Hi
I have a question for you all, if for some reason i get compass error in my house when just messing around in the app when conected to my spark , and leather on that day i went flying and spark drifted left to right  with just only forward stick to 100% but didint have erorrs, woudl you consider calibraiting for the first time ever ?
I have my doubts , because we all know some spark fails are conected to calibraiting when not asked by the dji go app .
But if the compass is at this time litle off , than when i will get close to some metal structure it can go to ATTI becaus of a major off the chart readings .
i will today on a wooden table check if Sensor state all are green(excellent) or yelow (poor) if they are poor what do you think ? Calibrate ?

Here you can see firs two lines i try to go straight but had to adjust.
http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/1TT7YM1TW4NXWCMKI1AC/#

Definitely calibrate the IMU if experiencing drift issues in flight and calibrate the RC sticks too - do so on a very level surface indoors with the props off.
If that doesn’t fix it then consider calibrating the compass carefully when in the right location outside. Never calibrate the compass indoors and expect compass errors indoors too due to magnetic interference.  

There is a tutorial in video academy where you can calibrate IMU. When you calibrate the compass make sure you are jot near any metallic objects or power lines

I agree with ACW drifting can be caused by IMU , I would first try calibrating IMU, and test above 30 ft or out of range of VPS.
You can also check compass reading in your app when turned on but do outside away from any interference including RC.
You could also do a stick calibration.

hallmark007 Posted at 2018-1-15 06:39
I agree with ACW drifting can be caused by IMU , I would first try calibrating IMU, and test above 30 ft or out of range of VPS.
You can also check compass reading in your app when turned on but do outside away from any interference including RC.
You could also do a stick calibration.

Hi Hallmark,

How do you do a stick calibration?

Smolly Posted at 2018-1-15 06:42
Hi Hallmark,

How do you do a stick calibration?

Here’s a video, you might want to forward to 3.10 to get to the part about calibration.

hallmark007 Posted at 2018-1-15 06:51
Here’s a video, you might want to forward to 3.10 to get to the part about calibration.

https://youtu.be/Ft8BUvGlrJ8

Thank you.

There's some good advice's, and I was considering doing compass calibration on a wooden table after checking with my smartphone for any interference with Gauss meter. But if you say outdoors than it's outdoors.

I have seen several times the compass error warning, mainly when flying indoors. This warning disappears simply  by changing slightly the ac position. I find it useful to check  the IMU and compass before each flight in the "Sensors State" menu of the app. I would say that it is advisable to calibrate the IMU from time to time but my experience is that the compass returns to the green state on its own without needing to undertake a calibration.

Ok so the gyro was a little off. I did leave compass at the moment in current state. Will check it out on the field. RC sticks where calibrated without any problems too.

Thanks this update - is the gyroscope reading 0,025 after the calibration? If so, let the drone cool down over night and recalibrate again in the morning. The bias should always be excellent after a calibration. The accelerometer is near perfect. With regards to the drift, try using a brand new set of props too if you have any. Let us know how you get on and good luck.

I experienced the same problem with my Spark. Out of the box it wouldn't fly straight, and my compass was always in the yellow, even literally in the middle of nowhere in a wilderness area while out ski touring. I calibrated the compass in that wilderness spot to be sure I had no interference, and now it flies perfectly as it should.

I never got any sort of warning from the app to calibrate the compass, but clearly it needed to be done. Now all is well.

Firehawk989 Posted at 2018-1-15 13:53
I experienced the same problem with my Spark. Out of the box it wouldn't fly straight, and my compass was always in the yellow, even literally in the middle of nowhere in a wilderness area while out ski touring. I calibrated the compass in that wilderness spot to be sure I had no interference, and now it flies perfectly as it should.

I never got any sort of warning from the app to calibrate the compass, but clearly it needed to be done. Now all is well.

A 'good/yellow' compass reading is enough for a safe flight but you may experience minor issues relating to it like a slight drift but the app will not flag that as needing to be calibrated.

A red/poor compass reading will flag the need to calibrate via the app. Ideally, the compass needs to be green/excellent and if yellow and you calibrate in the wrong environment you can make it red by doing so.

Thats why it's only advisable to calibrate the compass when the app says to do so (as written in the DJI manual) or, as in your case, you are in an area where you 100% know you are not going to get any interference to make the compass worse by calibrating and it isn't already green before the calibration.

This is especially important on the Spark which does not have dual compass redundancy built into it which is why you should always check the compass reading before take off at your flight location as part of your preflight checks.

