I am hoping I can get some insight from this group to help understand an unfortunate flyaway I had with my spark last week that has damaged the drone beyond repair. I believe that some of the issue was caused by pilot error (live and learn) but I'm a little confussed on why the drone took off while auto landing.  I was flying into an area that had some small water falls and trying to get a couple of nice shots of the area. Usual routine of calibrating compass before take off, no issue, 15 sats. Now when I speak about pilot error the mistake I believe I made was while bring the spark back I had walked onto a hiway bridge (Lots of concrete and steel) brought the drone in over the side of the bridge and from a height of about 2 meters hit auto land. When the spark reached about 1 meter from the ground I recieved a compass error and the spark took off,  went up the road about 50m and smashed into a guard rail ripping off one arm and the camera. Can anyone explain to me why the drone would not just continue to land instead of taking off. I really like the DJI products but am a little concerned about spending more money on a product that this may happen to again. Is this a wifi issue?

have you checked your flight log? I would imagine you have answered your own question however as trying to land on a  steel bridge will most certainly cause compass issues putting the spark into Atti mode. Upload your flight log for us to have a look at.

Upload your flight log here: http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/ and share the link with us so we can analyze what happened.

As the others have mentioned, we’d need to review your logs to give you any sort of informed response. I’d definitely recommend uploading to the PhantomHelp log viewer and sharing here.

I hope i'm doing this correctly.
http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/21DZYULLXC6PXK5CI9U3/

Hi djiuser_wCet07UE7FTf,

Its always difficult to tell what is the cause of a fly-away / crash. Looking at your flight i see a lot of compass and few speed errors. See my charts.
One possibilty is that you did a compass calibration in an area where you actually calibrated errors into it. Good on that position bu after take within seconds you had your first compass error.

At the end of your flight your Spark could not compute his position due to all errors and tried to maintain a stabilized position with incorrect data ; thinking it was steady but flew away.

So IMO (please others correct me if i am wrong) the compass calibration made this happen.

cheers
JJB

JJBspark Posted at 2018-6-27 10:38
Hi djiuser_wCet07UE7FTf,

Its always difficult to tell what is the cause of a fly-away / crash. Looking at your flight i see a lot of compass and few speed errors. See my charts.

The problem here is purely software code. The gentleman here has the right to claim for a new SPARK.
In the earlier days of using C language , we used pointers for memory mapping . Here while the software code saw a issue regarding compass error, it did not read the SPARK landing position which should have been to continue landing !! I dont know how a programmer misses such a valuable data for SPARK to decide next course of action.

S.J Posted at 2018-6-27 10:59
The problem here is purely software code. The gentleman here has the right to claim for a new SPARK.
In the earlier days of using C language , we used pointers for memory mapping . Here while the software code saw a issue regarding compass error, it did not read the SPARK landing position which should have been to continue landing !! I dont know how a programmer misses such a valuable data for SPARK to decide next course of action.

Mayby yes, mayby no. I don`t know the source code of DJI drones. Would expect in this case that Spark would enter into ATTI mode. So ofcourse there must be a good fall-back scenario in situations like this.

I assume that the OP will go to DJI customer service to help him and make a decision about a warranty claim.

And mayby the compass swing was done OK and did the Spark picked up some interference after take-off. DJI can tell more.

BTW; i don`t see the autoland action in the flightlog.
cheers
JJB

S.J you see where I am coming from. Again I believe that there was some pilot error on my part, probably should not have taken off but everything seemed fine and once I realized I had an issue I was in the process of auto landing thinking this was my safest choice and the spark flew off during that time. To me it makes no sense for the system to override the auto landing.

Why did you calibrate the compass before flying?  Did the app prompt you to do so?  As per the manual, you should only calibrate if prompted to do so.  As JB points out, you could have messed up a perfectly calibrated compass.  However, I suspect what you've already stated that it went "wacky" after getting all of the errors due to the metal bridge.  Hopefully you'll get a replacement, good luck.

Main issue to me seems to be concrete and steel bridge, coupled with calibration nearby. You had errors taking off,  in flight and landing as others have mentioned. Even had you not done a compass calibration near the bridge, the compositions of the bridge could very well have been a bad influence on the compass. Sorry about the loss.

I appreciate all the feed back, gives me a little better understanding of what happened. As I have stated before there was defiantly errors on my part. As far as calibrating the compass my understanding was that is good practice to do this before every flight. Still my biggest question is why would the spark kick itself out of auto land. I am not sure why it doesn't show the auto land but then again it doesn't show the auto take off. The other thing that surprised me was how quick the drone was traveling when it took off (9 m/s) the drone was not in sport mode so this surprised me.

I'm a little confused about "Speed Error". Can someone explain it to us to better understand this error?

