is very little chance of all those quads being defective so it pretty much has to be something else but what? A mystery for the ages.

Simmo · Mar 29, 2019

Check it on the map!!!
Look at the arrow on the map, look at the AC.... facing the same way??? Good!
Not facing the same way??? Hmmmm move!! Try again!