Anyone else have this problem?
So far, my Phantom 3 Standard has been pretty flawless.

Yesterday, took it outside in about 20 degrees F.
Phantom and battery were both in the house at 70 degrees.
We flew it up about 50 feet, then back down and turned it off.
3 minutes later, trying to start the Phantom, the message came up "Compass Stuck" and the props wouldn't start.
I figured it was just too cold, so took back in the house until today.

Took it back outside today, 40 degrees F., went to start it and again, it displayed 'Compass Stuck'.
Tried to start 10 seconds later, and it started and ran flawlessly for 20 minutes.

Anyone know what this could be?

Just be thankful that didn't happen when you were up in the air lol. I've seen a few compass stuck horror stories myself. The only time I get that message is if I'm near a heavy magnetic field. For example, i was trying to shoot video of my water tower, but i popped in and out of heavy magnetic field, so it threw that error a few times for me. Had to move just a tad bit back.

That's an odd behaviour. Not one that is common. Only seen it mentioned once before this.

http://www.phantompilots.com/threads/compass-stuck-error.95648/

RedHotPoker

Aloha newman,

     Yes, you froze your P3S's ass off!  20 degrees F is 12 degrees below freezing.  You are lucky only the compass got stuck.  The P3 (and P4) series are only rated down to freezing.  When you go below freezing strange things happen.  Now there are operators who pre-warm their birds and batteries, so they can fly in freezing conditions -  but there is risk, like your frozen bird falling from the sky.  Read the manual.  It specifies that the Phantom is only rated down to freezing.

     Your report is consistent with standard DJI systems.  Unless you want to waste your money and have your bird fall from the sky, do not fly when conditions are freezing.

Aloha and Drone On!

Thanks for the responses.
I'm going to watch the 'cold' flying going forward.  I suspect that flying in the frigid cold could also lead to some plastic embrittlement issues where you might get hairline cracking.  Just a thought.

Another 2 points that may have an impact on the compass stuck issue:
A few weeks ago, after reading a thread about someone's 'gimble' falling off, I added a zip strip to one of the empty holes holding on the gimble.  Although I made sure the zip strip was loose, I wonder if that could be impacting the issue.

Finally, the other issue that I never think about is, I usually walk out of my attached 3 car garage, put the phantom on our concrete driveway, and fly from there.  I'm wondering if the metal inside the concrete, or the proximity of being only about 15 feet from the big house/garage structure, could be causing some issues.

Thanks!

I get that error sometimes when I calibrate the compass.

Thermographer Posted at 2017-2-6 08:09
I get that error sometimes when I calibrate the compass.

I never got the message "compass stuck" until last weekend. I can read it on the display, but it soon disappears. After that the Phantom flies absolutely normal!
Up till now I didn´t have the chance to calibrate my compass. On the other hand, the app doesn´t tell me I should go and calibrate it.

But today I got a new idea. I transported the Phantom last time on the bottom of the car, right there where the second passenger usually has it´s feet. And there are speakers in the door! So I guess, the magnet of my speaker drove my compass a little bit crazy.

I hope, I can fix this by calibrating the compass. But at the moment it´s raining, and temperatures are quiet low. So I can´t go to a free field at the moment. But I will try next weekend and report, if this was the solution for me.

I hope, the compass is not totally messed up.

newman0912 Posted at 2017-2-6 07:54
Thanks for the responses.
I'm going to watch the 'cold' flying going forward.  I suspect that flying in the frigid cold could also lead to some plastic embrittlement issues where you might get hairline cracking.  Just a thought.

concrete usually has metal re bar reinforcing in most driveways. Never calibrate compass there, and it may cause compass warnings of various kinds under attempted takeoffs from that platform.