Yesterday I forgot my phone at home, so I decidid to make a test and fly my Spark using gesture control only.

I have performed three flyes. Two first ended almost successfully - Spark returned close to the ground and was cought by hand.

The last one ended up with almost fly away. Spark stoped following me, was hovering at altitude about 5 meters and did not answer on any gesture that i performed. Then suddenly turned 180 degrees and started quick vertical ascend. At about 20 or 30 meters (hard to estimate by eyes) he started quick horisontal movement. At that moment, I mentally said goodbye to him. But after 3 to 5 seconds of horisontal flying he suddenly stoped and started vertical descend. I was able to grab him by hand.

Video recording was performed during all three flights (BTW it was sccessfullu turned on by gesture), so I have a video showing me doing magic movements with my hands. But if I had flight data, this could help a lot with understanding of what happened.

The question is: does Spark write flight data into it's memory in gesture control mode in case neither remote nor phone was connected to? The most interesting question is: what he considered as home point?

Yes, the Spark records the flight data. You can export it with DJI Assistant.

Addition: You description of the "incident" very much looks like the Spark having initiated a RTH (standard value at 30 meters altitude), thus doing exactly what it is supposed to do when loosing connection. Did it return to the place from where it had taken off?

Yes, my thought is also that Spark performed RTH.

So now I'm very interested on what was home point? When home point was written?
Wasn't it the one, saved from previous flight day?

Also, what RTH altitude was written into memory?

And finally WHY he returns to home point under gesture mode? I can imagine that one can move far away from start point having Spark tracking him. Isn't it safer just initiate landing at current position in case Spark considered that things gone wrong?

Honestly, I felt very stupid seeing my drone, hovering in place and having no possibility to do something, except waiting untilll battery drains...

Home point will be recorded when the GPS signal is good enough. The aircraft status indicator will blink rapidly when the home point is recorded. The default RTH altitude is 30m if you didn't change it before.

DJI Susan, thank you.

Of cource I do not remember what was a sequence of flashes. But Spark beeped as usual, started engines, and took off. My guess is that GPS worked properly. Then I turned on video with gesture, flew away showing "wave" gestsure and then Spark followed me for some time until got stack for unknown reason.

My second guess is that "beginners mode" was turned on automatically and did not allow move out of the 30 meters limit (but I also do not remember how far I got out of the point of palm launch).

And this is exactly what I want to make sure - what was in Spark's brains during flight. Was it any kind of RTH, for example emergency RTH caused by low battery?

And I also would like to understand the logic so that do not get with lost drone.

Imagine you do not have RC remote and phone. You palm launched Spark, then ran a little, or biked, then crossed a river, climbed a hill, having Spark making nice footage of you. And then he makes decision to RTH...

So, is it possible for me to investigate what happened, using log files?

Alex21512 Posted at 2017-9-11 04:49
DJI Susan, thank you.

Of cource I do not remember what was a sequence of flashes. But Spark beeped as usual, started engines, and took off. My guess is that GPS worked properly. Then I turned on video with gesture, flew away showing "wave" gestsure and then Spark followed me for some time until got stack for unknown reason.

Your spark didn't automatically go into 'Beginner Mode', rather when in Gesture Mode will not fly father then 30m from its home point (launch position).  Which means that when you exceeded the 30m limit in follow me mode, it stopped and this triggered the RTM.

The 30m limit is there to protect the spark from going to far without a device or rc.  I'm glad to see that if you go beyond the 30m the spark will return to home.

I just finished video, describing my adventure with gesture controle mode.
Hope it could help somebody to be prepared for surprizes that guys from DJI have prepared for us :-)

Never without my RC!!  LOL

I'm glad you didn't lose it.

Alex21512 Posted at 2017-9-26 03:01
I just finished video, describing my adventure with gesture controle mode.
Hope it could help somebody to be prepared for surprizes that guys from DJI have prepared for us :-)

Alex, it is really kind of you to create a video to guide other people. Thanks for your work.

Lol, he only helped to show that gesture mode is very broken.

If you read the manual first you would have known six green flashes on the rear leds indicate home point recorded, and you should wait for them befoe launching. As for it landing where it's hovering, that's the last thing you want since you may be off a cliff when it happens. Lees than 3 m from home lands where it it. 3 -20 returns at current alt if you've set it as per manual. It's all in there.

I think dji could solve this by not letting it go past 30 meters or whatever, but at LEAST making it so you can beckon it or something. You can't make it just stay there, not moving. You need to be able to beckon! come on, dji.