Compass Calibration

The compass calibration process configures all magnetometers on the vehicle.

Calibrate compasses on first use of the vehicle. They should not need to be calibrated again unless exposed to a very strong magnetic field, or if the vehicle is used in an area with abnormal magnetic characteristics.

Indications of a poor compass calibration include circling during hover, "toilet bowling" (spiraling-outwards at constant altitude, leading to fly-way), or veering off-path when attempting to fly straight.

The process can be performed in three different approaches, quick compass calibration,6-sides calibration and in-field calibration. See each section below.

Quick compass calibration

The calibration steps are:

  1. Select Vehicle Overview > Sensors > Compass in the left sidebar.

  2. If available, select the checkbox to enable the quick calibration. There should be immediate feedback. Click Ok to contiue.

  1. Fill out the latitude, longitude and heading information. If the vehicle has a valid position, the information will be pre-filled. 

The valid ranges are:
Latitude: -90 to 90 degrees
Longitude: -180 to 180 degrees
Heading: 0 to 359 degrees

MGRS information will automatically be updated to reflect the current latitude and longitude. Similarly, changing the MGRS will update the latitude and longitude values.

Make sure all fields are valid, else Apply will be disabled.

  1. Click Apply to execute the quick calibration. The application will confirm if calibration was successful or failed.

Complete 6-sides calibration

If the 6-sides magnetometer calibration has already been performed once on the fully assembled drone, follow the steps of the in-field calibration section below.

Auterion Mission Control will guide you to position the vehicle in a number of set orientations and then rotate the vehicle about the specified axis.

Choose a location away from large metal objects or magnetic fields. Metal is not always obvious! Avoid calibrating on top of an office table (often contain metal bars) or next to a vehicle. Calibration can even be affected if you're standing on a slab of concrete with uneven distribution of re-bar.

The calibration steps are:

  1. Select Vehicle Overview > Sensors > Compass in the left sidebar.

  1. Check that the Autopilot orientation matches the actual mounting orientation

  1. Click OK to start the calibration.

  2. Place the vehicle in any of the orientations shown in red (incomplete) and hold it still. Once prompted (the orientation-image turns yellow) rotate the vehicle around the specified axis in either/both directions. Once the calibration is complete for the current orientation the associated image on the screen will turn green.

  3. Repeat the calibration process for all vehicle orientations.

  4. Once you've calibrated the vehicle in all the positions Mission Control will display the Compass Calibration Complete prompt (all orientation images will be displayed in green and the progress bar will fill completely).

  5. Press OK to finish and Reboot the Vehicle if the orientation was changed.

In-field calibration

If the drone shows symptoms of compass issues (e.g.: toilet bowling or pre-flight check error), the sensor biases can be automatically corrected simply by oscillating the drone around its 3 axes by about ±30 degrees. Two oscillations per axis are usually enough to obtain a good result.

Watch the in-field calibration in video below:

The valid ranges are: Latitude: -90 to 90 degrees Longitude: -180 to 180 degrees Heading: 0 to 359 degrees

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