Hey everyone, I am a new flyer, I have had a few isssues still can not get to calibrate the sensor for the camera, We finally have some decent weather, 15" snow in the last 3 weeks now its all melted and we are in a mud pit. So i finally got to take out the mavic pro yesterday and I don't know what to say or do. My first exp. it took off ( had it in beginner mode so it did not go far) Yesterday I left it in beginner mode and got use to the controls and played with it until the battery was dead. Not much happened other that it would flash compass error exited GPS mode then it would go back to ready to fly. Changed battery and took it off of beginner mode so I could try and get some pictures of the worksite I am on.  I am on a drilling rig site, we just finished and are waiting to move. So I go to fly and it starts out ok, then whil I am 55m high and hovering to take a picture it starts wandering away. So I pushed the return to home button and it starts taking off. The control says CHECK APP. THE FLASHES SYSTEM WARNING. The gps bar goes red Compass error and exited GPS mode. I flew it back and landed it. A little nervous about this now. Checked out the equipment powered everything down then back up and it is fine. Started again with precision take off, flew around for awhile and bang same thing. It did this 3 times. I have been looking around and can not find these type of issues on the forum and Cust. Service is not open today. Does anyone have any ideas?

Our apologies  for the inconvenience. May I know if the issue is still the same when you change location? Try to fly the drone on a open wide area with no interference and check if the problem persists. If you receive and error message, please provide a screenshot so that I can check it on my end. When you fly the drone on a different area, please calibrate the compass.Please pay attention to the message from your app and if the APP requires you to calibrate, please follow the instructions. You can go this route: MC Settings--Advanced Settings--Sensor--Compass--calibrate.

I am going to our next site today, the only interference would be 3 cats and a trac hoe. It should be relatively good and obstacle free. I will also calibrate the compass as well.  I am going to try  that, As far as flying it on this site goes, It does not make sense as I fellow flyer flies his phantom 3 here with no issues. I guess I am frustrated at all this right now.
Thx for the answer.

Finally had my first successful no issue flight yesterday.  Went through the controls killed a couple batteries and used the return to home feature. Took some pics and videos and everything worked great, Still wondering about the issues I had earlier. Will a cell phone booster / tower screw up the compass / GPS at all? That is the biggest difference of the 2 areas I have flown so far?

smoker Posted at 2018-10-7 11:24
Finally had my first successful no issue flight yesterday.  Went through the controls killed a couple batteries and used the return to home feature. Took some pics and videos and everything worked great, Still wondering about the issues I had earlier. Will a cell phone booster / tower screw up the compass / GPS at all? That is the biggest difference of the 2 areas I have flown so far?

Will a cell phone booster / tower screw up the compass / GPS at all?

Cell phone booster / tower should not interefere with GPS, being different frequencies.  
Cell phone booster / tower should not interefere with compass, being earth's magnetic field vs. radio transmission.

The one possibility is Mavic's internal electronics are not shield enough (vs. your friend's Phantom-3), and you are flying very close to tower, leading to cell phone booster / tower's transmissions effecting electrical signals of Mavic's internals.  However, others here, including myself, have flown near cellphone towers and other transmitter towers without issues.


How close to cell phone booster / tower are you flying?

I am on a drilling rig site, we just finished and are waiting to move.
then whil I am 55m high and hovering to take a picture it starts  wandering away. So I pushed the return to home button and it starts  taking off.

Are you taking off from bare ground?   

How close are you to any large metal pipes, vehicles, electrical wiring, cargo containers, etc?
Are you wearing or carrying anything metal (magnetic)?
Have a Walkie / Talkie or similar device on you at time?

I have a spot of bare dry ground I am using 15-20 ft away from a steel pipe tub. I flew up to 20 feet away from tower,  but this happened before I got it that far each time. No walkie talkie, nothing metal on me other than phone and rc.   I am just happy I have it flying with no issues at another site. But I was curious about possible interference.  Other than calibrate vision sensor, that I can't seem to  get straightened out it seems good.  I did see a new message for a firmware update, Wondering if I should or not, Reading posts on this forum it seems there are some issues with new updates. Is it a common to have updates often?