DJI Mavic, Air and Mini Drones
Friendly, Helpful & Knowledgeable Community
Join Us Now

Mavic mini position

Lee.m

Member
Joined
May 24, 2020
Messages
13
Reactions
22
Age
62
Location
kent u.k
Hi guys when I fly my mm on my phone the circle telling me my position seems all over the place to cut a long story short the small position arrow just rotates around the circle.
any help with this is appreciate.
 
Hi guys when I fly my mm on my phone the circle telling me my position seems all over the place to cut a long story short the small position arrow just rotates around the circle.
any help with this is appreciate.
It's a common problem. Most people ignore it and use the map to navigate home.

For more info on the icon I suggest you do a search in the mini forum for "orientation". Many, many threads. Hope this helps.
 
Hi guys when I fly my mm on my phone the circle telling me my position seems all over the place to cut a long story short the small position arrow just rotates around the circle.
any help with this is appreciate.
Happened to me today as well. Was showing opposite of true position. Never happened before. Recalibrated and no change.
 
Recalibrated and no change.
Recalibrate what?
I had the same problem and recalibrate Mini's compass several times, but it appears that it was phone compass that was not calibrated, and I was not able to calibrate it, it somehow stuck at "low accuracy", several compass apps goes wild, so I just reset phone and only then was able to calibrate PHONE compass, and after that everything was fine. Sometimes goes wild again but then I recalibrate phone compass again and that fixes it.
 
The indicator often doesn't work. The controller gives off a magnetic field that can interfere with your phone/tablet compass. Try clipping your phone into the controller and waving the 2 together in a figure of 8 pattern to recalibrate the phone compass. It might help, might not.

Personally I ignore the indicator. If i need something to show where the drone is in relation to me I use the map as it is far more reliable.
 
Recalibrate what?
I had the same problem and recalibrate Mini's compass several times, but it appears that it was phone compass that was not calibrated, and I was not able to calibrate it, it somehow stuck at "low accuracy", several compass apps goes wild, so I just reset phone and only then was able to calibrate PHONE compass, and after that everything was fine. Sometimes goes wild again but then I recalibrate phone compass again and that fixes it.
 
This.
The indicator often doesn't work. The controller gives off a magnetic field that can interfere with your phone/tablet compass. Try clipping your phone into the controller and waving the 2 together in a figure of 8 pattern to recalibrate the phone compass. It might help, might not.

Personally I ignore the indicator. If i need something to show where the drone is in relation to me I use the map as it is far more reliable.
 
The indicator often doesn't work. The controller gives off a magnetic field that can interfere with your phone

I have this issue randomly, but I can't see any interference on the iPhone compass while I move the controller on its side/top/bottom.
 
The indicator often doesn't work. The controller gives off a magnetic field that can interfere with your phone/tablet compass. Try clipping your phone into the controller and waving the 2 together in a figure of 8 pattern to recalibrate the phone compass. It might help, might not.

I used to have problems with the pointer being wrong all the time. This was on my MA1, so I'm not sure how applicable this is, but I will post it here in case it helps anyone.

In my case I'm convinced that the problem was caused by the proximity of my phone to the controller. I found this by accident. I always found the tiny cord that goes through arms of the phone holder to be a pest and decided to use the full sized USB port and a standard cable. This forced me to clip my phone into the very bottom of the arms in order for the arms not to cover up the cable port in my phone. So, my phone is clipped right into the very bottom of the arms. Not real secure so I am careful to really "seat" the phone in the arms strongly.

Anyway, long story short, the pointer immediately started working perfectly and has ever since. So either moving the phone further away in the arms from the controller OR switching my phone 180 degrees - one or both of these things fixed my pointer.
 
  • Like
Reactions: scro
@bigswifty Keeping the phone further from the controller like you do would fix the pointer for me too. My phone compass (Galaxy S10) is clearly affected by being very close to the controller. It can read up to 90deg off from true. Spin the phone 180deg and put it a few cm further away from the controller and the compass reads nearly true again. However, it's not a problem for me since I have never really used/needed the pointer - just my personal preference. Others like to use it, and this may be a workaround. Different phones are affected by varying amounts, depending on where the compass sensor is physically located on the phone. I suspect the S10 has the sensor near the left hand edge, putting it hard up against the controller.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bigswifty
However, it's not a problem for me since I have never really used/needed the pointer

I use it occasionally during flight, but more importantly as a pre takeoff check. Checking that the orientation of the pointer matches the orientation of the drone is the only way to verify that the drone compass is reading true. People have different ways of doing it, I point the drone to a visible landmark then confirm the pointer on the map matches.
 
I too have noticed irregularly with the position indicator. Today, it was wrong when I took off....but as the MM got a bit of a distance from me...it was working correctly. I wonder if it just needs some distance to work.
 
I am experiencing the same behaviour. Initially when i take off it does not show the correct orientation. After flying the drone bit further its spot on.
 
Since the indicator likes to get a GPS fix from your phone it probably uses the 2 GPS fixes (drone and phone) to help calculate what to display on the indicator. If the 2 fixes are very close to each other the indicator will get unreliable. GPS fixes (without any expensive error correction) are only accurate to a few meters at the best.
 
For devices that don't have GPS it might use the initial home point as a reference? Just a guess. I can't test this as my indicator turns to a red phone image with a strike through it if I don't have a phone GPS fix.

One way to test that theory would be to let it set the home point and then fly away some distance, and walk along with the drone. Then orbit around yourself in your new position and see if the indicator reads true, or if it thinks you're still back at the launch point.
 
Lycus Tech Mavic Air 3 Case

DJI Drone Deals

New Threads

Forum statistics

Threads
130,601
Messages
1,554,300
Members
159,608
Latest member
carlos22