Hi guys,

Few days ago I wanted to show to my father for few minutes how my spark flies. I knew it had about 50% of battery but it was supposed to be a short flight...
I started on country side, no power lines around, even no WI-FI near. I reached top altitude 120m and there after some seconds I got magnetic interference. My spark went to ATTI for more than 2 minutes and drifted with the wind for more than 650 meters. Weather that day was good, and KP at normal level.

I bought my Spark few months ago, since then I had one more magnetic interference on high altitude, but it was restored after few seconds.

Any ideas what is going on?

Here is my log:
https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/NTC9KMKVI45ZJB4M41TE/

I couldnt find any good explanation to simillar issues, so I decided to start new thread.

Thanks in advance

Hi Michal,

Uh, many threads like yours on this forum for SPARK.

A cascade of errors, mostly started with a YAW error, Compass error, Magn interference warning wich result in ATTI mode.(Yaw error will kill the use of satellites, that`s why SPARK switches to ATTI)
Happily at sometime P-GPS mode again and RTH did a great job!  Almost enough batt power left to fly to the HP completely,
just 41 meters to reach home. Smart power batt kicked in to autoland SPARK (calculates time to land from height to ground, this time at 13% batt level)

The moment you get your SPARK in ATTI try to use the compass in the app, steer home and apply forward pitch!This only if you can fly safe! if not land the bastard.

As you see in the chart no fwd pitch by you in ATTI.

Why these errors? Only DJI knows....so hope they will help you out. (it happens too many other SPARK as well)

cheers
JJB

JJB* Posted at 4-13 02:56
Hi Michal,

Uh, many threads like yours on this forum for SPARK.

Hi JJB,

thanks for your analysis!  I agree with you that I could have done better during my flight. I panicked and by looking on live stream I couldn't clearly figure out which direction is the one towards me... Anyway I will try to practice more.

So far from DJI I got feedback via Facebook chat. They advised that I should calibrate compass every time when flying in new area. I'm little bit skeptical about this do to few reasons:

1. It's against Spark manual, which says to calibrate only when asked.
2. Magnetic interference occurred on high altitude, and maintained on over 600 distance, but when RTH was initiated, then on the same way back there was no interference.
3. After that flight, I used my spark 1 hour later in the same spot, flying with the same compass setting, close to ground and no issue occurred.

I'm trying to understand if there could be any software/hardware issue in my spark. Please let me know what is your opinion.

Thanks

I had a similar issue with my Spark - out in an open field, no interference from what I could see....then yaw and compass errors at a similar height and into ATTI - I lost connection to the app as
well so had no idea how to steer it home (too high to see it)....

The RC also disconnected and never connected again - luckily with JJB's help I located it (four days later!).....

Haven't had a chance to go out there again but this week hope to - I did have a strobe attached to the bottom of the battery so thought perhaps that could cause magnetic interference and
possibly also VPS problems? Anyway not worth the risk so I took it off and in future I'm keeping a beady eye on sparkie and actually have a great deal more knowledge after that ATTI mode 'drift away', so
hopefully all will be OK in the future. Many Tasmanian fingers crossed...

boydusmaczoidus Posted at 4-13 13:29
I had a similar issue with my Spark - out in an open field, no interference from what I could see....then yaw and compass errors at a similar height and into ATTI - I lost connection to the app as
well so had no idea how to steer it home (too high to see it)....

In my case there was no custom hardware attched to spark, and still I exerienced simillar issue like you. Based on that I think that stroboscope isnt the root case of this issue.

Have you received any feedback from dji on your case?

Also I'm wandering if there is any older version of firmware that is less prone to compass issues.

Michal_par Posted at 4-13 08:56
Hi JJB,

thanks for your analysis!  I agree with you that I could have done better during my flight. I panicked and by looking on live stream I couldn't clearly figure out which direction is the one towards me... Anyway I will try to practice more.

Hi,

Its my pleasure, and yes practise is the magic word not panic  :-)

Mayby this video helps > https://forum.dji.com/thread-144696-1-1.html

btw, a good executed compass calibration can be done as much as you want! ity does not harm your drone in any way. BUT; if doing it wrongly ...problems during flight.
My experience is to do the compass swing (2x 360 degrees in a very slow way...), in an open wide area with no metal nearby or in the ground.

cheers
JJB