Frequency of Compass calibrations?

[The Driver]

First post and owner of H for about 2 months now.
Haven't had any issues with about 20 flights under my belt......getting more and more comfortable flying this machine with every flight....but I certainly don't want to be complacent
Have done quite a bit of lurking and research on this site and have found a wealth of knowledge here. Thanks to all!
I am always very careful with preflight and waiting for satellites and install battery properly and hear the click etc.
However, I have begun to wonder how important compass calibration actually is.......I travel quite often from my home to my vacation home nearly 300 miles away and bring the drone with me.
The first time I did this I did not recalibrate after the 300 mile ride and the Typhoon flew flawlessly.
Then I came across several threads where many posters stress the importance of recalibrating when flying in new areas or at a specific amount of miles from original calibration.
I see nothing in the owners manual or Yuneec website stating the need to do this.
I have since made it a practice to do the calibration on each of my trips but am beginning to think it's a waste of time and may actually do harm in the long run by doing it so frequently.
Seems just as many or more of the reported fly aways and crashes have occurred when the craft was calibrated on a regular basis.
Opinions?

 

[Steve Carr]

First post and owner of H for about 2 months now.
Haven't had any issues with about 20 flights under my belt......getting more and more comfortable flying this machine with every flight....but I certainly don't want to be complacent
Have done quite a bit of lurking and research on this site and have found a wealth of knowledge here. Thanks to all!
I am always very careful with preflight and waiting for satellites and install battery properly and hear the click etc.
However, I have begun to wonder how important compass calibration actually is.......I travel quite often from my home to my vacation home nearly 300 miles away and bring the drone with me.
The first time I did this I did not recalibrate after the 300 mile ride and the Typhoon flew flawlessly.
Then I came across several threads where many posters stress the importance of recalibrating when flying in new areas or at a specific amount of miles from original calibration.
I see nothing in the owners manual or Yuneec website stating the need to do this.
I have since made it a practice to do the calibration on each of my trips but am beginning to think it's a waste of time and may actually do harm in the long run by doing it so frequently.
Seems just as many or more of the reported fly aways and crashes have occurred when the craft was calibrated on a regular basis.
Opinions?

In your case I agree, it's probably not needed. The calibration is simply to compensate for magnetic declination of the earth. It's possible the two places are nearly the same. Generally the declination varies more when traveling East or West and much less if traveling North or South. What country are you located?

 

[The Driver]

In your case I agree, it's probably not needed. The calibration is simply to compensate for magnetic declination of the earth. It's possible the two places are nearly the same. Generally the declination varies more when traveling East or West and much less if traveling North or South. What country are you located?

The great ole USA......yes it would be a south to north and back again trip NJ to NY

 

[Steve Carr]

This will give you an indication of variation from true North at your location and where you travel.

 

[wings]

This will give you an indication of variation from true North at your location and where you travel.

Steve: I understand that the H uses GPS in many ways. RTH, Hovering, etc. However I cannot figure out how it uses its compass information. I have calibrated my compass in my Q500 45 but flew several flights before I did with no problems. So how does the Drone uses compass information? thanks.

 

[Steve Carr]

Steve: I understand that the H uses GPS in many ways. RTH, Hovering, etc. However I cannot figure out how it uses its compass information. I have calibrated my compass in my Q500 45 but flew several flights before I did with no problems. So how does the Drone uses compass information? thanks.

Good question to which I have no good answer. I know the Q didn't seem to mind if the compass was off by a few degrees and many people never calibrated it.

 

[The Driver]

This will give you an indication of variation from true North at your location and where you travel.

Thanks Steve,
Not sure I know exactly how to read it but I'm only a half a line over with my travel.
I'm prolly gonna stop calibrating on each trip and limit my calibrations to the bare necessities such as firmware updates and the like.

 

[PatR]

When everything is working right, mostly for orientation. The center front of the aircraft is a zero reference while rotation either left or right are positive or negative values from zero. North is also a zero reference.

 

[wings]

Good question to which I have no good answer. I know the Q didn't seem to mind if the compass was off by a few degrees and many people never calibrated it.

How would one know if the copters compass was off a few degrees? IS there some easy to read reference? Pulling the flight logs may be one way but that is a bit cumbersome. Not getting the appropriate color light ( forgot the color ) that indicated a compass that requires calibration means its a happy copter and don't mess with it. Still would like to know how the copter uses compass information. I called Yuneec and did not receive a convincing answer.

 

[Rayray]

I'm prolly gonna stop calibrating on each trip and limit my calibrations to the bare necessities such as firmware updates and the like.

The compass provides a certain redundancy to GPS. The compass becomes more relevant when GPS is off for whatever reason.

It is not necessary to do ANY of the 3 re-cals for firmware upgrades unless it is recommended in the Yuneec upgrade info.

Compass calibrations can be tricky, very easy to get wrong and not realize it. When you get the immediate solid green tail light and hear the craft restart, it's good to go. No need to do additional compass calibrations unless you start getting repetitive yellow tail light flashes or an on-screen warning. A brief yellow flash, like when raising or lowering the legs, is no cause for worry.

I wish you happy flying.

 

[HoozierDroneDaddy]

Just for info. Yuneec recommends a compass calibration if traveling over 50 miles.

 

[Eagle's Eye Video]

But as shown in the magnetic declination map above and depending on your location,
North - South movement may have little effect on the compass calibration. At least
until the whole magnetic pole reversal thing happens... that will definitely require
a new calibration...

