Phantom 3 - Compass error free flights? Anyone?

Have you had "Compass Error. Exit P-GPS Mode" warning messages while flying your Phantom 3?

  • Never

    Votes: 15 30.6%
  • Rarely

    Votes: 20 40.8%
  • Very often

    Votes: 8 16.3%
  • In every flight

    Votes: 6 12.2%

  • Total voters
    49
Joined
Aug 19, 2016
Messages
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Hello!

After sending in my Phantom 3 Advanced for inspection at DJI's US service center in California, it was repaired under warranty and shipped back to me. The repair "quote" (even though it was repaired under warranty) indicated it had the "Phantom 3 main control board component" replaced.

I received the Phantom back, performed all necessary firmware checks and calibrations (as indicated by DJI's technical support), and unfortunately I still have the same issue: the "Compass Error. Exit P-GPS Mode" warning message comes up repeatedly in every flight, and the Phantom tends to slightly deviate (mostly to the left) when commanding it to fly straight, regardless of the calibration or flying location. Same as before I sent it in the first time, I've carried out several compass calibrations in open fields, away from any metal or magnetic sources, with nothing metal on me (except the zipper in my pants...), more than 10 ft. away from the RC, several IMU calibrations, etc, and the results are still the same. I've even traveled to another state, re-calibrated, tried flying in an open beach, and still: the "Compass Error. Exit P-GPS Mode" warning message comes up repeatedly in every flight, and the Phantom tends to slightly deviate (mostly to the left) when commanding it to fly straight, regardless of the calibration or flying location.

So before going through the hassle of sending the bird back for repair again or requesting a replacement unit, and seeing multiple threads reporting similar issues, I'd like to ask other Phantom 3 Advanced pilots: Has anyone flown without ever (or at least regularly) seeing compass error messages?

Thanks in advance for the feedback!
 
Only had it happen once and it was pilot error. I took off from a metal dock and got the error about 80 ft away and 50 ft up over the water. Flew it back, hand caught it and took off again from the bank. No problems ever after that.
 
I had a similar problem. My original phantom 3 pro crashed into a canal out of nowhere. I sent the report to DJI and they covered a replacement. They said it was an internal component that failed and it had nothing to do with pilot error.

I received my new phantom and am having the same issues where it told me twice to go out of GPS mode and then it wouldn't hover steadily. It seemed to drift from side to side. I recalibrated away from anything metal etc and it still was happening. I am contemplating sending it back to dji as it is brand new and shouldn't be having these issues. I'm actually debating getting the mavic mainly because of the dual IMUs and dual compasses.
 
Thanks for the feedback. So far most people are saying "rarely".
 
The only time I have seen compass errors was when a substantial amount of steel was involved..once a transformer box in a park (when i put Swarm on top) the other was on a boat when I put Swarm on the aft deck over the engine.
 
I am getting the same issues with every flight...

Thanks for the feedback.

The only time I have seen compass errors was when a substantial amount of steel was involved..once a transformer box in a park (when i put Swarm on top) the other was on a boat when I put Swarm on the aft deck over the engine.

Thanks. It is understandable to expect magnetic interference from a power transformer and an engine, so that makes sense.
 
Hello!

After sending in my Phantom 3 Advanced for inspection at DJI's US service center in California, it was repaired under warranty and shipped back to me. The repair "quote" (even though it was repaired under warranty) indicated it had the "Phantom 3 main control board component" replaced.

I received the Phantom back, performed all necessary firmware checks and calibrations (as indicated by DJI's technical support), and unfortunately I still have the same issue: the "Compass Error. Exit P-GPS Mode" warning message comes up repeatedly in every flight, and the Phantom tends to slightly deviate (mostly to the left) when commanding it to fly straight, regardless of the calibration or flying location. Same as before I sent it in the first time, I've carried out several compass calibrations in open fields, away from any metal or magnetic sources, with nothing metal on me (except the zipper in my pants...), more than 10 ft. away from the RC, several IMU calibrations, etc, and the results are still the same. I've even traveled to another state, re-calibrated, tried flying in an open beach, and still: the "Compass Error. Exit P-GPS Mode" warning message comes up repeatedly in every flight, and the Phantom tends to slightly deviate (mostly to the left) when commanding it to fly straight, regardless of the calibration or flying location.

