Compass Warning! Whats going on?

[typhoon_H.novice]

The Geomagnetic Planetary Kp Index was a 5 today 10/25/17 and it is forecast to be a 4 on Thursday 10/26/17 and Friday 10/27/17. This I think would explain some of the issues with the H's compass but maybe not all issues. The Kp Index varies on a day to day basis and is affected by the solar wind of protons coming from the Sun. There has been a lot of Solar activity lately. When the index gets above 7 it increases the probability of Auroral Activity.

There is an Android App that can be downloaded from Google Play that gives you the current index Kp and a forecast for the next two days. I would recommend that you don't fly when the Kp index is above 3 and that everyone that flies one of the Yuneec drones download this application for their phone it's free. The time is given in UTC (Universal Time Coordination) in the app so you need to make the correction for the timezone where you are flying. Here is a link to a webpage where the app gets it's data from. Planetary K-index | NOAA / NWS Space Weather Prediction Center

Fly safely!

 

[jorgeneo560]

The Geomagnetic Planetary Kp Index was a 5 today 10/25/17 and it is forecast to be a 4 on Thursday 10/26/17 and Friday 10/27/17. This I think would explain some of the issues with the H's compass but maybe not all issues. The Kp Index varies on a day to day basis and is affected by the solar wind of protons coming from the Sun. There has been a lot of Solar activity lately. When the index gets above 7 it increases the probability of Auroral Activity.

There is an Android App that can be downloaded from Google Play that gives you the current index Kp and a forecast for the next two days. I would recommend that you don't fly when the Kp index is above 3 and that everyone that flies one of the Yuneec drones download this application for their phone it's free. The time is given in UTC (Universal Time Coordination) in the app so you need to make the correction for the timezone where you are flying. Here is a link to a webpage where the app gets it's data from. Planetary K-index | NOAA / NWS Space Weather Prediction Center

Fly safely!

that is an excusee of yuneec, check www.spaceweatherlive.com the historical values and every month had peeks of 5 kp scince 01/01/1996, its true that the past month was a strong storm, but that ended, its normal to had 5 kp in a day, and if the compass suffer problem with 5 kp then is garbage that need urgent replacement,

 

[Niblett]

The Geomagnetic Planetary Kp Index was a 5 today 10/25/17 and it is forecast to be a 4 on Thursday 10/26/17 and Friday 10/27/17. This I think would explain some of the issues with the H's compass but maybe not all issues. The Kp Index varies on a day to day basis and is affected by the solar wind of protons coming from the Sun. There has been a lot of Solar activity lately. When the index gets above 7 it increases the probability of Auroral Activity.

There is an Android App that can be downloaded from Google Play that gives you the current index Kp and a forecast for the next two days. I would recommend that you don't fly when the Kp index is above 3 and that everyone that flies one of the Yuneec drones download this application for their phone it's free. The time is given in UTC (Universal Time Coordination) in the app so you need to make the correction for the timezone where you are flying. Here is a link to a webpage where the app gets it's data from. Planetary K-index | NOAA / NWS Space Weather Prediction Center

Fly safely!

You’re not getting it....it worked...FW updated...doesn’t work. Plain and simple.

 

[PatR]

Both of mine, and those of many others, work fine after updating. Based on that I seriously doubt the update has anything to do with it. FYI, as a rule I fly without checking Kp first and there have been many days the index has been >4 with no issues.

 

[AH-1G]

Yea my brain can't handle Kp index above 1, I fly anyway and I seem to be ok in any condition.

 

[jorgeneo560]

You’re not getting it....it worked...FW updated...doesn’t work. Plain and simple.

i was researching a litte and i discover that the compass is not inside the u-blox gps engine, is a tiny ic in the gps board, i had seen a lot of people saying that, the last firmware the 1.2 appears to be a lot worse than the 1.32, and in theory compass problems are solved, maybe its only a bug in the firmware (i hope so) that the last firmware is not totally fixed,and not a hardware problem, today i recived anothe mail from the us customer support that tell me that i had to do the calibration under 30 sec, and if that dosent work that make them know, at least they bother in ask me if the problem is solved, europe service say me "oh its an storm that is going to last forever and you had to get used of that, and warranty dosent cover you anymore case closed"
whatever the source of the problem is software or hardware we had to complain all together, if we dont do that yuneec is going to think that the last firmware is ok and no fix are needed

 

[PatR]

30 seconds is unreasonable. When done in under 1 minute all mine have completed successfully. Do start with the H facing north. They do not mention that in H documentation but the north reference is present in documentation for some of their other aircraft.

