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cal compass message when more than 200ft
2032 33 2017-6-19
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boostedford
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i calibrated my compass today in an rc field which i always calibrate at to get a good cal, but since the last 2 firmware updates i get this calibrate compass message ONLY when i go anymore than 200ft. anyone ever have this issue? also i havent flown much so basically both times i flew (only non firmware test flights) was once with 700 and today with 800 firmware. i got this message and calibrated both times before then. i didn't take any screenshots. i kept it below 200ft to avoid the message.


I get the message where it says disconnected rather than a warning message


I get the message here

I get the message here
2017-6-19
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hallmark007
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Why are you calibrating your compass, you should read the manual where it clearly tells you not to calibrate unless prompted. There is a good chance you may have got a bad calibration.
2017-6-19
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boostedford
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i was prompted thats why i calibrated in the middle of an rc field where i shouldnt get a bad calibration. i was prompted on firmware 700 and again on 800 and i cal both times when it said to. i also cal after each firmware update as was recommended a long time ago when the mavics first came out
2017-6-19
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hallmark007
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Is there steel on that table your taking off from?
2017-6-19
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boostedford
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no i took off in the rc field on the grass and last time on 700 i took off at a beach. it flies fine but when i go any higher than 200ft i get the cal warning where i showed in the picture.

neither dji go or healthy drones shows any compass issues or any issues period i dont get it

2017-6-19
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Ex Machina
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boostedford Posted at 2017-6-19 13:18
no i took off in the rc field on the grass and last time on 700 i took off at a beach. it flies fine but when i go any higher than 200ft i get the cal warning where i showed in the picture.

neither dji go or healthy drones shows any compass issues or any issues period i dont get it

Couple things:

- I used to think Go 4 was prompting me to calibrate by presenting the Calibrate button when I first connect to the Mavic. I now understand that an icon shows up to the right of the Calibrate button when calibration is necessary -- just the button being there doesn't by itself mean that you need to calibrate.

- I don't think you are getting a Calibrate Compass message when you go above 200ft, at least, the screengrab of your DJI Go 4 screen isn't showing that -- the arrow you added points to the Status indicator which is showing "Disconnected."

Wait -- do you mean that the Compass calibration messaging is showing up in the status area you are pointing to in your screengrab?

Are you flying in WiFi mode?

2017-6-19
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boostedford
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"Wait -- do you mean that the Compass calibration messaging is showing up in the status area you are pointing to in your screengrab?"

yes that is correct that is where i'm getting the compass cal message. it was just an example screengrab

Are you flying in WiFi mode?

i am not, no. i'm also not new to the mavic or dji products. i'm going to go back to the field today and see if i get it again, maybe make a screen recording and see if another calibration makes a difference.
2017-6-20
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Ex Machina
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boostedford Posted at 2017-6-20 06:36
"Wait -- do you mean that the Compass calibration messaging is showing up in the status area you are pointing to in your screengrab?"

yes that is correct that is where i'm getting the compass cal message. it was just an example screengrab

Yeah, that's super weird -- please share that screen recording -- I've never heard of altitude-bassed calibration issues.
2017-6-20
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boostedford
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ok so i made a mobizen recording. unfortunately i forgot to hit record on the mavic so i only have mobizen footage. but as you see throughout the video its kind of sporadic and not consistent so i can't really pinpoint the problem. Here is the video:

2017-6-20
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Griffith
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If you can retrieve the .DAT file from the Mavic,  download it to a drop box.  Compass error messages can pop up when the flight controller can't resolve conflicting inputs.  Maybe info in the DAT file can help resolve.
2017-6-20
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boostedford
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Griffith Posted at 2017-6-20 12:13
If you can retrieve the .DAT file from the Mavic,  download it to a drop box.  Compass error messages can pop up when the flight controller can't resolve conflicting inputs.  Maybe info in the DAT file can help resolve.

how do i do that? on a side note i checked airdata uav and i dont see anything wrong
2017-6-20
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RCNJ
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have you tried calibrating your controller sticks ? just out of interest....
2017-6-20
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boostedford
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RCNJ Posted at 2017-6-20 13:03
have you tried calibrating your controller sticks ? just out of interest....

yes i have
2017-6-20
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boostedford
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anyone? ex machina?
2017-6-21
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Ex Machina
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You got me, that's pretty weird.

Does the compass error messaging show up if you fly in a different location, like, say, 10 miles away from this site? It does present pretty randomly, sometimes on full throttle ascent, sometimes not, sometimes during a quick turn, other times going straight ahead.

