Hello!

Flying my Spark two days ago. I have 2h22m flight time and 3,684m with this Spark.

Connected to RC with OTG and iPad Pro 10.5. Great signal (11 satellites at launch, 15-16 in the air), compass was pointed in the right direction, all firmware updated and refreshed. Everything seems normal.

Flight is going fine, when suddenly I get a “weak GPS” error and “compass error” at the same time. When this happens, the GPS indicator is showing 15-16. (???)

The Spark starts drifting out of sight. I’m trying to figure out what’s happening before I start doing any corrective inputs on the controls. The camera was facing down, so I point it forward, and I’m in trees (odd because obstacle avoidance was on).

I try to control away as fast as I can, but then the connection is lost.

It had drifted out of sight, and because the GPS died, I don’t know where it came down. I searched for about 2 hours, but the area has a ton of plant life, and the river, and I wasn’t able find it, or reconnect.

Here is the video of the flight log. I’ve sped up the boring part at the beginning before the malfunction.

A few questions!

• Any tips for tracking it down? I don’t have GPS but it was still getting H/V speeds and altitude, plus time, obviously. Can I plug this data into something that’ll give me a max radius for how far it could have drifted?
  
• I labeled the main unit and battery with my phone number (fingers crossed for a good samaritan) but I’m wondering if I’ll be able to find out if someone tries to activate it on another account?
  
• Was I bitten by both the weird compass problem, and also a sudden power loss? It’s possible that it just hit the ground and the battery popped out (fingers crossed again, but there’s a good chance it’s a fish’s house now).
  
• Can I get a hug please?
  

Thanks everyone!

In memoriam, here’s a nice 180 I made with my Spark.

If you put up your flight log to link below you should be able to get long lat of last location unless log was cut short.
Just click on link and follow instructions come back here and post link.

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

Thanks! I'm trying to use that tool, but I'm getting upload timeouts (tried both Safari and Chrome with blockers off). Here's a link to the CSV flight log. I've emailed the LogViewer dev about the error.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6r2nfi ... 5-57-14%5D.csv?dl=0

It doesn't look like it has columns for speed and elevation though. The last GPS co-ords are from where it started showing the "weak GPS" error mid-flight... it definitely drifted away from that point (the last thing  I saw was a few frames of trees close-up, then full signal loss).

Thanks again! I'm heading out shortly to try to find it again - wish me luck.

And another bites the dust
How many sparks came down now?
Still a "small" number according to dji?
Silence at headquarter dji, after so many weeks of crashes still no update or whatsoever. I think they simply do not have a clue what is happening

fans61699a75 Posted at 2017-8-18 11:18
And another bites the dust
How many sparks came down now?
Still a "small" number according to dji?

Reading though the forum, and thinking back on previous flights, I remember other times I've had brief compass cut-outs. Would it be useful to post those/send them to DJI?

Hello again! I figured out the issue with the LogViewer (I was uploading the CSV via the app's export feature, instead of digging out the *real* flight log from the "FlightLogs" directory via iTunes).

Here's my flight log: http://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/5JHT2CPF0UAJ1295MRYX/

This is amazing, thank you so much. I'm heading out right now to go recover it.

I'm also wondering why the heck the DJI app wouldn't show this information, but that's something to think about on my ride. Like, all the GPS co-ords are RIGHT THERE. This could have been so much easier and made recovery right afterwards actually, you know, possible. wtf?

Thank you again. Hoping to report back with good news soon.

you where flying backwards at start ? ac not pointed in right direction, if not seems  gps and compass was off
hope ya find it good luck

TMUSVI Posted at 2017-8-18 12:09
you where flying backwards at start ? ac not pointed in right direction, if not seems  gps and compass was off
hope ya find it good luck

Yep it was a backwards takeoff. “Double check compass orientation” is on my preflight checklist ;)

did you go find the ac looks like its in tree

Regarding sending this to dji?
Its up to you, many people have sent their logs to dji, by now i think they must have enough logs with same issues. And its about time they are putting this as priority number one. But as most people who have sent their logs and reported the issues, you never hear from them again.or they are working on a solution, or they have no idea how to solve this. I only know it takes a long time for them to get that solution.

