I have a habbit of screen recording all my flights. What happened on this flight, is exactly the reason for that.

So, I'm driving through the Israeli southern desert, and there I see interestingly shaped high hill I wanted to take some pictures off. Stopping the car, launching the drone off the side of the road, everything goes well, taking some pictures, enjoying myself, and as with every flight - at some point I want to bring the drone back. But then I'm noticing the compass is going berserk on me, juming up and down and to the side. So I'm holding position, but the compass is still indecisive of the drone's heading! The drone is standing still, but the compass is changing positions, and I'm unable to understand where the drone is. I see no communication inteference warnings, The GPS seems to work OK with 31 sattelites in view, and the picture on the screen shows the drone is stable.
Finally, I'm using the video on the screen to orient myself, and bringing the drone above me. When I know exactly where it is, I take some more pictures of the surrounding, and finally bring it to a landing.

I must say: Altough I was able to get oriented and bring the drone back, this is could pose a serious problem for anyone who's unable to get oriented or if the drone is much too far to see the launch area. At some point in time, I tought of hitting the RTH button, but then I thought that if the drone is unable to determine its heading, this has the potential of making the situation even worse. So I ditched that option. But, at the end of the day, this incident did lower my confidence in the system, as I came to realize it can't be totally trusted.
For the clarification: My drone, My RC and even my batteries, are all uptodate with the latest formware and app versions.

Here's the screen recording of that flight. The "guess where I am" party starts at ~4:20.
I hope someone from Dji can relate to this.

HI,

As long as the blue drone arrow is pointing towards the center > drone is facing home, so easy to fly black.
In the video i see the N icon and the blue drone icon moves left ot right on the outer ring, this happens when the RC is moved lefr or right.
So hard to tell what went wrong or isn`t good.

cheers
JJB

I have a theory, perhaps the car is causing magnetic interference, they can and they do, this looks just like an interference job where the compass jumps, its like N and S swap places.

Suggestion: Calibrate the RC compass, swipe down from the top and click the settings cog, If it will not let you calibrate because it thinks its ok, then force it by moving a magnet of the bottom/middle section of the RC, you will see the wording change, set the compass aside, far aside and stand away from any magnetic interference. You may have to calibrate it fast, i.e. one quick left to right and the same top tp bottom. play it by ear, you may have to force it again once you get the idea.

Once done, send the drone again, and stand away from anything thing might interfere, a good 15-20ft from the car, railings, fencing, grating, rebar and o on...

See how it goes...

Good luck

Bashy Posted at 8-28 06:42
I have a theory, perhaps the car is causing magnetic interference, they can and they do, this looks just like an interference job where the compass jumps, its like N and S swap places.

Suggestion: Calibrate the RC compass, swipe down from the top and click the settings cog, If it will not let you calibrate because it thinks its ok, then force it by moving a magnet of the bottom/middle section of the RC, you will see the wording change, set the compass aside, far aside and stand away from any magnetic interference. You may have to calibrate it fast, i.e. one quick left to right and the same top tp bottom. play it by ear, you may have to force it again once you get the idea.

Thank you for the info.
I've heard that theory before, but I can't think of a reason - why would the car cause any magnetic interferences? This isn't even an EV...
I think I'll test that theory with the compass on my phone. I wonder if it will have any effect on it.

Anyways: After the drone landed, I did check for the compass calibration menu, and it said that it is normal. I'll run a forced calibration to be on the safe side.

Amit Dunsky Posted at 8-28 06:51
Thank you for the info.
I've heard that theory before, but I can't think of a reason - why would the car cause any magnetic interferences? This isn't even an EV...
I think I'll test that theory with the compass on my phone. I wonder if it will have any effect on it.

well, for one they have wiring in them and two, they have steel in them, both are causes, just test it and you will see, turn on drone and RC, walk up to ca and with the rc in hand and you will see the RC indicator move when it shouldn't be....

