P3S Compass mounting

[Psmith221]

After my bouncing off several trees, I had a functional P3S without legs and props. While waiting for new landing gear, I took a pair of spare legs from a an old Promark GPS Drone. drilled one hole in each leg mount and it fit right on my P3S.

It holds the P3S much higher off the ground giving the camera about 2 inches clearance. It also provide the bird with a much wider stance.

My problem is that the compass will not reach the horizontal portion of the legs, due to cable length.

My question is. does it make any difference in the orientation of the compass board itself? can I mount it on the vertical portion of the leg?

Anybody have any idea?

 

[N017RW]

Yes... orientation matters!

Regardless of where you mount it it must be done so to remain aligned with the drone’s axes.

 

[TexasJohn]

I'm glad you asked that question because I'd wondered about that myself. I'm sure a lot of people have thought about installing wider or taller landing gear. I wonder if there might be some other way to mount the compass other than attaching it to the landing gear. Would carbon-fiber gear interfere with the compass?

 

[With The Birds]

I'm glad you asked that question because I'd wondered about that myself. I'm sure a lot of people have thought about installing wider or taller landing gear. I wonder if there might be some other way to mount the compass other than attaching it to the landing gear. Would carbon-fiber gear interfere with the compass?

Carbon fibre can block RF energy quite effectively- it has no ferromagnetic properties however. It will have no influence on the compass operation.

 

[Psmith221]

I carved out the old Compass Mount out of the broken legs. I reinstalled the compass end of the segment that I carved out and taped it with white electrical tape right back to where it should have been in the first place. It seems to work. however it's cold and dark and I'm in the middle of a forest so I did not take it outside and try to fly it. Maybe I can do that tomorrow afternoon. I did however set it on a box in the middle of my garage and it picked up eight satellites warmed up the IMU and it says it's ready to fly. However the Bird stats I've got the calibrate button lit for the compass and the X, Y, Z, and mod numbers are bouncing all over the place just sitting still in the garage. Yeah, tere is a fridge sitting about 5 feet from it.
Does anybody have an explanation of these numbers that would make since to a layman?

 

[TexasJohn]

Carbon fibre can block RF energy quite effectively- it has no ferromagnetic properties however. It will have no influence on the compass operation.

Okay, thanks for the response. Maybe I can figure out a way to mount it and maintain the original alignment.

 

[Psmith221]

Texas John, I'm on the red river at Lake Texoma. And I found that carving that piece out and remounting the compass on the promark legs is working well.
Took it out to a flat area and flew it around for about 15 min. Took it out 2000 ft, altitude 100 ft and then started getting compass errors, signal loss errors, and she returned home. I don't know why the compass errors started popping up at that range but inside that range, all was ok. The bird returned home and hit it launch point within about 2 feet.

 

[Psmith221]

The legs do give the bird a much wider stance. You have to drill another hole in the leg mounts, and you have to stress them a little because they're not quite wide enough by about eight of an inch but it doesn't seem to affect the legs. However it stands very stable launch is well, flight as well drama I managed to get the bird app to about 35 miles an hour with them on oh, and it doesn't seem to stress the motors. They are completely out of the way of the gimbal on the camera oh, and it will keep the gimbal and camera out of the grass lizards really tall. The stance on the legs, makes it nearly impossible the flip over on its side on Landing. They do have one drawback, now the **** thing doesn't fit in the case!

 

[Psmith221]

Pardon all the grammar problems above. I was talking that text. And this phone, is doing a lousy job of interpretation

 

[TexasJohn]

I wondered about the orientation of the compass and someone said it does indeed matter. However, I was looking at a picture of some retractable gear for the P3 and it clearly shows that the compass has changed orientation when the gear is in the up position. So, why does that compass still work? I hope someone who has some experience with the retractable gear can shed some light...

 

[N017RW]

It won’t work if not properly oriented. The early retract kits had you remount the compass on the body.

 

[TexasJohn]

Thanks for the reply. Mounting the compass on the bottom of the shell works? Why doesn't DJI just do that then?

 

[N017RW]

There always trade-offs. They felt separating from the body was better.

Why are retracts necessary?