Hi All,

I know compass calibration has been covered before on the forum but I wondered whether anyone knew what might be cause for such large interference when calibrating the compass.

I've updated to the latest firmware since my last flight and calibrate the compass before every flight as recommended without an issue, today is the first chance I've had to try get in the air and I'm consistently getting the error when calibrating the compass. I've tried it in a number of locations today and starting to wonder whether it's something with the aircraft and not my location.

I originally tried to calibrate in the car park of my office about 3 meters from any cars - when I got the error I assumed it was due to the vehicles. I've since tried to calibrate at least 10 meters from any vehicles in a field, still no luck.

Is the fact I've got the controller with me going to interfere with calibration. Starting to get concerned that it's a permenant issue.

Feedback from anyone with advise / had a similar experience would be much appreciated!

If you can;t get rid of that warning or calibrate, go to the Sensor section of the app settings and see what is showing for the Compass data.
If it has numbers things are OK but if it shows zero, your compass is disconnected or one of it's fine cables is broken in the landing gear.

"and calibrate the compass before every flight as recommended"
Don't calibrate your compass before every flight.
It's completely unnecessary and introduces the risk of a bad calibration if you do it in a baad location.

Labroides Posted at 2017-2-15 07:03
If you can;t get rid of that warning or calibrate, go to the Sensor section of the app settings and see what is showing for the Compass data.
If it has numbers things are OK but if it shows zero, your compass is disconnected or one of it's fine cables is broken in the landing gear.

Thanks for the advise.

Labroides Posted at 2017-2-15 07:03
If you can;t get rid of that warning or calibrate, go to the Sensor section of the app settings and see what is showing for the Compass data.
If it has numbers things are OK but if it shows zero, your compass is disconnected or one of it's fine cables is broken in the landing gear.

Just had a look at the sensor information and can see that the compass is showing numbers which are all moving as I move the aircraft, so that's promising.

I'll attempt to calibrate the compass at the same location as previously successful calibrations and go from there.

Thanks again

Oddly enough I have never had compass problems, it has never asked me to recalibrate it so I've left well alone. I have been having a problem with Follow Me not working. A Dji agent said I should calibrate IMU, sensors, compass etc etc. which I did and it made no difference. i notice when I switched my tablet on today it had upgraded the Go App to 3.1.3 and when I switched the aircaft on in a place I've flown it once before it told me the compass needed calibrating but on each of the 3 attempts I got the Intensive Electromagnetic Interference error, which I've never seen before, and it would not calibrate and I dare not fly it as I was going to be flying over the river. I went hone and flew it on the field behind my house, where I fly a lot, without the issue. Maybe it's a new feature in 3.1.3 ;-)

this happens to me anytime i have the drone on metal!

Dave P Posted at 2017-2-15 07:55
Oddly enough I have never had compass problems, it has never asked me to recalibrate it so I've left well alone. I have been having a problem with Follow Me not working. A Dji agent said I should calibrate IMU, sensors, compass etc etc. which I did and it made no difference. i notice when I switched my tablet on today it had upgraded the Go App to 3.1.3 and when I switched the aircaft on in a place I've flown it once before it told me the compass needed calibrating but on each of the 3 attempts I got the Intensive Electromagnetic Interference error, which I've never seen before, and it would not calibrate and I dare not fly it as I was going to be flying over the river. I went hone and flew it on the field behind my house, where I fly a lot, without the issue. Maybe it's a new feature in 3.1.3 ;-)

Strange you should say about flying behind your house. I've just come in from doing the same, everything is fine now. I did calibrate the IMU today as I'd seen that that can sometime resolve problems - after doing so I was getting the same error about interference but this was while at the same problematic location.

Not flying was a good idea. I put it into a hover while getting the error and it behaved more like it was in ATTI mode, sliding all over the place - not ideal!

Each place I tested it today while safely away from vehicles, was probably closer than it should be - maybe that's what was causing the issue in my case. When i flew at home I was in the middle of a field it warmed up, got GPS and was ready to go like normal.

The only reason I posted was with all the talk of inconsistent firmware of late, maybe someone had the same problem as me.

