Fly away after upgrading firmware

[Heli_Fixer]

Thanks RodPad. All I can say is two spots that I calibrated and flew from with the issues are areas I have flown many times before. The time with the FlyAway was in an open field.

 

[RodPad]

And you're 100% certain that you did not calibrate the compass and/or take off near a magnetic metal object?

I'm kind of confused,
Post #1 "did all my checks and calibrated the compass."
Post #18 "I then went out to an open field and accomplished a compass calibration."

To me he is stating that he did a compass calibration just before his last flight.

Rod

 

[msinger]

Agreed. The question is whether or not there was any type of interference in the area. The flight log either shows there was interference or a faulty compass. The latter is very uncommon and it would be unfortunate to see the OP replace a perfectly good compass.

 

[RodPad]

Got it!

Rod

 

[HWCM]

And put in on a leash so it can't get too far? Not a great feeling watching this thing fly away with no control. I had 2 short flights before this one that had control issues with good compass calibrations. I shall do the repairs necessary to get her back in the air and accomplish a 'good' calibration from the link provided by RodPad

DJI even says to NOT calibrate the compass before every flight. I have been flying and building these things for years. Once you get a good calibration, you leave it alone. The Earth's declination does not change enough from location to location to require it. Unless you travel hundreds and hundreds of miles from your last location, it is a bad idea. It is actually worse to calibrate the compass before every flight, the more you calibrate the compass, the more chances of allowing errors in the calibration.
The DJI community is the only one that I have seen where their is this theroy that the compass needs calibrating before EVERY new flight. I have built and flown APM, Pixhawk, DJI, NAZE , CC3D...none of them require a new calibration before every flight. It is simply unnecessary. As you have learned..[emoji6]

 

[Flack]

I agree with HWCM about the compass calibration, I have only done two compass calibrations on my P3P in the time I have owned it, and both where in the UK, I have taken my bird to Spain a few times and never recalibrated it and its always been fine.

 

[kfamous]

DJI even says to NOT calibrate the compass before every flight. I have been flying and building these things for years. Once you get a good calibration, you leave it alone. The Earth's declination does not change enough from location to location to require it. Unless you travel hundreds and hundreds of miles from your last location, it is a bad idea. It is actually worse to calibrate the compass before every flight, the more you calibrate the compass, the more chances of allowing errors in the calibration.
The DJI community is the only one that I have seen where their is this theroy that the compass needs calibrating before EVERY new flight. I have built and flown APM, Pixhawk, DJI, NAZE , CC3D...none of them require a new calibration before every flight. It is simply unnecessary. As you have learned..[emoji6]

Only my two cents...I am new, and my bird requests a compass calibration prior to 98% of my flights. It won't let me take off without it. Is there a problem with my drone?

 

[msinger]

my bird requests a compass calibration prior to 98% of my flights

What exactly do you see when it is requesting this?

 

[kfamous]

Prompts me to Calibrate. When I try to start the props, it gives a compass error.

 

[msinger]

That's not prompting you. It's just the button you click if you want to calibrate the compass.

 

[kfamous]

That's not prompting you. It's just the button you click if you want to calibrate the compass.

Bad screen cap. I will capture the error next time I go to fly, the one the indicates a compass error. Thanks

 

[HWCM]

Bad screen cap. I will capture the error next time I go to fly, the one the indicates a compass error. Thanks

You should never get a compass error unless something in your surroundings is upsetting the compass. I have had my Phantom for over a year and have calibrated it one time. The first day I flew it. I have taken it six hours away from home and flew it out across the beach and ocean with no issues.

 

[Numone]

Calibrated mine so long ago, I can't remember when it was, but I think it was at the same time as I calibrated the IMU. I've travelled with it in planes, trains and cars and, touch wood, never had an issue.

 

[Dronezin]

Noob here. What about IMU calibration? Didn't see that mentioned here.

 

[msinger]

What about IMU calibration? Didn't see that mentioned here.

What about it?

 

[Dronezin]

Op said erratic behavior

 

[Mavicdrone72]

My drone for the last two flights has had control issues. It seems to have a mind of its own. I noticed a new firmware for the drone and updated it a couple of days ago. Today was a nice day to try a flight again. I went out to an open field where I have flown before, did all my checks and calibrated the compass. I took off and the drone immediately had control issues. Within a few seconds it took off towards town. Control inputs seem to change direction and speed a bit, but the drone kept flying away. I push the RTH button (before takeoff, the home point was updated) with no affect, it just kept going away. I tried turning the drone and fly it back to me backwards, but that wouldn't work either.
I uploaded the info to Airdata, but not too sure what all the info is trying to tell me.
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Update...I got a call and someone found my drone. I got it back. Some damage but I think it is salvageable.

