AC 3.0 'Live' Compass Calibration

How I do the "Live" compass calibration

[fixinstuff]

Took a couple tries but I got it. Thank you. So far this has been the fastest and easiest method I've used.

[shaybee]

It worked for me, now my compass line (red line in MP) points perfectly in the direction I am pointing the quad! And I did it via my new telemetry kit. No more wires, I love it!

[peterro]

Thanks a lot Randy, this works a lot better for me than the rather fast dance. At first try. Now north is at the opposite of south. Although I love the Arducopter, I used to hate this ceremonial (the former way) I had to repeat and repeat to get "about" results.

What I saw the first time is, that an exact 90° angle to surface is not necessairy.

[rmackay]

dege13,
Txs for the feedback. I suspect that being outside and away from any metal objects is better. That USB cable twisting around the body can't be doing any good either.
I mostly made this video to show Marco and DaveC about the orientations that I think the copter needs to be put in to do the calibration. The "Dance" that we normally tell people to do never has people holding the copter up-side-down which I think should be done.
I haven't done any objective testing yet.

[sgoldens]

Hello Randy,
I'm in need of your help, i'm flying a walkera qr x350 pro with mission planner installed, the X frame quad has an external compass & i have done the live calibration with very good success with very accurate readings, i've also done the transmitter calibration but as for the compass should it be set to Learn & also set to external ? the compass is mounted separately on one of the landing legs. 
Are there any other settings you might recommend ? 
Thank you so very much for all your posts !
Steve

[caturlifelive]

Hallo Randy Mackay
I have a question, what is the purpose of Test: Compass = GOOD - No Data MAG, Unable to test mag_field interference on auto analysis log ?

what caused it ?
thanks in advance

[dege]

Hey Randy. So there is not need to do it outside and away from electronics? Wouldn't it be more accurate (in terms or more like flight) if the motors were running at idle with no pros for the calibration? Could explain how this is better than the way suggested by Marco? Thanks for the video.

[Dane]

Randy, your calibration movements were similar, but more than the "compass dance" calibration. Could you explain if it matters? Also, I plan to do the Live Calibration tomorrow, weather permitting and do a comparison with my Compass Learn readings. Thanks.

[rmackay]

Juresnip, That Z axis is very high. If you don't have any metal screws around then you'll need to back and talk to the manufacturer of the board then. Is it "Sir Alex"?

[rmackay]

Samacumen,
I think Chris's dance will also get you perfectly good compass offsets. I think Chris's dance repeats some directions too much and misses others (the copter is never horizontal for example) but I'm pretty sure if you did both procedures and tested the results they would be very close.
2) I'm not sure what the units are but they're close to a micro Tesla...but not quite.
3) compassmot is an AC3.0.1 feature so you won't find it in AC2.9.1b.

[.anashibatullahdjokosusi]

Hello Mr Randy
i have a problem calibrating the compass, both internal and external. Here are the components I use:
1.GNSS M10-L4-3100
2. Mission planner 4.3.0
3. Black Pixhawk Cube

At first, calibration was successful. However, for the past few days, I have had trouble calibrating the compass and the message appears: CompassCalibration : Cannot start compass thread

I have done several things, starting from updating firmware, changing the type of CAN used, and others. Calibration can only be carried out only a limited number of times.
What’s the solution?
Thanks...

[javierymirna]

Hey Randy, I'm havinf trouble with my apm 2.6, here's a video can you see if you can tell what the problem is? flip fpv apm 2.6 - Today's test outdoor I already checked motor rotation and props are set right as well... Thanks!

[rmackay]

Zocke,
The HUD should lean to the right if you lean the APM. I suspect you just didn't notice before. You have to imagine that it's the horizon from the point of view of a tiny pilot sitting on the APM.
As for the compass, all I can recommend is re-doing the live calibration. remember that your copter should never lean over more than 40 degrees to testing it beyond that is probably not super relevant.

[billalvarez]

randy on my pixhawk do i need both internal and external compass?compass#1 offset is 135 but #2 is very high 436..should i be concerned ?..sometimes my aircraft stable on loiter but sometime there is that toilet bowl effect will you enlighten me on this ..i did read the manual but i i dont see answer to my problem

[zeesh]

Hi bro, you are doing awsome work. ive built mine using arducopter and my current system has 7038 props with 980kv motors and 1300mah 3s lipo..im using defaukt settings of arducopter except in basic tuning ive setup all my sliders to behave smoothly and no crisp movements. but my quad doesnt hover in mid throttle and leaves ground on arnd 5% throttle and also the take off is not simple straight up but to one direction. yesterday i changed props to 5045 but had to change battery to 1500mah 4s as there was no takeoff....any guide plz?

[samacumen]

Thank you Randy, Few more questions, which may be useful to others viewing your video:

1) Would you recommend the compass calibration procedure compass dance done by Chris Anderson, and how is it different from the one you did in this video (tilting at 60 deg of geographic North)?
2) What do these values (-150 - ~ +150) really indicate?
3) The 'compassmot' option in CLI in MIssion Planner 1.2.59 is not visible. Is there some other way to get to that?

Thanks!

[javierymirna]

Randy, i tried flying my flip with apm 2.6 today for the first time, I'm able to arm and disarm but it seems like the motors aren't getting enough juice, i flip the throttle of the way up and i can get it to lift... can you tell me if theres a setting i need to adjust to accomplish take off?

[rmackay]

Avacenna, sounds like the mission planner is sending bytes to the APM when it shouldn't. You're using the latest version of the mission planner? Also you're using AC3.0.1?

[JKTechSi]

it's sinked inside of full carbon hexa, between the tubes in center of centerplates. below the plate there are lots of cables, which meet from ESCs, but the current is low, as I use 6s. the compass work good though (when I deactivated AHRS_GPS_GAIN), and it flies OK... I will try to do compassmot, when it will be availiable for MegaPirates. yes, Sir Alex's software.

[zocke]

Hi randy, I hope you can help me out with this.
This friday I had a bad crash I had to build a new frame.
After that I have calibrated the accelerometer, and the compass. Red line is about 25 degrees of( to the left) and when I tilt the copter back and forth its ok but tilting it to the side its reversd. Tilting it to the left shows in MP as a tilt to the right???
Compass_ofs is: X-24.726 Y46, 575 Z248.066 The board is mounted on foam and away from cables, gps, ubec. I have no confidence left !