Have you eve experienced "Compass Errror" when flying in an undeveloped location, for example when flying in the middle of a large park, far away from any power lines, buildings or metal objects?

*** Please ignore the 2nd "YES" in the poll, I dont know why it added it!  THANKS!  B-)***

I voted no because that sort of region is where I fly most of the time. A compass error message does not necessarily mean that the aircraft has detected a compass error where it is flying, but can also mean the initial compass calibration was not performed correctly.

Geebax Posted at 2015-11-18 19:38
I voted no because that sort of region is where I fly most of the time. A compass error message does ...

Due to the number of recent posts on the problem,  I believe the problem is real and that it manifested at the last remote and app.firmware upgrade.  I have hundreds of flights on my Inspire and my P3A, I never had the error in flight until after the last firmware upgrade to the remote.  I think that I only had the problem after the recent remote and app upgrade, and not the earlier aircraft firmware upgrade. The  problem did not seem to be there until the remote and app. update.  flying in the same place in the mountains, no problem until then. I recalibrated of course thinking that was the problem, still happens occaisionely on both machines,  I dont think that calibration errors is the problem.

I've had the Compass Error in-flight on two separate occasions in my 14 hours of air time. Once in October, and the second time just the other day. Both times were pretty scary code brown moments. I think it switched over to atti and began to drift away quickly. The normally smooth and level video feed was swaying and tilting aggressively. Both times the compass error occurred in the first minute of flight, the Phantom was not far so I was able to wrestle the controls back home. This is why I don't do any ambitious flying in the first minutes of flight, to see if the compass will fail. Both times, I was in a remote areas that should not have electromagnetic interference and I've flown in these locations previously without problems.

I admit I was a bit lazy with compass calibration before my first Compass Error incident, but I have done it religiously every time since. Even for every battery swap on the same location. So I was surprised when it happened the second time. The second time the Phantom was able to recovere out of the Compass Error in about 30 seconds after I started flying it back towards me.

Please be aware that there may be a large metal objects you can't see. (in the ground) In my country the sewer (metal pipes) is build underneath most roads. So if you use the road to take-off its possible that you calibrated near an metal object. Its wise to check the sensor after each calibration it should be somewhere between 1450 and 1600 to be safe.

roman99 Posted at 2015-11-19 22:47
I've had the Compass Error in-flight on two separate occasions in my 14 hours of air time. Once in O ...

"I admit I was a bit lazy with compass calibration before my first Compass Error incident, but I have done it religiously every time since. Even for every battery swap on the same location."
The biggest cause of compass problems is bad calibrations caused by calibrating where you shouldn't.
You can safely fly for months without recalibrating and there's definitely no need to recalibrate the compass when you swap batteries.
Learn what the compass is about, what calibrating is and stop unnecessarily calibrating every flight and you'll have less problems.

ronday Posted at 2015-11-19 18:31
Please be aware that there may be a large metal objects you can't see. (in the ground) In my country ...

How do I check the sensor on the P3P?

levreault Posted at 2015-11-24 13:13
How do I check the sensor on the P3P?

Here is a short manual on how to see the mod value of the compass.

In the main screen of the DJI app tap on the drone fly status (red square in the picture)


Be sure to be on the first tab (drone tab) and maybe you have to scroll down a bit to see the "sensors" bar. Tap on it.


In the sensor screen check the last compass value. This should be around 1500 -1600 to be safe.
(as you can see in the picture, the compass is not reliable to use at this moment since this picture was taken at home)


Hope this helps ;-)

ronday Posted at 2015-11-26 06:03
Here is a short manual on how to see the mod value of the compass.

In the main screen of the DJI app tap on the drone fly status (red square in the picture)

Is this info in any of the DJI manual or videos. Never saw it before? THanks for sharing