Compass position on Extended Landing Gear

[Damienlovegrove]

I've recently changed the stock landing gear for the extended landing gear and mounted my compass on the vertical section of the right rear leg far away from anything else. The receiver antennas are on the front right and rear left legs. I notice in the Phantom RC Assistant software there is provision to manually add the X, Y and Z distances for the compass position. As the compass is now approximately 30mm below and 30mm further away to the side of where it was originally mounted should i get a ruler out and enter the new values? I'm not keen on waiting for a crash to discover the correct procedure. Thanks in anticipation of genius input.

 

[skeyephantom]

When recently upgrading to FPV, I too swapped my stock landing gear for the extended gear to give my GoPro a little breathing room. 20-25 flights later, I haven't experienced any compass related problems...that doesn't mean I won't in the future, but I am curious to see if anyone else replies with an answer to your question.

 

[N017RW]

Are you sure you saw compass offsets in the Assistant software and not GPS or IMU?

Anyways, be sure that as long as you maintain the original orientation the compass will work fine.

Because its now lower and offset in one direction or another has no effect on determining the aircraft's magnetic heading so long as it is properly aligned with the aircrafts forward motion and upright attitude.

 

[Damienlovegrove]

Thank you very much. That makes absolute sense

Happy flying, Damien.

 

[PetePerrim]

Hi Damien,

I have also added the extended gear, no doubt for the same reasons as most which is to give my gimbal more space around and below it. I was originally perplexed about the compass placement because there is not actually a dedicated flat spot for it to fit quite correctly. To be honest, it's orient in relation to the FC was the last thing on my mind at the time. Anyway it has now been around 200 flights, with several being in excess of 4000 metres each way, and I have not had a single compass related issue. I think you should be fine as long as your compass doesn't have the ability to come loose and possible turn around on the leg which could cause a flyaway. Otherwise, all good.

 

[RichW]

When I installed my taller wider legs I initially had issues resembling the J hook people talk about. After some meddling I discovered I hadnt quite got its forward facing alignment correct, only by a degree or so. A few test flights later after minor rotation of the compass each time and she's back to rock solid hover and perfect response to control input.

Rotationally it seems very critical but exact placement doesn't seem to effect operation.