Fixing DJI's Compass Problem

[SilentAV8R]

I've seen the videos of the TBE. I know it is real, for many people. But mine does nothing like that. On calm days it holds like gangbusters. When windy, it is far less accurate when it comes to holding position. Sometimes mine will drift to the left a small amount when I am moving very fast and let go of the sticks, but never beyond what I expect of the GPS to maintain it, and it stays pointed in the direction it was going when I stopped it. It does not yaw off heading.

Mine is a P2V purchased on March 28, 2014. I am running the 3.02 firmware. I have just over 80 flights on it.

Maybe I am just not picky enough

 

[SilentAV8R]

I'm 90% sure this is the case. Most people don't even know it's happening until they have a reason to fly straight (tight spots, lining up shots, etc.). And even then, many of us don't know what's normal until we get familiar with it.

I'll accept that I am the village idiot then. If only I was smarter I'd know that I had a problem. Thanks for pointing that out for me. :?

 

[xtonex]

I've seen the videos of the TBE. I know it is real, for many people. But mine does nothing like that. On calm days it holds like gangbusters. When windy, it is far less accurate when it comes to holding position. Sometimes mine will drift to the left a small amount when I am moving very fast and let go of the sticks, but never beyond what I expect of the GPS to maintain it, and it stays pointed in the direction it was going when I stopped it. It does not yaw off heading.

Mine is a P2V purchased on March 28, 2014. I am running the 3.02 firmware. I have just over 80 flights on it.

Maybe I am just not picky enough

Ignore the TBE videos. the one i seen recently is NUTS anyways and not the norm as far as im concerned. my tbe is very very slight. its the straight runs where the issues shows itself very badly for me

 

[PCDan]

I don't really notice TBE with my Phantoms, but the j-hook is VERY pronounced. When you guys say TBE, you mean that it hovers in a circle, right? If mine do, it is a very small circle, but like I said, my Phantoms fly "straight" about 15 degrees off and at the end of a run, drift about 20 feet to the left (at the beginning of a battery). I'm curious too....

As far as hovering accuracy, DJI states that the accuracy is 0.8 m and 2.5 m horizontal. That is 2.62 feet vertically and 8.2 feet laterally.

So that means yours Phantom can wander around inside a cylinder that is 5 meters across and 1.6 meters tall (16 feet across x 5.25 feet tall) and still be in spec. That is the stated accuracy.

That's about what mine does, so in spec. I do seem to lose some elevation flying straight out, and with some hook.

 

[SilentAV8R]

I've seen the videos of the TBE. I know it is real, for many people. But mine does nothing like that. On calm days it holds like gangbusters. When windy, it is far less accurate when it comes to holding position. Sometimes mine will drift to the left a small amount when I am moving very fast and let go of the sticks, but never beyond what I expect of the GPS to maintain it, and it stays pointed in the direction it was going when I stopped it. It does not yaw off heading.

Mine is a P2V purchased on March 28, 2014. I am running the 3.02 firmware. I have just over 80 flights on it.

Maybe I am just not picky enough

Ignore the TBE videos. the one i seen recently is NUTS anyways and not the norm as far as im concerned. my tbe is very very slight. its the straight runs where the issues shows itself very badly for me

I am not ignoring them. They are real, but I also do not think they represent the majority, but DJI should do whatever they can do mitigate those occurrences and improve the product for all of us. No issue with that.

When you say "very badly" how much displacement are you talking about?? Like I said, I have minor adjustments that to me are within acceptable limits, usually less than 2 spans of the Phantom.

 

[ianwood]

I've seen the videos of the TBE. I know it is real, for many people. But mine does nothing like that. On calm days it holds like gangbusters. When windy, it is far less accurate when it comes to holding position. Sometimes mine will drift to the left a small amount when I am moving very fast and let go of the sticks, but never beyond what I expect of the GPS to maintain it, and it stays pointed in the direction it was going when I stopped it. It does not yaw off heading.

