Hi all,

New Spark owner As of Oct 1 - but I have been flying for a couple of years and have built four of my own craft.

GPS fix should be rather quick and if you can read up to 10 sats and  still not have a recorded home something is wrong with the unit?

I can take up to 10% battery power waiting for just 8 sats.
This condition is everywhere.
This morning I flew in the open skies, 15% cloud cover and the craft recorded home position 9 minutes into the flight.
So it cannot be ground interference.

Also to note, If I feel it is taking too long and I move it, sat count drops to 0 and the process starts all over again.

My setup is the fly more package so I am using the controller, iPhone with reverse use OTG cable connection.

Here are the last 3 logs I have recorded:
                                               
DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com
DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com
DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

Any help is appreciated.

Do you use UAV forecast app?some times depends on your location the GPS sat lock can be 10 Satelites and even 9

You need minimum 6 sats to fly with gps , so if you break it down. 6 gps 6 glonass, so 11/12 sats guarantees good satellite signal,
If you only have 10 you may have 5 gps 5 glonass not enough for flying , yes sometimes you may have 9 6 gps and 3 glonass and you can fly with enough signal, the thing you really need to be looking at is bar graph beside where you see numbers of sats you really need 3 bars to fly safe with signal lock.

Your signal showing so little sats could be the area your flying in, this can be easily solved by moving to a totally different area and try again.
If this shows the same results then you could very well have a problem with your GPS receiver, and may have to return to dji to get it checked.

Anuvis Posted at 2017-10-6 12:55
Do you use UAV forecast app?some times depends on your location the GPS sat lock can be 10 Satelites and even 9

Yes
This morning and last night's flight forecast was 17-19 sats

hallmark007 Posted at 2017-10-6 13:34
You need minimum 6 sats to fly with gps , so if you break it down. 6 gps 6 glonass, so 11/12 sats guarantees good satellite signal,
If you only have 10 you may have 5 gps 5 glonass not enough for flying , yes sometimes you may have 9 6 gps and 3 glonass and you can fly with enough signal, the thing you really need to be looking at is bar graph beside where you see numbers of sats you really need 3 bars to fly safe with signal lock.

This morning's flight has 13 and I did get a lock...9 minutes into the flight

pmshop Posted at 2017-10-6 13:46
This morning's flight has 13 and I did get a lock...9 minutes into the flight

As I said it could be your receiver, but you really need to go away from any high buildings in to an open field and try it there if your having same results then it could be a receiver problem.

You don’t have a skin on your Spark ?

hallmark007 Posted at 2017-10-6 13:53
As I said it could be your receiver, but you really need to go away from any high buildings in to an open field and try it there if your having same results then it could be a receiver problem.

You don’t have a skin on your Spark ?

No skin - clean out he box

pmshop Posted at 2017-10-6 14:30
No skin - clean out he box

I know that the GPS receiver of Spark is a slightly weaker in comparison to bigger DJI drones.
Just to give you a hint: Northeast of Walmart there are nice wide fields.

djiuser_gjLUHKA Posted at 2017-10-6 14:37
I know that the GPS receiver of Spark is a slightly weaker in comparison to bigger DJI drones.
Just to give you a hint: Northeast of Walmart there are nice wide fields.

I will try that but then how can you do this?



Still new to the Spark but doesn't that need GPS?

Try without the OTG cable.

I will give all of that a try tomorrow

You are far braver than I!  I personally wouldn’t take off without it recording a home point.  In my experience, GPS lock happens quickly and I don’t see why it shouldn’t for you.  If you continue to not get a quick gps lock when in an open area, I would suggest you open a ticket with DJI support.  

I had exactly the same experience with constantly weak GPS signal for no apparent reason and always significantly fewer satellites than expected. Recording home point on the ground took forever.

I took my Spark outside yesterday for three back-to-back flights - GPS connected with the home point on the map with 8 sats in 90 seconds and increased to 21 sats during flight - on the 2nd and 3rd batteries the home point was instant on start up. I think you either need to move to a totally different flight location or send the drone back for replacement.

