Just wondering, as I tend to avoid them like the plague, but do high voltage power lines cause problems with either the compass, or other systems on a phantom? Seen plenty of video where people are flying in relatively close proximity to them with no apparent issues, but it seems if I go anywhere near I seem to get connection or compass errors.
Discuss.

Well yes and no...
I got a lot of these errors with my old compass module.
Then again i got them randomly everywhere...

I have since replaced the compass module and i can go quite near to the high voltage power lines without any errors...

Not that you should go near them anyway lol...

No lol, but I'm scared of going within 100m of the bloody things. I do seem to have had a lot of compass issues, my p3s is nearly new, but faulty ones not unheard of.
Did they upgrade them at some point? Rather than send mine in for repair, if it is a bit faulty, I'd rather just buy one and fit it myself if it's easy, as they don't seem expensive?

Depends what type, I found this quite interesting



http://www.emfs.info/sources/overhead/

Those big 400kv ones I stay well away from, smaller ones I keep 30m from, but in the UK you'll find that most are actually telephone cables not power.

Yeah, I don't worry about the phone lines, obviously keep well away from the pylons though. Just the triple type high voltage ones have given me bother when within a stones throw. Was 40m above some once and was getting compass errors. Had put a magnetometer app on the nexus tablet, but that's gone and awaiting a new nvidia shield coming, then will do some investigation!

I have had instances with no issues and other times I've had problems. The first time I ever tried out the Point-Of-Interest feature I was quite nervous because the front of the house was littered by cables / wires... but didn't have any issues that time.

Before I had my P3P I was with a friend who was flying an AR Drone that seemed to drift towards some cell towers... Total fly away in that case but not DJI.

Look at the wires:

Matt-and-Riley Posted at 2016-9-22 08:48
Depends what type, I found this quite interesting

That graph may look scary, but does anyone have any idea what 6 microTeslas will actually do to the compass?  Probably not a lot unless you are within a foot or so, in which case you have other bigger problems.

Seems I'm cacking myself for no reason then lol, good vid!

Kwaka Pants Posted at 2016-9-22 09:00
Seems I'm cacking myself for no reason then lol, good vid!

But it is considered to be a 'structure' not under your control - so 50m to stay legal I guess, wouldn't want you breaking any rules

I avoid flying close. But once time, I almost hit a power line and I had no interference, I got very close to it
I have seen many videos of Phantom having interference from cell towers ( some even falling), but I never saw a video of power lines interference

The line near my house don't seem to pose a problem.  However, I went to mine nearby that's mostly abandoned but has active power lines going to it, probably so someone can work the tailing piles or something.  My P3S went crazy.  I couldn't barely control it well enough to get it back.  But those lines were exposed...no insulation or shielding.  Maybe that was the problem.  No other structures, trees or obstructions nearby.  Just sagebrush and those lines.  Once I got it home, the drone flew normally.

So, my answer would be use caution.

Always do, overly cautious, hence my post inquiring on here.
Did have 2 more flights tonight, both with the p3 switching in and out of atti mode. Was over a valley I couldn't see into, but at over 100m altitude no idea why anything should cause probems up there. Unless it was low satellite coverage, will have to check my logs.

flyfishnevada Posted at 2016-9-22 17:40
The line near my house don't seem to pose a problem.  However, I went to mine nearby that's mostly a ...

"no insulation or shielding.  Maybe that was the problem.  "

Any wire carrying a current will generate a magnetic field, which depending upon its strength and distance from quad, might affect the compass. Insulation would have no effect on this.
And then there's the electric field generated, I like this as an example:-