New Phantom 4 Pro 2.0 Constant Compass Errors

[brantel]

At this point I will call these questions instead of issues since this thing is so new to me and I don't know what normal is.

So yesterday I received my new P4P 2.0 and got it ready to fly last evening and everything charged up today. Connected to the iOS DJI Go 4 app today, activated it, and calibrated the IMU.

Took it outside and while the first page that pops up with all the status stuff on it after connecting stated all was OK, but as soon as I tried to fly I noticed these screen keep telling me something to the effect of:

"Warning:In Flight, working compass encounters data exception,please switch to atti mode if craft behave abnormally"

So I then went to the sensor status page and it says to calibrate the compass.

So I did and it said it completed and I was able to see compass status numbers and they were very low on the scale so I took off. I hovered it around a bit. Man this thing is way way quieter than my Mavic Air! But I noticed that when I would punch it up or down quickly, the drone would yaw a bit on its own and this freaked me out so I landed and tried more calibrations of the compass.

I did this about 5 times in 5 different locations around my yard and each time it told me calibration was complete but I kept getting those warnings on the screen and every time I went back to the compass status page, it would tell me to recalibrate the compass.

Is the P4P 2.0 that sensitive to compass calibrations?

If I find a flat field with nothing around for a few hundred yards will that help?

Any tips to calibrate the compass differently than what I do with the Mavic Air?

 

[MotorCycle-Man]

Yes......that sure will help...You can even have cast iron pipes in the ground below a compass calibration site......I had to calibrate mine and when i did.i went way out in a open field....and did the swing around and when i got close to the full circle..i took it pass that point ah 10 degs and then brought it back to the start point...then rotated it again a different position and swung it around and 10 degs pass the start point to fully insure and complete 360 degs...GOOD LUCK and let us know how your doing.

 

[RunningWithScissors]

Any tips to calibrate the compass differently than what I do with the Mavic Air?

Good suggestion above from MCM. There's been volumes posted on this site concerning compass calibration, how to do it properly, and how often it needs to be done, so I won't beat that dead horse again. Suffice to say, if you calibrate your compass in an area free of magnetic interference, and you end up with a properly calibrated compass, you shouldn't have to calibrate it again unless something out of the ordinary happens to the compass. I'm not referring to the occasional compass errors that you may get if you encounter magnetic interferrence in a specific location. Those errors are warning you of magnetic interference and telling you to move to a safer location. It does not mean to recalibrate the compass. If you get compass errors regardless of where you go, then likely something else is going on that needs to be investigated.

 

[brantel]

Thanks Guys, the drone was swapped out today (a USA based DJI support manager suggested it get swapped that it was likely defective) at Best Buy (no questions asked since it was brand new) and the new one is awaiting being fired up. I will let you know how it goes. This time I am just going to pull it out and get a good GPS lock and fly the sucker without any calibrations.

 

[brantel]

New drone here and flying. Bad news is that it does something very similar. Here are my notification logs:
Jun 1st, 2018 06:26PM | General / Notifications | Drone Flight Log from DJI GO app, version 4.2.16 on iOS | Total Mileage: 370 ft | United States | Airdata UAV

At this point I think this is some sort of bug that is not a real problem. The drone appears to fly fine. I am headed to another location just to be consistent.

This time I pulled it out of the box and went outside and flew it. No calibrations whatsoever.

Since this thing appears to have new guts vs the P4P, is there a chance this is just a bug since it has done the same on 2 different drones?

 

[brantel]

Another longer flight with much more zipping and zagging around.

Jun 1st, 2018 07:30PM | General / Notifications | Drone Flight Log from DJI GO app, version 4.2.16 on iOS | Total Mileage: 3,677 ft | United States | Airdata UAV

Same same on the compass warnings.

Drone flys like a dream!

 

[brantel]

If anyone wants to dig deeper into the logs:

Here are the TXT flight logs for the last 2 flights:

This one was a shakedown run...
DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

This one was a high hover taking pics of a sunset:
DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

Here are the DAT files for the same 2 flights:
https://drive.google.com/open?id ... WQelJScC4PZp7TIHUml

https://drive.google.com/open?id ... kKOBM10yXbpkwC41WC2

 

[brantel]

Another poster on the DJI forum is reporting something similar on Android.

 

[brantel]

Heard back from a USA based DJI support manager and here is his response: “I was able to speak with engineering. It’s a bug and they are already working on a fix. They agreed safe to fly.”

 

[brantel]

Update... I decided to return the second drone to the dealer and brought home another brand new one. Took it out of the box and activated it and then flew it. No issues were found with the compass sensor status page, I get the normal sensor numbers, not seeing any compass redundancy switch messages and not seeing any warnings that the primary compass has failed/switch to ATTI mode if the craft acts weird.

I am not claiming victory yet till I get some more time on her but I am optimistic that the third drone is a charm!