To be clear. This is not a TBE issue. TBE is one of many symptoms and not everyone gets it. Holding position is not the issue either. What you described as "drifting to the left" is the primary symptom. I suggest you retest that at the beginning of a new flight.

I'll accept that I am the village idiot then. If only I was smarter I'd know that I had a problem. Thanks for pointing that out for me. :?

I am not saying that at all. I am saying that I am very confident in my conclusions. I have seen the hard data and with so many people reporting the issue consistently, there is little doubt. That said, there is a small possibility your Phantom is somehow different but it is much more likely that you haven't noticed it because of your flying style and needs. For example, people who do mostly distance FPV flying with their Phantoms won't normally notice it.

When you say "very badly" how much displacement are you talking about?? Like I said, I have minor adjustments that to me are within acceptable limits, usually less than 2 spans of the Phantom.

To recap from several pages earlier in this thread, this is an actual GPS plot of the issue. This was done at the very beginning of flight with full forward elevator, letting go, waiting for it to settle, then full reverse elevator and letting it settle. It is an extreme outcome as result of the way it was done in order to illustrate the issue. It wouldn't be this extreme in normal flight.

This is a plot of a 7 or 8 minute flight in which you can see the hooks clean up over time.

 

[xtonex]

I've seen the videos of the TBE. I know it is real, for many people. But mine does nothing like that. On calm days it holds like gangbusters. When windy, it is far less accurate when it comes to holding position. Sometimes mine will drift to the left a small amount when I am moving very fast and let go of the sticks, but never beyond what I expect of the GPS to maintain it, and it stays pointed in the direction it was going when I stopped it. It does not yaw off heading.

Mine is a P2V purchased on March 28, 2014. I am running the 3.02 firmware. I have just over 80 flights on it.

Maybe I am just not picky enough

Ignore the TBE videos. the one i seen recently is NUTS anyways and not the norm as far as im concerned. my tbe is very very slight. its the straight runs where the issues shows itself very badly for me

I am not ignoring them. They are real, but I also do not think they represent the majority, but DJI should do whatever they can do mitigate those occurrences and improve the product for all of us. No issue with that.

When you say "very badly" how much displacement are you talking about?? Like I said, I have minor adjustments that to me are within acceptable limits, usually less than 2 spans of the Phantom.

I know TBE is real and i occasionally see it worse then other times not to mention theres other things that can cause tbe in my opin. but for me its not as bad as the hook distance which if i had to put a number on it id say ive seen it hook a good 20 ft easy. then halfway thru the battery its less than half of that. and right b4 im ready to land its maybe a ft or 2. the naza obviously is doing something to correct it just not soon enuff

1 thing im thinking of here tho is every time i do my test straight runs, im flying west (forward) and east (reverse) i dont think ive tried to really test in other direction. also i think when i fly it higher up i get less of a hook as well but i will check that out tonight when i get home from work.


PS. Ian's graphic kinda tells me that im gonna see the same issue flying straight north and south as well but ill still check it out for my area anyways

 

[landonkk]

An interesting thing was pointed out today over on another forum. Apparently, this is B&H Photos description of what the anti-interference board is for:

"The Anti-Interference Board is also included with this gimbal. The board is for installation in the Phantom 2, and helps ensure the quadcopter flies straight even in areas with high magnetic declination. This is beneficial because the DJI Phantom 2 has an issue with magnetic declination in which it will not fly straight when using GPS- and compass-based navigation modes in areas of the world with high magnetic declination (where Magnetic North and True North deviate sharply). While the Phantom 2 adapts to deviations in compass heading based on the GPS course over time, it does so slowly, taking several minutes of flying before the aircraft can fly straight. Each time the Phantom 2 is turned off, these adaptations to fly straight are lost and the process must be repeated."

We all know what that is about, and that the anti-interference board has nothing to do with correcting it, but I wonder where they got that info!?!

Here is the link: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1 ... imbal.html

 

[ianwood]

What the...??? That is beyond weird. I just messaged them to tell them it is totally wrong and asked what their source was for that information.

