Aardvark Posted at 2018-3-21 16:17
Page 49 of the spark Manual advises you only to calibrate when prompted by the Application or Status indicators, which is what the majority of voters are advocating in this poll. My only caveat to that might be if it were flying erratically and no indication of cause.

Would crabbing to one direction be a cause of needing calibration? Or is that mainly an IMU or RC calibrate need? Thanks!

davidmartingraf Posted at 2018-3-21 16:38
Would crabbing to one direction be a cause of needing calibration? Or is that mainly an IMU or RC calibrate need? Thanks!

Try them and see, the IMU & RC calibrations should only take a few minutes to complete. IMU is best done on a dead level surface (check with a spirit level if available).

Edit:- If its a new unit I personally would do Sensor, IMU (Level surface), Gimbal, RC & Compass (wide open area, no ferrous or electrical items close to aircraft) calibrations. Then you know they are unlikely to cause any problems.

Aardvark Posted at 2018-3-21 16:45
Try them and see, the IMU & RC calibrations should only take a few minutes to complete. IMU is best done on a dead level surface (check with a spirit level if available).

Edit:- If its a new unit I personally would do Sensor, IMU (Level surface), Gimbal, RC & Compass (wide open area, no ferrous or electrical items close to aircraft) calibrations. Then you know they are unlikely to cause any problems.

I was wondering my Spark camera when I'm going side to side isn't stable anymore as it was brand new out of the box. Now there is some jerk on the camera when going side to side as if it was in Sport Mode, I'm wondering my Spark is only two months old and never have I gotten into an accident, so I'm unclear as to why the stabilization going side to side is no more?

davidmartingraf Posted at 2018-3-21 17:41
I was wondering my Spark camera when I'm going side to side isn't stable anymore as it was brand new out of the box. Now there is some jerk on the camera when going side to side as if it was in Sport Mode, I'm wondering my Spark is only two months old and never have I gotten into an accident, so I'm unclear as to why the stabilization going side to side is no more?

I would do the calibrations, but I've just had another thought.

Check that the 'gimbal mode' is set for 'follow' and not 'FPV' in DJI Go 4 'Gimbal Settings' menu.

Aardvark Posted at 2018-3-21 18:17
I would do the calibrations, but I've just had another thought.

Check that the 'gimbal mode' is set for 'follow' and not 'FPV' in DJI Go 4 'Gimbal Settings' menu.

OK I will check that now and report back shortly, thank you.

Lamplighter55 Posted at 2018-2-20 09:32
I've found even just leaving the Mavic sitting in it's case for a couple of days a compass re-calibration is a good idea - after a few occasions where I've experienced a 'compass calibration error' mid flight, and the unit going into ATTI mode because there's a mismatch between the compass and the GPS direction calculation. Also have to re-calibrate the compass on the Cristalsky I use with the RC controller. It seems even when not near any heavy magnetic fields the compasses can drift out of calibration after a few days just sitting in storage. So every time I fly - I go through the DJI drone dance - pirouetting on the spot for a couple of turns - much to the bemusement of passersby!

There are guys that think that the compass is just some unnecessary feature that you can save 60 seconds by ignoring. Some people learn best the hard way.

CuaC Posted at 2018-3-21 05:08
Hi Thor, why was it changed? I asked for this on this post: https://forum.dji.com/thread-140230-1-1.html

It used to be: Do it only when prompted.

We suggest calibrating the compass in these scenarios since the compass is the module that the drone knows where to go. For example, when we move to a new place, we might need to make the direction clear. The compass calibration means the same to some extent.