Your controller did not have gps lock. There should be a blue or green dot for the controller location. The drone did not know where the controller was.

JJB* Posted at 8-28 06:29
HI,

As long as the blue drone arrow is pointing towards the center > drone is facing home, so easy to fly black.

My Mini 3 does the same thing unlike any of my other DJI drones. They'll get it resolved but if you get confused as to where the drone is, hit the RTH button briefly to set the drones direction back to home.

Mobilehomer Posted at 8-28 07:12
Your controller did not have gps lock. There should be a blue or green dot for the controller location. The drone did not know where the controller was.

You might be on to something here, But this is still strange:
I've taken a look at the flight log again, and indeed there is no "Home Point updated" entry there (link here - see notification tab).
On the other hand - there's an H in the compass screen. To my understanding, this means it knows where the Home Point is..
Am I missing something here?

Flormo2002 Posted at 8-28 07:37
My Mini 3 does the same thing unlike any of my other DJI drones. They'll get it resolved but if you get confused as to where the drone is, hit the RTH button briefly to set the drones direction back to home.

That did cross my mind, but I figured if the drone isn't sure where the home point is, it might just fly away..
I knew I would figure that out. It couldn't be too far away, so I used the screen to understand where it is, as I'm familiar with the terrain there.

Amit Dunsky Posted at 8-28 08:07
You might be on to something here, But this is still strange:
I've taken a look at the flight log again, and indeed there is no "Home Point updated" entry there (link here - see notification tab).
On the other hand - there's an H in the compass screen. To my understanding, this means it knows where the Home Point is..

The dot for the controller. You need to make sure there is gps lock for bothe controller and drone. Sometimes the controller takes a little while. Mine is RC Pro and Air 2S and does this. It is not drone specific.

Mobilehomer Posted at 8-28 08:14
The dot for the controller. You need to make sure there is gps lock for bothe controller and drone. Sometimes the controller takes a little while. Mine is RC Pro and Air 2S and does this. It is not drone specific.

Are you referring to the little triangle near the green dot - showing what direction the controller is pointing at?

The blue dot with the small arrow next to it. Your video does not have it. The blue or green dot indicates the controller has gps lock. It turns green when you are pointing at the drone.

Mobilehomer Posted at 8-28 08:14
The dot for the controller. You need to make sure there is gps lock for bothe controller and drone. Sometimes the controller takes a little while. Mine is RC Pro and Air 2S and does this. It is not drone specific.

In all the years flying, I've never had the triangle indicating the drones position to move all over the place, even flying in a straight line back to home point so in my case, this is drone specific. It doesn't effect the drone's flight characteristics in any way so I'm sure it will eventually be corrected with a firmware update in the future. There is with no magnetic interference standing in a middle of a field somewhere.
Minor annoyance in my opinion but just saying...................

Flormo2002 Posted at 8-28 09:10
In all the years flying, I've never had the triangle indicating the drones position to move all over the place, even flying in a straight line back to home point so in my case, this is drone specific. It doesn't effect the drone's flight characteristics in any way so I'm sure it will eventually be corrected with a firmware update in the future. There is with no magnetic interference standing in a middle of a field somewhere.
Minor annoyance in my opinion but just saying...................

I should mention that this doesn't happen when flying the Mini 3 Pro with a RC-N1 using my Samsung  Tab S6 so must be the DJI RC issue? I just put in my 2 cents worth every now and then.

Flormo2002 Posted at 8-28 09:13
I should mention that this doesn't happen when flying the Mini 3 Pro with a RC-N1 using my Samsung  Tab S6 so must be the DJI RC issue? I just put in my 2 cents worth every now and then.

It will happen if you don't have gps lock on the controller as well as the drone.

