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Fly aways - let's see what is common between us
1553 22 2017-8-12
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fans5713abc7
lvl.1
South Africa
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Ok my first Drone. And been reading the forums quite a bit around the subject of these little sparks going rogue and flying away. Happened to me yesterday ... Spark switches to ATTI mode ... GPS signal lost ... RTH error and the NFZ thing. Thing is prior to flight strong gps signal. Cliff overlooking the sea and the mountain behind me ... Could not see any magnetic interference

Lucky for me about 5sec later gained control again and landed the spark

So let's post the setups maybe to help identify the commonality behind all of us having experienced this issues

1. Remote Control used ? Yes
2. WiFi or cable used with remote control ? WiFi (default 5.8ghz)
3. Calibrated before flight ? Yes just the compass
4. Beginner mode on or off ? Off
5. Waited for gps signal lock before flying ? Yes
6. Concrete or metal objects nearby? A tar road and launched 10 M away from my car
2017-8-12
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hallmark007
Captain
Flight distance : 9812789 ft
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Ireland
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Why did you calibrate your compass?
2017-8-12
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E3M6N3S
lvl.4
Flight distance : 121713 ft
United States
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No thanks.
2017-8-12
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ImHereToCrash
Captain
Flight distance : 5381368 ft
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My previous sparky before I returned him was likely hardware issue but I’ll play along.

RC USED: Yes

OTG or WiFi used: WiFi it behaved far worse, but tired to fly away on OTG as well.

Calibrated before flight: compass: yes and no, I calibrated when I asked me which was every other flight.  IMU calibration: only after it got unstable and couldn’t sit still in the air.

Beginner mode: no, eff that however I did start out in standard mode with obstical avoidances on and such..  sport mode after I got comfortable with controls.

Waited for GPS lock: always.  If one lesson I learned from long time users, wait for GPS lock before lifting off or leaving the area.  So defiantly yes.  


Launched from concrete or cement: yep defiantly.. sidewalks and parking lots.  But I also did a lot of flying from a field too.  Behaved identically in open field as tit did in concrete jungle.  

Metal objects around the spark at take off causing interference: oddly I not found metal to be a cause for compass interference.. only if power flowing through it.

My new spark seems completely solid and immune to these problems,,..  I have tested same area in similar conditions and found no issues with my new spark..  




2017-8-12
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Jimmy hoffa
First Officer
Flight distance : 1824291 ft
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Should only calibrate compass if app asks u too
2017-8-12
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Vasco Hill
lvl.1
Flight distance : 218501 ft
United States
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I am getting fly aways after getting compass errors and it switches from GPS to ATTI.  Once it switches automatically to ATTI mode it starts it fly away.  I have always been able to recover from the fly away, but if it ever got out of range I think it would be lost.

Below are my settings:
1. Remote Control: YES
2. WiFi or OTG cable: OTG Cable
3. Calibrated before flight: YES and NO (Compass). Experienced it in both ways.
4. Beginner mode: NO
5. Waited for GPS signal lock before flying: YES
6. Concrete or metal objects nearby: NO. Take off and calibration done in open field.

I am frequently getting the following errors:
-  Warning:In Flight, working IMUencountersheading exception, please switch to atti mode if craft behave abnormal.
-  Warning:Compass Error.  Exit P-GPS Mode

After errors it switches from GPS to ATTI mode.  While it is in ATTI mode it drifts a lot.

I have re-calabrated the compass many times, however I am still getting these errors in about ⅓ of my flights, especial if I am flying above 300 feet.  Today got it durring landing in a open field.
2017-8-12
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Tviscomi
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Vasco Hill Posted at 2017-8-12 09:40
I am getting fly aways after getting compass errors and it switches from GPS to ATTI.  Once it switches automatically to ATTI mode it starts it fly away.  I have always been able to recover from the fly away, but if it ever got out of range I think it would be lost.

Below are my settings:

Why continue flying it?  This sounds like an accident/disaster just waiting to happen.
2017-8-12
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VideoMonkey43
New
Flight distance : 96148 ft
Canada
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Mine flew away on me two days ago. I haven't seen it since.

1. Remote Control: NO
2. WiFi or OTG cable: Wifi, 5.8ghz
3. Calibrated before flight: YES, the app asked me to
4. Beginner mode: NO
5. Waited for GPS signal lock before flying: YES
6. Concrete or metal objects nearby: I was flying close to the house, air-conditioning unit. Typical north american suburb

I had been flying problem free for 8 minutes, I it in tripod mode and all-of-a-sudden it just decided to run off like a demon-possessed flying white weasel (it had reported compass error and I was trying to land it when this happened). It flew at top speed between two houses, gained some altitude to jump a third and a fourth and at that point because I was just using my iphone 7 I lost contact with it. It had reached max-flight distance, and carried on. I had ceased to push buttons controlling it, which should have caused it to stop. My brother is a pilot and did some flight analysis based on the record and it could have gone up to 3km based on the battery life remaining and speed reported when I lost contact.

Any help? any pro-tips for finding other than offering a reward and posting on the town facebook?
2017-8-12
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hallmark007
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VideoMonkey43 Posted at 2017-8-12 10:22
Mine flew away on me two days ago. I haven't seen it since.

1. Remote Control: NO

Can you put up your flight log to link below, just click link below and follow instructions I'll have a look for you.

http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
2017-8-12
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SparkPete
lvl.3
Flight distance : 83852 ft
Germany
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I think you should add the following to your checklist:

7. Version of firmware (Spark, Battery, RC if used)
8. Phone/tablett and OS version
2017-8-12
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hallmark007
Captain
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Vasco Hill Posted at 2017-8-12 09:40
I am getting fly aways after getting compass errors and it switches from GPS to ATTI.  Once it switches automatically to ATTI mode it starts it fly away.  I have always been able to recover from the fly away, but if it ever got out of range I think it would be lost.

