New out of the box requires calibration of the compass and I just cannot get it to work. The interference values are Green and around 50. I do the horizontal turn and it turns green. When I follow the abiguous instructions for the "nose down turn 360 again" (although the pucture shows nose straight at you and spinning on the other axis) it eventually fails. If I stop at 360 it seems to time out. If I go past 360 it fails sooner.
I do not have any message to update firmware, but I am going o try using the assistant to see if it needs an update.

I cannot find ay videos of the compass calibration as a sanity check to make sure i am doing it right. After 20 tries, I feel somewhat silly continuing the same process.

Thanks for any advice or direction.

Can be a pain but have a look at this video might help.

Remove watches, keys and other things from you person before you start. Put the controller down so you can see it but about 3 meters away from you, from sensor menu, compass, select calibrate,

The graphic will ask you to rotate the Air 360 degrees Anti Clockwise, just rotate it all the way round,

The graphic will thgen show the Air nose down, hold the air by its back legs nose down, and rotate again anticlockwise.

If that fails and you have tried in diffrent locations you may have a faulty unit. It works every time for me with the Air and Mavic Pros, first time every time.

With the bigger drones its difficult to hold it in one hand, the way to calibrate them is to hold them and just rotate yourself anticlockwise then with the nose down rotate yourself again, either works.

The only time I have had this fail is when I had a faulty compass in a Phantom 3 and when I was in a field with a pipeline buried below.

This is the best tutorial i found on youtube

hallmark007 Posted at 2018-3-15 14:36
Can be a pain but have a look at this video might help.

https://youtu.be/XQtBQsgxULs

Wow, his method looks nothing like what I would expect based on the instructions. He is also not pointing the "nose" down.

Yeller Posted at 2018-3-15 14:51
Wow, his method looks nothing like what I would expect based on the instructions. He is also not pointing the "nose" down.

There is some conflicting information that is floating around indeed.
I believe they changed the procedure a little.

Yeller Posted at 2018-3-15 14:51
Wow, his method looks nothing like what I would expect based on the instructions. He is also not pointing the "nose" down.

It doesn’t matter whether you point it up or down.

hallmark007 Posted at 2018-3-15 15:06
It doesn’t matter whether you point it up or down.

In the video (and the graphic during setup) the "nose" is horizontal.

I removed the blade guards (to pack it up and send back in) and decided to do give it a try without them. Worked on the second try. I don't get how that could make a difference, but oh well.

Yeller Posted at 2018-3-15 15:43
In the video (and the graphic during setup) the "nose" is horizontal.

You can twirl it around or you use same method as shown in the video, but it is a bit sloppy I admit .

You are not alone. https://forum.dji.com/thread-133778-1-1.html

Can no one understand "point the nose down"?  Good grief.  Point the nose down means to point the front of the drone to the floor.  Then give it a full 360 again until the light changes again and you are done.

AG0N-Gary Posted at 2018-3-15 19:13
Can no one understand "point the nose down"?  Good grief.  Point the nose down means to point the front of the drone to the floor.  Then give it a full 360 again until the light changes again and you are done.

I agree. I did the "nose" (camera) pointing down 30 times with no success. The confusing part is that the diagram that illustrates "pointing the nose down" shows a different orientation. The youtube video embedded above shows THAT orientation (not "nose" down) with success. I did one of each after removing the prop guards and it worked. I cannot recall which it was, but i will note it next time. Good Grief is right!

Yeller Posted at 2018-3-15 19:19
I agree. I did the "nose" (camera) pointing down 30 times with no success. The confusing part is that the diagram that illustrates "pointing the nose down" shows a different orientation. The youtube video embedded above shows THAT orientation (not "nose" down) with success. I did one of each after removing the prop guards and it worked. I cannot recall which it was, but i will note it next time. Good Grief is right!

Either with nose horizontal and down I can calibrate the compass. I will confirm it with our engineers. And it would be more important for the environment you calibrate it. Glad that you manage the compass calibration worked.

I've seen those videos too but I ignore them.  There are also videos doing it with the nose down.  I've had the Mav over a year and just did a first time IMU and compass calibration.  Calibrated just fine.  I did it with nose down, just like we have for years with the Phantoms, etc.  It works.  If the proper procedure has now changed, it would be nice to have an engineering explanation why it would suddenly change to doing it horizontally as shown in some of the videos (one side down instead of nose down).

Yeller Posted at 2018-3-15 19:19
I agree. I did the "nose" (camera) pointing down 30 times with no success. The confusing part is that the diagram that illustrates "pointing the nose down" shows a different orientation. The youtube video embedded above shows THAT orientation (not "nose" down) with success. I did one of each after removing the prop guards and it worked. I cannot recall which it was, but i will note it next time. Good Grief is right!

I can confirm that it only works when I rotate it with the nose and tail horizontal (parallel to the ground), as depicted in the graphic during the calibration process.

The calibration maybe fail in the following conditions: 1. The magnetic field strength is not correct; 2. The magnetic field inclination is wrong; 3. It has not been calibrated for a long time; 4. It is far from the last calibration place ; 5. The course deviation is a bit large;
Please try to calibrate the aircraft in other environment,thanks.

Mr. Information Posted at 2018-3-15 14:46
This is the best tutorial i found on youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIB1eMPBiY0

To be right. When doing this hold the drone above a fixed point (the launch pad) and walk around the pad with the drone directly above pad for better calibration.

wisnia.sebastian@gmail.com Posted at 2018-3-21 04:31
The calibration maybe fail in the following conditions: 1. The magnetic field strength is not correct; 2. The magnetic field inclination is wrong; 3. It has not been calibrated for a long time; 4. It is far from the last calibration place ; 5. The course deviation is a bit large;
Please try to calibrate the aircraft in other environment,thanks.

Question, cause I'm having this issue after flying to my home country (Argentina from the USA where I did fly my Mavic Air and worked perfectly), why would bullet number 4 be an issue and how can I fix it, as I'm way far from where my compass was originally calibrated.
Just so everyone else knows, I've calibrated my Mavic Air multiple times in USA without any problems, and here in Argentina I've tried to calibrate it in several places, all of them far away from metal, smart watches, setting my iPhone to Airplance Mode, everything, and not one time I managed to make it work.

I try to calibrate compass with nose down show on the MA manual always fail. But following the image show on DJI app by roll aircraft 90 degrees and keep nose horizontal and work. DJI should correct the picture on the manual.

People seems have problem when calibration compass on the south side of earth. Is any special process need follow in the south side of earth?

Finally I was able to calibrate it and fly it, what I did was open the Compass sensor screen as seen below and moved around my garden until I found a spot under a roof structure with no walls where the interference went down to the 600s, line was still red but there I was able to calibrate my drone and then fly it without issues getting out of the roof obviously, I suggest everyone tries the same thing, just have the app in that screen and move around with the drone until you find a spot where the line goes down and try to calibrate there.

The calibration process was done like the app shows, that is on the second step with the drone 90 degrees to the floor and NOT the facing down as the old manuals state, I guess it might work both ways but just so you know how I managed to make it work.

Compass interference screen:


Hope this helps someone, and I will post again if I manage to keep flying without problems.