Have you had your Mavic a long time? I understand that some wiring (to the rear motors, IIRC) in the earlier production runs was causing some noisy compass readings, which people were saying could overload the AC's electronics -- apparently DJI twisted the wires in later production runs to reduce RFI. If that's the case, then I would expect the problem to show more frequently with high-throttle operations, which we sorta kinda see in your video.

That .DAT file Griffith mentions would have data on the compass signal and other stuff that could maybe help diagnose the issue. I think the .DAT file lives in the Mavic's internal memory and has to be accessed with the DJI Assistant 2 software.
2017-6-21
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Griffith
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Ex Machina Posted at 2017-6-21 18:59
You got me, that's pretty weird.

Does the compass error messaging show up if you fly in a different location, like, say, 10 miles away from this site? It does present pretty randomly, sometimes on full throttle ascent, sometimes not, sometimes during a quick turn, other times going straight ahead.

Ex Machina  makes a good point regarding the rear motor wire shielding.  If you can retrieve and process the DAT file,  you might find a correlation between rear motor speed(RPM) and compass 1 or 2 (can't remember which is in rear).  Examine at the times just before the compass error message.   

Actually, the rear Pulse Width Modulation data may be a better correlation  than speed.

Compass 1 and 2 should diverge at a point where you may be getting interference.
2017-6-22
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boostedford
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Ex Machina Posted at 2017-6-21 18:59
You got me, that's pretty weird.

Does the compass error messaging show up if you fly in a different location, like, say, 10 miles away from this site? It does present pretty randomly, sometimes on full throttle ascent, sometimes not, sometimes during a quick turn, other times going straight ahead.

Yes, it did it in all the locations I flew that day. Once again only at random times. Yes, my mavic is an early version from Nov. How would I go about solving this issue without needing to send into DJI? After reading countless stories, I'm very hesitant to send it in. Especially seeing that people don't recieve the same drone back. I'll have to try to get the .dat when I get a chance later on tonight.
2017-6-22
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Ex Machina
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boostedford Posted at 2017-6-22 14:24
Yes, it did it in all the locations I flew that day. Once again only at random times. Yes, my mavic is an early version from Nov. How would I go about solving this issue without needing to send into DJI? After reading countless stories, I'm very hesitant to send it in. Especially seeing that people don't recieve the same drone back. I'll have to try to get the .dat when I get a chance later on tonight.

Doing the fix yourself I imagine would void the warranty, as it involves taking apart the bird and twisting the wires yourself. Possibly you could do this without any desoldering and resoldering, you might check around and see if anyone's been able to do that successfully.
2017-6-22
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boostedford
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Ex Machina Posted at 2017-6-22 18:58
Doing the fix yourself I imagine would void the warranty, as it involves taking apart the bird and twisting the wires yourself. Possibly you could do this without any desoldering and resoldering, you might check around and see if anyone's been able to do that successfully.

do you think perhaps taking it to a hobby shop would be the best bet for the fix? i don't know anything about soldering. too bad there arent dji shops around the world that also have repair shops. kind of like going to b&h and having something fixed there where u know ul get it back and not a refurb
2017-6-23
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Griffith
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I know I've seen some videos of two proceedures - twisting the wires (without unsoldering) and placing the motor wiring inside a braided shield.  However, this is the only link I can find at the moment..

http://mavicpilots.com/threads/diy-rear-compass-cabling-fix.8349/

It should be a free repair from DJI, but you'll have do give up your bird for a few weeks.
2017-6-23
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boostedford
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Griffith Posted at 2017-6-23 10:47
I know I've seen some videos of two proceedures - twisting the wires (without unsoldering) and placing the motor wiring inside a braided shield.  However, this is the only link I can find at the moment..

http://mavicpilots.com/threads/diy-rear-compass-cabling-fix.8349/

yeah but its not garenteed im getting back the same bird according to some of the stories i have read. maybe i can find someone local that builds drones to do it i rather not mess with it and screw something up lol
2017-6-23
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Griffith
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boostedford Posted at 2017-6-23 11:11
yeah but its not garenteed im getting back the same bird according to some of the stories i have read. maybe i can find someone local that builds drones to do it i rather not mess with it and screw something up lol