 

[Marco Falchi]

First post and owner of H for about 2 months now.
Haven't had any issues with about 20 flights under my belt......getting more and more comfortable flying this machine with every flight....but I certainly don't want to be complacent
Have done quite a bit of lurking and research on this site and have found a wealth of knowledge here. Thanks to all!
I am always very careful with preflight and waiting for satellites and install battery properly and hear the click etc.
However, I have begun to wonder how important compass calibration actually is.......I travel quite often from my home to my vacation home nearly 300 miles away and bring the drone with me.
The first time I did this I did not recalibrate after the 300 mile ride and the Typhoon flew flawlessly.
Then I came across several threads where many posters stress the importance of recalibrating when flying in new areas or at a specific amount of miles from original calibration.
I see nothing in the owners manual or Yuneec website stating the need to do this.
I have since made it a practice to do the calibration on each of my trips but am beginning to think it's a waste of time and may actually do harm in the long run by doing it so frequently.
Seems just as many or more of the reported fly aways and crashes have occurred when the craft was calibrated on a regular basis.
Opinions?

I have a TH for more than a year, updating it since then with almost all firmware releases.

I did several flights, with only 1 small incident in CCC-mode (only one broken propeller).
Calibrating the compass "yes or no" has since been one of the most debated topics with opposite strategies; then there is also the problem "CGO3+ yes or CGO3+ no" during calibration (some stress, during calibration, the camera has it).

I did firmware upgrades after 450 miles ride, without any calibration, and had no problems.

At other times, I did calibrate the compass after an update, and I continued to have small position problems.

By upgrading the firmware to the latest available release, I did not calibrate the compass (accelerometer only) and now I have the most stable and accurate TH ever had.

My strategy is now: do calibrations only if you find problems.

Good flights.

 

[madatme]

sorry to keep this going but i have read allot of posts and comments about this and has me worried to a full degree, so what should i do about the compass, all my updates are done with a recal, it fly's really nice, i live in Ohio and in 2 weeks headed to Georgia to the islands and would like to video, so what is my option to recal the compass every time it flys or only when there is a problem? thanks to everyone's support

 

[Steve Carr]

sorry to keep this going but i have read allot of posts and comments about this and has me worried to a full degree, so what should i do about the compass, all my updates are done with a recal, it fly's really nice, i live in Ohio and in 2 weeks headed to Georgia to the islands and would like to video, so what is my option to recal the compass every time it flys or only when there is a problem? thanks to everyone's support

Relax, have a good time flying and don't worry about the calibration. Really. There are thousands of pilots who have never done any calibrations. In addition, where you are traveling is nearly the same magnetic deviation so it wouldn't make sense to bother with it unless you start getting compass errors. By the way, on your first flight in Georgia let it sit about 13 minutes with the motors off and the same when you get back home. That will give the GPS plenty of time to update to the new location.

 

[PatR]

I agree with the wait to develop a good GPS solution. As for the compass, how it acts will tell you a lot about need or not need a cal. On a personal level I would cal mine once after I got there and another when I got home. There should never be a need to cal before every flight, or even flights on following days in the same general area. If there is there is something that needs fixin'.

 

[madatme]

Relax, have a good time flying and don't worry about the calibration. Really. There are thousands of pilots who have never done any calibrations. In addition, where you are traveling is nearly the same magnetic deviation so it wouldn't make sense to bother with it unless you start getting compass errors. By the way, on your first flight in Georgia let it sit about 13 minutes with the motors off and the same when you get back home. That will give the GPS plenty of time to update to the new location.

Steve I have one more question then I will let this go, when I let the H sit for the duration for the GPS to update how will I know when its done, will the lights on the back show its ready or the ST 16 say ready or is it like a first H boot ? Thanks again for the your help, I must say there are a few that knows what there talking about

 

[madatme]

I agree with the wait to develop a good GPS solution. As for the compass, how it acts will tell you a lot about need or not need a cal. On a personal level I would cal mine once after I got there and another when I got home. There should never be a need to cal before every flight, or even flights on following days in the same general area. If there is there is something that needs fixin'.

Thanks Pat for the advice, way to many posts of dos and don'ts, confusing but very clear now

 

[PatR]

When we sit back and think about them a little, the logic in them is fairly simple to understand if you've worked with RC or autonomous systems for a period of time. It's easy for those relatively new to them to over complicate and in turn over work systems, or induce errors by performing too many calibrations. Steps get over looked, lack completion, and things go down hill from there.

The GPS will not provide obvious indicators aside from satellite counts. Just take your time and use some of it to set up your lights, camera, histogram and things like switch positions. Make the first flight a short "functional check flight" (FCF) where controls are checked in flight, hover is checked about 15' or so up, gimbal and gear is checked, etc. If it does what you ask of it, and it should, land, change batteries, and go fly. I travel with mine all the time and there's never a problem. The only things I do different from an every day flight is wait on a new GPS solution and one new compass cal after a long travel distance. They are just too easy to do. If the magnetic declination is the same as the previous location you could prolly omit the compass cal and just check hover stability for the first flight. If not stable, land and do accelerometer and compass cals. A short test flight that checks all the systems before a working flight makes too much sense.

A quick tip; an FCF is something all the large UAV folks do at a new location or after maintenance. It's an effective practice for minimizing losses

 

[Steve Carr]

I do the same. I go up 10-15', let it hover, then do a slow 360 degree yaw and watch for drift. It pays off. A few days ago when I did my 360 I found an issue with the ST16 which required immediate attention.