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Started in control...starting gyrating...lost control... returned to home... what happened?

Thanks for those tips.... much appreciated.

========= screen recording ========
Are you saying we should record the screen while flying? Is this in case of accident? Thanks

=========== gps tracker ==========
I assume this is also in case of accident? Which brand do you use? Had to use it yet?

Thank you!
 
Thanks for those tips.... much appreciated.

========= screen recording ========
Are you saying we should record the screen while flying? Is this in case of accident? Thanks

=========== gps tracker ==========
I assume this is also in case of accident? Which brand do you use? Had to use it yet?

Thank you!
Ya man..
screen recording is a huge asset in the event you have a malfunction or flyaway and it's also a good to use as a learning tool ..
it's impossible to watch everything that happens on your tablet when you fly. .
just record a flight and you'll see what I mean..
I use a rf-v16 gps tracker and a locator 8..
the tracimo gps tracker is good also..
I use a locator 8 but I'd prefer a marco polo rc tracker ..
I have had a phantom flyaway and unfortunately the only thing that worked was my screen recoding device. .
I believe the tk102 tracker broke apart upon impact and i wasn't close enough for the locator 8 to work..
since then I've learned to install a couple small strobe lights on the inspire so if it flys away I can look for it with another drone..believe it or not this is a very effective method to find a lost drone...
turb....
 
Got my fly away toilet bowl video ready.... this is just the flight path/record with thumbstick inputs:

Please give it a watch and let me know what you think.

I still don't understand why it was able to return to home if it was in toilet bowl mode with messed up mod values.
 
Ummm... Actually it's written into my flight reference cards, which are part of my ops manual, that goes to the CAA for approval. It's part of my pre flight check list and is quite important.
I think I'll take the advice of the company who train you to get PFAW over an internet forum on this one. thanks though.

edit: when flying from a new location
You're welcome.
I also hold current PFAW and compass calibration is not a CAA requirement. Additionally, the CAA do not approve your ops manual. It gets approved by your NQE and then a copy is lodged with the CAA when you submit your SRG1320.
Of course if you have written it into your ops manual as part of your pre flight procedure that's up to you. Now let me guess.....EuroUSC have told you you MUST calibrate your compass before every flight?
Have you spoken to them about geographical magnetic declination and the local affect a ferrous object can have on the magnetometer in causing an error during calibration?
How familiar are your NQE with the inner workings of the Inspire I wonder and do they speak regularly with DJI R&D?
I wouldn't write off 'an internet forum' that is specifically taylored to one aircraft, that has ten and a half thousand members worldwide and contributers ranging from commercial pilots, electronic engineers, multirotor veterans, commercial UAV operators as well as beta testers for DJI.
If you take the time to search through this forum you will see that many problems and users suffering TBE have been CAUSED by religiously calibrating their magnetometer (compass) at every new location.
Checking your IMU mod values before every flight is a far more important and imperritive step and should form part of your pre flight checklist than running the risk of introducing a compass error in an unfamiliar location.
 
Got my fly away toilet bowl video ready.... this is just the flight path/record with thumbstick inputs:

Please give it a watch and let me know what you think.

I still don't understand why it was able to return to home if it was in toilet bowl mode with messed up mod values.
Classic TBE evidenced by the circular umcommanded movements. Why did you not switch to Atti as soon as you saw erratic flight behavior?
The reason it came back was that DJI have written into the firmware some 'corrective' measures that check against stick input v aircraft attitude v accelerometer output v compass reading v GPS rate of change etc. In SOME but not all instances the FW is able to detect an error situation and correct it. Notice I said in 'SOME'.
Sometimes the error is just too large and a form of integral wind up occurs with ever increasing attitude change resulting in larger and larger corrective measures being taken by the firmware causing greater error.
The only way out of that one is switch to Atti mode to regain control.
 
Ummm... Actually it's written into my flight reference cards, which are part of my ops manual, that goes to the CAA for approval. It's part of my pre flight check list and is quite important.
I think I'll take the advice of the company who train you to get PFAW over an internet forum on this one. thanks though.

edit: when flying from a new location
I too was advised by my NQE (Resource Group) to recalibrate before every flight. However, based on @The Editor 's considered advice I amended my Ops Manual to check (and calibrate only if required) prior to submitting it to the CAA and it passed. It is how you intend to operate your aircraft based on the best information and advice that counts.
 