If I were not an engineer,  that would be my course.  But before you start digging into the guts of your bird, you might want to verify noise on Compass 2.
2017-6-23
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Ex Machina
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boostedford Posted at 2017-6-23 10:13
do you think perhaps taking it to a hobby shop would be the best bet for the fix? i don't know anything about soldering. too bad there arent dji shops around the world that also have repair shops. kind of like going to b&h and having something fixed there where u know ul get it back and not a refurb

I think you're going to void your warranty if anyone other than DJI does the work, so you have to weigh how much of an issue this is for you right now vs. the delays and risks of returning to DJI vs. how fine you are living w/o a warranty.
2017-6-23
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boostedford
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i mean is this issue just an annoyance? or something serious that needs to be fixed? i can handle annoying messages
2017-6-23
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StephenGSY
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Sounds stupid but have you tried calibrating the RC. Maybe is magnetic interference on that and the apps confused.
2017-6-23
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Ex Machina
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boostedford Posted at 2017-6-23 13:14
i mean is this issue just an annoyance? or something serious that needs to be fixed? i can handle annoying messages

Meh.

If you are sure you never saw this problem before, you could try downgrading your firmware to something less than 700 and see if the problem goes away or still presents. If it still presents I'd say the issue is getting worse and deserves addressing.

If it goes away you could chalk it up to some fine tune changes to the way recent firmware handles telemetry input, but those changes may be placed there for good reason, so...

"You pays your money and you takes your choice."
2017-6-23
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4wd
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I've seen this on windy days when it is struggling to hold position.
Again this suggests maximum revs will sometimes cause this intermittent warning.
2017-6-24
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DroneFlying
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boostedford Posted at 2017-6-20 12:37
how do i do that? on a side note i checked airdata uav and i dont see anything wrong

Here are the instructions for retrieving the DAT file. You'll need to know the approximate date and time of a flight where this showed up, and after that it's basically just a matter of connecting the Mavic to your PC via USB cable and downloading the file. The correct file will probably be pretty large (double- or triple-digit MBs), so after you've retrieved it you'll need to upload it to DropBox and provide a link to it in this thread.

I doubt very much that what you're seeing is related to altitude. More likely it's due to some combination of speed and / or yawing. For example, in the video you posted I noticed that the calibration message appeared when you were traveling at a fairly high speed (in Sport mode or with OA explicitly disabled) and began yawing right.

And yes, it's certainly possible that firmware plays a role in whether or not you see this message. If I recall correctly, DJI made a firmware change to try to mitigate the compass interference problem that resulted from the untwisted cables present in earlier Mavics. If you'd like to know your Mavic's manufacture date you can enter its serial number here. I believe I've seen you posting in this forum for a while, so I'm guessing that yours was manufactured in late 2016, in which case it would have the (less desirable) untwisted cables.

As far as how serious this is goes, I don't think anyone can say with any certainty without knowing more about what's triggering the message.

2017-6-24
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boostedford
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@stephen: yes everything has been calibrated

4wd Posted at 2017-6-24 01:26
I've seen this on windy days when it is struggling to hold position.
Again this suggests maximum revs will sometimes cause this intermittent warning.


that makes sense it was pretty windy the day i did that video


here's the dropbox link i didnt know where to find the exact file so i just copied everything i could pull off from assistant from the day i flew in that compass vid along with a few other flights i did that day.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3jjt5 ... 5m4Y2tqJ2AAq4a?dl=0
also i see there was a new update today so i downloaded it and did a quick test flight in my yard and it was rock stable but i didnt test for the compass issue i dont wanna fly around houses and risk a malfunction


2017-6-25
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boostedford
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was anyone able to read the files?
2017-6-27
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DroneFlying
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boostedford Posted at 2017-6-27 15:17
was anyone able to read the files?

Yes, I looked at it; FLY202.DAT seems to correspond to the video you posted showing the compass calibration message appearing multiple times during your flight. The graph below includes the first two times that you got the error message. The olive green line that starts out near the bottom is your altitude, the gold one is the Mavic's current, and the purple one your rear compass reading. As you'd expect, the current and altitude increase together as you applied throttle, but the interesting part is how the rear compass noise increases with current, and in particular how it spikes in a couple of areas as you applied heavy throttle. Those two places correspond to when you got compass calibration messages, so it appears there may be a correlation between your Mavic's power usage and the appearance of the calibration messages.

