Powerlines

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I used to have a P2 and was aware that nearby powerlines could cause signal issues. I now have a P3P but could powerlines affect the signal? I was wondering if wifi and lightbridge were still affected the same. There is a nice open field by my house but there are powerlines on the outer edge where I'd be launching. I seen someone there last July flying their phantom in the same area because they were recording the 4th of July fireworks show. I was just curious if I need to be concerned at all.
 
I think you will get a warning in the Go App if you are too close. I fly my P3P from my front yard and the power lines are about 50ft from me. Never had any issue but these are only 4000 volts. If you are close to main transmission lines which can carry 100,000 volts stay as far away from them as possible. Power lines create a electromagnetic field which could give a false compass calibration. Just my 2 cents. Happy flying!!!!!!!!!
 
I have a main transmission line running behind my house & you shouldn't fly around them , but I do , it too convenient of an area for me not to practice . I had a crash earlier this year & DJI blamed on compass error , because I was around them , but I watched a Prop fly off & that's why I crashed , its a long story & they wouldn't cover it , even though I watched it happen, so I paid for it.
About a week before my crash I watched the Power Company use a Drone to check the switches on the Main power lines , they had no problems & I fly around these lines all the time & get no alerts & I even flew the other day exactly where DJI said I had a compass issue . Its your call , I do try to stay clear of them .
 
I took out and flew just under the powerlines earlier this afternoon and no issues. I'm not going to do that all the time but at least I know it doesn't affect anything.
 
There is an area where I fly for "Events" and I have to fly within 10" of High Voltage lines and several transformers (not the movie kind LOL) and have had no problems. We've flown the same course probably a dozen time and never had a glitch. As always be aware of what your RTH settings are and fly safe.
 
I have some powerlines in my yard and they seem to affect the telemetry on the ipad screen, the little plane icon will be off by about 30 to 40 degrees if I fly in the near vicinity. I have flown over them and flown the bird on the other side of them with no other problems. When I fly on the beach those wires are right along the road and if the tide is up I only have a couple of feet of beach to no beach at all, so I have flown while I was almost directly under the wires while holding the controller and the only problem seems to be the telemetry icon. These are residential lines and I do not know the voltage.
captain kush
 
I tried to fly around the same powerlines couple hours ago (11am) and was getting compass errors and wasn't able to take off. So I guess it'll be hit and miss. When I flew successfully at the same spot, it was late in the day so I don't know if that had anything to do with it.
 
Power lines are alternating current, which means they reverse completely 60 times a second. That by itself, shouldn't throw the compass off over more than a 30th of a second. The magnetic field will have flipped twice in that time. The other electronics may be affected, but it isn't obvious how.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots
 
Well it somehow affected mine or it was something else then. I moved to a different spot about 100yds away and compass was fine then.

Sent from my SM-P600 using Tapatalk
 
That is certainly possible, as the alternating magnetic field is very strong. I have no idea of how the other system components could be affected. My point was that it shouldn't be the compass. Certainly the WIFI video and control signals are modulated by the magnetic fields. Whether or not it matters at all is unknown to me.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots
 
Howdy,
My telemetry indicator, that shows the direction of the bird, is affected by the wires as I stated above. But yesterday I was at the beach on the pacific coast, there were no power lines anywhere near and my telemetry indicator was off by about 30 degrees most of the time. To be fair I was in close proximity to my car the whole time. I attribute it to the compass in my ipad, I believe I read somewhere that there may be an issue with what they installed into the ipad mini 4 that I use to fly my bird. I would very much like to get it dealt with. They could possibly fix the issue with software is what I thought the article mentioned, but I have never seen anything else about it.
In my yard flying when I would move away from the wires by going to the other side of the lot and I would calibrate the compass in the ipad by panning for gold with it and flipping it 360 degrees the icon would be correct, then when flying and moving closer to the wires with the controller it would be off by about 30 degrees. I dont have access to another tablet or I would try flying and eliminate the ipad as the culprit or not.
captain kush

I will add that while flying at the beach, I was landing and taking off from a foldup table sitting a couple feet away from my car. At one point I landed to change out batteries and after I landed I looked at the screen and it showed a compass error and suggested moving the bird or recalibrating the compass. I moved it 2 feet to the edge of the table and it went away, I changed the battery and launched and flew with no problems.
 
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How do you know that it is the one in the iPad? I would think it more likely that it is the compass in the drone.
 
I do not know if it is the compass on the ipad or on the bird. That is why I stated that if I had a different tablet I would cross check things and it would tell me if it is the bird or the tablet. But if I calibrate my ipad compass things are correct for a while.
 

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