And BTW, I can confirm it does nothing for the compass issue.

 

[Skimmer]

I haven't been on the site in a long time. I'm a snow bird and moved from Florida back to New York for the summer. In Florida my Phantom 2 worked flawless. I was very comfortable with flying it. My background is Aerodynamics and forty plus years of military (U.S. Navy), civilian, airline and RC flying.

I didn't have a senior moment when I came to NY and took my first flight in a very easy area to fly. I knew nothing of these compass problems you have been discussing. I put the P2 on the ground, everything checked out like my 300+ flights I have made with my P2 with the exception of doing a compass swing in NY.

Zoom, off I go. Holy Crap and WTF is going on. It hooked and went a lot further than sixteen feet and headed for trees. I calmed it down but it was tough to control the hooking turns. Light Bulb. Holy Crap A-hole, compass swing. I came back and landed. ****, senior moment arrives, I can't remember how to do a compass swing. S1, S2, which one, no manual, too lazy to go to computer. WTF. Let's fly some more. Moved further out into the open. Takeoff. Not real stable. Hooking turns but controllable. I flew it often in ATT and high winds along the Florida surf line. Scared a lot of things in the beginning mostly me, my P2 and some friendly surfers. I'm comfortable flying this thing. In NY, at no time did I feel comfortable in trusting a hover near anything.

Alright time to find out how to do a compass swing. Oh yeah, S1, five times, rotate horizontal.......Good to go.

Takeoff. Hook. Crash into gazebo thirty-eight feet away. Video to follow when I get another reader. Forgot mine in Florida.

Need a new Zenmuse gimbal, snapped it in half. Snapped a blade tip. Ejected the battery (not the first time, nor the first crash). Took off blades, ran motors, bent gimbal to fit under legs. Replaced blades, turned on, GPS, sideways video and zoom back in the air. Hovering at three feet, it flew but was not stable. Landed and came on here to read about this problem.

My feelings. Something isn't right somewhere. I have too many flights to not be able to have controlled the crash. I'm definitely not bitter towards anything with what happened. It happened and needs to be worked out. No blame. Would love to get a price break on a new gimbal. If not, oh well. "Oh Dear, my Phantom broke, do you want me to spend the days inside with you, perhaps we can get passionate or can I buy a new gimbal for $300+? Do, da, do, da, do, do, do......Do, da, do, da, Dooot.......Thank you, Dear. I will get in contact with B & H Photo right away."

 

[hsestes]

Ok, I am not sure if this fits here or not.. I haven't noticed mine hooking ( I live in south-eastern US), but have noticed on initial take off and forward flight that it drifts to the right as I am flying away - straight with no stick inputs. After a while it will correct itself and fly straight, but this has happened on both of my P2's.

I always wait for good GPS locks, and twenty greens, and have even done compass dance, and advanced calibrations, etc...

Is this the same situation?

 

[landonkk]

Ok, I am not sure if this fits here or not.. I haven't noticed mine hooking ( I live in south-eastern US), but have noticed on initial take off and forward flight that it drifts to the right as I am flying away - straight with no stick inputs. After a while it will correct itself and fly straight, but this has happened on both of my P2's.

I always wait for good GPS locks, and twenty greens, and have even done compass dance, and advanced calibrations, etc...

Is this the same situation?

Sounds like it could be. Have you checked the magnetic declination of where you are located? If it is +/- anything over 10 you are probably experiencing it.

 

[xtonex]

I haven't been on the site in a long time. I'm a snow bird and moved from Florida back to New York for the summer. In Florida my Phantom 2 worked flawless. I was very comfortable with flying it. My background is Aerodynamics and forty plus years of military (U.S. Navy), civilian, airline and RC flying.

I didn't have a senior moment when I came to NY and took my first flight in a very easy area to fly. I knew nothing of these compass problems you have been discussing. I put the P2 on the ground, everything checked out like my 300+ flights I have made with my P2 with the exception of doing a compass swing in NY.