As for the Kp index, last week it was extremely high with severe solar storms that impacted radio waves in various locations in the northern hemisphere. Since then the Kp index has been remaining rather high. Since you appear not to be in North America your system might be Kp impacted where mine is not.

 

[jorgeneo560]

30 seconds is unreasonable. When done in under 1 minute all mine have completed successfully. Do start with the H facing north. They do not mention that in H documentation but the north reference is present in documentation for some of their other aircraft.

As for the Kp index, last week it was extremely high with severe solar storms that impacted radio waves in various locations in the northern hemisphere. Since then the Kp index has been remaining rather high. Since you appear not to be in North America your system might be Kp impacted where mine is not.

its not so hard to do in 30 second, without the propeller and without the camera is quite easy, and yes i am far away and i am getting compass warnings, even the days where kp values are below 5, wich is a normal thing, as i mention before kp values are recorded scine 1998 and you can see that is normal to get up too 5 kp, so the response that i get from europe service that a kp more than 4 causes problems and that is becouse to solars storms is quite an excusee for not admit that theres a problem in the drone, some parts of the world suffer more radiation than others and yes some times can be the couse, but as you are saying if other equipment fails its probably that the drone too, but when everthing works ok no solar storm are anounced in the news and kp below or equals to 5 theres no reason to be problems

 

[PatR]

I am not denying the H compass or GPS can be prone to failure. Such has been the case with all the manufacturers.

 

[Niblett]

I am not denying the H compass or GPS can be prone to failure. Such has been the case with all the manufacturers.

If that's the case then why would it occur just after FW update? It worked just fine before that.

 

[jorgeneo560]

If that's the case then why would it occur just after FW update? It worked just fine before that.

maybe dont, maybe the update make the errors visible, i repeat, no matter what the problem is, if we dont do a massive complain yuneec will never solve the problem

 

[PatR]

I find it odd that cars seem to break down right after you fill the gas tank but I don’t go looking for a nefarious underlying cause to blame that on.

 

[Niblett]

I find it odd that cars seem to break down right after you fill the gas tank but I don’t go looking for a nefarious underlying cause to blame that on.

I get your angle, however I did change out another known good GPS/Compass module as mentioned previously, same result. Now you're going to say they both could be faulty. I guess you MIGHT be right...but I doubt it. I'm wondering why you believe it isn't FW. Also, refueling isn't the same as re-flashing the ECU on the auto, like FW is to the H.

 

[dylanfm]

I'm thinking that it might be possible that the problem seems worse after a FW update is because people always calibrate after the FW upgrade and maybe there are problems with the calibration procedures?

My problems mostly started after I updated the fw, but that is also when I first started caling the sensors.

Does it matter the order you calibrate the compass and accelerometer in?
If you calibrate one of them should your always calibrate both?

I haven't had my typhoon H for very long but here is my experience with it over the 1st couple of months:
1. took it out of the box and flew it for one battery pack, almost exclusively in angle. Flew great, looked completely stable
2. 2nd battery pack, still mostly angle but started playing with the different modes and features. Flew great, looked completely stable. Did have a problem landing it because it seemed to be moving around on its own while it was real close to the ground. I was fighting with it trying to get it to be stationary before touching down but ultimately ended up crashing it into the bumper of my car. No major damage, busted 4 props. No errors observed on the screen (that I remember) at the time. It could have been pilot error, it is slightly possible I had it in smart mode and so I was making incorrect stick input, and also I was at a spot on my property where I know now that I have had GPS signal loss before.
3. Next 6 flights no issues everything looked stable flew great (at 3 different location)
4. Updated FW, re-calibrated Compass (away from all electronics, not facing north), Accelerometer and gimbal for the 1st time.
5. Flew it, but it was toilet bowling pretty bad. Decided I needed to cal the accelerometer on a more level surface and re-try compass calibration. flew it again and it flew better, but was still noticeably worse than the first few flights
6. Flight it for a few more battery packs like this.
7. Re-cal'd the accelerometer again, this time on a flat metal plate, shim'd so that it was level using a precision machinists level.
8. Flew it again, it seemed to fly ok initially, but after a couple of minutes I got the compass calibration warning and then it was a fight to get it landed while it was toilet bowling all over the place.
9. Re-calibrated the compass (away from all electronics,facing north) and flew it again, no compass warnings, still not as stable as I would like. It is holding position ok but seems to be wobbling in place just a little bit. I recalibrating the compass again just because, but it is still flew the same.