Opened a trouble ticket and contacted the authorized dealer that sold it. Let's see what happens.

Kloo Gee Posted at 2017-10-6 21:18
You are far braver than I!  I personally wouldn’t take off without it recording a home point.  In my experience, GPS lock happens quickly and I don’t see why it shouldn’t for you.  If you continue to not get a quick gps lock when in an open area, I would suggest you open a ticket with DJI support.

Not brave, just fly a lot in manual with other craft and know not to go far without GPS

Not using the OTG cable and the wide open field did not help.
Makes no sense to do so either when I see people flying like this:

Also, got this from DJI:

"... the reason why you are getting a weak GPS signal message during your flight was in that particular area, there is low GPS signal which leads to your aircraft having a hard time detecting its home point.

I hope this answers your concern. Thank you."

REALLY???

pmshop Posted at 2017-10-9 13:08
Not using the OTG cable and the wide open field did not help.
Makes no sense to do so either when I see people flying like this:

Did DJI support tell you based on which source they conclude “ in that particular area, there is low GPS signal” or they just “know” it?

   It seems that Navcom Satellite Prediction Tool doesn’t confirm that. Did you present any charts together with your logs?

djiuser_gjLUHKA Posted at 2017-10-10 06:17
Did DJI support tell you based on which source they conclude “ in that particular area, there is low GPS signal” or they just “know” it?
   It seems that Navcom Satellite Prediction Tool doesn’t confirm that. Did you present any charts together with your logs?

Yes, thanks to another forum, I sent the screenshoot of the navcom for that 10m 31s flight.

I'm done with it.
I got the extended care when I purchased.
Made a service ticket and the Spark has shipped to DJI

pmshop Posted at 2017-10-10 14:49
Yes, thanks to another forum, I sent the screenshoot of the navcom for that 10m 31s flight.

I'm done with it.

smart decision - i had 50 smooth flights w/consistently 13-19 sats @ my local field before my Spark's original meltdown on 9/4. sent it in for repair...2.5 weeks later, received the AC back & bloody thing was still throwing weak signal errors even after they replaced the GPS receiver. i knew the location wasn't @ fault, so returned it a second time. am beginning to wonder if the 0.0600 update is largely responsible for all these similar GPS/compass/flyaway issues experienced by so many people since the mandatory update.

jcwconsulting Posted at 2017-10-10 19:09
smart decision - i had 50 smooth flights w/consistently 13-19 sats @ my local field before my Spark's original meltdown on 9/4. sent it in for repair...2.5 weeks later, received the AC back & bloody thing was still throwing weak signal errors even after they replaced the GPS receiver. i knew the location wasn't @ fault, so returned it a second time. am beginning to wonder if the 0.0600 update is largely responsible for all these similar GPS/compass/flyaway issues experienced by so many people since the mandatory update.

2.5 weeks?
Do you have that DJI Care Refresh ?
I thought that program was to speed things along as well.

pmshop Posted at 2017-10-11 02:01
2.5 weeks?
Do you have that DJI Care Refresh ?
I thought that program was to speed things along as well.

But not on "warranty only" things, methinks.
That goes in line, but 2.5 weeks is not too bad.
In my opinion!

dji needs to implement an eco mode for when the drone is in pre flight mode, because that is something i do remember annoying me about the spark is how bad it is at battery management even when waiting for sat lock..  

going to the mavic made it more noticeable for me how wasteful the spark really is even idling, several times i left my mavic in 10-12% range at landing location at my farm and i eventually make my way over to it sometimes an hour later and its still on and still has 2-5% reaming

Just curious, I was asked if I had a skin on the craft because of possible interference with the GPS.
If skins would cause trouble, then why does DJI Sell spark skins?
https://store.dji.com/product/pgytech-spark-skins

I’m sorry if I remember wrong, but I think somewhere I saw a similar gps problem being solved by using another sd card.
It does not make sense, but it helped.
Maybe worth a try.

That is about 4 days late - sent to California for service Tuesday 10th.

** now that I think of it, I don't think I ran the Micro SD card through the SDFormatter program.
That formatter works better than Windows formatting.