Below are my settings:

This might give you an idea why a what's happening with your spark, have you tried different areas to fly in, why calibrate so often, if you receive message mag interference please move or calibrate never calibrate at that spot just move to a different area and start again.

Why would a compass error disable GPS?
Orientation (compass data) and position (GPS data) are different but related.
When the Spark is moving and getting position information from the GPS that tells the Spark that it is travelling in a different direction from what it's getting from compass data, The Sparks programming can't work with the data conflict.
The solution is to drop data from one source and since the Spark can't fly without a compass but can without GPS, it's the GPS data that gets dropped.

There have been some compass problems with Sparks lately or your issue may have been related to something you did.
I'd be curious about when and where you calibrated it and where you launched from as these may be relevant factors.
You can also see the flight data to learn more and perhaps solve the mystery of your incident.
2017-8-12
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Zirconn
lvl.1
Flight distance : 242920 ft
Romania
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If my drone would ask for calibration every other flight, I'd stop trying to fly it and contact DJI for warranty.
2017-8-12
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fans5713abc7
lvl.1
South Africa
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hallmark007 Posted at 2017-8-12 08:47
Why did you calibrate your compass?

After reading your posts I've stopped doing so. Every other dji drone owner told me it's good precise to do so before every flight

Guess not

For now my drone is in beginner mode ... Flew it today. For a very brief moment it gave the errors again. But did not lose connectivity at all to the drone. Even playing back the log the errors did not show up at all. Seemed all normal.

When those error messages pop up I think dji needs to make them audible which they are not. Because of this I then decided to calibrate the compass on the beach far away from anything remotely concrete or metal ... After that flew the drone and absolutely zero errors

Will continue to check

My firmware is the latest on the drone the remote and the app

From the responses so far there is no real pattern to this happens with a controller without one ...

Only thing is everyone has beginner mode off ... That's why I'm trying it with beginner mode on to see if the drone goes rogue or not
2017-8-12
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fans5713abc7
lvl.1
South Africa
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Oh yes my phone is an iPhone 7 plus
2017-8-12
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VideoMonkey43
New
Flight distance : 96148 ft
Canada
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hallmark007 Posted at 2017-8-12 11:27
Can you put up your flight log to link below, just click link below and follow instructions I'll have a look for you.

http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/

I couldn't do it through the website, so I sent an email to the address listed in the error message.
2017-8-12
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VideoMonkey43
New
Flight distance : 96148 ft
Canada
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is the battery firmware upgrade different from the firmware upgrades? I had just updated the spark to the latest firmware the day I lost it, but I didn't do anything special for the batteries. The version of the app I was using was 4.2.0 iOS I believe.
2017-8-12
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lfkiter
lvl.3
Flight distance : 111942 ft
United States
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I get the same errors all the time. Here is what I'm doing:

1. Remote Control: YES
2. WiFi or OTG cable: Wifi, 5.8ghz (Has happened with OTG as well)
3. Calibrated before flight: NO, never asked to
4. Beginner mode: NO
5. Waited for GPS signal lock before flying: YES
6. Concrete or metal objects nearby: No, launching from beach and boat in middle of bay.
7. Date received 6/23/17 (ordered 5/26/17)

Another option I want to add is DATE OF PURCHASE/RECEIVED - maybe it's a certain batch of Sparks.  Reason I say this, I have two other friends who have bought Sparks, and I have not received any errors on theirs.  They bought them fairly recently after seeing my Spark (where is my referral fee DJI ! haha)

Also not sure if it matters, but also I have the WHITE spark.

2017-8-12
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Pappy3
First Officer
Flight distance : 2820469 ft
United States
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lfkiter, I have been thinking along the same lines on it being a manufacturing batch issue. I ordered in early July and received around the 18th. I have not experiencd any issues with the drone.
2017-8-12
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ImHereToCrash
Captain
Flight distance : 5381368 ft
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Pappy3 Posted at 2017-8-12 21:09
lfkiter, I have been thinking along the same lines on it being a manufacturing batch issue. I ordered in early July and received around the 18th. I have not experiencd any issues with the drone.

just incase more to it:

got my first crazy spark on amazon.. date of july 21st...
2017-8-12
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fans5713abc7
lvl.1
South Africa
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Mine is 19 July activated.

Can people test drone in beginner mode. If it's hardware it should also do the same regardless beginner mode or not

If it's all good in beginner then it's software
2017-8-12
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fans5713abc7
lvl.1
South Africa
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And yes maybe it's the device we using as well. So are people using iOS or android. And which phone or tablet
2017-8-12
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Adamr
lvl.1
South Africa
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ok as per my other post ...
Can people confirm if their compass on the DJI app points in the same direction that the drone is physically pointing

Noticed this is not the case for me. So the day before it was perfectly aligned to where the drone was pointing. The north point also spot on. Then tested the same spot yesterday, no calibration and the drone was poinitng is a very different direction to where the compass on the app was showing

My hypothesis is this is what is causing the fly aways. This compass conflict causes the drone to reset itself ... and during this reset is when it flies away. Hopefully it is just a software bug and not a physical something wrong with the hardware
Ill admit looking at that compass icon on the app is not something a novice like myself has paid attention to
2017-8-18
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Sparky_17
Captain
Flight distance : 62349 ft
Canada
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OH come on .. don't be a party pooper . LOL
2017-8-18
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