Mobilehomer Posted at 8-28 09:09
The blue dot with the small arrow next to it. Your video does not have it. The blue or green dot indicayes the controller has gps lock. It turns green when you are pointing at the drone.[view_image]

I wasn't aware of that change in colors of the RC location.
Learned something new today.
Thank you

Flormo2002 Posted at 8-28 09:10
In all the years flying, I've never had the triangle indicating the drones position to move all over the place, even flying in a straight line back to home point so in my case, this is drone specific. It doesn't effect the drone's flight characteristics in any way so I'm sure it will eventually be corrected with a firmware update in the future. There is with no magnetic interference standing in a middle of a field somewhere.
Minor annoyance in my opinion but just saying...................

Notice in his video there is no controller dot. The drone does not have a point of reference. No gps lock on the controller.

Mobilehomer Posted at 8-28 09:14
It will happen if you don't have gps lock on the controller as well as the drone.

I don't think having a GPS lock was his issue nor minie

Flormo2002 Posted at 8-28 10:59
I don't think having a GPS lock was his issue nor minie

Once again, if the CONTROLLER does not have a gps lock, the blue dot icon for it will not be there. BOTH the blue dot and the plane icon need to be there. This signifies gps lock for the controller and the drone. They each must have gps lock to properly communicate their location to each other. And as I mentioned before, his screen recording showed no gps lock for the controller. I sometimes have to wait for mine to acquire.

Mobilehomer Posted at 8-28 15:06
Once again, if the CONTROLLER does not have a gps lock, the blue dot icon for it will not be there. BOTH the blue dot and the plane icon need to be there. This signifies gps lock for the controller and the drone. They each must have gps lock to properly communicate their location to each other. And as I mentioned before, his screen recording showed no gps lock for the controller. I sometimes have to wait for mine to acquire.

Alrighty then

I only use maps and never use the compass .

Mobilehomer Posted at 8-28 15:06
Once again, if the CONTROLLER does not have a gps lock, the blue dot icon for it will not be there. BOTH the blue dot and the plane icon need to be there. This signifies gps lock for the controller and the drone. They each must have gps lock to properly communicate their location to each other. And as I mentioned before, his screen recording showed no gps lock for the controller. I sometimes have to wait for mine to acquire.

So just for the sake of clarification:
"The home point has been updated" refers to the Drone only?
How do you know when the RC has GPS lock?
What does the GPS indicator at the upper left of the screen refers to? Is this the amount of GPS satellites the drone sees, or the RC?
Thanks.

I cannot believe i totally missed that MH, but there is something else amiss then cause his video is over 8 minutes long, it should have gotten a GPS lock well before the end.
This cannot be influenced by magnetic interference can it?  Just clutching at straws now, its highly doubtful but i will test that in a moment actually gonna do it now before i post this reply...

...nope, made no difference other than the magnet mess up the RC compass, the GPS lock still happened, the only other thing i didn't check was "no internet connection", mine had already connected to the home wifi, ive put it all away again now lol.

Amit Dunsky Posted at 8-28 20:55
So just for the sake of clarification:
"The home point has been updated" refers to the Drone only?
How do you know when the RC has GPS lock?

Turn on radar view on the RC and when the controller has a lock the icon will turn blue with an arrow,  it seems that if you take off without a controller lock it won't show a lock during that flight.  

DAFlys Posted at 8-29 00:34
Turn on radar view on the RC and when the controller has a lock the icon will turn blue with an arrow,  it seems that if you take off without a controller lock it won't show a lock during that flight.

Thank you.
Up until now, I just assumed that blue circle with the arrow, indicating that location of the RC, is always there, so I'm always waiting for the GPS satellites reception indicator to show more than 13 before taking off, and  never bothered waiting for the RC compass to lock.

I hope someone from Dji can relate to this.
DJI won't help .. they don't in this forum.

How about posting your flight data as that will show what actually happened.
Go to: https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
... where you'll find instructions.
That will give a report you can post a link for the report here.
Or just post the .txt file.