Had an issue once of a camera having one frame black artifacts wherever there was blue in the picture.
SDFormatter fixed it right up.

pmshop Posted at 2017-10-15 11:21
** now that I think of it, I don't think I ran the Micro SD card through the SDFormatter program.
That formatter works better than Windows formatting.

Sometimes it would relate to the flight environment for picking the satellites, but the quantities of the satellites is a reference for the current place, it would be also important to pay attention to the signal bar, the app will also inform if the current place is safe to fly. Since you had sent the drone back, our colleagues will diagnose and take care of it.

DJI Thor Posted at 2017-10-15 20:12
Sometimes it would relate to the flight environment for picking the satellites, but the quantities of the satellites is a reference for the current place, it would be also important to pay attention to the signal bar, the app will also inform if the current place is safe to fly. Since you had sent the drone back, our colleagues will diagnose and take care of it.

Please do well with it.
That was a big let down for my 51st Birthday

pmshop Posted at 2017-10-16 02:28
Please do well with it.
That was a big let down for my 51st Birthday

Oh, happy birthday to you. You have my best wishes.
And hope you get the drone back to the air soon.

Well, DJI has the Spark in service.
Praying all goes well.

Received at 9 PDT
Diagnosis complete 10:30 PDT
I hope all went well

DJI Thor,

Can you look up the details of a repair?
They have already boxed my unit up ready to come back!

pmshop Posted at 2017-10-16 18:06
DJI Thor,

Can you look up the details of a repair?

Sure, please leave me with your case number so I can help to check for you.
BTW, as per your request, I had deleted 33#.

pmshop Posted at 2017-10-16 18:06
DJI Thor,

Can you look up the details of a repair?

Yes, I had received your PM and checked your case, the drone will be delivered soon.

DJI Thor Posted at 2017-10-17 04:06
Yes, I had received your PM and checked your case, the drone will be delivered soon.

I got the same thing. I was wondering if you could find out in greater detail what they did instead of the "Case Received, Received, Damage Assessed, Free of Charge, Repaired, Shipping Preparation" block reply statuses.

I'm the kind of guy that needs to know why.
That is what made me a sucessful drone builder.
But the ones I build take up too much packing room to travel.
Ergo, my Spark purchase - travel drone

pmshop Posted at 2017-10-17 05:35
I got the same thing. I was wondering if you could find out in greater detail what they did instead of the "Case Received, Received, Damage Assessed, Free of Charge, Repaired, Shipping Preparation" block reply statuses.

I'm the kind of guy that needs to know why.

This is a malfunction and warranty case, our colleagues had worked on this and shipped your drone out. Hope you get the drone back to the air soon.

DJI Thor Posted at 2017-10-17 18:24
This is a malfunction and warranty case, our colleagues had worked on this and shipped your drone out. Hope you get the drone back to the air soon.

I would really like to know the details if I could.

Nice!
After 2 weeks (one week there and one week back) DJI sent me a new Spark.
GPS Home Sets in 30 seconds and I got up to 18 sats on the first flight.
I never saw over 14 with the other and that was rare.
Averaged 9-12

pmshop Posted at 2017-10-23 15:18
Nice!
After 2 weeks (one week there and one week back) DJI sent me a new Spark.
GPS Home Sets in 30 seconds and I got up to 18 sats on the first flight.

I have had my Spark drone now for a week and I am having serious issues with the gps. I live in Utah County and I have mountains close, but wow it has almost always been in Atti mode. Normally I only have 6-8 satellite connections. I’ve had it up to 13,  it even in flight it keeps dropping satélite all the time and Atti mode will be in and out and that has almost cause me to lose it a couple times, but luckily I was able to retrieve.
Today after connecting to DJI go 4 app it says i needed to recalibrate gps. I did and the app kept crashing while recalibrating. I had to delete and reinstall app. Now it doesn’t crash. Got a successful recalibration, but again getting it to connect to gps in order to get a home point is still non existent.
Is this Spark gps a complete piece of garbage on all units, or is that just mine?