#shotxclvck Posted at 2017-2-15 09:47
this happens to me anytime i have the drone on metal!

Glad it's not just me then!

#shotxclvck Posted at 2017-2-15 09:47
this happens to me anytime i have the drone on metal!

I was at the edge of the river by moorings and I suppose it's possible there is steel piling underneath it, I hadn't though of that

You don't have your phone in your pocket by any chance?  Took me a while to get it.

If you are in a car park then it is quite possible that you are on top of a lot of steel reinforcing mesh. That could be the problem.

This is one of the reason that experienced pilots recommend you do not calibrate your compass before every flight. It is not easy to find a good spot to perform the calibration, particularly in a city of suburban environment, and so many people do not understand the process properly. You should never perform the calibration in a paved area, always do it in a park, well away from any metal objects.

One of the stupidest things ever was the episode of 'Big Bang Theory' where they did a compass calibration several times inside an apartment building and it failed every time. Now everyone thinks that is a good place to do it.

Another question about compass calibration. When you start the dji app and connect to drone. It has the first screen which says latest firmware and there is a box around it, then down a few lines it says compass and the word calibrate has a box around it. I took this as it meaning the compass needs to be calibrated, after reading the other posts I am thinking I must be wrong. Can someone clarify.

No, that's not telling you to calibrate. If it's necessary you will get the red warning popup.
The calibrate box is just the calibrate button (as needed). They have to put it somewhere.
I went through the same confusion.

Thanx for the clarification, I never used to calibrate then saw or read something that I thought it said calibrate compass every flight. So I started doing it, I guess I haven't needed to. Good to know.

Paizano1 Posted at 2017-2-15 21:05
Thanx for the clarification, I never used to calibrate then saw or read something that I thought it said calibrate compass every flight. So I started doing it, I guess I haven't needed to. Good to know.

my first p3s was a nightmare of compass errors and calibration attempts.  I sent that one back and got a new one, never calibrated the compass and it works without issue. I wouldn't recommend calibrating the compass ever unless you can't fly it without a calibration. You're opening yourself up to huge can of slimy green worms when you calibrate the compass.

sdevan45\@cox.n Posted at 2017-2-15 14:54
You don't have your phone in your pocket by any chance?  Took me a while to get it.

I always have my phone in a trouser pocket, so if it caused a problem it would always

Cabansail Posted at 2017-2-15 15:19
If you are in a car park then it is quite possible that you are on top of a lot of steel reinforcing mesh. That could be the problem.

Ah ok. I mean, I think the broad question I have is - how often do people experience this error. I've since the original post flown in the same location I have before with no problem at all. This morning I was at the beach, turned on the AC and got the same error until I moved it further out into open space and restarted.

There is a sewage pipe that runs out to sea from inland close by, it could be the case that that was causing the problem. The more I see the message the more I start to wonder "what is it this time". I guess more flights in open places away from anything will be the true test.

I'm getting compass data from the sensor, so I know it's functioning, just starting to feel like I'm going a bit mad.

I guess the question I should be asking is - is this error message something most pilots will see at some point whilst flying or is it a rare occurrence that most wouldn't know about? If it's something that happens to most at some point then I'm less inclined to think I've got faulty hardware and it's just me being unlucky with where I choose to launch from. If it's something that's quite rare then I'll have to look into it more and see whether I need to start looking at returning the unit.

kent_chris Posted at 2017-2-16 03:03
I guess the question I should be asking is - is this error message something most pilots will see at some point whilst flying or is it a rare occurrence that most wouldn't know about? If it's something that happens to most at some point then I'm less inclined to think I've got faulty hardware and it's just me being unlucky with where I choose to launch from. If it's something that's quite rare then I'll have to look into it more and see whether I need to start looking at returning the unit.

Since two weeks I have a strange compass behavior: I have calibrated the compass in open field. Sensor MOD a perfect 1450 - 1550 for the compass; depending from the place, where I start the engine.

But sometimes I get the message "compass stuck / restart the Phantom". This message pops up for a second, when I try to start the motors. Because of the message, the motors doesn´t run. One second later the message is gone, and I can start / fly without any issues. No compass failure in the air. The Phantom behaves fine.

