Unable to calibrate IMU

[rambo6]

Hi All,
I would just like to share my experience on this issue to all who have encountered it but unable to solve it.

I bought my mini during overseas vacation to China.
Upon bringing it back home to Singapore and setting it up, i received IMU calibration msg.
However, the screen remained stuck at the ''proceed or start' button. I thought it was due to me not carrying out a proper firmware update previously so I used DJI Assistant to remove the update and resetting firmware to original. Still, clicking on the start button did nothing.

Having no way to claim warranty for my overseas set, I chatted online with DJI but the support guy did not give any real solution but to request for warranty claim (which would incur cost of shipping on my part).

I searched online for solutions and discovered a post by a guy who met with similar issue and his method was both unorthodox and unbelievable.
He mentioned that he just 'punched/knocked' on his drone a few times.
Being desperate and having nothing to lose, I did the same and gave some hard slaps to my drone.
My drone must have a soul of its own because the slaps really made it obey and i was then able to start the IMU calibration process.

I guess that the best way to explain my situation is that my drone may have some lose connection or solder fragments shorting the chips and the knocks was able to dislodge the shorts or reset the connection.

Hope that my sharing can help anyone with similar issues.

 

[bumper]

I don't think I'd be following that advice.

At least on the M2, there are a number of programming and calibration procedures that require both controller and drone to be powered up. Some require the drone or Smart Controller to be connected to a computer with internet access etc. Not sure about your Mini, but drop kicking makes no sense. Also, having taken apart my M2 (after slipping on icy steps and throwing it - sigh) I can tell you that the chance of a loose bit of solder floating around in there is about nill. Build quality (and complexity) is awesome - - much of my career has been in electronics, so I know "good" when I stumble into it.

 

[rambo6]

I don't think I'd be following that advice.

At least on the M2, there are a number of programming and calibration procedures that require both controller and drone to be powered up. Some require the drone or Smart Controller to be connected to a computer with internet access etc. Not sure about your Mini, but drop kicking makes no sense. Also, having taken apart my M2 (after slipping on icy steps and throwing it - sigh) I can tell you that the chance of a loose bit of solder floating around in there is about nill. Build quality (and complexity) is awesome - - much of my career has been in electronics, so I know "good" when I stumble into it.

Well, I'm an electrical engineer and I've owned a few DJI drones so I know what I'm doing and my method did indeed solve the issue and it was not a coincidence.

Perhaps the lose soldier fragment theory may not seem probable.... but now I'm thinking that since the IMU consists of multiple positional or movement sensors communicating with each other. Perhaps one of the sensors was 'stuck' at initialisation part and needed a big input of information to get it initialised. The knock may have helped.

 

[Bloodnock]

Hi All,
I would just like to share my experience on this issue to all who have encountered it but unable to solve it.

I bought my mini during overseas vacation to China.
Upon bringing it back home to Singapore and setting it up, i received IMU calibration msg.
However, the screen remained stuck at the ''proceed or start' button. I thought it was due to me not carrying out a proper firmware update previously so I used DJI Assistant to remove the update and resetting firmware to original. Still, clicking on the start button did nothing.

Having no way to claim warranty for my overseas set, I chatted online with DJI but the support guy did not give any real solution but to request for warranty claim (which would incur cost of shipping on my part).

I searched online for solutions and discovered a post by a guy who met with similar issue and his method was both unorthodox and unbelievable.
He mentioned that he just 'punched/knocked' on his drone a few times.
Being desperate and having nothing to lose, I did the same and gave some hard slaps to my drone.
My drone must have a soul of its own because the slaps really made it obey and i was then able to start the IMU calibration process.

I guess that the best way to explain my situation is that my drone may have some lose connection or solder fragments shorting the chips and the knocks was able to dislodge the shorts or reset the connection.

Hope that my sharing can help anyone with similar issues.

I don't know if this helps but we had a similar problem with a Spark. However many times we tried the IMU calibration would not pass the Start screen using the Go 4 app on that phone. However we used a different Go4 programme on a tablet and it worked first attempt.

 

[Macitajs]

Hi All,
I would just like to share my experience on this issue to all who have encountered it but unable to solve it.

I bought my mini during overseas vacation to China.
Upon bringing it back home to Singapore and setting it up, i received IMU calibration msg.
However, the screen remained stuck at the ''proceed or start' button. I thought it was due to me not carrying out a proper firmware update previously so I used DJI Assistant to remove the update and resetting firmware to original. Still, clicking on the start button did nothing.

Having no way to claim warranty for my overseas set, I chatted online with DJI but the support guy did not give any real solution but to request for warranty claim (which would incur cost of shipping on my part).

I searched online for solutions and discovered a post by a guy who met with similar issue and his method was both unorthodox and unbelievable.
He mentioned that he just 'punched/knocked' on his drone a few times.
Being desperate and having nothing to lose, I did the same and gave some hard slaps to my drone.
My drone must have a soul of its own because the slaps really made it obey and i was then able to start the IMU calibration process.

I guess that the best way to explain my situation is that my drone may have some lose connection or solder fragments shorting the chips and the knocks was able to dislodge the shorts or reset the connection.

Hope that my sharing can help anyone with similar issues.

Hi,

I had the same problem. Received my Mavic Mini today and was unable to calibrate IMU, and reading your advice i thought i will give it a go, as could not find anything else in web.

And believe it or not, it helped and worked.

Giving a bit of knock/slap i could fix IMU.

Thank you ?

 

[Waltinho]

Hi all

I'm a software tester by trade. My initial thoughts were that it was a problem with the app itself, being not compatible with my mobile device (they can't possibly test the app on every type of device / version / OS etc). So, installed the app on another device and repeated the same steps but was still unable to click the 'Start' IMU calibration button.

Finally, I resorted to giving it a good whack on the top. It worked! I'm now happily flying about

I wouldn't like to speculate as to how this is solving the problem, but if it works and doesn't do any damage to the unit itself, then I'm happy with that. Mavic might want to look into this though, it doesn't really inspire consumer confidence.

 

[CatsFPV]

The moral of the story?

If it works, don't knock it! (Or do, if that works)

?

 

[boblui]

Thank you for your report. This is the second time I hear about IMU problem successfully solved by knocking. In the other report, the guy opened up the drone and knocked directly on the IMU chip, with much less force of course, and the problem was subsequently resolved.

For those who are interested in knowing the construction of the IMU. Here is a very good video. There are a number of moving masses inside the IMU. Sometimes the masses can get stuck and a gentle tapping will free them up :