Zoom, off I go. Holy Crap and WTF is going on. It hooked and went a lot further than sixteen feet and headed for trees. I calmed it down but it was tough to control the hooking turns. Light Bulb. Holy Crap A-hole, compass swing. I came back and landed. ****, senior moment arrives, I can't remember how to do a compass swing. S1, S2, which one, no manual, too lazy to go to computer. WTF. Let's fly some more. Moved further out into the open. Takeoff. Not real stable. Hooking turns but controllable. I flew it often in ATT and high winds along the Florida surf line. Scared a lot of things in the beginning mostly me, my P2 and some friendly surfers. I'm comfortable flying this thing. In NY, at no time did I feel comfortable in trusting a hover near anything.

Alright time to find out how to do a compass swing. Oh yeah, S1, five times, rotate horizontal.......Good to go.

Takeoff. Hook. Crash into gazebo thirty-eight feet away. Video to follow when I get another reader. Forgot mine in Florida.

Need a new Zenmuse gimbal, snapped it in half. Snapped a blade tip. Ejected the battery (not the first time, nor the first crash). Took off blades, ran motors, bent gimbal to fit under legs. Replaced blades, turned on, GPS, sideways video and zoom back in the air. Hovering at three feet, it flew but was not stable. Landed and came on here to read about this problem.

My feelings. Something isn't right somewhere. I have too many flights to not be able to have controlled the crash. I'm definitely not bitter towards anything with what happened. It happened and needs to be worked out. No blame. Would love to get a price break on a new gimbal. If not, oh well. "Oh Dear, my Phantom broke, do you want me to spend the days inside with you, perhaps we can get passionate or can I buy a new gimbal for $300+? Do, da, do, da, do, do, do......Do, da, do, da, Dooot.......Thank you, Dear. I will get in contact with B & H Photo right away."

What part of NY?

 

[obiwan_pierogi]

I downloaded the recent upgrades, so I thought I would try with the compass back to the standard factory placement, see if there was any changes in flight characteristics , as a result.. .. I did the advanced IMU calibration, then the compass.. All no. were within proper parameters.. Lifted off.. Right away the craft starts drifting away.. Major left hooking on the straight runs.. And why does the copter take so long to come to a stop, after you let go of the forward toggle? I'm glad I've acquired a bit more flying experience, since the last time I flew with the compass in the normal position; otherwise, I would have crashed again.. I just finished moving the compass back to the 39 degree off centre.. I still think there's a weak electronic part involved here somewhere..

 

[landonkk]

What the...??? That is beyond weird. I just messaged them to tell them it is totally wrong and asked what their source was for that information.

And BTW, I can confirm it does nothing for the compass issue.

It is weird. I am wondering if it was A) BH is having complaints about the j-hook issue, so this was their idea, or B) one of their contacts at DJI confused the issues.

Either way, this has to be a net positive for us in that there are enough complaints out there that it is getting some traction.... right?

 

[Major_Defeat]

Hello,

My first post here but I thought I'd chip in with my experiences. My P2V came from Shenzen (where I believe the company is) and whilst there it flew great. This was flown there for a couple of months with no dodgy flight characteristics whatsoever. Have video. My father lives there and got it, so I know it's not been crashed etc,.

Then it got sent down to me here in NZ. I am a new quad pilot, so GPS assist is key for me. However, since the first flight it's been shocking; toilet bowls getting bigger and bigger with no control input, never flies straight and drifts to the side. It does get better with time for everything other than flying in a straight line. Even then, at the end of a short run, it jinks to the side.
I have done all calibrations and upgraded firmwares myself.

Being new to FPV this is extremely unnerving and limits me to basically going up and down for shots. In frustration I have switched to naza mode and am learning to fly ATT mode, which for me is not ideal and I am spending all my time flying and not taking video. If I hadn't have learned on a mini quad I would definitely have crashed hard by now! Have never used RTH feature as I have zero confidence in where it will end up.