@ The Editor... thanks for the explanation about why the Inspire was able to return to home... much appreciated. I did not know that trying atti at that time was a viable option.

I just brought the Inspire to a couple other locations to check the Mod values... they were all correct. This means that the calibration at the fly away incident location was not the problem. I have not calibrated since that incident.

I'm hoping someone might recommend the next step to figure out what was caused the problem.

Thanks very much for any suggestions.
 
You're welcome.
I also hold current PFAW and compass calibration is not a CAA requirement. Additionally, the CAA do not approve your ops manual. It gets approved by your NQE and then a copy is lodged with the CAA when you submit your SRG1320.
Of course if you have written it into your ops manual as part of your pre flight procedure that's up to you. Now let me guess.....EuroUSC have told you you MUST calibrate your compass before every flight?
Have you spoken to them about geographical magnetic declination and the local affect a ferrous object can have on the magnetometer in causing an error during calibration?
How familiar are your NQE with the inner workings of the Inspire I wonder and do they speak regularly with DJI R&D?
I wouldn't write off 'an internet forum' that is specifically taylored to one aircraft, that has ten and a half thousand members worldwide and contributers ranging from commercial pilots, electronic engineers, multirotor veterans, commercial UAV operators as well as beta testers for DJI.
If you take the time to search through this forum you will see that many problems and users suffering TBE have been CAUSED by religiously calibrating their magnetometer (compass) at every new location.
Checking your IMU mod values before every flight is a far more important and imperritive step and should form part of your pre flight checklist than running the risk of introducing a compass error in an unfamiliar location.

Hi Ed,
I'm aware of the importance of calibrating IMU, but since the new Go App has come out, I can't find it anywhere! Either I'm going blind (most likely) or it's been hidden or removed. Could you please advise where I might find it?
Many thanks,
Oliver
 
The Editor, is it possible to explain fully the "nuts and bolts" of this calibration. I am getting so many mixed messages about it but you seem to be absolutely certain and definitive in your advice to NOT calibrate before flights which flies in the face of a lot of other definitive advice from other experts, including DJI themselves. But you are absolute and very definite in your advice NOT to do what the others say, and back it with stating that is what you do and have done for a long time. My experience is that I could not do this without crashing, because my sensors readouts values require me to calibrate in almost every new location. But you are stating that the reason I have to do this is because I calibrate too often, which I simply cannot understand. You also state that the sensors readout values will change with movement of the aircraft, but if we are using these readout values to determine whether we do a calibration, it seems that this is a hit and miss method as well. Combine that with the advice that calibration cannot be done if there's any metal, phones, geological metallic substances in the ground, car keys, etc. etc. anywhere in the vicinity it will be inaccurate anyway, it simply has become the most complicated and confusing part of flying these aircraft. Yet you sound so confident that it is not a complex affair, and we are making it complex by complying with DJI's own instructions to carry out the drone dance prior to every flight. All this has me not understanding the mechanics of this procedure at all, so I just take what I see as the safest route, and do the calibration before every take-off, checking the sensors readouts and flying when they are within the specified ranges. I certainly would like to have the confidence to not do the dance, but it seems I would need to completely understand how the compass and IMU sensors work, and how the GPS works in conjunction with the compass etc. to be able to know when and where to calibrate and when it is a bad idea to do it as well, as this is the advice I have heard you give on many occasions. I am sure I speak on behalf of many others as well, as I have perceived that it is not only me that is complying with DJI's advice because we simply are not game to do anything else. So I guess I'm asking if it would be a possibility that you might be able to write or record on a video the definitive instructions on the GPS, Compass, IMU and how they work and interact to make calibration a bad idea prior to flying. I know that's asking a lot, but I'm sure there are many of us that would appreciate it.
 
