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Compass calibration

ORANGE CRUSH

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Question for XSP owners. Back when i got my XSP many moons ago, you were prompted to do a compass calibration every time. With the latest firmware upgrade sometime ago, we were told that a compass calibration was no longer needed. Well being old school and trained to do it every time, i still do. Is it necessary to to it anymore and how are you other XSP owners doing it? Have you had any return to home issues not doing it? Just curious, thanks, OC
 
Question for XSP owners. Back when i got my XSP many moons ago, you were prompted to do a compass calibration every time. With the latest firmware upgrade sometime ago, we were told that a compass calibration was no longer needed. Well being old school and trained to do it every time, i still do. Is it necessary to to it anymore and how are you other XSP owners doing it? Have you had any return to home issues not doing it? Just curious, thanks, OC
If I fly in the same place I don't but if i move locations I do it every time. Never had a problem with mine.
 
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But does it have to be done at all, according to Autel's update it doesn't. Does anyone never do a compass callibration? Thanks for your input rkyleh :)
 
I also stopped calibrating every single time without any problems. But, when I took 2 XSP’s from Hawaii to AZ, I was having Nav issues — odd stuff. I posted a thread, and Agustine said something interesting that has proved true in practice. Every major locale change, it should be done. More than 100-150 miles from your home turf. He aslo said to let GPS recalibrate for 15 min (I forgot why). I’ve been doing both of those things ever since, and only have issues when I hit a cactus ;)
 
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Good to know, i will keep my old school practices for safety reasons. I just get a lot of odd looks doing the roundy round thing!!
 
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This pdf will kind of give you why from time to time it is important to just let your UAV sit for 12-15 minutes to get all the needed satallight info it needs. You have to have GPS lock and depending on your last flight and recent position you maybe have to wait almost 13minutes before take off.
Note however, that this link refers to a specific product, so certain of their guidelines may not apply to the our GPS systems.
https://www.measurementsystems.co.uk/docs/TTFFstartup.pdf
 
This pdf will kind of give you why from time to time it is important to just let your UAV sit for 12-15 minutes to get all the needed satallight info it needs. You have to have GPS lock and depending on your last flight and recent position you maybe have to wait almost 13minutes before take off.
Note however, that this link refers to a specific product, so certain of their guidelines may not apply to the our GPS systems.
https://www.measurementsystems.co.uk/docs/TTFFstartup.pdf
Really interesting info — a topic most makers of GPS-dependent products don’t go into in much detail...

“Receiver has moved more than 60 Miles from the location of the previous fix.”
 
The almanac stores the orbits, which basically tells it when each sat should rise and set at the current location. Those orbits remain valid for quite a long time, so long as you don't move too far from your current location.

Without that information (a 'cold start') the GPS module has no idea which sats it should be able to see, so it just has to go through the full list, tuning into each sat until it finds enough. With that information (a 'warm start') it knows which sats should be in the sky, so rather than going through the full list, it can just tune into the specific ones that it knows are definitely available.

The debate over "how long to wait" for GPS acquisition in consumer grade multirotors will likely go on forever but the fact is, waiting for some period of time is better that launching immediately after acquiring "X" number of satellites. How long is up to you but be assured battery voltage isn't going to fall more than 0.1v over the course of 5-7 minutes or so.

You can rush, or not rush. We'll read a lot more negative experience posts from those that rush than from those that don't. There's an old adage, which is pretty much true, that flying is not inherently dangerous but flying is not tolerant of those that make mistakes.
 
The almanac stores the orbits, which basically tells it when each sat should rise and set at the current location. Those orbits remain valid for quite a long time, so long as you don't move too far from your current location.

Without that information (a 'cold start') the GPS module has no idea which sats it should be able to see, so it just has to go through the full list, tuning into each sat until it finds enough. With that information (a 'warm start') it knows which sats should be in the sky, so rather than going through the full list, it can just tune into the specific ones that it knows are definitely available.

The debate over "how long to wait" for GPS acquisition in consumer grade multirotors will likely go on forever but the fact is, waiting for some period of time is better that launching immediately after acquiring "X" number of satellites. How long is up to you but be assured battery voltage isn't going to fall more than 0.1v over the course of 5-7 minutes or so.

You can rush, or not rush. We'll read a lot more negative experience posts from those that rush than from those that don't. There's an old adage, which is pretty much true, that flying is not inherently dangerous but flying is not tolerant of those that make mistakes.
It makes so much sense when explained in comprehensible language... I wonder why drone makers don’t do it? Yes, I’ve noticed when trying to drain low batteries down to 5-6%, it can take overnight to do so. Sitting idle on the ground consumes very little voltage...
 
... flying is not inherently dangerous but flying is not tolerant of those that make mistakes.


So true! In my (much) younger days when flying hang gliders we often told newbies and questioning public - "The air doesn't hurt you - it's the ground that hurts you..." and my favorite - "It just takes a bird brain to fly..." :D:D
 
I took my XSP out to fly once, as it had been dormant for quite some time....as I own 2. This flight took place within 50 miles of the last mission. It was very late in the day, close to dark, but, reasonably light enough to finish a flight just before sundown.

