Hi Guys,

I've just received my DJI P3S and went thru the process of upgrading to the latest firmware using the DJI app. I then calibrated the IMU at the cricket ground near our place and then calibreated the compass and all seemed well.

However each flght I kept getting Compass Error and it would change to Atti mode. Due to the slight breeze and my lack of skiils I was pretty liucky to land it safely each time as it would drift off towards the trees and houses quite qucikly.

I then re-calibrated the compass and IMU again and it lasted a little longer this time maybe 3 minutes but then did the same thing.

I downlaoded the logs using my laptop and looks like a strange thing is happening. The data from the compass and GPS goes from real numbers to these fake numbers a few minutes into the flight see below:

Latitude (Deg)	Longitude (Deg)	GPS   Altitude (m)	N   Velocity(m/s)	E   Velocity(m/s)	D   Velocity(m/s)	Velocity(m/s)	Ground Speed(m/s)	AccelerometerX(g)	AccelerometerY(g)	AccelerometerZ(g)	GyroX(rad/s)	GyroY(rad/s)	GyroZ(rad/s)	Barometric Alt(m)	QuaternionX	QuaternionY	QuaternionZ	QuaternionW	Roll(deg)	Pitch(deg)	Yaw(deg)	MagneticX	MagneticY	MagneticZ	Satellites	Sequence(135 Hz)
0	0	5.88E-39	5.88E-39	5.88E-39	5.88E-39	1.02E-38	8.31E-39	5.88E-39	5.88E-39	5.88E-39	5.88E-39	5.88E-39	5.88E-39	5.88E-39	5.88E-39	5.88E-39	5.88E-39	5.88E-39	90	0	90	5.88E-39	5.88E-39	5.88E-39	0	2751
-38.0769	145.1333	-66.61569214	0.001159769	3.43919E-05	-0.015058579	0.015103213	0.001160279	0.038094	-0.007	-1.00189	-0.00731	0.005339	0.008174	-66.40637207	0.003759	0.018569	-0.0907	0.995698	0.236029	2.158258	-10.40505416	-0.003736019	-0.042720675	-0.026665112	10	6486

So keen to fly this thing and get it working properly if someone could tell me what I'm doing wrong that would be aces I'd like it to track my laps around a race circuit on auto mode but at the moment with these errors you can't really take your eye off it as it takes off on its own!

Kind Regards,

Bastien

What are you talking about with 'fake numbers'? The co-ordinates appear to show you flying out of the Roy Dare Reserve in Carrum, Victoria, Australia. Is that not true?

If you calibrated the compass on the oval there (either of them), I would do the compass calibration again, and not on the actualy ground. A compass error in flight usually means the aircraft got a bad compass calibration, and those two ovals look, from the aerial shots, to have an underground sprinkler system, probably iron pipes, and that might influence your calibration.

Also, there is no need to calibrate the EMU in every location, nor the compass. Doing them all the time increases the chances of getting a bad calibration.

These numbers are the ones after the error occurs - I gave one line of good numbers and one line of the bad ones.

5.88E-39
5.88E-39
5.88E-39
1.02E-38
8.31E-39
5.88E-39
5.88E-39

Thanks for your help by the way

btreptel Posted at 2016-7-29 15:17
These numbers are the ones after the error occurs - I gave one line of good numbers and one line of  ...

Those are real numbers ... not fake numbers.
That's scientific notation which is the way a spreadsheet displays numbers with too many digits for the column width.
5.88E-39 is 5.88 x 10 to the negative 39th power .... which is an extremely small number

btreptel Posted at 2016-7-29 07:17
These numbers are the ones after the error occurs - I gave one line of good numbers and one line of  ...

Use Phantomhelp log viewer then you get the real numbers and post the link.
When the error happen the column can shift to right on column.
Phantomhelp

Ok doing the log view now but how come every column after the error has the same number? Like GPS altitude = 5.88E and so does all the accel and gyro figures too. When its working the numbers are all different. Like in the second row.

Ok here are the numbers when it is working

-38.07691291        145.1332776        -66.60783386        0.001116513        0.000935062        0.011766623        0.011856406        0.001456345        0.037734412        -0.003841961        -1.003560543        -0.007171863        0.005578931        0.015971061        -66.41823578        0.003732093        0.018599985        -0.088329963        0.995910645        0.237820713        2.160973294        -10.13241997        -0.004558414        -0.004149385        -0.042828597        10        6540

And here are the numbers when its trying to fall out of the sky as you can see to many of the numbers are identical and can't be right. I get that they are scientic notations but gyros shouldn't read a tiny number exactly the same as the accel or compas readings.

0        0        5.88E-39        5.88E-39        5.88E-39        5.88E-39        1.02E-38        8.31E-39        5.88E-39        5.88E-39        5.88E-39        5.88E-39        5.88E-39        5.88E-39        5.88E-39        5.88E-39        5.88E-39        5.88E-39        5.88E-39        90        0        90        5.88E-39        5.88E-39        5.88E-39        0        2751

Log viewer times out sorry guys when trying to upload

btreptel Posted at 2016-7-29 21:11
Log viewer times out sorry guys when trying to upload

Go to http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
Follow the instructions to upload your flight record.
That will display your flight data in an easy to read form

Hi Labroides - Each time I go to this page when I click upload file it gets to about 12% then times out

btreptel Posted at 2016-7-30 10:20
Hi Labroides - Each time I go to this page when I click upload file it gets to about 12% then times  ...