I had this a few weeks ago, see pictures, but i could emergency land the drone without damage luckily, then 2 days ago , the distance jumped from 300 meters to 7500 meter from homepoint

Error messages

Good luck getting it back... I wonder how the phone has logs for after you lost contact with the drone.. interesting.

Did you mange to find it?

LouisP Posted at 2017-8-18 13:23
Good luck getting it back... I wonder how the phone has logs for after you lost contact with the drone.. interesting.

Great news everyone! It was exactly where log viewer said it was. I’ll post pictures when I get back. Luckily found the battery too, which had popped out (and undoubtably why signal was lost, not the “falls out of the sky” problem).

One prop broke, otherwise it looks fine physically, though it’s a bit dirty. Pretty sure it rained at some point. Any suggestions for what to do next? The battery seems fine (lights up as expected). Should I just clean the contacts and try powering it up? The SD is readable and there’s a video file, it’s not playing back on my iPad (there are two other files with a similar file name, I assume those can be used to recover the video?).

Thanks again everyone! I’m amazed and really happy even if it’s dead. I paid for the Refresh plan, that would cover this, yeah?

aDJIcustomer Posted at 2017-8-18 14:54
Great news everyone! It was exactly where log viewer said it was. I’ll post pictures when I get back. Luckily found the battery too, which had popped out (and undoubtably why signal was lost, not the “falls out of the sky” problem).

One prop broke, otherwise it looks fine physically, though it’s a bit dirty. Pretty sure it rained at some point. Any suggestions for what to do next? The battery seems fine (lights up as expected). Should I just clean the contacts and try powering it up? The SD is readable and there’s a video file, it’s not playing back on my iPad (there are two other files with a similar file name, I assume those can be used to recover the video?).

Great news!  Happy ending!

If you have dji care refresh, I'd go for it (trying to clean and connect battery and starting it up).  In other durability tests, this drone appears pretty rugged.

If you don't have dji care refresh, I'd contact support and get their advice.

aDJIcustomer Posted at 2017-8-18 14:54
Great news everyone! It was exactly where log viewer said it was. I’ll post pictures when I get back. Luckily found the battery too, which had popped out (and undoubtably why signal was lost, not the “falls out of the sky” problem).

One prop broke, otherwise it looks fine physically, though it’s a bit dirty. Pretty sure it rained at some point. Any suggestions for what to do next? The battery seems fine (lights up as expected). Should I just clean the contacts and try powering it up? The SD is readable and there’s a video file, it’s not playing back on my iPad (there are two other files with a similar file name, I assume those can be used to recover the video?).

I would recommend you send it in for diagnosis, please contact the Support to start a case, they'll submit a data analysis for you.  http://www.dji.com/support

glad you got it back!! GG

aDJIcustomer Posted at 2017-8-18 14:54
Great news everyone! It was exactly where log viewer said it was. I’ll post pictures when I get back. Luckily found the battery too, which had popped out (and undoubtably why signal was lost, not the “falls out of the sky” problem).

One prop broke, otherwise it looks fine physically, though it’s a bit dirty. Pretty sure it rained at some point. Any suggestions for what to do next? The battery seems fine (lights up as expected). Should I just clean the contacts and try powering it up? The SD is readable and there’s a video file, it’s not playing back on my iPad (there are two other files with a similar file name, I assume those can be used to recover the video?).

Good job, you had major mag yaw problems which effected your compass gps is basically dropped at this stage so Aircraft goes into Atti mode.
It seemed like it wasn't that windy as AC was moving slow enough, it shows some very small stick movements but in Atti mode small movements are not very effective you have to be constantly pushing full on the sticks as to which direction you want to go every time you let go of the sticks Aircraft will just continue to drift, so remember always keep pushing until you feel in control.
It's great you got it back well done.