Hi all, I am a brand new Phantom 22 Vision plus owner. I took my first flight today, these things are awesome and easy to fly to be sure. Also just jointed the forum so I figure I get at least one ignorant question. My question is how often do you recalibrate the compass? Every time you fly? Only when you move to a different location? Never? Thanks in advance to any who might answer.
Compass Recaibration
- Thread starter azisbest
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Meta4
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You'll find some people would advise calibration for every flight.
These are the kind of people that press the button five times to make the elevator come quicker.
They don't understand what they are doing but guess that more is better.
What DJI say is quite vague ... for every new flight location.
Experience of many members here shows that you can safely fly for months and fly anywhere within 100 miles of home with only one good calibration before your first flight.
You definitely shouldn't be doing it every flight.
That's completely unnecessary and introduces the possibility of getting a bad calibration.
These are the kind of people that press the button five times to make the elevator come quicker.
They don't understand what they are doing but guess that more is better.
What DJI say is quite vague ... for every new flight location.
Experience of many members here shows that you can safely fly for months and fly anywhere within 100 miles of home with only one good calibration before your first flight.
You definitely shouldn't be doing it every flight.
That's completely unnecessary and introduces the possibility of getting a bad calibration.
I have nearly 150 flights under my belt and have calibrated MAYBE 10 times. 8 of those were after firmware updates or IMU cals. Meta4 and I are living examples that it is totally unnecessary to calibrate your compass every flight. I totally agree with an infrequent and only when necessary calibration algorithm.
Thank you both very much! I kind of thought that recalibrating every flight was overkill but I wanted to find out from some experienced owners.
Welcome to the forum. Yes like Meta & the others said. I normally do not do calibrate unless I am traveling about 20-30 or so miles from where I last (I know you can go farther) I always make sure I have both quick sets of blinking green lights & when I change locations, I check to see where my phantom is showing its location in the find my phantom in the Vision App.
Here is what the Phantom Summary guide has to say about it.
Compass Calibration is very important; otherwise the flight control system will not work properly. The compass is very sensitive to electromagnetic interference, which can cause abnormal compass data leading to poor flight performance or even flight failure. Regular calibration is required for optimum performance.
When to Recalibrate:
- After any firmware/software update
- After a crash (minor or major)
- Flying in different location to last flight (far away)
- When drifting occurs in flight, i.e. Phantom does not fly in straight lines.
- When hovering, Phantom wants to fly in a circular pattern (Toilet bowl effect-TBE)
- When compass data is abnormal, the rear LED flight indicator will blink Red and Yellow (See “Led Status” section). - Something magnetic (screw driver with magnetic tip, speaker, magnet ...) got close to your compass/aircraft.
- Mechanical structure of the Phantom has changed, i.e. changed mounting position of the compass.
- If compass calibration is needed before flight, a prompt will appear on the DJI Vision app’s camera page.
Need to Know: You do not have to calibrate your compass before every flight (meaning: don’t become compass calibration crazy); this is not necessary and may actually increase your chance of having a problem. You don't want to risk introducing any issues that weren't there before by recalibrating too often. DJI recommend recalibrating only when moving far away from last flight point.
- Do the Calibration in a WIDE open space. Not in your house, your garage, near your car...
- DO NOT carry ferro-magnetic materials with you during calibration such as keys or cellular phones.
- DO NOT calibrate in areas that could have high magnetic EMI interference such as areas that are close
to power lines, cell phone towers, parking structures, reinforced concrete or steel reinforcements underground. - DO NOT calibrate beside massive metal objects (cars, buildings, fences, buried pipes & cables, etc).
Note: Compass Calibration can now also be initiated from DJI Vision - Settings page instead of using the S1 Switch.
Here is what the Phantom Summary guide has to say about it.
Compass Calibration is very important; otherwise the flight control system will not work properly. The compass is very sensitive to electromagnetic interference, which can cause abnormal compass data leading to poor flight performance or even flight failure. Regular calibration is required for optimum performance.
When to Recalibrate:
- After any firmware/software update
- After a crash (minor or major)
- Flying in different location to last flight (far away)
- When drifting occurs in flight, i.e. Phantom does not fly in straight lines.
- When hovering, Phantom wants to fly in a circular pattern (Toilet bowl effect-TBE)
- When compass data is abnormal, the rear LED flight indicator will blink Red and Yellow (See “Led Status” section). - Something magnetic (screw driver with magnetic tip, speaker, magnet ...) got close to your compass/aircraft.
- Mechanical structure of the Phantom has changed, i.e. changed mounting position of the compass.
- If compass calibration is needed before flight, a prompt will appear on the DJI Vision app’s camera page.
Need to Know: You do not have to calibrate your compass before every flight (meaning: don’t become compass calibration crazy); this is not necessary and may actually increase your chance of having a problem. You don't want to risk introducing any issues that weren't there before by recalibrating too often. DJI recommend recalibrating only when moving far away from last flight point.
- Do the Calibration in a WIDE open space. Not in your house, your garage, near your car...
- DO NOT carry ferro-magnetic materials with you during calibration such as keys or cellular phones.
- DO NOT calibrate in areas that could have high magnetic EMI interference such as areas that are close
to power lines, cell phone towers, parking structures, reinforced concrete or steel reinforcements underground. - DO NOT calibrate beside massive metal objects (cars, buildings, fences, buried pipes & cables, etc).
Note: Compass Calibration can now also be initiated from DJI Vision - Settings page instead of using the S1 Switch.
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