What? When? Where? will it show up. .

Initially I had in mind of a video take of my Spark entering a steel bridge from the left, and exiting on the right and continues flying towards the subject. The shot should look cool that way, at least in my mind. After reading this flyaway post, I am beginning to have  my reservations.

I have seen (on Youtube) people flying like that with other drones, like Mavic Air and Anafi, in that manner. Sad to learn that Spark is more vulnerable to interference as compared to other drones.

Mutt Posted at 2018-6-27 17:06
I appreciate all the feed back, gives me a little better understanding of what happened. As I have stated before there was defiantly errors on my part. As far as calibrating the compass my understanding was that is good practice to do this before every flight. Still my biggest question is why would the spark kick itself out of auto land. I am not sure why it doesn't show the auto land but then again it doesn't show the auto take off. The other thing that surprised me was how quick the drone was traveling when it took off (9 m/s) the drone was not in sport mode so this surprised me.

Hi Mutt,

In the flightlog there is no evidence of  an autolanding.
Mayby we talk not the same language ; an Autolanding means that you used the autolanding soft button in the GoApp and slide to get in into landing.

If you look at my chart, AutoTakeoff is in there.

cheers
JJB

SparkChog Posted at 2018-6-27 17:51
I'm a little confused about "Speed Error". Can someone explain it to us to better understand this error?

What? When? Where? will it show up. .

Hi,

A speed error means that the software noticed a difference bewteen GPS data and IMU data in computing movement speed. In such case a Speed error is written in the flightlog.

It will not show up in the GoApp, as many other errors will not show up. Only the result of errors like go into ATTI shows up. Or warning messages shows up like "Weak GPS signal, fly carefully" etc.

cheers
JJB

I did use the auto land on the app so not sure why it's not showing. I contacted DJI online support explained my issue , they said the drone was under warranty but since I am in Canada I would need to contact the warranty outlet in Canada for warranty work. I contacted the distributor here and Canada and was told since there was physical damage the drone would not be covered under warranty.

Did you also get DJI Care refresh when you bought your copter? In that case you would have no issue getting a new bird without charge. BTW / I would not spend more money on the Spark and I would not recommend this product until DJI fixes the multitude of fly away problems. There are plenty well illustrated non pilot error mishaps.

if you were landing and it took off, i would check the surroundings for interference.  Maybe it lost GPS signal and went into ATTI mode, maybe there was steel or other inteference in the immediate area.  Check your flight log or post them on here for us to analyze for you.  Was it convered under the DJI Care program?

JJBspark Posted at 2018-6-27 10:38
Hi djiuser_wCet07UE7FTf,

Its always difficult to tell what is the cause of a fly-away / crash. Looking at your flight i see a lot of compass and few speed errors. See my charts.

after looking at some of the pics here.  it is pretty clear you had compass errors and others that have contributed to the fly away.  This isn't a DJI or Spark issue, this is a user pilot issue, ignoring all on screen errors and flying in an area with many interferences.  Just saying

Sparky_17 Posted at 2018-6-28 04:17
after looking at some of the pics here.  it is pretty clear you had compass errors and others that have contributed to the fly away.  This isn't a DJI or Spark issue, this is a user pilot issue, ignoring all on screen errors and flying in an area with many interferences.  Just saying

Hi Sparky

I always fly with a screen recorder active, to check my logs what messages i have seen or missed.
I am 99% sure, all these errors were not shown in the Go4App. Ever seen a "Compass Error" on your screen, just these 2 words?
So the OP was not aware of his Spark errors.

cheers
JJB

JJBspark Posted at 2018-6-28 04:38
Hi Sparky

I always fly with a screen recorder active, to check my logs what messages i have seen or missed.

I stand corrected.  

but I'm sure he saw the GPS change to ATTI mode.  Either way, there was an issue causing all these 'Compass Error'; either pilot error or interferences

Sparky_17 Posted at 2018-6-28 07:11
I stand corrected.  

but I'm sure he saw the GPS change to ATTI mode.  Either way, there was an issue causing all these 'Compass Error'; either pilot error or interferences

Hi Sparky

Nope, weird thing is that this flight was completely in GPS mode, no ATTi at all!
Guess the errors did not reach their threshold value, so Spark remain in GPS.

I advice all flyers to record their flight with a screen recorder, i use "DU recorder"
If you loose the AC nice to have kind of evidence what the Go4App showed on your device.
(and fun to use it in video combined with the real recordings by your drone)

Cheers
JJB

lessons learned. I will be selling my left over spark parts as I have purchased a Mavic pro today. Couldn't justify spending the money on another spark hoping I have better luck with the Mavic Pro. Thanks again for all the input.