Hello everyone,

I've recently purchased the Mavic Mini. Haven't had a chance to fly around a lot yet, but I did a few test flights (being new to drone flight in general I'm taking things slow).

There's one thing that bugs me about the drone: quite frequently I'm asked to calibrate the IMU sensor (drone requires it and won't fly without this). Now, thus far it hasn't been a big issue as the few places I've been testing the drone I had a sufficient surface for such a recalibration.

However, I'm worried I'll one day go out somewhere where there's no absolutely flat / level surface for this - what then? Disregarding the fact that the IMU calibration takes quite a bit of time what if I don't have a level surface available? If I'm in the middle of some grassy field? Is it at all normal for the drone to require IMU calibration this often or what causes it to require this calibration (perhaps I'm doing something wrong)?

Thats Strange...
Usually after one good calibration you should be fine. Make Sure that you have a really flat surface where you calibrate it. I recommend the floor of your house. Look at the instructions closely and you should be good to go.

Spark_Pilot_XxXx Posted at 1-2 01:21
Thats Strange...
Usually after one good calibration you should be fine. Make Sure that you have a really flat surface where you calibrate it. I recommend the floor of your house. Look at the instructions closely and you should be good to go.

Hmm, I'll try that again, I guess. One more question: when the drone is supposed to be placed on the floor "normally" that seems perfectly fine. But when the instructions tell me to place the drone on the sides I've noticed the drone isn't perfectly symmetrical in its weight distribution and / or construction and when placed on one side it skews slightly vs when it's placed on the other side. Also when the instructions are to place the drone on the narrow side (camera facing upwards) the drone is somewhat unstable in this position.

Since I've been able to complete the calibration in all of these positions I assume the drone was "stable" enough for the process to complete, but I wonder how "exact" it has to be in those other positions in general. I mean, having the drone in a right-side-up position on a flat surface seems fine, but it's hardly stable in all the other positions (when folded up, of course)...

Mbender, your observations in Post 3 are correct.  Billy Kyle has a great video on compass and IMU calibration.  It demonstrates what you are talking about with MM on the narrow side, etc.    I have only had to calibrate my IMU twice in over a month.

Constant IMU calibration is not normal.
Is tricky to find the correct orientation but this shouldnt be a problem.
Let us know if issue goes away.

HI. Thank you for reaching out to DJI Forum as our valued DJI members advised please make sure to do an IMU calibration the said drone on a flat surface. If issue still persists, please refresh the firmware of your DJI Mavic Mini using the DJI Assistant 2 . Please keep us posted for further assistance. Thank you.

I think I know what the problem was. The Mini, once started, has a bit of a warm-up phase. Now, that's fine, HOWEVER, the DJI Fly app will show an "IMU error / calibration required" in the top-left corner. Actually pressing this message will reveal that the IMU is simply still loading / booting / warming-up (whatever that really means) and after a bit it seems to be fine.

If there's anything I could suggest is that the app treats the warm-up phase as that (i.e. "warm up, please wait") rather than an IMU error that requires calibration... at least for the "summary" top-left message.

I have a Mavic Mini and it is asking for IMU calibration every time I fly it.
Have just been flying it manually with the Fly App, and there doesn't seem to be a problem .
Yesterday flew to maximum height of 116 meters, and it had to be alot windier there, since there was wind blowing on me at ground level.
Still want to figure out if this is something wrong with the drone.
Will watch the video and see if it can help with the problem.