Is it an issue with the file or the tablet?
Try copying the .txt file across to your computer and upload from there?

Finally got it to work http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/KG9VH9HGFR3KFZ271OQZ/

The above one was at the park and then this one did the same thing near my place http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/9KE66DMS4V7W426IQSVA/

Hey everyone another person is having the same issue as me here is a link to their thread. Be great to get this sorted as I can't fly this anymore without risking hurting someone or the drone

http://forum.dji.com/thread-59619-1-1.html

Another person with the same issue -

All people posting about this seem to have purchased new drones running the latest firmware. I'm finding more and more people with the same issue please help DJI

Another thread with the person having an issue after the latest firmware http://forum.dji.com/thread-56251-1-1.html

btreptel Posted at 2016-7-30 19:52
The above one was at the park and then this one did the same thing near my place http://www.phantomh ...

One flight you have no compass error close to the ground but when you lift to 4 ftyou have compass error.
The second looks the same but at 12 feet.
That looks suspiciously like you have calibrated the compass to a distorted magnetic field on the ground but when you fly away from that field, your compass is not calibrated for the earth's normal field.

Get a good calibration in an area well away from magnetic influences.

Ok guys I have now tried calibrating compass and IMU at the beach, in another field without sprinklers, in the bush and on a farm.... Every time I still get the same compass error and it switches to p-atti. Please help

btreptel Posted at 2016-8-5 11:31
Ok guys I have now tried calibrating compass and IMU at the beach, in another field without sprinkle ...

Hi, please try one more time, put your phone, watch, or anything that may effect the magnetic field 2 meters away from the drone when you do the calibration.

If this still doesn't work, please contact the seller/vendor and see if they can do a direct exchange, if not, please send an email to support@dji.com and send it in for diagnosis.

Thank you.

I have 10 days old phantom 3 professional with extensive "compass error", "going out from gps-p mode", "satellite positioning off" = going to "atti" warnings/messages on every flight on different open locations. Realized how serious problem was when I was flying in "beginner mode" and it started to drift away from me.

Successfully upgraded to latest firmware, calibrated IMU, tried to fly on different locations with compass successfully calibrated in the middle of open field without any metals or interference. Always same multiple warnings in mid-air = compass error och gps-p mode going to "atti", satellite positioning off...
Now I do not dare fly it any further then 100m from me, feels completely unsafe. I really love flying it but this is making it almost unusable.
Please give some advice, what to do?

^same with a P3A. There are so may threads on this on various forums surely there must be a firmware/software issue... Seemingly P4s are much more robust with dual compass and IMUs.

And same problem here on two different P3As.

I bought a p3a two weels ago with massive amounts of compass errors. I returned that one and got a new one, but it had the same problem.

Seems to be firmware indpendent, since the problem is reported on both 1.8.xx and 1.9.60, so my best guess is that it is a HW issue.

I returned the second P3A as well, since I lost all confidence in the brand after two faulty samples..

engica Posted at 2016-8-14 10:46
I have 10 days old phantom 3 professional with extensive "compass error", "going out from gps-p mode ...

Hej,

jag lämnade tillbaka min. kände precis som du, att det inte var säkert att flyga annat än precis i närheten.

annars kan du säkert få den reparerad, men då måste du ju vara utan den ett tag.

tråkigt då jag verkligen gillade att flyga den, men jag gissar att de har ngt hårdvaruproblem med en viss batch av p3a, varav många verkar ha gått till sverige.

Any updates?

engica Posted at 2016-8-14 02:46
I have 10 days old phantom 3 professional with extensive "compass error", "going out from gps-p mode ...

I have a less than 30 day old P3A.  I have same exact problem as engica posted above.  I was warned about DJI service before the purchase but I took a chance.  I never bothered to check these forums and assumed from YouTube videos I have seen about compass errors that they had a bad production run on those parts.  So I ordered another part to be delivered tomorrow off Amazon.  After finally having some time to look into the issue I'm afraid I just wasted more money on this defective drone.  I have flown about 15X and every flight gives me errors.  I love flying this thing but my big concern is if I lose signal and it does RTH it could fly anywhere using bad compass reading.  I guess my biggest mistake was not buying from DJI direct but from Amazon.  DJI please get this sorted out it's not a coincidence that so many of these have the same problem.  I have a 350qx3, and a Yuneec q500 4k, that fly without issues from same locations.  Even with the problems the P3A is way more fun to fly so hurry up with a fix either software or let us know what part needs replaced so we can all go back to flying these amazing machines.

UPDATE....... FIXED
OK.  Fixed my problem with a new compass.  Cost $15 and included a new set of  landing gear.  So 1 hour of my time and $15  got this problem fixed.  Just in from my first flight that didn't include the error and switch to ATTI mode.  So maybe my first assumption of a bad batch of these compass parts are causing a lot of these complaints.  DJI should check into the production runs and see if they can narrow down the issue.  Repair was simple like anything else as long as you have the correct tools.  
For anyone wanting to try this fix go check YouTube for an instructional video.  
Good Luck
Jonn Q Public