The Editor, is it possible to explain fully the "nuts and bolts" of this calibration. I am getting so many mixed messages about it but you seem to be absolutely certain and definitive in your advice to NOT calibrate before flights which flies in the face of a lot of other definitive advice from other experts, including DJI themselves. But you are absolute and very definite in your advice NOT to do what the others say, and back it with stating that is what you do and have done for a long time. My experience is that I could not do this without crashing, because my sensors readouts values require me to calibrate in almost every new location. But you are stating that the reason I have to do this is because I calibrate too often, which I simply cannot understand. You also state that the sensors readout values will change with movement of the aircraft, but if we are using these readout values to determine whether we do a calibration, it seems that this is a hit and miss method as well. Combine that with the advice that calibration cannot be done if there's any metal, phones, geological metallic substances in the ground, car keys, etc. etc. anywhere in the vicinity it will be inaccurate anyway, it simply has become the most complicated and confusing part of flying these aircraft. Yet you sound so confident that it is not a complex affair, and we are making it complex by complying with DJI's own instructions to carry out the drone dance prior to every flight. All this has me not understanding the mechanics of this procedure at all, so I just take what I see as the safest route, and do the calibration before every take-off, checking the sensors readouts and flying when they are within the specified ranges. I certainly would like to have the confidence to not do the dance, but it seems I would need to completely understand how the compass and IMU sensors work, and how the GPS works in conjunction with the compass etc. to be able to know when and where to calibrate and when it is a bad idea to do it as well, as this is the advice I have heard you give on many occasions. I am sure I speak on behalf of many others as well, as I have perceived that it is not only me that is complying with DJI's advice because we simply are not game to do anything else. So I guess I'm asking if it would be a possibility that you might be able to write or record on a video the definitive instructions on the GPS, Compass, IMU and how they work and interact to make calibration a bad idea prior to flying. I know that's asking a lot, but I'm sure there are many of us that would appreciate it.
I have dug up one of my own posts which hopefully explains things a little better (and saves me typing out an explanation again)

If the compass error is large enough and the craft is in GPS mode the conflicting data of directional information from the GPS receiver and the erroneous data from the compass are at odds with each other. This can cause a major control problem as corrections try to be made in attitude and direction from the flight controller but the results from the feedback from the compass are not what the fc expects. It then tries to correct further resulting in some pretty scary flying with any stick input not always reacting as the pilot expects. Remember, we are NEVER flying these things, it is the flight controller doing the clever bit and interpreting our stick inputs. There is no direct output from the receiver to servos/control surfaces like conventional RC aircraft.
It is SO important to have a good compass calibration for the declination you are flying at and this is why IT IS NOT necessary to compass calibrate every time you cross the road! By doing excessive compass cals you run the risk of introducing an erroneous result. If you were standing in a car park and unknown to you there were a trillion tons of steel beneath your feet you may do a compass calibration in that parking lot and the mod values would adjust to bring the compass values in line. Then you take off and get a few feet in the air, the influence of that steel is then non existant and the magnetic flux acting on the compass is purely in respect of that geographical locations declination. However, the poor old compass is now out of whack because it took off from what it 'thought' was a good and true reading.
Result......disaster.
If at any time you are getting odd behaviour from your aircraft, switch immediately to Atti mode. Although this is not manual it's as close as we can get with the Inspire and it takes both GPS and compass out of the loop. The craft then only relies on barometer for altitude hold and accelerometers and gyroscope for attitude stability.
I calibrate my compass in a known good area that I have used on all my multirotors for the last three years.
I ALWAYS check my mod values (at rest) prior to every single takeoff - in fact it is written into my ops manual which is lodged with the CAA for commercial operations.
If ANY ONE of the mod values is out of line I simply do not fly until I can ascertain what is affecting the reading.
Personally I have never had a problem using this method but people need to make their own minds up and do what they feel comfortable with.
A tell take sign you have a bad compass cal is your craft just won't 'feel' right in the air. It will not be 'locked in' and will fly like it is drunk if that makes sense. There may also be TBE when you put it in one spot and hover.
My rule is if ANYTHING doesn't look or feel right, land asap and find out what the problem is. If it can't be sorted. ...don't fly.
Take offs are always optional, landings are obligatory.:p

Hope that helps - a little!
 
