Oh yes! Another DJI Flew away post...

Although technically, I don't think it flew away. It just kept connecting and disconnecting over and over and refused to return to home.

Short and skinny, I was flying my DJI spark in a clear line of sight (that there was nothing in front of me, but I could not see the drone) approximately .3 miles away when it started disconnecting on and off.

I was spooked by this, so I immediately ordered my Spark to return home. Every time I did, it would say "Return to Home Operation Timeout".

It continued to connect then disconnect constantly and soon enough I started getting the battery warnings.

I attached a link of a short video of the very last thing my drone saw before it disconnected for good. It was over a parking lot.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-fM5LZSrc4yO50SHCygMw0d9-BoHXUFT

I raced over to the last known GPS coordinates and, naturally, was unable to find it anywhere.

Adding to my bad day, I called DJI support to look at my options and the only thing the automated response on the phone said was something along the lines of "we are currently facing technical difficulties" and repeated that message over and over.

I have DJI's Refresh Warranty but am well aware they aren't there to help you if you can't locate your drone.

So that's that. I had a good run...of about 2 months! Had about 8 flights with it. Don't know what to do next until customer service comes back online...

Wow, so sorry to hear about this and see the video.
Just my opinion, but it might have ended up in one of those trees which could be a good thing if you can locate it. The word "if" certainly a big word in my statement.
I just hoe everything works out well for you.

The last flight log. I have no idea what "OTHER 9" is, but I didn't see any error popups on my phone. I was flying with my controller.

http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/NMH0KFPMIYAQI59D4UY5/

Sir, I'm sincerely sorry to read your post. Please kindly send an email to the support team via support.us@dji.com, our colleagues will take care of it as long as they return to work.

i appreciate the quick response DJI Susan. I will send them an email. Thank you!

Unlucky, camera wasn't down to the bottom.
Maybe your Spark is somewhere in a tree, not on the parking lot!

"Return to Home Operation Timeout".

I never tried a 500m RTH altitude with a 21% Battery
Maybe that is why your done 'thought', landing is the better option?
You changed, in the beginning, the flight height to 500m, did you?
And by the way the RTH tp 500m, too? (This accidental, maybe?)

C

04m 36s

0.0 ft

0 ft

Tip

Setting new Return-To-Home altitude to 500m (1640 ft). Setting new Maximum Flight Altitude to 500m (1640 ft)

DJI may be able to explain what the algorism is doing, if the given RTH altitude is to high for the left battery life.
But I think it will land!

Oh:

C

08m 23s

195.5 ft

1,386 ft

Warning

Ultrasonic sensor error. Land immediately.

These seem to happen too much! Not very happy seeing all these posts being a new pilot especially.

Well that's the thing. I have no idea how I got to 21% when I started ordering the drone to return home when I should have had well over 50% battery left.

I have had my drone fly back to me at 500 meters on my previous flights when I reached between 25 and 30% and never had an issue. Ever.

I'm still curious what that "error (9)" is that starts off in the log. I didn't see any warnings when I took off.

500m rth altitude,really? This is a silly setting. Take higher obstacle, add 20m or so. Going too high wastes battery.

djiuser_t4rjNjr Posted at 2017-12-31 22:35
Well that's the thing. I have no idea how I got to 21% when I started ordering the drone to return home when I should have had well over 50% battery left.

I have had my drone fly back to me at 500 meters on my previous flights when I reached between 25 and 30% and never had an issue. Ever.

Did you?
Or did you cancel the RTH, because it was just 100m away and you had still 50% battery left?
Because of your experience from before?

Because it told you there already, only enough battery for a RTH.
But that can't be, so close, right?
Only:
Not far away, but 2x3 Min. flighttime to get up to the 500m and down from there.
With is in RTH min. 3 Min. of climbing and decending, no distance covering at that time.

My assumption:
With the 'RTH timeout' it told you it can't do the RTH with this set parameter of 500m RTH
If you overruled the first RTH attempt, you got the drone out of the abilities to fullfill a RTH, without setting the RTH altitude down.

But there is another  thing:

Between 9m 8.7s        and 9m 8.8s the log shows a 10% battery drop.
From 31% to 21%

Lo100469 Posted at 2017-12-31 23:11
500m rth altitude,really? This is a silly setting. Take higher obstacle, add 20m or so. Going too high wastes battery.

I guess that was a mistake.
There was a try to reset that to 50m.
But I am not sure you can set the max flight height under the RTH altitude.
Without correcting the RTH altitude first.
Like you can't set the RTH altitude OVER the max height altitude.
Which I know by experience, I accidentely tried that once!

I would like to see both parameter closer together in the app windows, anyway!

I never cancelled the request. I  continued asking it to RTH because it kept disconnecting then reconnecting at a rapid pace.

Which was the biggest issue of all. Because I would have simply manually flown the drone back to me if I was given the option.