I would like it to fly better, but i think it need to do more testing. Most of the flights above are at the same location, which is surrounded by large hills and has power lines and an old mobile home fairly close near by. I also need to look at my telemetry data closer to see if the wobbling I'm seeing is really more than before the fw upgrades. I don't feel the the wind conditions I'm flying in are substantially different than before.

 

[PatR]

I have this thing about what people do before they fly a multirotor. Some are in a hurry and arm the aircraft before it’s set up. Some set up and arm the aircraft and move it before the self checks are complete. Some do all sorts if others things that disturb the aircraft during the boot up process. Some perform calibrations with a cell phone in their pocket, some perform compass cals next to magnetic surfaces. Some don’t bother placing the aircraft with the front facing north before starting a compass cal. Some move the aircraft during an accelerometer cal. Others don’t properly complete the compass calibration process, being too slow or failing to note what the lights are telling them, or worse, not noting the system failed to complete.

None of the above is ever mentioned when people post of erratic flight behavior, but they always blame the system. Why? Because in their minds they cannot possibly err because they already know everything, making them infallible. There’s also the personal responsibility thing. If they accept responsibility they won’t be able to obtain free warranty service...

A great many people have have mentioned having problems after a firmware upgrade. Many of those same people failed to execute the upgrade correctly, some forgot to re-bind all the systems after an upgrade. Others elect not to calibrate after an upgrade. Combine all that and you can end up with a system that cannot fly with any stability. However, the issues are always the fault of the new firmware, never, ever those that screwed it up through inattention, haste, lack of system knowledge, or lack of care.

As for wind, the H doesn’t much care about winds under 30mph. It will fly, land, and take off just fine if the operator uses appropriate commands and a flight mode that permits motor speeds high enough to fly in high wind levels.

Cheap electronics fail from time to time. I’m rather surprised the stuff used in consumer drones doesn’t fail more often since there are zero design standards dir them, and our makers use products from the cheapest vendors they can find. What we fly are bot aerospace grade quality. I believe it’s quite possible to obtain more than one defective component in a row since rhet are made in production runs with humans involved in the process. If only one person in the process does something consistently wrong there’s a probability of consistent defect.

 

[jorgeneo560]

I have this thing about what people do before they fly a multirotor. Some are in a hurry and arm the aircraft before it’s set up. Some set up and arm the aircraft and move it before the self checks are complete. Some do all sorts if others things that disturb the aircraft during the boot up process. Some perform calibrations with a cell phone in their pocket, some perform compass cals next to magnetic surfaces. Some don’t bother placing the aircraft with the front facing north before starting a compass cal. Some move the aircraft during an accelerometer cal. Others don’t properly complete the compass calibration process, being too slow or failing to note what the lights are telling them, or worse, not noting the system failed to complete.

None of the above is ever mentioned when people post of erratic flight behavior, but they always blame the system. Why? Because in their minds they cannot possibly err because they already know everything, making them infallible. There’s also the personal responsibility thing. If they accept responsibility they won’t be able to obtain free warranty service...

A great many people have have mentioned having problems after a firmware upgrade. Many of those same people failed to execute the upgrade correctly, some forgot to re-bind all the systems after an upgrade. Others elect not to calibrate after an upgrade. Combine all that and you can end up with a system that cannot fly with any stability. However, the issues are always the fault of the new firmware, never, ever those that screwed it up through inattention, haste, lack of system knowledge, or lack of care.

As for wind, the H doesn’t much care about winds under 30mph. It will fly, land, and take off just fine if the operator uses appropriate commands and a flight mode that permits motor speeds high enough to fly in high wind levels.

Cheap electronics fail from time to time. I’m rather surprised the stuff used in consumer drones doesn’t fail more often since there are zero design standards dir them, and our makers use products from the cheapest vendors they can find. What we fly are bot aerospace grade quality. I believe it’s quite possible to obtain more than one defective component in a row since rhet are made in production runs with humans involved in the process. If only one person in the process does something consistently wrong there’s a probability of consistent defect.

when a firmware update is bad done, you probably had ruin the drone forever and in most cases didnt start up again, i recived a updated h with the 1.32 version and had compass warnings, what we know is that you had to do calibration away from any rf source concrete and iron around, also the cellphone and the radio away (20 meters in my case) , the h is having problems with the compass, if that wasent the reason and if were human error this thread will not had all the replies and people saying "me too" or somebody will say RTFM and the replies will be "oh i was missing x and now it works, thanks!", what you say it also truth, maybe we are missing up something that we are not doing right, at least me i follow step by step in the manual and official videos with all precoutions and had constantly warnings with the compass even in open field far away even from fm signals, that is a hard place to find in this time, can be that yuneec forgot to put something in the manual.