I had the bird up yesterday and she flew perfectly ( i put a 50m distance limit and went to a big clearing just to be cautious ) ... I tried out the atti mode and like it. I recalibrated at the new location because I didn't trust my previous calibration that resulted in the toilet bowl effect. All went well. But my first TBE didn't happen until my 33rd flight... so I wouldn't say I'm out of the woods until I get to 100 flawless missions :)
 
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The Editor, thanks heaps for your answer. And yes, it is a help. Why can't there be an endorsed "Bible" on the Inspire 1 - endorsed by DJI? Because they still have their instructional videos with "experts" in DJI shirts and coats stating that you must calibrate "each time" you fly. Refer to their video
at the 2 minute mark, where they state " you need to recalibrate each time" and that video is sourced from the DJI website :- http://www.dji.com/product/inspire-1/video under DJI Inspire 1 Tutorial "How To Fly" . Note that this instructional video is on the official DJI YouTube channel. Now I'm not trying to dispute what you say, but I do worry about the fact that DJI will not cover warranty unless you follow their instructions to the letter, and try very hard to get you on a technicality in the event of a claim. I have been there on a faulty camera / gimbal and they tried every angle to check I did everything correctly - which I did, and eventually they replaced it. You certainly are able to back your advice with the technical facts which I'm assuming are correct, and I really want to try NOT calibrating all the time, just checking the sensors readouts and fly if they appear correct.

But I still have some questions that are puzzling me. For example, you say to do one good calibration in a place that is free of all the items that are going to cause a calibration to be a "false correct" one, and after takeoff, when the aircraft moves further away from the offending items, it becomes inaccurate. So I'm assuming that when you do this calibration, the sensors readouts are good, but become bad after flying away and out of range of their influence. So if everything appears OK with the readouts, and that is the thing that you use to determine if the calibration has been OK, my question is - How do you know where a good location to do a good calibration actually is? Yes, we can see visually steel objects and power lines etc. and car keys, mobile phones etc as well. But if magnetic influences caused by the amount of iron in the ground or similar is equally a problem, I have no idea how to know where a good calibration site is. Is it just try it and see, and if the aircraft flys well, then that is a good calibration?

Also, if the sensors readouts are affected by those local anomalies and influenced by them, how do I know if the readouts are in fact good, but being temporarily influenced by a local "bad item" and the act of doing a new calibration at that particular spot because of that bad sensors readout is actually turning a good calibration that is looking bad because of those local influences into a bad calibration that will look good until I take off and leave the "bad influences" which would then have it reading bad. Whew!! I know what I mean, but I'm not sure I am making myself clear! But it is confusing the hell out of me to the point I really am very nervous about flying at all, and I go out, do a calibration, check readouts, take off and hover for a minute or so at about 2-3 metres and see if everything responds properly, and if it does I slowly move further away and so on. But by the time I am actually flying the aircraft, the battery is down to about 70% and I bring it back at 30% or so which isn't very efficient.

The weird thing about all this is when I first got my Inspire 1, I had never heard of checking sensors readouts because I followed DJI's instructions. You will notice that they still don't tell you to check the sensors readout at all in that instructional video I mention above. I just did the circular dance, put it on the ground, and took off. I would have made about 60 flights like this before I ever heard of checking the sensors and never had an issue. It's strange that the more careful I've become due to learning more, the more hassles and anomalies I've had. Only once was it a real issue which ended fine, but it seems that I find more problems as I've become more experienced in terms of flights completed. That might be co-incidence, but I certainly enjoyed flying much more in the beginning probably because I was not looking for problems. Now I'm nervous for the beginning of every flight and much more aware of potential problems, and it takes away from the enjoyment and certainly makes me fly a lot less. The last 2 flight sessions I've done have been hovering at 2 metres just to run down batteries because DJI say that unless I do that, I might run into some other problems with batteries.

So thanks for your advice, which sounds like good advice, and apologies for long-winded replies like this one, but I really would like to learn to operate the Inspire 1 absolutely properly, and I have only got avenues such as this forum to source the information, and be able to ask questions.
I guess that's an apology of sorts for being a pain, along with very sincere thanks.
 
