Compass and GPS Error during Flight

acstrobe · Mar 14, 2018

Hello everybody.

I flew yesterday and today with my Inspire 1 in 2 different places.
I always calibrate the compass before starting.
Both times the ATTI mode had always been switched on, as the GPS signal was weak or compass was disturbed.
At the start and during the flight I had 15-16 satellites. Suddenly the GPS signal collapsed.
After a short time it was back. This happened a few times. The status of the GPS, IMU, compass, etc. is normal according to DJO GO App. Firmware is also up to date.
At the 2 places I have never had problems with flying. And the solar activity is as good as zero.

Has anyone ever had a similar problem?

Regards Livio

zoesalinas · Apr 19, 2018

that's what i hate, gps gets scratchy sometimes

natnatroswell22 · Apr 24, 2018

zoesalinas said:
that's what i hate, gps gets scratchy sometimes

exactly..

jakejhonson44 · Apr 25, 2018

zoesalinas said:
that's what i hate, gps gets scratchy sometimes

purchase an antenna for your r.c if you don't want your gps to be scratchy

natnatroswell22 · May 4, 2018

jakejhonson44 said:
purchase an antenna for your r.c if you don't want your gps to be scratchy

even with antennas, there's still a max altitude.

jakejhonson44 · May 7, 2018

natnatroswell22 said:
even with antennas, there's still a max altitude.

but the point is to avoid a scratchy gps

natnatroswell22 · May 9, 2018

jakejhonson44 said:
but the point is to avoid a scratchy gps

well that rarely happens

lake_flyer · May 9, 2018

natnatroswell22 said:
well that rarely happens

Agreed. If you GPS receiver isn't broken then, under normal conditions, GPS signal should be quite steady give or take 1 or 2 sats. I never lost GPS just like that, ever, with any GPS device.

lake_flyer · May 9, 2018

acstrobe said:
Hello everybody.

I flew yesterday and today with my Inspire 1 in 2 different places.
I always calibrate the compass before starting.
Both times the ATTI mode had always been switched on, as the GPS signal was weak or compass was disturbed.
At the start and during the flight I had 15-16 satellites. Suddenly the GPS signal collapsed.
After a short time it was back. This happened a few times. The status of the GPS, IMU, compass, etc. is normal according to DJO GO App. Firmware is also up to date.
At the 2 places I have never had problems with flying. And the solar activity is as good as zero.

Has anyone ever had a similar problem?

Regards Livio

Compass calibration, when it's absolutely not needed, can always result in a bad calibration. Why calibrate if it already was calibrated? I haven't calibrated over a year. The last calibration I did WAS on a bad spot. I got an error after starting up that the compass needed calibration. I didn't trust it so I walked to a spot 30 feet away. Still same error. So I calibrated. All was good I thought and I started and hovered to check. Immediately it went into Atti. With quite a lot of wind it that was really not what I wanted. Landed and checked everything again. Compass was OK, all values were OK. But as soon as I was 10 feet high it went into Atti. I moved to an entirely different location. Here I calibrated again and all went back to normal. Never had a problem since. (although I did a final calibration on my favourite safe spot when I got home). The other spot probably had a power cable running onder the ground. It was an industrial area so I'm not surprised. Lesson relearned, I knew this but still, it was tempting to calibrate at that moment, with the client standing next to me.