i know that you are thinking that we are neanderthals with space rocket techonology , i am close to graduate of software engenieer and i know about electronics physic and also had flying rc stuff scine 10 years old, im not a newbie and i am pretty sure that i am not commiting any error that cause the compass problems, but im not perfect but if i am commiting a human error its becouse the manuals are bad made and dont saying all what you had to know

 

[PatR]

No doubt their documentation could be a lot better. Been harping on that for almost 3 years now.

 

[Niblett]

I have this thing about what people do before they fly a multirotor. Some are in a hurry and arm the aircraft before it’s set up. Some set up and arm the aircraft and move it before the self checks are complete. Some do all sorts if others things that disturb the aircraft during the boot up process. Some perform calibrations with a cell phone in their pocket, some perform compass cals next to magnetic surfaces. Some don’t bother placing the aircraft with the front facing north before starting a compass cal. Some move the aircraft during an accelerometer cal. Others don’t properly complete the compass calibration process, being too slow or failing to note what the lights are telling them, or worse, not noting the system failed to complete.

None of the above is ever mentioned when people post of erratic flight behavior, but they always blame the system. Why? Because in their minds they cannot possibly err because they already know everything, making them infallible. There’s also the personal responsibility thing. If they accept responsibility they won’t be able to obtain free warranty service...

A great many people have have mentioned having problems after a firmware upgrade. Many of those same people failed to execute the upgrade correctly, some forgot to re-bind all the systems after an upgrade. Others elect not to calibrate after an upgrade. Combine all that and you can end up with a system that cannot fly with any stability. However, the issues are always the fault of the new firmware, never, ever those that screwed it up through inattention, haste, lack of system knowledge, or lack of care.

As for wind, the H doesn’t much care about winds under 30mph. It will fly, land, and take off just fine if the operator uses appropriate commands and a flight mode that permits motor speeds high enough to fly in high wind levels.

Cheap electronics fail from time to time. I’m rather surprised the stuff used in consumer drones doesn’t fail more often since there are zero design standards dir them, and our makers use products from the cheapest vendors they can find. What we fly are bot aerospace grade quality. I believe it’s quite possible to obtain more than one defective component in a row since rhet are made in production runs with humans involved in the process. If only one person in the process does something consistently wrong there’s a probability of consistent defect.

I have the same feelings as you about most of the issues I see on forums and sites. You can be sure there are a lot of cases where people just are not in tune with how these things work, and that's where things go wrong for sure. However I can assure you I'm not one of those people. I have been flying quads from home built to ARF DJI units that require you to install and test the components to even get it off the ground. I'm at this hobby quite awhile now, and I can tell you, this H has stopped performing the way it should. It's not a matter of inexperience in my case, because although I'm open to anything new I can learn (as I don't Know it all,nor claim to) I'm confident in my ability to understand that something with this bird changed. There's no excuse you can give me that would make me think I'm doing something wrong. I read, I apply, and most importantly I understand why certain things happen. When my bird wasn't flying straight, I listened to the reports that suggested pointing North during calibration was indeed important. Problem solved. Now this toilet bowl thing comes around and no one seems to know why. I'm afraid sir this is not one to be chocked up to user error. No sir. I repeat...something has changed with my H and many others since this FW update. Perhaps Yuneec is sending you product and you are trying to defend them, I dont know, but you dont seem to believe it's an issue simply because you arent having it and it's easy to blame it on user error. Not the case here my friend...simply not the case.

 

[jorgeneo560]

well i didnt had the h for a long time and appears to be the update, i recived a updated typhoon so i didnt know how it work before the 1.32 version, however its a big frustration, we had to complain with custom service all together, i dont think that yuneec knows theres a bug in the lastfirmware, they are not going to solve a problem that they are not aware simply

 

[RaeThrills]

Replacing mine made zero difference.

I think the H is really sensitive to metal and interference, its software because the H does the same effect for all gps issues and compass. Erractic flying and toilet bowl, its like clockwork when I see the orange light flash a lot. Turn the gps and fly manual. It fixes it immediately. You have control now. I even turned it back on while in the air and it was normal. I had to do a roof inspection and there was plenty of metal on this roof. It was nerve racking. But did 2 on the same block the second had no issues at all.