preflight check - compass good, home point recorded, 13 sat.everything looks good, take off
48 sec into the flight @ 190 ft alt. 230 ft dist. got the first "Aircraft GPS signal too week. Home Point not updated"
"Warning: In Flight, working IMU encounters heading exception, please switch to atti mode if craft behave abnormally"
at this time Spark was jerky and spining on its own
Panick kicked in i tried to lower the Spark, no response, RTH button, nothing, i looked down at the remote control and the led light was red.
"Warning: Abnormal compass function or GPS signal detected. Aircraft switched to ATTi mode" and several other GPS warnings appeared before the Spark flew off into the horizon..

is this a common issue with spark?..and has nyone succesfully got replacement from incident like this under warranty?.

Definitely log a case with them. Also, upload your flight log here: http://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/upload/ and post back the link. A few people here that may be able to gi ve some indication of the issue.

I can believe it, however I’m a little jaded right now. I’d love to see your log.

Lyons90 Posted at 2017-12-6 19:12
Definitely log a case with them. Also, upload your flight log here: http://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/upload/ and post back the link. A few people here that may be able to gi ve some indication of the issue.

http://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/CIWI9C437UP771OUTRDM/

Did you manage to recover it?
Last known gps position when auto-landing is 37.65151619, -97.21466682
https://goo.gl/maps/z4LQJnkFdgu

Edit: Was still 60ft up when the log finshed, wind speed looked to be around 15mph at that time and wasn't coming straight down.

Not really a common issue with the Spark.

Lyons90 Posted at 2017-12-6 19:45
Did you manage to recover it?
Last known gps position when auto-landing is 37.65151619, -97.21466682
https://goo.gl/maps/z4LQJnkFdgu

No i did not, thats why i am posting this. i went there with a friend tried to sweep the area but no luck. My friend guessed that it might ended up in the yard of the house on the bottom right. but we can't get a hold of the home owner to get in there yet.

fanse66ed04f Posted at 2017-12-6 20:45
No i did not, thats why i am posting this. i went there with a friend tried to sweep the area but no luck. My friend guessed that it might ended up in the yard of the house on the bottom right. but we can't get a hold of the home owner to get in there yet.

any expert wanted to chime in? any prediction where it might ended up? i'll continue to look for it tomorrow

fanse66ed04f Posted at 2017-12-6 20:46
any expert wanted to chime in? any prediction where it might ended up? i'll continue to look for it tomorrow

The very same thing just happened to me - brand new spark, unresponsive to controls, compass errors, and a swift vanishing into the horizon.

Let me know what DJI Support comes back with - we should stay in touch and share notes on our service tickets.

i'll not give away my 6 month old spark..those are the real thing..

i guess the new ones have a production issue...

Sorry to hear this, have you reported this to the DJI Support? Please sync the flight records via the APP, then provide your DJI Account email and the date this occurred to the support, they'll start a case for you, here is a link for your reference. https://www.dji.com/support?site=brandsite&from=nav

dranoel Posted at 2017-12-6 22:44
The very same thing just happened to me - brand new spark, unresponsive to controls, compass errors, and a swift vanishing into the horizon.

Let me know what DJI Support comes back with - we should stay in touch and share notes on our service tickets.

definitely, sorry to hear about your drone

DJI Diana Posted at 2017-12-7 05:24
Sorry to hear this, have you reported this to the DJI Support? Please sync the flight records via the APP, then provide your DJI Account email and the date this occurred to the support, they'll start a case for you, here is a link for your reference. https://www.dji.com/support?site=brandsite&from=nav

yes, I have Diana, thank you. I am waiting on their the analysis at the moment

fanse66ed04f Posted at 2017-12-6 19:23
http://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/CIWI9C437UP771OUTRDM/

Looking at your log, first it looks like you took off from some concrete path, I could be wrong so feel free to correct me on that.
You got compass interference in the form of yaw error, when spark gets compass error it will drop gps as it cannot cope with conflicting data so because it can’t fly without gps it gets dropped. When this happened you actually did have control although 300ft away 192ft altitude it can be difficult to get your bearings.
You can see in your log where you tried to lower craft at 54 seconds it did respond and was lowering but you kept the throttle down for only a second or two, you then throttled up and your craft climbed so you had control but it’s never easy particularly if you have never flown in Atti mode.
It requires you to continually make full stick movements you will almost never have the chance to let off one direction or another and your stick movements were very minimal, but they recorded that each stick movements corresponding with aircraft movement.