So before going through the hassle of sending the bird back for repair again or requesting a replacement unit, and seeing multiple threads reporting similar issues, I'd like to ask other Phantom 3 Advanced pilots: Has anyone flown without ever (or at least regularly) seeing compass error messages?

Thanks in advance for the feedback!


Hi.

I know exactly how this is, as I had two P3A with the same problem. The problem came straight away from first flight. Did every calibration method, IMU cal, FW upgrade, FW downgrade, you name it... It was always the same. Everyting looked green and good in the start, but as soon as i lifted up and rotated the copter it flashed red with compass error. Exit P-GPS mode. Sent the drone back and got another one under their 30 day return policy. Same ting, over and over. What i found out after spending hours on reading about this, is that the P3A/P3P are quite prone to compass errors, however it doesn´t seem to apply for everybody, just a few unlucky like us I guess. Maybe it is a particular series of these drones that are affected, as i read in a couple of cases, DJI replaced the compass unit with another upgraded model, and then it finally worked. Anyway, i never got a confident answer to this problem, and I ended up returning the second drone and upgrading to a P4.

I do know one thing though. You can climb to the highest mountain, wearing nothing but your birth suit, trying to get the perfect cal. It won´t help you. Either send it back requesting an upgrade for the compass or trade it with another model.
I had the P4 for 5 months now, flying over 200 batteries, and out of fear caused by all the problems i had with the P3A, i never did a compass calibration before flying the P4. And guess what, i still haven´t. Why fix something that ain´t broke, right? Not saying that this is the way to go, but i never seen any kind of errors on this drone and it flies like a dream wherever i am, so until the GO app prompts me about cal, i´ll keep on flying :)
 
I had a similar problem. My original phantom 3 pro crashed into a canal out of nowhere. I sent the report to DJI and they covered a replacement. They said it was an internal component that failed and it had nothing to do with pilot error.

I received my new phantom and am having the same issues where it told me twice to go out of GPS mode and then it wouldn't hover steadily. It seemed to drift from side to side. I recalibrated away from anything metal etc and it still was happening. I am contemplating sending it back to dji as it is brand new and shouldn't be having these issues. I'm actually debating getting the mavic mainly because of the dual IMUs and dual compasses.

For the record, the dual IMU/compass instalment started with the P4 witch also has this feature.
 
Hi.

I know exactly how this is, as I had two P3A with the same problem. The problem came straight away from first flight. Did every calibration method, IMU cal, FW upgrade, FW downgrade, you name it... It was always the same. Everyting looked green and good in the start, but as soon as i lifted up and rotated the copter it flashed red with compass error. Exit P-GPS mode. Sent the drone back and got another one under their 30 day return policy. Same ting, over and over. What i found out after spending hours on reading about this, is that the P3A/P3P are quite prone to compass errors, however it doesn´t seem to apply for everybody, just a few unlucky like us I guess. Maybe it is a particular series of these drones that are affected, as i read in a couple of cases, DJI replaced the compass unit with another upgraded model, and then it finally worked. Anyway, i never got a confident answer to this problem, and I ended up returning the second drone and upgrading to...

Hey Tommy, thanks for the comprehensive post, sharing your experience with this issue.

I just received a reply from DJI apologizing for the troubles, and advising to have the unit sent back to their service center, saying the case is being escalated to make sure they fix it properly this time. I'm requesting they at least replace the complete compass module. Stay tuned...

In the meantime, I would stil appreciate to continue hearing other people's experiences, to see whether the "unlucky ones" are fewer than those flying their P3As without compass issues.

Thanks!
 
Hi,
After a worrying flight yesterday with several compass error messages and drone going into atti mode I now have this message upon start up.

308w0p1.jpg


1grqpv.jpg


The wording in the bottom pictures is displayed when selecting the firmware tab.

I will contact dji but in the meantime was hoping someone could shed some light on a possible fix for my issue.

Scott


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots
 
Hi,
After a worrying flight yesterday with several compass error messages and drone going into atti mode I now have this message upon start up.
...

I've not seen that warning message before. It would be great if you could share what you hear from DJI when you report this.
 
Hi Skyer,
I received a email from dji support and there suggestion was to re format the sd card and reinstall the firmware.
My drone is less than 3 weeks old and I have lost all confidence in flying it for fear of losing it.
Below is a screenshot of what I presume is a related error.

jgo6jd.jpg


Cheers Scott


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots
 
Hello!