The Editor, thanks heaps for your answer. And yes, it is a help. Why can't there be an endorsed "Bible" on the Inspire 1 - endorsed by DJI? Because they still have their instructional videos with "experts" in DJI shirts and coats stating that you must calibrate "each time" you fly. Refer to their video
at the 2 minute mark, where they state " you need to recalibrate each time" and that video is sourced from the DJI website :- http://www.dji.com/product/inspire-1/video under DJI Inspire 1 Tutorial "How To Fly" . Note that this instructional video is on the official DJI YouTube channel. Now I'm not trying to dispute what you say, but I do worry about the fact that DJI will not cover warranty unless you follow their instructions to the letter, and try very hard to get you on a technicality in the event of a claim. I have been there on a faulty camera / gimbal and they tried every angle to check I did everything correctly - which I did, and eventually they replaced it. You certainly are able to back your advice with the technical facts which I'm assuming are correct, and I really want to try NOT calibrating all the time, just checking the sensors readouts and fly if they appear correct.

But I still have some questions that are puzzling me. For example, you say to do one good calibration in a place that is free of all the items that are going to cause a calibration to be a "false correct" one, and after takeoff, when the aircraft moves further away from the offending items, it becomes inaccurate. So I'm assuming that when you do this calibration, the sensors readouts are good, but become bad after flying away and out of range of their influence. So if everything appears OK with the readouts, and that is the thing that you use to determine if the calibration has been OK, my question is - How do you know where a good location to do a good calibration actually is? Yes, we can see visually steel objects and power lines etc. and car keys, mobile phones etc as well. But if magnetic influences caused by the amount of iron in the ground or similar is equally a problem, I have no idea how to know where a good calibration site is. Is it just try it and see, and if the aircraft flys well, then that is a good calibration?

Also, if the sensors readouts are affected by those local anomalies and influenced by them, how do I know if the readouts are in fact good, but being temporarily influenced by a local "bad item" and the act of doing a new calibration at that particular spot because of that bad sensors readout is actually turning a good calibration that is looking bad because of those local influences into a bad calibration that will look good until I take off and leave the "bad influences" which would then have it reading bad. Whew!! I know what I mean, but I'm not sure I am making myself clear! But it is confusing the hell out of me to the point I really am very nervous about flying at all, and I go out, do a calibration, check readouts, take off and hover for a minute or so at about 2-3 metres and see if everything responds properly, and if it does I slowly move further away and so on. But by the time I am actually flying the aircraft, the battery is down to about 70% and I bring it back at 30% or so which isn't very efficient.

The weird thing about all this is when I first got my Inspire 1, I had never heard of checking sensors readouts because I followed DJI's instructions. You will notice that they still don't tell you to check the sensors readout at all in that instructional video I mention above. I just did the circular dance, put it on the ground, and took off. I would have made about 60 flights like this before I ever heard of checking the sensors and never had an issue. It's strange that the more careful I've become due to learning more, the more hassles and anomalies I've had. Only once was it a real issue which ended fine, but it seems that I find more problems as I've become more experienced in terms of flights completed. That might be co-incidence, but I certainly enjoyed flying much more in the beginning probably because I was not looking for problems. Now I'm nervous for the beginning of every flight and much more aware of potential problems, and it takes away from the enjoyment and certainly makes me fly a lot less. The last 2 flight sessions I've done have been hovering at 2 metres just to run down batteries because DJI say that unless I do that, I might run into some other problems with batteries.

So thanks for your advice, which sounds like good advice, and apologies for long-winded replies like this one, but I really would like to learn to operate the Inspire 1 absolutely properly, and I have only got avenues such as this forum to source the information, and be able to ask questions.
I guess that's an apology of sorts for being a pain, along with very sincere thanks.