Amit Dunsky Posted at 8-29 02:30
Thank you.
Up until now, I just assumed that blue circle with the arrow, indicating that location of the RC, is always there, so I'm always waiting for the GPS satellites reception indicator to show more than 13 before taking off, and  never bothered waiting for the RC compass to lock.

No probs.   

DAFlys Posted at 8-29 00:34
Turn on radar view on the RC and when the controller has a lock the icon will turn blue with an arrow,  it seems that if you take off without a controller lock it won't show a lock during that flight.

RE not locking during flight, I didnt know that, thanks

Bashy Posted at 8-29 04:26
RE not locking during flight, I didnt know that, thanks

Yeah just something I noticed.  Sometimes going back to the home screen and returning seems to prompt the radar updating too.

Labroides Posted at 8-29 02:52
I hope someone from Dji can relate to this.
DJI won't help .. they don't in this forum.

Thank to this forum (shout-out to @Mobilehomer , @DAFlys ) the cause for this "incident" seems to be clear now.
Also, I've already published my flight log. You're welcome to browse it here and share your insights.

Amit Dunsky Posted at 8-29 05:36
Thank to this forum (shout-out to @Mobilehomer , @DAFlys ) the cause for this "incident" seems to be clear now.
Also, I've already published my flight log. You're welcome to browse it here and share your insights.

The actual data is not visible unless you tick the share box

Labroides Posted at 8-29 05:45
The actual data is not visible unless you tick the share box

It is a link to a shared data. Just click it..

Amit Dunsky Posted at 8-29 10:55
It is a link to a shared data. Just click it..

Even though my homepoint circle is either green or blue, the triangle (drone) moves all over the map when returning home in a straight line. None of my other drone do this.

Amit Dunsky Posted at 8-29 10:55
It is a link to a shared data. Just click it..

HI, not what Labroides was asking of you, please see post #33

Flormo2002 Posted at 8-29 12:52
Even though my homepoint circle is either green or blue, the triangle (drone) moves all over the map when returning home in a straight line. None of my other drone do this.

Do you have the craft or controller in the center of the compas?

Mobilehomer Posted at 8-29 14:46
Do you have the craft or controller in the center of the compas?

The craft is smack dab in the middle

Flormo2002 Posted at 8-29 16:40
The craft is smack dab in the middle

Where I'm really seeing erratic behavior or should I see a big delay in the direction of the craft is when I have it on street view and takes a bit of time for the craft to show the actual direction it's flying. Make sense?

Flormo2002 Posted at 8-29 16:46
Where I'm really seeing erratic behavior or should I see a big delay in the direction of the craft is when I have it on street view and takes a bit of time for the craft to show the actual direction it's flying. Make sense?

Yes that makes sense. I THINK(not sure) that might have to do with how zoomed the view is. The more zoomed out, the less aparent the movement is. I rarely fly in map mode, but the times that I have, I have noted the icon is less responsive the farther out I zoom. All my previous posts have to do with the radar view. When the controller is in the center there, the drone icon goes nuts. I always have the drone in the center and it is stable.

Mobilehomer Posted at 8-29 17:21
Yes that makes sense. I THINK(not sure) that might have to do with how zoomed the view is. The more zoomed out, the less aparent the movement is. I rarely fly in map mode, but the times that I have, I have noted the icon is less responsive the farther out I zoom. All my previous posts have to do with the radar view. When the controller is in the center there, the drone icon goes nuts. I always have the drone in the center and it is stable.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, mine does that as well in radar mode but more obvious in map view. None of my other drones do this but it really is a minor annoyance to me but guess I'm making a big thing out of it?

Flormo2002 Posted at 8-29 17:33
As I mentioned in an earlier post, mine does that as well in radar mode but more obvious in map view. None of my other drones do this but it really is a minor annoyance to me but guess I'm making a big thing out of it?

With that said, the Mini 3 Pro is a great flying and fun little Drone. The best Mini so far..............