It can only be a guess but looking at the environment you were flying in I can only assume you picked up interference from take off point at just 1 minute into flight interference kicked in and this was the start of your problems.

Your Aircraft did go into auto landing I think because you entered Class D airspace , auto landing is the last entry of your log and your last known coordinates are below this is where your spark should be.

I have seen dji refuse warranty for similar, I have also seen them award warranty, but it will help if you have your Aircraft.


        37.65151619        -97.21466682
Remember this was at 63ft it was drifting as well at 14mph it would have taken a further 10 seconds to land so it should be 10 seconds at 14mph beyond these coordinates in that area.
I think you should go take a look for it.

hallmark007 Posted at 2017-12-7 08:16
Looking at your log, first it looks like you took off from some concrete path, I could be wrong so feel free to correct me on that.
You got compass interference in the form of yaw error, when spark gets compass error it will drop gps as it cannot cope with conflicting data so because it can’t fly without gps it gets dropped. When this happened you actually did have control although 300ft away 192ft altitude it can be difficult to get your bearings.
You can see in your log where you tried to lower craft at 54 seconds it did respond and was lowering but you kept the throttle down for only a second or two, you then throttled up and your craft climbed so you had control but it’s never easy particularly if you have never flown in Atti mode.

Thank you for your feedback

hallmark007 Posted at 2017-12-7 08:16
Looking at your log, first it looks like you took off from some concrete path, I could be wrong so feel free to correct me on that.
You got compass interference in the form of yaw error, when spark gets compass error it will drop gps as it cannot cope with conflicting data so because it can’t fly without gps it gets dropped. When this happened you actually did have control although 300ft away 192ft altitude it can be difficult to get your bearings.
You can see in your log where you tried to lower craft at 54 seconds it did respond and was lowering but you kept the throttle down for only a second or two, you then throttled up and your craft climbed so you had control but it’s never easy particularly if you have never flown in Atti mode.

Also  I have zero video feedback from the drone even though The ac is within 500 ft or less, why is that? Does ATTI mode cut off your video as well? And what can cause compass error at alt of 190ft?

Did you calibrate the compass before taking flight?

fanse66ed04f Posted at 2017-12-7 08:38
Also  I have zero video feedback from the drone even though The ac is within 500 ft or less, why is that? Does ATTI mode cut off your video as well? And what can cause compass error at alt of 190ft?

Many things can cause compass problems, not at that altitude, but if you take off from concrete containing rebar or close to metal objects, it doesn’t mean it will manifest itself straight away so at first everything looks ok then all of a sudden you have yaw error speed error and compass problems.

Calibration of compass when not needed if calibrated wrong can also lead to major problems, that’s why your manual tells you Not to calibrate unless prompted by your app.

Video feed is a separate issue and nothing to do with your compass.

fanse66ed04f Posted at 2017-12-7 06:29
yes, I have Diana, thank you. I am waiting on their the analysis at the moment

Okay, should you have any further questions about this case, please provide me with your case number, I'll check it for you.

fanse66ed04f Posted at 2017-12-6 20:45
No i did not, thats why i am posting this. i went there with a friend tried to sweep the area but no luck. My friend guessed that it might ended up in the yard of the house on the bottom right. but we can't get a hold of the home owner to get in there yet.

Did you manage to get onto the home owner? Very likely to be in that property or very close to it.

I felt you lost mate. Hope you find SPARKY back.