Wow.....lots of "bads" and "goods" in there :p
Yeah, that video is very old now and I haven't watched it in ages but I seem to remember that was made with an old prototype Inspire because I seem to remember they still talk about the LED on the back flashing purple (I might be mistaking it with another one though as I didn't watch it this time).
OK, basically the IMU or inertial measurement unit is made up of a 3 dimensional solid state gyro and some acellerometers. The magnetometer or compass is a completely different animal although its sensor reading appear on the same page as the IMU.
Think of it like this - with a proper calibration of everything and your Inspire on the ground and not moving your IMU values should be stationary (almost).
Your gyroscope will be sensing no movement so its correctional data will be zero. Pick the Inspire up and move it around while monitoring the sensor page and you will see both the gyroscope and accelerometers mod values change with that movement. They are doing their job correcting for attitude change in the aircraft and feeding this data back to the flight controller which in turn sends signals to the esc's (electronic speed controllers) which alter the speed of the motor to speed up or slow down to correct that attitude change. This is how the Inspire (and indeed all multi rotors are able to hover - well there is barometric sensing going on as well as GPS but they are for positional data and altitude).
However, the compass is measuring the reference to magnetic north based on the magnetic flux acting upon it in any given location/declination. This flux does not change very much unless large distances are travelled (different time zones etc or hundreds if not thousands of miles). It also changes over time but we are talking very insignificant amounts over 100 years etc.
OK, so, by calibrating your compass you are giving it a reference point for the magnetic declination in your location/part of the world. If that calibration is done for example standing next to a car you may well get the compass to calibrate but the large metal object has changed the flux value of the true declination. The compass does not know this though and blindly believes it has a good reference to go on.
When you take off and get clear of 'the car' or whatever influenced you calibration the compass now only has the Earths magnetic field acting upon it. This means that its reference is out of whack and it cannot do it's job correctly by providing the offset between magnetic North (compass) and True North (GPS). There is now conflicting data being processed by the FC (flight controller) which will now try and correct the 'error' that it sees - result ever increasing circles (TBE) and an integral wind up scenario takes place which can cause an inexperienced pilot to crash.
This can be avoided if it ever occurs by the way by switching to P-Atti mode since that switches out the compass and GPS and relies on IMU and barometer data only to maintain aircraft attitude (but there will be no positional hold obviously).
DJI's instructions to 'calibrate everytime you change locations' is a bit of cover themselves type of statement and of course they are assuming that every calibration is an accurate one (which of course we know it isn't).
So what happens say, if you followed DJI's instructions to the letter and calibrated your compass and got a good calibration. Then flew, had a great flight, then landed and walked say 300 yards to another location but unknown to you there was an old car burried underneath where you then put the Inspire down? If you followed DJI's instructions you would calibrate again except this time you would be taking into account the burried car. As soon as you took off your compass values would be wrong since we know that magnetic declination does not change significantly in 300 yards!
However, if you simply walked that 300 yards, put your Inspire down and checked the compass mod values prior to take off you would see they were outside of optimum range (1400-1600) and you should be thing "Hmmmm....that's not right because I have only walked 300 yards. Something is causing this". If you then picked up the Inspire, moved it a few feet (outside the influence of the car) then checked the values again you would see they had returned to normal - without recalibrating.
I should stress that these are my own practices so follow them if you so choose or of course follow DJI's if you feel more comfortable doing that or, make up your own working practice that you have confidence in and stick to that.
There is probably no 'perfect solution' but what I have come up with over the years is a trusted procedure (for me anyways) that has served me well over the time I have been designing, building and flying multirotor aircraft.
I shared it on this forum where other prople have adopted the same practice (after building their own confidence in it and applying logic to the theory/practice) and most people seem to now fly by this method.
DJI obviously have to maintain a 'corporate face' and cover themselves by saying always calibrate etc.
I have hundreds of flights on the Inspire now and have NEVER suffered TBE or any kind of problem using the method I describe above. Nor have I had any issue following same on various platforms and different flight controllers across quadcopters and larger hexacopters.
Sorry for the long reply (think I've just written the book :p) but hopefully that (kind of) helps and doesn't confuse you or anyone reading it even more.

Golden rules :
  • Do a good compass calibration
  • Stick with it
  • ALWAYS check your mod values before EVERY flight
  • If they are wrong DO NOT FLY
  • Move and recheck the values
  • If they are still wrong - investigate why
  • If ANYTHING doesn't feel right - land and investigate
  • ENJOY flying - don't be put off by the horror stories!
Phew - need a lay down now........
 
DJI always was unclear on this matter. Even now, if you look at the DJI wiki about calibration, they say only to calibrate when moving to a new location, or when you experience TBE, or when you know the craft has been subdued to EMS (like in the car, close to a speaker magnet).

