Discussions

Bad compass health error

Posted by william santos on February 12, 2014 at 7:01pm

Hi,

Recently I obtained an apm 2.5 and I have an error on my mission planner that I can't figured out yet.  The error is Bad compass health and the error won't let me arm. I did all the procedures for the compass and it didn't work out.  Can someone help me?

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Replies

  • Nic Chapleau June 21, 2014 at 7:02pm

    Check your compassmot values. If they are NULL, change the to 0. You could be running an old firmware or mission planner which had an issue with compassmot not setting the values properly..

    • Michael Leasure > Nic Chapleau June 22, 2014 at 11:58am

      compassmot values set to zero, calibration done, all -150 to 150, installed third external compass, verified internal compass disabled, still, bad compass health.  i want to reso;ve this and document here to help others. 

  • Moderator
    Bill Piedra June 21, 2014 at 10:10am

    Remember, on APM 2.5 the compass is built into the board.  You have to cut the trace on the board to use the external compass.  I don't think the I2C uses the external compass unless you cut the trace on the APM 2.5.  On APM 2.6, it's already cut.

    • Michael Leasure > Bill Piedra June 21, 2014 at 6:22pm
      I am sending the ublox back to 3dr for evaluation or replacement. It seems odd to me that 2 new APM's and 2 new GPS/ mag units would be defective. If 5" above the hex on a plastic pedestal doesn't isolate it, I am out of ideas.

      image.jpg

      • william santos > Michael Leasure June 22, 2014 at 3:49pm

        what apm do you use 2.5 or 2.6?

  • Michal Rus June 21, 2014 at 12:09am

    Hi William,

    from my experience, bad compass health disappeared once I removed all magnets and unnecessary metals off my plane. Beware of this if you have something aboard that has impact on magnetometers.. It seems they are very sensitive.. And yes I use external GPS with mag on the same board from 3DR..

    Michal

    • Moderator
      Bill Piedra > Michal Rus June 21, 2014 at 5:48am

      I was able to solve this problem by moving the GPS/Compass.  There were no magnets, but I think the compass might have been swayed by the motors or power distribution.  I also moved the 3DR APM power supply.  I haven't had this problem with Pixhawk yet, and I have 3 of them. 

      • Moderator
        Bill Piedra > Bill Piedra June 21, 2014 at 5:49am

        Also, if you're using APM 2.5 you have an onboard compass.  APM uses the compass built into the 2.5 board by default.  

        To use an external compass you have to cut the trace on the APM board.  Otherwise I think it uses the internal compass even if you have an external connected.

  • Crady von Pawlak June 20, 2014 at 6:17pm

    Set your ARMING_CHECK to -9 to bypass the GPS check when arming.

    http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/arducopter-parameters/

  • william santos February 12, 2014 at 8:44pm

    Yes I did the live calibration inside mi home and it come successful but I tray it outside and come out with not enough data.

    And yes the HUD in mission planner respond but every time that I connect the APM to the mission planner the front is pointing on different direction. No I don't have a external compass where I can found one?

    and Thank for you respond.

    .

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