A while ago I was flying while walking, and eventually hit my maximum distance from the home point (initial takeoff point). Since I was walking next to it, I was actually quite close to the aircraft. Looking at the settings, there's a "home point setting" that allows you to set it based off your phone's location (which I assume would let you reset it during flight). But no matter what (and I've tried this countless times, in flight and not in flight), I get an error "Cannot get the current position of your mobile device". Needless to say, if I go to Maps, the phone knows exactly where it is.
Any ideas why, or am I misunderstanding this feature? If I am, then how can I update that location so I can continue to fly, as long as I'm in range of the Spark, even if we both (the Spark and me with the remote) have moved from the original takeoff point?


I'm using an iPhone 7 Plus withOUT a physical remote.

You understand this right. This button should exactly do what you want to do. Set the HP at the device's position.
I know that the Mavic and some other Dji drones have problems with the "Follow Me" mode which is based on the device's gps position when using an iPhone 7 (plus).
I could imagine that the Spark has the same problem to get the GPS data from the phone like the other drones.

Hopefully Dji will fix this soon..
Just Google "iphone 7 follow me mode"

Is the APP available to access your current location? I would recommend you to update the home point  when the GPS signal is good enough as it requires high satellite precision of IOS devices.

Home Point Couldn't Update if your GPS is Weak, So better to Fly when you have a Good GPS with Min 16 Satellites Connected

I finally tried this with another device (an iPad mini) and it updated. So it must be the iPhone 7 Plus as others have reported. And incidentally I have a NEW iPhone since I first posted this as my original one had, ironically, developed a severe issue with GPS! And I thought maybe the new phone would fix that but alas, no. So it must be something unique to the 7.

However… it updated the home point form the iPad mini. But, it didn't have the right location. In fact, it said that the new location was 10,000 meters away from the Spark!! So, um, yeah, that isn't really any better. Anyone seen that happen?

-Joseph

Does your ipad mini have cellular or is it just wireless ?

Apple doesn't include GPS in wireless ipad's, I believe the gps function is attached to the cellular module.

So if you have a wireless mini, the home point might be somewhere where you last connected to wi-fi and it took a location reading.

lannes Posted at 2017-9-8 11:08
Does your ipad mini have cellular or is it just wireless

Good point, if the iPad doesn't have cellular it can't capture GPS which means your HP is always were it took off.

PhotoJoseph Posted at 2017-9-8 10:34
I finally tried this with another device (an iPad mini) and it updated. So it must be the iPhone 7 Plus as others have reported. And incidentally I have a NEW iPhone since I first posted this as my original one had, ironically, developed a severe issue with GPS! And I thought maybe the new phone would fix that but alas, no. So it must be something unique to the 7.

However… it updated the home point form the iPad mini. But, it didn't have the right location. In fact, it said that the new location was 10,000 meters away from the Spark!! So, um, yeah, that isn't really any better. Anyone seen that happen?

Check the settings on the phone and make sure that the DJI go app has access to your location services.
It should have asked for permission to access  your location the first time you ran the app, you may have told it 'no' out of habit.   Settings->Privacy->Location Services-> DJI GO = "while using"

Thanks for the thoughts guys. My iPad mini does in fact have cellular, and does have access to location services. Hmmmm.