After sending in my Phantom 3 Advanced for inspection at DJI's US service center in California, it was repaired under warranty and shipped back to me. The repair "quote" (even though it was repaired under warranty) indicated it had the "Phantom 3 main control board component" replaced.

I received the Phantom back, performed all necessary firmware checks and calibrations (as indicated by DJI's technical support), and unfortunately I still have the same issue: the "Compass Error. Exit P-GPS Mode" warning message comes up repeatedly in every flight, and the Phantom tends to slightly deviate (mostly to the left) when commanding it to fly straight, regardless of the calibration or flying location. Same as before I sent it in the first time, I've carried out several compass calibrations in open fields, away from any metal or magnetic sources, with nothing metal on me (except the zipper in my pants...), more than 10 ft. away from the RC, several IMU calibrations, etc, and the results are still the same. I've even traveled to another state, re-calibrated, tried flying in an open beach, and still: the "Compass Error. Exit P-GPS Mode" warning message comes up repeatedly in every flight, and the Phantom tends to slightly deviate (mostly to the left) when commanding it to fly straight, regardless of the calibration or flying location.

So before going through the hassle of sending the bird back for repair again or requesting a replacement unit, and seeing multiple threads reporting similar issues, I'd like to ask other Phantom 3 Advanced pilots: Has anyone flown without ever (or at least regularly) seeing compass error messages?

Thanks in advance for the feedback!
Saw the error once and it was fatal for the bird. Must have suffered what yours is now going through. Mine went down in a dense forest and was unrecoverable. Fought with DJI for a month and finally got them to replace the bird. What really helped me (no longer having the drone), was some really good folks on here who could read the flight log better than I and noticed that the GPS health went to sh&t and never recovered. What I saw on my map was also indicative of a GPS/ Compass failure. This was 100% hardware failure which DJI finally had to acknowledge. Hope your issue gets resolved. I'm sure you've done all the usual checklist items such as recalibration near no metal objects.
 
After reinstalling the firmware,all the errors remain.
Contacted dji again only to be told the same thing[emoji35].
Am I banging my head against a brick wall.?


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots
 
For whoever and whatever it's worth, I've had no compass error messages with my P3P purchased about a year ago and after about 50 no crash flights.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots
 
After reinstalling the firmware,all the errors remain.
Contacted dji again only to be told the same thing[emoji35].
Am I banging my head against a brick wall.?

If you haven't done so already, I would suggest you explicitly ask them to either have the Phantom exchanged, or at least to provide you with an RMA for warranty inspection at DJI's service center.
 
Saw the error once and it was fatal for the bird. Must have suffered what yours is now going through....

For whoever and whatever it's worth, I've had no compass error messages with my P3P purchased about a year ago and after about 50 no crash flights...

Thanks for the feedback!

Tomorrow I'm shipping my P3A back to DJI's service center in California for inspection once again... I'll share how it that goes.
 
Hi,
After 10 emails back and forth to dji Europe I was not really any further forward.
To be fair to dji they did get back to me on all occasions within a 3 hour period.Unfortunately everything they suggested did not clear any errors.
As the drone was only 17 days old I contacted my retailer here in the uk for advise.
The reply via a phone call was to bring it back for exchange,refund or another product.I had a think about which direction to go in.
I decided to pay the difference and exchanged it for the mavic pro.This is now on pre order so hopefully I will have it soon.

Scott


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots
 
I'm new to phantoms. Bought last week used P3S. First 12 kilometers without any problems. Did about 10 flights My max distance was 960m (with windsurfer) from home point with latest firmware (many ppl have range problem with this one). Few days ago i went to about 500m range and experienced first warning:Compass Error. Exit P-GPS Mode. As a new user i wasn't aware about possibility of compas errors midflight so it was strange to me that it started to drift on the wind. I had still some visual and hit RTH. Somehow it went back to me in one piece. Now i'm afraid to fly longer distances. I will do complete calibration soon but there is bad weather anyway so no hurry. Got question for you guys: In case of compass error which will occur for extended peroid of time, when i hit RTH or lose conection with phantom, will it use GPS to come home or it will be drifting till crash?

Btw. I've flown later to test it again and when i was 100 meters from home point i had compass error again. Arrrggg.
 

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