I sat it down, fired it up, waited for GPS lock, then took off. Flew around for awhile, then, being lazy, just hit RTH, while packing up. This is where the fun began. It took off on me, about 170 degrees off course. It made it past the treeline, and was out of site before I knew it. I put it into atty mode, as it wasn't responding to stick input at all in GPS mode. It was too dark to see in the video feed where I was, and was battling a pretty strong wind, up at 400 feet. I knew I had to drop altitude quickly, but, also was drifting away from range very quickly. I had to fight the panic, and try to remain calm and keep my head about me, while trying to figure out which direction I was heading via the display, and Google maps (in the starlink app), and manage altitude manually to get as low as possible, while staying out of the trees. I figured most of the trees were around 100 feet tall, and gave myself an extra 30 foot magin for safety. To top all, I was also down to 20% battery. I did make it back, quite rattled, but thankful that I had learned to fly on a non-gps quadcopter.

Needless to say, I *always* do a compass calibration now, when first taking off from *any* site, for the first session. And always let my bird sit and "regroup", if having been in the hangar for more than a month, or travelling any distance from home.
 
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Wow, well done. It feels so good when you barely make it back. This has happened to me twice. Once it was a faulty compass module (Autel fixed) but RTH worked. Once, I’m really not sure, RTH kinda worked (it wouldn’t land), calibration and GPS reload fixed it.

What I don’t get, is each time this happened, it switched from 11mph to 33mph! WHY??? It sure makes it leave the area quickly — which makes you panic before you regroup...
 
I took my XSP out to fly once, as it had been dormant for quite some time....as I own 2. This flight took place within 50 miles of the last mission. It was very late in the day, close to dark, but, reasonably light enough to finish a flight just before sundown.

I sat it down, fired it up, waited for GPS lock, then took off. Flew around for awhile, then, being lazy, just hit RTH, while packing up. This is where the fun began. It took off on me, about 170 degrees off course. It made it past the treeline, and was out of site before I knew it. I put it into atty mode, as it wasn't responding to stick input at all in GPS mode. It was too dark to see in the video feed where I was, and was battling a pretty strong wind, up at 400 feet. I knew I had to drop altitude quickly, but, also was drifting away from range very quickly. I had to fight the panic, and try to remain calm and keep my head about me, while trying to figure out which direction I was heading via the display, and Google maps (in the starlink app), and manage altitude manually to get as low as possible, while staying out of the trees. I figured most of the trees were around 100 feet tall, and gave myself an extra 30 foot magin for safety. To top all, I was also down to 20% battery. I did make it back, quite rattled, but thankful that I had learned to fly on a non-gps quadcopter.

Needless to say, I *always* do a compass calibration now, when first taking off from *any* site, for the first session. And always let my bird sit and "regroup", if having been in the hangar for more than a month, or travelling any distance from home.

Holy Crap! I can relate to that feeling though. You just got to get it together and fly it back home. One time last year, before buying an actual GPS drone, I wanted to fly so bad so I went out just for a hover with a sky viper despite the wind blowing and almost dark. A gust of wind (and some controller issues) took it toward the neighbors fence so I shot up in the air to clear the fence while I was trying to regain control of it. Before it was all over, I went up through about a 10ft hole in the pine trees, over the next house, and flew it back through the 10ft hole and back to my yard. I was proud of myself! Lol ... Between the Sky Viper and a 1SQ, I've gotten pretty comfortable flying a quadcopter.
 
Great story and I can feel you anxiety. I've never had a mishap with my X-Star, but I have with my bayangtoys X16, non GPS .Was flying on what I thought a clam day. But up about 75 feet and must have hit a wind current. It drifted off a few hundred feet at least and was just a black dot in the sky. All I could think was, here is my first fly a way drone. As it kept going further away, I managed to take a deep breath, hit the headless button.

Pulled that joy stick back towards me and crossed my fingers. Low and behold it started to get bigger and bigger. Once I was down a bit was able to bring it home. Even though it's only a $129.00 drone, I really didn't want to lose it. Was my first and still flies really nice. It's also my practice drone.
 
Old topic...new response. I did my very last update on the XSP - when they came out with the last update almost 2 years ago. Then no more updates even though iOS kept getting updates; remember the problem caused by iOS 11 ish with the Starlink App. Well, after that..my app haven't worked the same. I haven't flown my XSP in over a year ever since getting the Anafi but every time I turn it on just to keep the batteries cycling...it will ask for a Compass Calibration (even though I did it on the last time I turned it on) and a warning about the batteries being cold even though the case, drone, and battery are all kept inside the house. Now I just ignore it, fly it for a few minutes with no issues. I'm going to start using the XSP again...eventually. :D
 
I have had the battery temperature warning on my XSP come as a surprise. I can't remember the exact temperature but it was in the mid 60s I think.
 

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