Compass MOD is on the ground and in air the same, and works definitely. The quad flies perfect. Someone has the same problem? Why the message, when the compass works perfect?

My other question is if I get the calibration error but I know it's because of steel will it allow me to take off and is it likely to be safe to do so?

Dave P Posted at 2017-2-16 05:47
My other question is if I get the calibration error but I know it's because of steel will it allow me to take off and is it likely to be safe to do so?

Unlikely. In my case, with the interference error still present, taking off meant the aircraft would slowly drift with the wind and not hold its position as well as normal. What happens if you were to take off and fly out of the area causing interference I dont know - but I would assume that you'd have the same problem should you land in the same place.

Dave P Posted at 2017-2-15 23:50
I always have my phone in a trouser pocket, so if it caused a problem it would always

it is possible yes, also chains ,watches, large, belt buckles, etc. can distort the mag field enough to mess it up.

Fistel Posted at 2017-2-16 03:23
Since two weeks I have a strange compass behavior: I have calibrated the compass in open field. Sensor MOD a perfect 1450 - 1550 for the compass; depending from the place, where I start the engine.

But sometimes I get the message "compass stuck / restart the Phantom". This message pops up for a second, when I try to start the motors. Because of the message, the motors doesn´t run. One second later the message is gone, and I can start / fly without any issues. No compass failure in the air. The Phantom behaves fine.

Exactly same is happening to me but on my P3P
I get the Compass stuck error when I try to start the motors
And I just start rhem again and it works

Phantom3ProPilo Posted at 2017-2-16 08:39
Exactly same is happening to me but on my P3P
I get the Compass stuck error when I try to start the motors
And I just start rhem again and it works

I get this if I start my AC up while wearing my Apple watch.  Same thing regarding calibration, that watch messes up calibration too.

Porktree Posted at 2017-2-16 08:45
I get this if I start my AC up while wearing my Apple watch.  Same thing regarding calibration, that watch messes up calibration too.

I get it randomly
Haven't really noticed it's related to anything
But I think the reason I'm getting it is that my P3P crashed a few times

Porktree Posted at 2017-2-16 08:45
I get this if I start my AC up while wearing my Apple watch.  Same thing regarding calibration, that watch messes up calibration too.

the apple watch and compass issues are a long time thing... glad you found what it was

Phantom3ProPilo Posted at 2017-2-16 08:56
I get it randomly
Haven't really noticed it's related to anything
But I think the reason I'm getting it is that my P3P crashed a few times

Strange, I never had a crash nor a hard landing. But sometimes I get this message.

Porktree Posted at 2017-2-16 08:45
I get this if I start my AC up while wearing my Apple watch.  Same thing regarding calibration, that watch messes up calibration too.

You mean..... you start the quad wearing an apple watch (turn battery on). And when the hands are on the remote, and you try to start the motors, you get randomly this message?

Interresting point - I wear an apple watch, too. But why do I get the message, and on the second try the Phantom starts without problems? Or is it an watch - remote problem? I´ve got to test this. But it will be raining till sunday.

Hi All, I don't know if this is a myth etc. but I never had a compass issue. I calibrate in a park and begin and finish calibration facing NORTH. I have a Yuneec Typhoon H and on the Yuneec forums it is suggested to calibrate facing north, I guess it can't hurt. No DJI documentation on the subject about facing in any direction.

Fistel Posted at 2017-2-17 01:29
You mean..... you start the quad wearing an apple watch (turn battery on). And when the hands are on the remote, and you try to start the motors, you get randomly this message?

Interresting point - I wear an apple watch, too. But why do I get the message, and on the second try the Phantom starts without problems? Or is it an watch - remote problem? I´ve got to test this. But it will be raining till sunday.

Yes I mean I start the quad wearing the watch.  I'm right handed so I'm usually holding the AC with my left hand and pushing the button with the right. Then setting the AC down.

When I restart the AC is on the ground so my left hand doesnt come near it.  

It took me way to long to figure this (and calibration) out.