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Radar display interference

wildlifr

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Has anyone else noticed that the compass orientation shown in the radar display is greatly affected by the controller itself. On my galaxy S9, the north indication is completely different depending on whether or not the phone is clamped in the controller. This happens regardless of whether or not the drone is on, the controller is on, or the controller is connected to the phone. It appears that just the proximity of the phone to the controller is the issue. I verified this with a compass app. If anyone else is willing to check this out, I'd appreciate it. The result of this is that when I take off and fly the drone directly away from me, the red arrow on the radar display move at various headings instead of towards the white triangle, making it impossible to know if my controller is pointed towards the drone once the drone gets far away.
 
Has anyone else noticed that the compass orientation shown in the radar display is greatly affected by the controller itself. On my galaxy S9, the north indication is completely different depending on whether or not the phone is clamped in the controller. This happens regardless of whether or not the drone is on, the controller is on, or the controller is connected to the phone. It appears that just the proximity of the phone to the controller is the issue. I verified this with a compass app. If anyone else is willing to check this out, I'd appreciate it. The result of this is that when I take off and fly the drone directly away from me, the red arrow on the radar display move at various headings instead of towards the white triangle, making it impossible to know if my controller is pointed towards the drone once the drone gets far away.

There are magnets in the controller stick Hall-effect sensors; the compass in your phone should not be affected by the controller but some phone magnetometers seem to be much more prone to this than others. None of my iPhones' compasses are affected, but the compass on my Huawei phone is worthless when in the clamp, deflecting all over the place. That said it struggles to calibrate and work accurately out of the clamp. I would have expected the Samsung hardware to be more resilient, but maybe not.
 
There are magnets in the controller stick Hall-effect sensors; the compass in your phone should not be affected by the controller but some phone magnetometers seem to be much more prone to this than others. None of my iPhones' compasses are affected, but the compass on my Huawei phone is worthless when in the clamp, deflecting all over the place. That said it struggles to calibrate and work accurately out of the clamp. I would have expected the Samsung hardware to be more resilient, but maybe not.
I guess there's not much I can do. I'm surprised that no one else has noted this issue given how popular the S9 phone is. I do think that an aftermarket mount would place the phone far enough away from the controller to prevent the interference. It only takes a couple of inches.
 
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My iPhone 7 does the same thing. I’ve tested it a bunch of different ways and sometimes it works fine if I flip the phone 180 or start the controller and drone then open the app and plug it in. Tried holding the phone a foot away and that works sometimes as well, but right when I think I figured it out it will be off again. So annoying...
 
I’ve had this issue since my Mavic Pro days. Used to drive me mad, however there is a solution (certainly with my Note 8). The compass on most Android phones is very susceptible to magnetic interference so what I do is check the compass (using a compass app) before a flight. Quite often it’s already off so I calibrate the compass using the old figure of 8 move to get it set right. Then I mount the phone in the clamp as far away as possible from the controller so the closest corners are only just in the clamp. No issues with this whatsoever as the phone is completely secure. Due to the distance between the phone and the controller I get no interference whatsoever and the red arrow is always pointing in the right direction. I usually test this by unlocking the compass so the orientation matches my position.
 
I don’t think iOS has that app. I believe it’s just a auto calibration in settings. I’ve tried putting it further down on the controller a long with flipping the phone around. Sometimes it works but must of the time it will look all good for a few minutes while flying then go right back to being off again.
 
Oh, sorry about that. What a pain - don’t suppose you wear a smart watch do you?
 
Nope no smart watch. I’ve tried about everything I can to make it work and nothing seems to be consistent. I used to only fly with the maps on my phantom a few years back when I got it and didn’t know what the radar was for or how to use it. Guess I’ll just go back to using it again. I really only need it for long range flight so I can point the antennas in he right direction cause the map will show you the way back home and which way it’s facing relative to the map not where you standing.
 

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