Compass - Sensors
- Matt Skelton
About
The PHX has a magnetometer on board used for autonomous navigation. The magnetometer provides magnetic heading data to the autopilot. The compass is a flight critical sensor. Verifying it is functioning and calibrated correctly is important to successful flight.
When to Calibrate
The PHX compass should be calibrated anytime it does not match the anticipated heading direction within +/- 10 degrees.
For Example:
The aircraft is pointed East (90 degrees) and the compass on the Fly screen reads North East (45 degrees).
Where to Calibrate
For best results calibrate the compass outside away from any large metal objects or known sources of EMI (cars, powerlines, cell phone towers, etc.).
How To - Video
How To - Steps
Navigate To Gear Tab>Sensors
Select Compass
A menu will appear on the right hand side of the screen.
Press OK when you ware ready to begin.
Pick Up Aircraft
Pick the aircraft up and hold it as shown
Orient Aircraft
Hold the aircraft in one of the shown orientations.
Order does not matter.
Spin
Once the orientation is confirmed the box will turn yellow and an arrow will appear. The aircraft will also emit a beep sound.
This indicated that the aircraft is ready to be spun.
Hold the aircraft and spin around in a circle until the box turns green. The direction of spin does not matter.
The aircraft will omit a beep sound when the orientation is complete.
There is no specific number of spins required.
Repeat For All Orientations
Repeat the orienting of the aircraft and the spinning steps for each of the six orientations shown on the screen.
Set Aircraft Down
Once the last orientation has been completed, set the aircraft down on a flat surface.
Reboot
The aircraft will automatically reboot after the calibration is complete.
The motor may twitch after rebooting. Keep the motor clear of anything it may harm or damage.
If the aircraft was moving around during the automatic reboot, the reboot button in the pop up menu can be used to manually reboot the aircraft after it has been set down on a flat surface.
Otherwise press OK.
Fly PHX may display a “large external offset error” due to the sudden change in calibration parameters.
Verify Reading
Verify the icon on the screen is pointing in the expected direction.
When using cardinal directions verify the compass icon in the upper right hand corner of the screen matches the direction.
Hold the aircraft as shown so that it is the easiest to see the direction being pointed at.