First noob videos from North Cyprus

Blimey! I am surprised!

I wonder if the Air has a less sensitive / more accurate compass?

I didn’t even consider compass issues, what could have happened?

I’ve never had an issue - in 4 years of P2/MP ownership - beyond a message (MP) or relevant flashing LEDs (P2) - that told me it was upset and wouldn’t let me take off, anyway.
In each case, it was (after the warning) rather obvious why … heavily reinforced concrete in the ground (Southampton docks), reinforced trig point (annoying that one - LONG grass everywhere and it was the only exposed flat area), etc.
I tend to work on the basis that if it’s happy to take off - then there’s no issue.
In fact … I’ve only done a compass recalibration twice … and that was on the P2 going to Sardinia and on the return.
Last year I drove 8,000 miles from the UK and all around Italy and, in the 18 months I’ve had the MP I’ve never done one once. Never had a problem. People worry too much … IMO.

Edit: I would add that my travels have been in southern Europe … I would suggest it’s more relevant for travelling further afield.
What’s relevant is local magnetic variation, and some parts of the world have a far greater variation than SW Europe.

3 Likes

Excellent info Dave :+1: :+1:

I wonder what happens if you fly here …

Capture

Your drone will RTH to the core of the sun :sun_with_face:

I’ve flown a few feet over large steel structures. What I noticed was it does not hover dead on the spot, it hovers in a circular motion. Not an issue if your above the object but could be problematic if in tight quarters.

I fancy flying out from the Isle of Wight to The Needles Lighthouse … and landing on the helipad on the top … which is made of sheet steel. :wink:

I “think” I might have problems taking off again.

I must try this on some other, slightly more accessible, sheet of steel before I try the real thing.

“'Scuse me, Mr Trinity House, can I have my drone back?” might not cut the mustard. :thinking:

2 Likes

I’ve had to recalibrate both times I’ve taken the Mavic Pro on holiday (Ethiopia and South Africa). Wonder if it’s distance related, or hemisphere change related? I realise Ethiopia is still north of the Equator, but it’s sort of close

Anyway, the check list screen on power on wanted me to calibrate.

As I mentioned elsewhere, I’ve had volcanic rock cause magnetic interference, such that no amount of waving the Mavic about was going to help, it just refused point blank to fly, with all sorts of red error screens (should have taken some screen shots I guess)

See the map above … the bigger the change in magnetic declination, the greater the chance you need to recalibrate.

The lines on that map show points of the same declination.

I should read, shouldn’t I?

Interestingly, though, when I got home it didn’t prompt me to recalibrate. Does it remember? I did, though - seemed safest, though I’m normally in the “don’t fiddle” camp as well

The fact that points have the same declination doesn’t mean there won’t be other reasons the MP throws a magnetic wobbly … but does mean that declination won’t be a reason.
I’ve seen people recalibrate “because something metallic was close”. To my way of thinking, this is not a reason. What’s important is that it’s correctly calibrated for when it’s in the air, flying, at distance from the offending object, so not a reason to recalibrate … IMHO.

Following up on this, and my thoughts about flying to The Needles Lighthouse … I just took off (away from), then landed on this 10ton rated manhole cover … then took off again.
No problems.

rps20180512_151622

I also tried rebooting and starting from the manhole cover.
No problems.

Shows how difficult it is to predict the MPs response to such things.

It also means I’ve not decided it’s OK to fly to the lighthouse. I need to test from something it really won’t take-off from after booting, then see if I can “visit” it and take off.

Dave, I’m surprised you managed to take off from that.

Last time I was out, we were flying from a hill out on moors. One patch around a square meter would give a compass error on mavic, a P4 and P4P.
A gauss meter app I had on phone was also off the scale when held to that point.

I’m half tempted to go back with a spade and see what’s causing it.

The other issue you have with landing somewhere mid flight is it resets the homepoint. You would have to manually set it to device after takeoff otherwise it would be heading back to lighthouse if you lost signal.

I’ll just have to not lose signal! :wink:

It would be a bummer if I lost signal WHILST it was landed! #Hmmmmmmm LOL!

1 Like

I was less that 2ft from 2.5 tons of Shogun, too. LOL!

It does object … sometimes. Southampton docks was one such time … so I know it’s actually working, in this respect.

1 Like

I was about to try something else … and take the video proof … but it’s now raining a lot more than when I was out there testing before. I’ll do one, tho.

btw - sorry @AndyT - your thread has gone rather magnetic! :wink:

1 Like

Haha no worries, all good info :blush:

2 Likes

Continuing the magnetic interference theme another step, and following up on my comments last evening …

Anticipating my future The Needles Lighthouse exercise, I wanted to explore two things …
a) ability to launch from a steel platform, and
b) the ability to land without stopping the motors, and then take off again, so as to not update the RTH location.

A 10 ton rated manhole cover was my steel platform test … and made no difference. No warnings, etc.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that a MASSIVE steel platform at the intended location won’t cause a problem. More testing needed.

As to the non-motor-stop landing …I disabled the “Precision Landing” and the “Landing Protection” … and, as you can see, it can land without motors turning off (like my P2).
The difficulty, landing on the intended, distant, object is there there’s a very slight window between “landing” and “motors off” during which one needs to release the sticks. More practice needed.

Edit: That’s also 2.5 tons of Shogun ironmongery (with MOT challenging rust!) within 1m to the left.

1 Like