I do remember Colin Quinn, former CEO DJI US (now works for the competition), always stressing NOT to calibrate UNLESS you travelled at least 100 miles. He also showed a trick with waving a magnet in front of the craft to degauss the compass, in case subsequent calibrations at different locations (as well as IMU cal) still turn out wrong.

For people, always suffering TBE, while they still perform all calibrations, this might solve things.
Obviously, his advise was from his own experience, his opinion never made it into the user manuals. But he showed it in a youtube clip. It is now marked private, too bad, that explained everything.

This is what DJI says about calibration, in the very latest user manual:

When to Recalibrate

1. When compass data is abnormal, and the Aircraft Status Indicator is blinking red and yellow.
2. When flying in a new location, or a location that is different from your last flight.
3. When the mechanical structure of the Inspire 1 has changed, i.e. changed mounting position of the compass.
4. When severe drifting occurs in flight, i.e. the Inspire 1 does not fly in straight lines.

The problem is mainly THIS sentence:
When flying in a new location, or a location that is different from your last flight.

It is completely up to the individual to decide if that's 100 miles away or 100 meter.
DJI should become clear about this, like they (maybe unofficially) were when Colin Quinn still was THE DJI spokesman.

It looks like DJI deliberately stays vague to be able to dodge and counter any accusation should it come in handy. Not saying it, but it looks that way.
 
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That said, I completely agree with everything the Editor said. I never do a calibration unless I notice a bit TBE, OR when I travelled by car for more than 35 miles or so.

But even then, it should only show a little TBE, nothing more. Nothing to be scared off.
I think wrong GPS data (or a rebooting flight controller after a sudden power drop or spike) is the biggest culprit.
Most fly aways can simply be avoided by switching out of GPS mode.

Every user should practice enough flying hours without GPS. In Atti so to speak.
GPS is never 100% reliable. Recently my car navigation suddenly told me I was driving somewhere in the US instead of the area of Amsterdam NL.
edited: notice a typo again...
 
Last edited:
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Firstly, a huge thank you for taking the time to explain all this. Very much appreciated.

This afternoon, I decided to go out to a new land development area and have a fly around. I had decided before I left that if the sensor readings were within range I would take off without calibration after having this forum conversation . I had never done this before - always done the dance even if I change batteries. I checked the readings and they were all pretty much right. Compass was running from 1460 up to 1520 but it always seems to do that, and the others mostly 0 and 1.00. So I flew - it was very windy - and no problems. I landed - it was jumping around a fair bit but it was very windy and gusty. All good. I changed batteries to a TB47 (was a TB48 first) and switched back on, checked the sensor readouts again and they were about the same as before, so I took off and flew around for the duration of the battery, and landed without incident.

That was it - I put the aircraft away and came home. A boring story without incident except that it is within the context of this forum thread. So I will keep trying to fly that way and will re-calibrate only when the readouts suggest I do so.
 
Firstly, a huge thank you for taking the time to explain all this. Very much appreciated.

This afternoon, I decided to go out to a new land development area and have a fly around. I had decided before I left that if the sensor readings were within range I would take off without calibration after having this forum conversation . I had never done this before - always done the dance even if I change batteries. I checked the readings and they were all pretty much right. Compass was running from 1460 up to 1520 but it always seems to do that, and the others mostly 0 and 1.00. So I flew - it was very windy - and no problems. I landed - it was jumping around a fair bit but it was very windy and gusty. All good. I changed batteries to a TB47 (was a TB48 first) and switched back on, checked the sensor readouts again and they were about the same as before, so I took off and flew around for the duration of the battery, and landed without incident.

That was it - I put the aircraft away and came home. A boring story without incident except that it is within the context of this forum thread. So I will keep trying to fly that way and will re-calibrate only when the readouts suggest I do so.
Glad to hear all went well.
Just remember to keep telling yourself until you are bored with hearing it.....
ALWAYS check your mod values before EVERY single take off and you will be fine.
Compass values of 1460-1520 (they will always fluctuate due to the earths magnetic field fluctuations) are pretty much spot on as close to 1500 as you can get - perfect. :)
 

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