A CW Posted at 2018-1-15 14:06
A 'good/yellow' compass reading is enough for a safe flight but you may experience minor issues relating to it like a slight drift but the app will not flag that as needing to be calibrated.

A red/poor compass reading will flag the need to calibrate via the app. Ideally, the compass needs to be green/excellent and if yellow and you calibrate in the wrong environment you can make it red by doing so.

Yes, I fully agree with everything you've said here.

My worry with flying on a yellow compass aside from the drift, would be an increased risk of a heading exception error causing an unexpected switch to ATTI which has caused a lot of people to lose their Sparks.

When I observed that my compass was still reading yellow in 3 different locations, that's what sealed it for me that I needed to calibrate, despite not being told to do so. But yes, anytime the compass is calibrated, it absolutely needs to be done in an interference-free area.

Firehawk989 Posted at 2018-1-15 14:40
Yes, I fully agree with everything you've said here.

My worry with flying on a yellow compass aside from the drift, would be an increased risk of a heading exception error causing an unexpected switch to ATTI which has caused a lot of people to lose their Sparks.

I'll let you in on a little secret LOL - I flew my Spark out to a range of 350' from where I was stood with 18 satellites, home point recorded on the map and a totally green compass reading before take off. The drone switched to ATTI mode and started to fly away from me. Luckily, I learn't to fly in ATTI mode in my P3P days so started flying it back and within seconds GPS reconnected and positioning mode resumed. I have flown 4 different Mavic's and 2 Phantoms in exactly the same spot before and since and that has never happened to me, ever! The compass in the Spark is very sensitive and highly susceptible to interference. I never flew my Spark again and sold it the following week. I've never crashed a drone, lost a prop or experienced a fly away and I didn't want to break that record...

Yea I'm not too worried that I won't be able to control the Spark in ATTI mode, I have RC airplane and heli experience going back a number of years so I should be able to handle that as long as the controls respond. I guess with the Spark we just have to be extra careful about where it gets flown. For me that will mostly be in wilderness areas so I should be ok unless deer or bears or squirrels cause compass interference for my Spark.

Szwedu Posted at 2018-1-15 12:33
Ok so the gyro was a little off. I did leave compass at the moment in current state. Will check it out on the field. RC sticks where calibrated without any problems too.

Sir, if your drone drifts during flight, please calibrate your IMU and compass before flight. I would recommend you fly your drone in a place with a good GPS signal and less interference. You can shoot a video and post the link here for further check. Thanks for your support.

Firehawk989 Posted at 2018-1-15 16:21
Yea I'm not too worried that I won't be able to control the Spark in ATTI mode, I have RC airplane and heli experience going back a number of years so I should be able to handle that as long as the controls respond. I guess with the Spark we just have to be extra careful about where it gets flown. For me that will mostly be in wilderness areas so I should be ok unless deer or bears or squirrels cause compass interference for my Spark.

I think a lot of the ATTI mode flying difficulties come from the Spark being far enough away that it is a dot.  They are kinda okay until the first hard yaw movement then they have no idea which way the Spark is facing.  Did it turn 90 degrees or 270, is what they don't know.  

Thanks for all the input in this topic , and yes it's all green AFTER the calibration.
As DJI Electra won't me to post a video ,i will try today edit the rocorded screen. And after that will go and fly to check the results if it flying straight now.

Spark fails are connected to calibrating the compass to a magnetic error provided by a nearby magnetic object.  Calibrating the compass to lock onto a Smartwatch or power transformer.  Then the pilot flying the Spark away from that source (Smartwatch) until it swings back to true north.  IMU says it shouldn't be bouncing around like that so, fail.  Not so much a fail as the pilot is now in full command and is free to fly it back to themselves.

Here are the videoVideo starts with loud DJI HP notice , sorry.



Besides the drift I noticed at the start when I fly away a blue dot on the map moved the opposite direction , what's that?

If its mine position than why the HP stayed with the spark lol ?

Szwedu Posted at 2018-1-15 23:08
Here are the videoVideo starts with loud DJI HP notice , sorry.

https://youtu.be/Hzt4jDyzK8s

You did had a high wind velocity notification, so this could be the reason for drifting. In higher altitudes wind gusts can be much stronger than on the ground. You could download flightlog from drone and with CsvView analyze wind speed values.

I did try to figure out how to use CSV but i don't get it. I know that day was windy , but I did fly in similar situations and that day I did feel something is not right. I know it's hard to notice it in the video, but if you feel the controls you know right away.