Have you all calibrated your compass?

[Mickeyboo]

Wondering if it flew ok if you forgot to do a compass calibration. It much be the most complicated compass calibration of any drone?

If you do not calibrate you will not be able to do POI, Follow Me etc., don't forget when calibrating to do so with the copter facing Magnetic North, some of the documentation failed to inform people of this (like the above mentioned video and the Yuneec Quick Start Guide). I calibrate every time I fly, because it's easier than having to pay for a new drone.

 

[CAPTAINDRONE]

I can only speak for the DJI PHANTOM & INSPIRE world as to when you need to calibrate a compass. Most experienced Phantom owners who fly many times a week will tell you that they only calibrate the compass when it needs it. If you calibrate it when it doesn't need it, there is the possibility you are asking for trouble (i.e., replaced a good calibration with a poor one).

How do I know if my drone requires compass calibration? Once again I can only speak for PHANTOMS/INSPIRES.

TEST #1: Hover your drone around 20 feet in the air on a non windy day. Does it stay still or move around? Moving around could be a sign of a need for a compass calibration
TEST #2: With your drone directly in front of you and the camera facing away, fly it 100 feet straight forward (on a non-windy day) at high speed. If it flies perfectly straight, then no requirement for a compass calibration. If it goes slightly RIGHT or LEFT, you need to calibrate the compass.

A bad COMPASS calibration will NOT cause a Fly Away (that is folklore). However a bad COMPASS calibration could be a problem in any mode where the Drone is flying autonomously. On a PHANTOM a bad compass calibration will show up in HOME LOCK mode or COURSE LOCK mode. RTH could cause a drone to not fly 100% "STRAIGHT" directly back to the home location, but rather fly home in a curved fashion.

With the above in mind, take these words as friendly advice. If your TYPHOON is flying fine, do not re-calibrate the compass as you could replace a good calibration with a not so good one.

 

[Denodan]

Th

However, unlike the phantom, Yuneec products rarely need a compass calibration. This is really optional. If it needs a calibration, it will tell you on the monitor. Most of the Q500 owners I know, have never done a compass cal and never had any issues.

fThat's what I thought also as Yuneec never mention it in the user guide as they calibrate them in the factory so maybe they thindoes not need it. Maybe someone can correct me. Did they say the q500 dies not need calibration as its done in the factory but included in the manual just incase you need to.

No compass needs calibrating everytime and your phantom tells you.

Only ever calibrated my phantom twice and no issues at all.

Walkera have a leaning compass and gets better in time and never say to calibrate the compass with each flight.

Ether tge phantom compass is total crap or its dji covering their *** due to the flyaways and say if yoy don't always calibrate your compass we won't warranty your drone It everytime only dji says do it.

My p1 and p2 only every done it once when I got it no issues.

There is no need to do it every time, even a phantom compass, only if your around maybe 50-100 Miles away. It let's you know if it needs calibrating anyway.

 

[Denodan]

A bad compass will to cause a toilet bowl only. I always do a hover test for about 30a secs before flying.

 

[Danny Baur]

Yuneec has a totally different flight program than DJI. I have never heard of an flyaway away with any Q500 partly because the bird and the controller both use GPS to maintain direction to home. The compass can be several degrees off and still not cause any problem. For those of us coming from a DJI background it may take awhile to get used to the idea that you don't need to be concerned with the calibration.

Thanks Steve... I too am a DJI fan, but love the H...And the price... I rcvd mine yesterday, and the calibration question was the only hold up.... Can't wait for tomorrow...Yahoooo

 

[WanderLust68]

as I had asked earlier...is everyone removing their gimbal before calibrating the compass?

 

[NoCoOutdoorGuys]

Magnetic North?!?! Are you kidding me? I just calibrated the compass with no attention to where it was pointing. There no mention of point it to magnetic North in the Yuneec video. So, now I have to carry a compass on me?

 

[PatR]

as I had asked earlier...is everyone removing their gimbal before calibrating the compass?

No. Watch the calibration video and you'll see the gimbal was left in place. It's possible the gimbal needs to calibrate with the rest of the system.

 

[PatR]

Magnetic North?!?! Are you kidding me? I just calibrated the compass with no attention to where it was pointing. There no mention of point it to magnetic North in the Yuneec video. So, now I have to carry a compass on me?

We should always calibrate our FC's by starting out pointing north. Few FC's need to be facing an absolute magnetic north but all benefit from by at least by being close when starting a calibration. FC's use a 360* reference system on three axis and zero is always north in one of them.

 

[revogeoff]

Never done compass calibration on any Yuneec product, ( Typhoon H is my third ), never had any problems. Recently bought a Phantom 3 Advanced while I was waiting for the H to arrive and it has Compass issues virtually every time I want to fly.

 

[PatR]

Nothing new in that.