Hi,
Just bought a Spark. It’s pouring outside, so I was just trying setting everything up on it. It has all been calibrated. I had an avid Mavic owner help me with that. However, the two of us can’t understand why it keeps drifting about inside. It won’t stay in one place at all and slowly cruises about both up and down and sliding left and right. Any thoughts as to why?

More brightness can help
Perhaps the VPS can't identify the structure of the floor/ground
Is there structure on the ground?

First of all you should not have calibrated it unless there was a warning to do so. Calibrating compass inside is even detrimental because of very likely interference. Apart of that, inside the Spark will not have GPS but fly in ATTI mode. In this condition only the visual positioning system can stabilise the Spark if there is sufficient light and sufficient contrast on the surface below. The flight behavior you are describing suggests that either or of the latter are missing.

My Spark does the same indoors.  On textured carpet it will hold its position, on smooth linoleum flooring it drifts.  Also found the Spark does not hold its position well if over snow.

Shade220 Posted at 2018-1-5 16:46
My Spark does the same indoors.  On textured carpet it will hold its position, on smooth linoleum flooring it drifts.  Also found the Spark does not hold its position well if over snow.

I been flying inside a lot because of the cold weather and have light brown carpet, for me the key is to make sure object avoidance is off, rooms are well lite and I throw a few objects around the carpet, socks whatever which seems to help spark hold location so far good experience

When flying indoor, the drone mainly relies on the Vision System hover coz it might not have enough GPS signal. But please note that the Vision and 3D system might not work well if the drone is flying above the carpet. Also, IMU is also an important part for hovering, calibrate the IMU again if needed. You can try to fly outside when there has a good weather or make sure that the condition qualifies for indoor hovering.

DJI Thor Posted at 2018-1-5 20:12
When flying indoor, the drone mainly relies on the Vision System hover coz it might not have enough GPS signal. But please note that the Vision and 3D system might not work well if the drone is flying above the carpet. Also, IMU is also an important part for hovering, calibrate the IMU again if needed. You can try to fly outside when there has a good weather or make sure that the condition qualifies for indoor hovering.[view_image]

There are some quirky things in the User Manual. One of them is the 2nd to last bullet point in Thor's list. I believe the User Manual should be corrected to say:
Flying at speeds of over 6.7 mph (10.8 kph) at 2 meters or less above the ground.

marlowe Posted at 2018-1-5 22:00
There are some quirky things in the User Manual. One of them is the 2nd to last bullet point in Thor's list. I believe the User Manual should be corrected to say:
Flying at speeds of over 6.7 mph (10.8 kph) at 2 meters or less above the ground.

But that is really fun, in sport!

marlowe Posted at 2018-1-5 22:00
There are some quirky things in the User Manual. One of them is the 2nd to last bullet point in Thor's list. I believe the User Manual should be corrected to say:
Flying at speeds of over 6.7 mph (10.8 kph) at 2 meters or less above the ground.

Thank you for bringing the attention, I would like to help to confirm. And may I know if there is another issue that you found, please feel free to let me know. Appreciate it.

DJI Thor Posted at 2018-1-6 03:27
Thank you for bringing the attention, I would like to help to confirm. And may I know if there is another issue that you found, please feel free to let me know. Appreciate it.

No errors but I would like to add this:
•Flying into clouds or fog

DJI Thor Posted at 2018-1-6 03:27
Thank you for bringing the attention, I would like to help to confirm. And may I know if there is another issue that you found, please feel free to let me know. Appreciate it.

Thor - on page 15 it says:
The aircraft will stop ascending and immediately return to the Home Point if you move the throttle stick in the aircraft reaches 65 feet (20 meters) altitudes or beyond during Failsafe.

I think it should say:
The aircraft will stop ascending and immediately return to the Home Point if you move the throttle stick and the aircraft reaches 65 feet (20 meters) altitudes or beyond during Failsafe.

In any case this is still confusing to me. I think this refers to the AC descending to Home Point after a Failsafe (no RC signal) RTH was started, then RC signal was re-acquired by AC and user does a up-throttle. Is that right?

marlowe Posted at 2018-1-6 11:12
Thor - on page 15 it says:
The aircraft will stop ascending and immediately return to the Home Point if you move the throttle stick in the aircraft reaches 65 feet (20 meters) altitudes or beyond during Failsafe.

Hi there, thank you for pointing out. After checking, I think the sentence you listed above should be "The aircraft will stop ascending and immediately return to the Home Point if you move the throttle stick when the aircraft reaches 65 feet (20 meters) altitudes or beyond during RTH."
I will forward to our engineers to confirm again. Thank you again for reporting, nothing escapes you!

Shade220 Posted at 2018-1-5 16:46
My Spark does the same indoors.  On textured carpet it will hold its position, on smooth linoleum flooring it drifts.  Also found the Spark does not hold its position well if over snow.

Mine is rock solid in the living room but in my little ex-bedroom computer workshop it drifts around.  The only difference is the carpet.  The living room is slightly textured, the bedroom is solid color.  Makes sense to me.

I wonder if using one of these laser pens on an otherwise featureless ground give the Spark sensors enough to reference and stay stable?

https://www.amazon.com/ZDU-Green ... laser+pen&psc=1

Thanks for your suggestion. The description was confused and we will update the manual.

S-e-ven Posted at 2018-1-5 23:20
But that is really fun, in sport!

Yes it is! Sport mode is hoot indoors. On a totally unrelated note, we have a couple of new lamp shades in the living room.

marlowe Posted at 2018-1-6 11:12
Thor - on page 15 it says:
The aircraft will stop ascending and immediately return to the Home Point if you move the throttle stick in the aircraft reaches 65 feet (20 meters) altitudes or beyond during Failsafe.

Hi marlowe, 15# is from our engineer who replies your feedback about the manual. Thank you for bringing us the attentions.

DJI Thor Posted at 2018-1-18 20:28
Hi marlowe, 15# is from our engineer who replies your feedback about the manual. Thank you for bringing us the attentions.

Thank you. I'll have more comments in the future.