This could possibly be a dumb question.

When the Spark is in RTH mode. Is the camera supposed to face directly at the home point or is it possible for the AC to be flying staight towards the home point, but the camera pointing a few degrees in another direction? A sort of strafe. On a recent mile+ long RTH I noticed in the footage that my spark was coming in at an odd angle. It came straight home, but the camera was pointed a few degrees away. It got me a nice shot of the shoreline, but I'm wonding if this is normal behavior, or cause for some calibration.

I was wondering if the camera was supposed to point straight at the home point, or if it can be at an angle relative to the initial flight path the AC flew away from the home point.

Below is a link to the flight video. Around the 5 minute mark is where the off angle is easiest to notice.




Here's the flight path.

https://imgur.com/a/uAjSr

It was probably compensating for wind drift. Watch real  helicopters on a windy dat. They appear to be skidding sideways .

I did't try it with my Spark or Mavic, but with my old P3A I was able to move the camera and yaw the drone during RtH.

It would be nice to know wether it is still possible or not. I will try it during my next RtH.

fans9ea9c44f Posted at 2017-8-24 22:28
It was probably compensating for wind drift. Watch real  helicopters on a windy dat. They appear to be skidding sideways .

Plausible. It was a fairly calm day here. But it could have been stronger at that altitude.

I am having the same issue as the OP after upgrading firmware on 2 sparks.. both flying fine on the factory original .701 / .75 bat / .400 controller firmware

after upgrading to .1000 spark / .85 / .600 respectfully .. I now have the following issues... in the US operating FCC

more disconnects and shorter range


spark more unstable in almost every aspect, straight flight, decent, hover

spark make more motor noise.. especially in decent .. they were smooth and steady noise before.. now get the worbaling noise like a cheap drone

and just like the OP... the aircraft is no longer pointing were it says its pointing.. in hover after takeoff it will rotate a couple degrees slowly to the right... but not register it on the APP  so for example looking straight at the drone at 12 o'clock with the drone arrow pointing straight away and forward.. it will be cocked off to the right by 10-15 deg.. and it flies back in RTH just like the OP.. cocked off to the right... the RTG plot line and RTH breadcrum path flown is straight ... but the camera and bird and bird are pointing off the plotted course and is flying back in a crab.... this is NOT NORMAL BEHAVIOR... it should be pointing at the HOME POINT and should tilt into the wind for correction... not fly home crabbed off axis..

additionally, in sport mode.. the gimble use to 'lock up' harder and provide a more solid FPV view.. now ...especially at speeds above say 15 to 20 mph... ANY slight touch of yaw or tilt makes the camera go bizzerk and sometimes the camera will 'roll' opposite the turn.. IE if turing right the horizon will move to a left turn tilt initially and snap back.. almost like a wet compass in a real aircraft that 'dips' in turns and will actually go the wrong direction when entering a turn initially...

my GUESSES are that the engineers introduced several bugs in the compass during a update in .900 or .1000 and have either affected compass correction and or stabilization ...

another possibility is that the compass is no longer correcting for mag deviation as at my location mag dev is about 9deg and while hard to tell exactly how 'off' it is by viewing camera footage .. it could be in that ballpark

but something is not right..

I have tried multiple IMU and compass CALs ... and when stationary .. the biases are .0001 to .0003.. but almost always close to zero.. and compass is green and showing almost zero interference..


PLEASE GET THE ENGINEERS TO ADDRESS THIS ASAP

the spark only has one IMU and one COMPASS .. this is a FLYAWAY WAITING TO HAPPEN

I am having the same issue as the OP after upgrading firmware on 2 sparks.. both flying fine on the factory original .701 / .75 bat / .400 controller firmware

after upgrading to .1000 spark / .85 / .600 respectfully .. I now have the following issues... in the US operating FCC

more disconnects and shorter range


spark more unstable in almost every aspect, straight flight, decent, hover

spark make more motor noise.. especially in decent .. they were smooth and steady noise before.. now get the worbaling noise like a cheap drone

and just like the OP... the aircraft is no longer pointing were it says its pointing.. in hover after takeoff it will rotate a couple degrees slowly to the right... but not register it on the APP  so for example looking straight at the drone at 12 o'clock with the drone arrow pointing straight away and forward.. it will be cocked off to the right by 10-15 deg.. and it flies back in RTH just like the OP.. cocked off to the right... the RTG plot line and RTH breadcrum path flown is straight ... but the camera and bird and bird are pointing off the plotted course and is flying back in a crab.... this is NOT NORMAL BEHAVIOR... it should be pointing at the HOME POINT and should tilt into the wind for correction... not fly home crabbed off axis..

additionally, in sport mode.. the gimble use to 'lock up' harder and provide a more solid FPV view.. now ...especially at speeds above say 15 to 20 mph... ANY slight touch of yaw or tilt makes the camera go bizzerk and sometimes the camera will 'roll' opposite the turn.. IE if turing right the horizon will move to a left turn tilt initially and snap back.. almost like a wet compass in a real aircraft that 'dips' in turns and will actually go the wrong direction when entering a turn initially...

my GUESSES are that the engineers introduced several bugs in the compass during a update in .900 or .1000 and have either affected compass correction and or stabilization ...

another possibility is that the compass is no longer correcting for mag deviation as at my location mag dev is about 9deg and while hard to tell exactly how 'off' it is by viewing camera footage .. it could be in that ballpark

but something is not right..

I have tried multiple IMU and compass CALs ... and when stationary .. the biases are .0001 to .0003.. but almost always close to zero.. and compass is green and showing almost zero interference..


PLEASE GET THE ENGINEERS TO ADDRESS THIS ASAP

the spark only has one IMU and one COMPASS .. this is a FLYAWAY WAITING TO HAPPEN

The quadcopter flies in any direction at pretty much the same speed.  Backwards, sideways, forward, or crossed up.  Just like model helicopters.  It faces back towards home most likely to reduce wind resistance.  It does seem it is off in its calculation on which way to face to point at home.

Check if the drone icon in the phone's lower left is pointing correctly in relation to yourself.  The icon uses your phone's compass related to the Sparks compass so you can point the icon right at yourself or to your left or right.  I wouldn't worry if it is slightly off as the RTH doesn't turn the entire drone to make tiny adjustments to hit the landing point.   That would take forever as winds moved it around over the target.  It just slides left, right, or backwards to tighten up the landing point.

A compass swing might make it better if the icon is not pointing correctly.  I have never used RTH, myself.

I rarely use RTH anymore, since I got some more experience....  but I would agree with the comments about the wind... I've seen some wind fighting going which can alter the attitude of the spark, making forward flight look a little side-winding.

@gunship

No it does not point correctly

Nor does the drone land facing the way it started on precision landing like it use to

I am not an ammature here. The done is not flying the way it did times 2

I have done multiple compass alignments to no avail. Like I said it’s off by a good 9 degrees which matches up with my declination here.

DeuceDriv3r Posted at 2018-10-8 18:50
@gunship

No it does not point correctly

Have you ever crashed ?  

nope, neither bird has crashed or had a hard landing or tip over...

flying great one day on .701 ... flying like crap the next day with .1000 ... thats both birds...

DeuceDriv3r Posted at 2018-10-9 09:57
nope, neither bird has crashed or had a hard landing or tip over...

flying great one day on .701 ... flying like crap the next day with .1000 ... thats both birds...

Did you ever find a resolution to this? My spark is doing the same thing.

Why does everyone like to fly long distances over water? Still to new at this and am afraid to loose my Sparkie