My points here are twofold: 1: I don't think this is a component 'failure' per se, but a programming one as mentioned in previous posts bourne out by the fact it's been tested in two completely different locations. It's not a bad batch imo.

2: In this state, P2 are not novice friendly in certain areas of the world (but you already knew this I'm guessing).

So please put me down as an affected user and I'm happy to help out in any way I can.

Cheers,
A



You clicked here:
Latitude: 42° 52' 33.5" S
Longitude: 172° 37' 51.3" E
Magnetic declination: 23° 5' EAST
Declination is POSITIVE
Inclination: -68° 5'
Magnetic field strength: 57261.0 nT

 

[ianwood]

I haven't been on the site in a long time. I'm a snow bird and moved from Florida back to New York for the summer. In Florida my Phantom 2 worked flawless. I was very comfortable with flying it. My background is Aerodynamics and forty plus years of military (U.S. Navy), civilian, airline and RC flying.

I didn't have a senior moment when I came to NY and took my first flight in a very easy area to fly. I knew nothing of these compass problems you have been discussing. I put the P2 on the ground, everything checked out like my 300+ flights I have made with my P2 with the exception of doing a compass swing in NY.

...

Takeoff. Hook. Crash into gazebo thirty-eight feet away. Video to follow when I get another reader. Forgot mine in Florida

You should definitely recalibrate the compass when you travel with the Phantom and make sure you've got the process down but that notwithstanding, your experience is consistent with the working assumptions. You Phantom worked fine in Florida where the declination is near 0 and in NY it was hooking and not as controllable with a declination of -13.

Ok, I am not sure if this fits here or not.. I haven't noticed mine hooking ( I live in south-eastern US), but have noticed on initial take off and forward flight that it drifts to the right as I am flying away - straight with no stick inputs. After a while it will correct itself and fly straight, but this has happened on both of my P2's.

It sounds like it. Even in declination areas as low as +/-5, you can see a small hook in the very beginning that cleans up pretty quickly. When in an area of high declination it is much more pronounced.

I still think there's a weak electronic part involved here somewhere..

There may be something making yours worse than others. Buy yourself a new compass to be sure. They're cheap. No matter what, you still have the same issue everyone else here does.

My first post here but I thought I'd chip in with my experiences. My P2V came from Shenzen (where I believe the company is) and whilst there it flew great. This was flown there for a couple of months with no dodgy flight characteristics whatsoever. Have video. My father lives there and got it, so I know it's not been crashed etc,.

Then it got sent down to me here in NZ. I am a new quad pilot, so GPS assist is key for me. However, since the first flight it's been shocking; toilet bowls getting bigger and bigger with no control input, never flies straight and drifts to the side. It does get better with time for everything other than flying in a straight line. Even then, at the end of a short run, it jinks to the side.
I have done all calibrations and upgraded firmwares myself.

Another example of the same P2x working fine in a place with a low declination and then hooking and TBE like crazy in an area with a very high declination. Thanks for sharing it.

 

[Skimmer]

What part of NY?

Long Island. Which seems strange, I thought we were on more of a sand base. Upstate NY has a lot of iron ore.

 

[hsestes]

Ok, I am not sure if this fits here or not.. I haven't noticed mine hooking ( I live in south-eastern US), but have noticed on initial take off and forward flight that it drifts to the right as I am flying away - straight with no stick inputs. After a while it will correct itself and fly straight, but this has happened on both of my P2's.

I always wait for good GPS locks, and twenty greens, and have even done compass dance, and advanced calibrations, etc...

Is this the same situation?

Sounds like it could be. Have you checked the magnetic declination of where you are located? If it is +/- anything over 10 you are probably experiencing it.

Looks like my magnetic declination is about a - 4 at my location....

 

[hsestes]

And so I am planning a trip across the US. What should I be prepared to see as I travel to areas of greater declination? Increased wandering in forward flight? I will be sure to document my experiences and report back :?: