Mavic Uncertainty

[inkaporka]

G'day all - just bought a Mavic Air and have started flying it - but have grave misgivings after only a few flights.
I've been flying a borrowed Phantom4 Pro, and loved it, so bought the Air as its a better choice as I travel a lot.
First issue: Compass won't calibrate properly. I have tried everything in terms of being as far as possible away from metal objects and other potential sources of interference but there is a persistent difference between the horizontal attitude of the drone and the red compass icon, i.e. it does not point the same way, rather remains about 15 degrees off.
Second issue: communication with the remote - today after a few times on other occasions seeing the "aircraft interference" warning, the screen (Samsung S8+) went to black & white, and the red "lost contact" warning came up. At this point the drone was flying at about 60m altitude, and roughly 200m horizontally from me, within an arc of about 30 degrees but pretty much straight out in front of me.
I had been looking at the screen to change some of the camera settings at the time so lost sight of the drone, and feared it had either flown off or crashed. Pressed the RTH button and a few seconds later the screen came to life again, and the drone appeared.

Needless to say I am not impressed. Plenty of GPS signal by the way, in a wide open space - cloudy but no rain, all batteries fully charged and antennae in the recommended position. IMU had been calibrated prior to launch, compass calibrated as per the comments above also.
After many enjoyable flights with the Phantom I am reluctant to get the Mavic out again and wish I had bought a Pro 4 for myself.

Would appreciate some experienced opinions on what could be the problems with this Mavic, both the failure of the compass to calibrate properly and today's heart-stopper give me cause to believe there is a serious problem with it.

Thanks.

 

[Tom-Air]

G'day all - just bought a Mavic Air and have started flying it - but have grave misgivings after only a few flights.
I've been flying a borrowed Phantom4 Pro, and loved it, so bought the Air as its a better choice as I travel a lot.
First issue: Compass won't calibrate properly. I have tried everything in terms of being as far as possible away from metal objects and other potential sources of interference but there is a persistent difference between the horizontal attitude of the drone and the red compass icon, i.e. it does not point the same way, rather remains about 15 degrees off.
Second issue: communication with the remote - today after a few times on other occasions seeing the "aircraft interference" warning, the screen (Samsung S8+) went to black & white, and the red "lost contact" warning came up. At this point the drone was flying at about 60m altitude, and roughly 200m horizontally from me, within an arc of about 30 degrees but pretty much straight out in front of me.
I had been looking at the screen to change some of the camera settings at the time so lost sight of the drone, and feared it had either flown off or crashed. Pressed the RTH button and a few seconds later the screen came to life again, and the drone appeared.

Needless to say I am not impressed. Plenty of GPS signal by the way, in a wide open space - cloudy but no rain, all batteries fully charged and antennae in the recommended position. IMU had been calibrated prior to launch, compass calibrated as per the comments above also.
After many enjoyable flights with the Phantom I am reluctant to get the Mavic out again and wish I had bought a Pro 4 for myself.

Would appreciate some experienced opinions on what could be the problems with this Mavic, both the failure of the compass to calibrate properly and today's heart-stopper give me cause to believe there is a serious problem with it.

Thanks.

I recently had the "aircraft interference" warning flying with a buddy of mine who has an Air also. When stood by each other we both got that message. He later found it is best to place the cell phone in Airplane Mode. Was there another cell phone near you?

 

[inkaporka]

I recently had the "aircraft interference" warning flying with a buddy of mine who has an Air also. When stood by each other we both got that message. He later found it is best to place the cell phone in Airplane Mode. Was there another cell phone near you?

Actually yes there was, in my pocket, a Samsung S8+. I have since attempted another calibration, same result, still 10-15 degrees off to the east according to the red compass icon.
I have also just done the FCC hack, which has made a world of difference (so far!) as I have not had a disconnection thus far. The compass calibration glitch is really annoying, as I am flying in an unrestricted airspace area, and have flown a Phantom4 Pro out of sight to more than 200m altitude, with complete confidence, purely by compass and visual reference from the camera. I want to be able to fly the Mavic AIr in a similar fashion but after the previous disconnect issue and the dodgy compass calibration, a very wary.
I have just seen the stuff on the net re the CFixer, wondering if this is the answer?

 

[William Ball]

When you calibrate the compass, make sure you do it correctly. first 360 will be with the quad horizontal, as though it is flying level. Do a 360 until you get the green light. THEN second 360 is with the nose pointed at the ground, straight down as though it is diving. Do the second 360 until you get the green light. Don't turn around in a circle but rather spin the quad in your hand. As for the frequent disconnects here is an issue I had where the flimsy cables disconnected my phone from the controller. Happened to me all the time and the go4 app would read "aircraft disconnected" and it would return to home. try this quick fix as it solved ALL my issues and My MA flies great, no problems at all on firmware 400. Good luck

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[inkaporka]

Update on my MA - did the FCC hack, as it seems the region I bought the unit in had the CE setting as default; finally did the compass calibration correctly, reset the WiFi to 2.4Ghz, and voila, no more problems. To qualify this, I haven't flown it further than 3-400 metres horizontally, and 70m vertical, but will certainly be pushing the envelope over the next few days - here's hoping all is well, thanks very much to those who posted advice. Cheers.