When I first unboxed the drone, I took the manual seriously and the first thing I did was a compass calibration, which took 5 minutes of spinning, tumbling and rolling the drone before the app was satisfied. Since then I have only flown it from my back yard, but looking in other (Typhoon) forums, they indicate that any time you are going to take the drone more that 10 or 15 miles from it's last calibration point, the compass needs to be recalibrated. Does that apply to the Breeze as well?
How do I know if I need a compass calibration?
- Thread starter John Polasek
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When the difference between True North and Magnetic North changes by several degrees a compass calibration is strongly advised. Depending where you live you could travel hundreds of kilometers / miles without such change. BUT there are areas where the change could be significant when you travel less than 100 km. NOAA charts help.
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It is my understanding that it is a good thing to do the calibration every time you expect to fly using the GPS for things like orbit, follow me, and other flights that depend on it. If you just do a search in the forums on this, you will see that some do it every time they fly just for good measure, and the reason's for it.
I would do a calibration every time I fly if it were as easy as it was for the old ProMark Shadow I had before the breeze; that one would calibrate in under 30 seconds. But the one calibration I did before first flight took a full 5 minutes to complete, which is why I really want to know when it's necessary before I go through it again.
That is an excessively long time to complete the calibration. Be sure to calibrate in an open area (preferably a grassy field) away from power lines, buildings, reinforced concrete, and metal objects.
Face Magnetic North with the Breeze camera facing you. Make the first rotations evenly, keeping the axis of rotation as parallel as possible to the ground. For the last rotation keep the Breeze as level as possible as you rotate it.
It is close to eye level for most people, so it will be easier to keep the spin axis fairly level for the first two rotation phases and the Breeze level for the last phase.
The other is that it will help reduce the electromagnetic effects of any buried cables or pipes that may be in the vicinity.
Yuneec doesn’t say it, but it is like the method of calibrating the compass in older smart phones. They also don’t say it, but the calibration works better if you face local Magnetic North with the Breeze camera facing you during the calibration process. Each phase will pass with one or two rotations most of the time.
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