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Calibrate the sensors before the first flight and after any change to how the flight controller or compass is mounted. The guided wizards live in one panel: open the node, go to the Setup tab, and choose SENSORS → Calibration. The calibration tiles in the node’s System view open the same panel.
Calibration panel with the compass wizard in progress and the calibration log on the right

The Calibration panel (Setup tab, SENSORS) with a compass calibration running.

Remove the propellers before ESC calibration and CompassMot: the motors spin. Every calibration’s start button is disabled, with the reason shown, while the aircraft is armed or its arm state is unknown, and stays disabled until the flight controller reports it is disarmed. A calibration that is already running can still be cancelled.

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What each firmware offers

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Run a wizard

1

Open the panel

Open the node, then Setup → SENSORS → Calibration.
2

Start a calibration

Read the tips in the wizard card and click start.
3

Follow the positions

For multi-position calibrations the wizard shows which orientation to hold. The progress bar fills as the flight controller collects samples, and the wizard advances to the next position.
4

Review and save

The wizard reports success or failure. A before-and-after table shows the values that changed. If the result needs a reboot, a banner offers Reboot.
The calibration log on the right of the panel shows the flight controller’s status text as it arrives, with warnings and errors highlighted. A failed calibration usually names its reason there.

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Accelerometer

ArduPilot and PX4 use six positions: level, left side down, right side down, nose down, nose up and on its back. Hold each still on a flat surface until the wizard moves on. iNav also uses six orientations and shows a tile per orientation. Betaflight captures a single level sample.

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Compass

Pick up the aircraft and rotate it slowly through every orientation until each compass reaches 100%. The wizard shows per-compass progress and the fitness of the result, and you accept the new offsets at the end. On ArduPilot, a Compass Pre-flight Checks block appears before you start. It reads COMPASS_USE, COMPASS_ORIENT, COMPASS_AUTO_ROT, COMPASS_OFFS_MAX, COMPASS_LEARN and COMPASS_EXTERNAL, and offers Fix buttons that write recommended values for COMPASS_AUTO_ROT and COMPASS_OFFS_MAX. On iNav the compass calibration runs for the time set in mag_calibration_time.
Calibrate the compass outdoors, away from steel, cars and power lines.

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Known-heading compass calibration (PX4)

PX4 can calibrate the compass from the world magnetic model and a known heading, with no rotation. Go outdoors, wait for a GPS fix with more than six satellites, point the nose at a known true heading, enter it, and start. A wrong heading miscalibrates the compass by the same error.

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Level

Level sets the reference attitude after the flight controller is mounted. Place the aircraft level and start. Quick Level (PX4) does the same on PX4 in one step.

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Airspeed and barometer

Airspeed calibration zeroes a pitot-tube sensor on planes and VTOL aircraft. Barometer calibration resets the pressure baseline; the panel shows the current pressure.

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RC

Move every stick and switch to its full range, then centre the sticks. The wizard records each channel’s minimum, centre and maximum and writes them to the flight controller.

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ESC

ESC calibration teaches all ESCs the same throttle range. Remove the propellers, start the wizard and follow its prompts. The ESCs beep to confirm.

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CompassMot

CompassMot measures how much the motors and power wiring disturb the compass as throttle rises. A high interference figure means the compass should move farther from the power wiring.

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Next steps

Flight controller setup

Frame, outputs, flight modes and failsafes.

Parameters

Inspect and edit every parameter.
Last modified on October 11, 2026