Crash from a compass error and loss gps

[kerrylaw7307]

I agree with JamesT1950....

 

[Meta4]

I agree with JamesT1950.... ONLY calibrate your compass if you are have "compass errors", or you move to a new location 250 miles away.

There's no need to calibrate because of any distance from anywhere.
It's only poor wording in old manuals that made people believe it was necessary.
The updated text in DJI manuals no longer suggests this.

(Yes, I know the P4 manual has a mix of new and old compass text, the others have all been updated correctly)

 

[Ken Hanks]

I ordered a Phantom 3 advanced several months ago and just got around to flying it. I have flown it less than 10+ times but up until this point had no issues over the last week of flying. I have flown from the same site every time and have recalibrated compass at the beginning of each day. This evening I went out for a flight and notice I forgot to put my SD card in so I brought it back landed and put SD card in. A couple minutes later I went for another flight, everything seemed fine. Then all of sudden I got an error message "Warning: Compass Error. Exit P-GPS mode". When this error hit it was only 330 ft from me and 90 feet off the ground. It started to drift away from me and I managed to get it to come down but seemed to be extremely sluggish and not responding to inputs. Unfortunealyt it hit a tree on the way down flipped over and slammed into the ground. While upside down the motors continued to run even after I was pushing down on the stick, if you look at the blades it completely ground the tops off. Additionally, upon impact, the camera popped off the gimbal and it looks like the frame separated on one of the arms. Is this something DJI will fix given the thing malfunctioned?

Thanks

You don't have to calibrate the compass every time, only if you travel over 100 miles.

 

[Steve7777]

You don't have to calibrate the compass every time, only if you travel over 100 miles.

This is still quite hotly debated here, Ken, but (see post #62 above) I think the more prevalent view is that it's not necessary to calibrate even after you have travelled a long distance away.

Anyway, there's no need for another debate as it's been done so many times before. I personally leave my compass calibration well alone, as I seem to have a good one. Nowadays, I'd only recalibrate the compass if I got a message telling me to do so or other possibly related error messages, which has never happened in my case.

 

[Thermographer]

This is still quite hotly debated here, Ken, but (see post #62 above) I think the more prevalent view is that it's not necessary to calibrate even after you have travelled a long distance away.

Anyway, there's no need for another debate as it's been done so many times before. I personally leave my compass calibration well alone, as I seem to have a good one. Nowadays, I'd only recalibrate the compass if I got a message telling me to do so or other possibly related error messages, which has never happened in my case.

I just recently traveled ~200 miles with two of my drones (P3S & P34K) and did not calibrate either compass and had no ill effects... just my .02...

 

[Pete Leare]

I had posted this also in another thread, but thought it would be helpful if I posted here also....
I have a P3 Pro. The last compass calibration I did was over a year ago in NH. I drove to Cincinnati for Thanksgiving last week and took my P3 with me (900 miles away).
I DID NOT do a calibration and had absolutely no problems with all aspects of flight.
I have never seen any sort of calibration prompt, and never calibrate the compass. However, I would if prompted to do so.
I may be tempted if I had traveled overseas, but in the US I leave it alone.
I fly several times a week all over the States as I travel quite a bit with work and take my P3 with me.
Farthest away I’ve been from the last calibration (in NH) was Austin TX. No problems there either.

 

[sar104]

You don't have to calibrate the compass every time, only if you travel over 100 miles.

With the P3 and later, location is irrelevant. The purpose of the compass calibration is simply to subtract the magnetic field due to components on the aircraft itself. Unless those change, or their state of magnetization changes, or the magnetometers are changed, then there is nothing to be gained from calibrating.