Given this, it's very possible that the suggestion by Ex Machina and Griffith that this is related to compass cabling is correct. Traditionally it resulted in ATTI mode rather than a compass calibration message, but I do know that DJI attempted to mitigate the problem with a firmware change, so it's possible this is just a different manifestation of that same problem or at least is related to it in some way. With a manufacture date of October 17, 2016, your Mavic would not have been delivered with the desirable cable twisting that DJI eventually incorporated into the Mavic, and given the noise levels I saw in your rear compass I'm pretty sure you haven't arranged to have the cabling twisted since you received it, have you?

If you report this to DJI I think it's likely that they'll offer you a warranty "repair" (more likely a replacement) so you won't have to pay anything. Since you haven't mentioned any problems other than the calibration message and given that it appeared to fly just fine in the video you posted, my guess is that this isn't serious and that you could probably continue flying without a problem. Even so, being the cautious guy that I am I'd recommend that you either consider letting DJI replace it or keep it and arrange to have the cabling twisted done per this thread. If you're not comfortable doing it yourself, you also have the option of paying someone local to you or someone like Thunder-Drones to do it for you.

Compass Calibration

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2017-6-28
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Griffith
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DroneFlying Posted at 2017-6-28 04:27
Yes, I looked at it; FLY202.DAT seems to correspond to the video you posted showing the compass calibration message appearing multiple times during your flight. The graph below includes the first two times that you got the error message. The olive green line that starts out near the bottom is your altitude, the gold one is the Mavic's current, and the purple one your rear compass reading. As you'd expect, the current and altitude increase together as you applied throttle, but the interesting part is how the rear compass noise increases with current, and in particular how it spikes in a couple of areas as you applied heavy throttle. Those two places correspond to when you got compass calibration messages, so it appears there may be a correlation between your Mavic's power usage and the appearance of the calibration messages.

Given this, it's very possible that the suggestion by Ex Machina and Griffith that this is related to compass cabling is correct. Traditionally it resulted in ATTI mode rather than a compass calibration message, but I do know that DJI attempted to mitigate the problem with a firmware change, so it's possible this is just a different manifestation of that same problem or at least is related to it in some way. What I do know is that with a manufacture date of October 17, 2016 your Mavic would not have been delivered with the desirable cable twisting that DJI eventually incorporated into the Mavic. And given the noise levels I saw in your rear compass, I'm pretty certain you haven't arranged to have the cabling twisted since you received it, have you?

Good work!
2017-6-28
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boostedford
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DroneFlying Posted at 2017-6-28 04:27
Yes, I looked at it; FLY202.DAT seems to correspond to the video you posted showing the compass calibration message appearing multiple times during your flight. The graph below includes the first two times that you got the error message. The olive green line that starts out near the bottom is your altitude, the gold one is the Mavic's current, and the purple one your rear compass reading. As you'd expect, the current and altitude increase together as you applied throttle, but the interesting part is how the rear compass noise increases with current, and in particular how it spikes in a couple of areas as you applied heavy throttle. Those two places correspond to when you got compass calibration messages, so it appears there may be a correlation between your Mavic's power usage and the appearance of the calibration messages.

Given this, it's very possible that the suggestion by Ex Machina and Griffith that this is related to compass cabling is correct. Traditionally it resulted in ATTI mode rather than a compass calibration message, but I do know that DJI attempted to mitigate the problem with a firmware change, so it's possible this is just a different manifestation of that same problem or at least is related to it in some way. With a manufacture date of October 17, 2016, your Mavic would not have been delivered with the desirable cable twisting that DJI eventually incorporated into the Mavic, and given the noise levels I saw in your rear compass I'm pretty sure you haven't arranged to have the cabling twisted since you received it, have you?

Thank you for the very detailed response. I think for now I may do nothing and see if it gets worse. Perhaps learn to be a bit lighter on controls to not overcurrent. To be honest this drone has never given me any issues, and i'm very hesitant to send it in for fear i may get back a mavic with more issues than i started with. worst case i may seek out someone local to twist the cable.
2017-6-28
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DroneFlying
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boostedford Posted at 2017-6-28 13:04
Thank you for the very detailed response. I think for now I may do nothing and see if it gets worse. Perhaps learn to be a bit lighter on controls to not overcurrent. To be honest this drone has never given me any issues, and i'm very hesitant to send it in for fear i may get back a mavic with more issues than i started with. worst case i may seek out someone local to twist the cable.

You're very welcome, and I think your concerns about what you might get back as a replacement are well founded. Aside from the cabling issue that early batch of Mavics seems to have been pretty rock solid, so I'd be reluctant to give one up too.
2017-6-28
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