I have read on this formum and the Inspire 1 Pilot forum (more specifically there) that you do not have to do a compass calibration on every flight or after every battery charge. I have mixed emoition son this topic and wonder if anyeone in here knew if there was a definative answer about the frequecy at wich to perform this dance.

Refer to this thread on the Inspire 1 Pilot form.

Houston

I do a compass calibration each and every time and had no problems.

It takes minutes to do and also as part of my initial checks, once the aircraft is in the air, I hover about 1m above take-off and manually set the home point and the IOC setting.

Each and every time what? Each battery change, each location change?

houston Posted at 2015-6-15 01:08
Each and every time what? Each battery change, each location change?

I do it when the App/I1 says it needs doing .I tend to fly in the same area and over my Vineyards .If I go to a new area then I do it again .I can do 30 plus flights and never had to do a calibration . I have had fly ways but always got her back .I do not think that was caused by the compass as I did get control . Still have not had a crash and  have flown so many flights every day .I listen to the board on updates and sometimes just ground her,until a newer update comes up .

I do it everytime aswell, 2 min more, but I always know the everything is calibrate perfectly...

  I had the same question. The inspire manual says to" Calibrate the compass at every new location". Qualified forum commenters say " don't calibrate that often". I was perplexed, so I emailed DJI, thinking that their calibrating procedures might have changed. The answer I got back two weeks ago was " Calibrate at every new location".
Hope this helps.

I used to do the compass dance before every first flight of the day. Except for straight after a firmware upgrade, I dont bother anymore.  I just check my sensor mod values and if they all look good, then away I go.
So far, so good.

houston Posted at 2015-6-15 01:08
Each and every time what? Each battery change, each location change?

At each and every start of flights for the day - first battery.  Even if it was the same as last loctaion, it only takes a couple of minutes.

I DON'T do it every time I fly! You can risk a bad calibration. If you are in the same 100 mile radius as you were in your last location you don't need to calibrate...If you calibrated perfectly on your last flight, why would you want to calibrate again?!?!?!

Any time I change location I do a calibration. I also check the IMU prior to every flight and verify the numbers...

I almost never do a compass calibration - I have done it 3 times on my Inspire ( 175 flights ) radius 500 km. The same with my Phantom 3 Vision + V3 - about 150 flights and about 3 calibrations. I have until no had no issues. The same with the IMU - almost never touched it.
Does not say that other should do like this - but I will never fix what is not broken. ( i am of course checking the values ).

I have read a lot of flyaway stories and nearly every story starts with :  I did the compass and iMU calibration....................

I am assuming the compass has to do with magnetic declination.  As such I only do a compass calibration when I move into and area with a fairly large difference in magnetic declination.   No problems, doing it like this since the Phantom.  Actually the inspire will tell you when you need to do a compass calibration.  

nilsblix@gmail. Posted at 2015-6-15 05:43
I almost never do a compass calibration - I have done it 3 times on my Inspire ( 175 flights ) radiu ...

I'm with you on this nilsblix I have only done a few 'compass dances since I got mine and have had no issues at all. I have a 'trusted' area I use (free from any external interferences) when I have done a calibration and I'm very confident that the magnetic declination is correctly and accurately set at this location. I always check the compass and IMU values at the start of each flight and if they are within spec then I fly with confidence, If the compass specs are out  DON'T FLY until you have recalibrated and your mods are within the recommended 1400-1600 specs.  I agree that if you go a long distance from your usual location(s) you should perform a compass calibration.

Quick link for anyone interested with what can cause magnetic interferences:

http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki ... ompass-declination/

I calibrate at every location change since I fly at different altitudes from 5,000 ft. to 10,500 ft. I live in the mountains and so far nothing crazy to report.

I only dance after firmware update. I always check the sensors and would probably dance again if I had move 100km or so. 240+ flights and never a glitch.

After a firmware update I always calibrate both the IMU and compass right away.

At the start of each flying day / location I calibrate the compass but this is mostly out of a habit from the days  when checking my compass MOD wasn't as easy as looking at a screen in my iPhone. This used to involve a USB connection for me (I never bothered with a BTU) so I would just calibrate to make sure.

Before each take off I glance quickly at the sensor values and battery voltage levels (IMU and compass in spec, uniform per cell voltages, etc).

Never had an issue this way.

All great feedback guys. Thank you. I think i will stick with what DJI recomends and that is doing it at every change of location. As far as magnetic interference, I have only been to one place that caused the app to tell me that there was a compass problem. It just quickly flashed and went away every few seconds. Once I took off and got away from the metal bridge, it went away.

So all of these answers begs the question, what should the numbers be for IMU calibration and Compass calibration?

Houston

houston Posted at 2015-6-16 22:14
All great feedback guys. Thank you. I think i will stick with what DJI recomends and that is doing i ...

What I understand from "experienced pilots" comments on line ...
Worst case scenario from bad compass calibration is that the Inspire starts turning around it´s own axis ...
No "fly aways" caused by "bad compass".

...aaaand, you need to check the K status...or value below 5 , no need to explain, goolg plz, k index monitor....and peace from the navel of the world.{:3_52:}

I have about 300 flights on a phantom 1, 2, and 3 and only do the compass dance if flying in a new location > 15 miles away from my last calibration.. Never had a problem

houston Posted at 2015-6-16 22:14
All great feedback guys. Thank you. I think i will stick with what DJI recomends and that is doing i ...

And that's exactly the reason I DO NOT calibrate every time I cross the road!
Imagine YOU HAD calibrated at that spot. The calibration would have been influenced by the bridge. You would have done the compass dance and the mod values would have taken into account the flux caused by the bridge.
However, once you had taken off, you would be clear of the bridge and only the geographic declination magnetic flux would be acting upon the Inspire. Only problem is you calibrated on the bridge so now your compass is our of whack!

I never calibrate in a location I cannot control.

So, may I ask....what are the ideal IMU and COMPAS values?  Or, what to look for to determine 'good values'?  Would really appreciate some insight?

houston Posted at 2015-6-16 22:14
All great feedback guys. Thank you. I think i will stick with what DJI recomends and that is doing i ...

I found this video on YouTube and I've seen it referenced on other drone sites. It does state what the values should look like. Note: he is using an older version of the Pilot App

Even the numbers he speaks of don't really all show up in his own results. So as silly as this question my sound, can we just rely on the fact that the app says the that numbers are all normal and that is good enough? I have gone 6-7 flights with no compass calibration and everything was just fine.