This just happened to me a few days ago, but I'm. It as lucky as you to get my drone back. On Thursday I flew my mavic with no issues for over 45 min. I then had a firmware update that prompted me to to complete the update. On Saturday I took it out for a flight in the park and did my usual checks before putting it up in the air. I was prompted to calibrate the compass, which I did. I then set my home and sent it up a few feet to make sure my home was set before actually flying it.......then.......‍ **** got real. I then lost all control of my drone and after trying to press the RTH button ....it flew further away and stated that I needed to re calibrate my compass and then I lost connection and she was gone. After tracking it down biased on the find your drone function it was not where it said it was ..... I'm having to send all my flight info to DJI to see if they will replace my drone. After speaking to customer service they explained the new firmware has been linked to majority of the fly aways on the mavic and the way I explained my situation he stated that is a classic case of firmware update issues and once the tech team look at it they should issue me a new one. I'll wait to see if that happens .

 

[Meta4]

Firmware updates get blamed for lots of things that they aren't responsible for.
It's quite unlikely that a firmware update would cause your Phantom to fly away.

I then had a firmware update that prompted me to to complete the update. On Saturday I took it out for a flight in the park and did my usual checks before putting it up in the air. I was prompted to calibrate the compass, which I did.

This sounds suspicious.
About the only thing that would "prompt" you to recalibrate the compass is putting your drone close to a lot of steel (like on reinforced concrete for example)
ANd the actual message in the app tells you to move the drone or recalibrate.
That's poor wording because 99.9% of the time, the correct action is to move away from the magnetic influence.
Recalibrating within the magnetic distortion means that as soon as your drone gets out of that magnetic influence ** Bingo** now your compass has no idea where north is and it's telling the flight controller things that the GPS disagrees with.

To find out what really hapened and see how good my guess is ...
Go to https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
Follow the instructions to upload your flight record.
Come back and post a link to the report it provides and someone here might be able to analyse it and give you an understanding of the cause of the incident.

 

[Mavicdrone72]

Firmware updates get blamed for lots of things that they aren't responsible for.
It's quite unlikely that a firmware update would cause your Phantom to fly away.

This sounds suspicious.
About the only thing that would "prompt" you to recalibrate the compass is putting your drone close to a lot of steel (like on reinforced concrete for example)
ANd the actual message in the app tells you to move the drone or recalibrate.
That's poor wording because 99.9% of the time, the correct action is to move away from the magnetic influence.
Recalibrating within the magnetic distortion means that as soon as your drone gets out of that magnetic influence ** Bingo** now your compass has no idea where north is and it's telling the flight controller things that the GPS disagrees with.

To find out what really hapened and see how good my guess is ...
Go to https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
Follow the instructions to upload your flight record.
Come back and post a link to the report it provides and someone here might be able to analyse it and give you an understanding of the cause of the incident.

Understandable so and I would agree with you if I did not calibrate my drone/mavic in an open grassy field without the sign nor detection of metal anywhere. As fare as the firmware being blamed, I'm only quoting DJI tech support who stated that their firmware has in fact been the cause of the fly aways as of late. I've flew my drone a few times without this issue and the flight after the update it goes haywire seems pretty suspicious to me. Also to have the tech of the company confirm my suspicion is pretty conveniencing don't you think?

 

[Mavicdrone72]

Understandable so and I would agree with you if I did not calibrate my drone/mavic in an open grassy field without the sign nor detection of metal anywhere. As fare as the firmware being blamed, I'm only quoting DJI tech support who stated that their firmware has in fact been the cause of the fly aways as of late. I've flew my drone a few times without this issue and the flight after the update it goes haywire seems pretty suspicious to me. Also to have the tech of the company confirm my suspicion is pretty conveniencing don't you think?

Also after calibrating my compass before flying it stated that the compass was successful calibrated. Once in the air for about 30 sec. it asked to calibrate my compass once more, which as soon as I attempted to manually land it it would not follow any of the stick commands.