Hi

My son was flying his Spark yesterday. No wind at all. It was hovering above him when suddenly it went from GPS to AATI mode and started moving West very fast. The controller was unresponsive. It was last seen heading away.
The log just shows it going out of range.
Is this something that happens? Was he doing the wrong thing? It was literally right abovve his head when this happened and he was stood on the Return to Home location.

He has flown it many times before without this issue.

If we have the Care Refresh package, will this be covered? I have raised a support ticket and sent the log file from his phone, but I guess this stuff only ever happens out of working hours.

Any insights would be appreciated.

Martin

Hi Martin,

Sorry for your loss.

If you want this forum to mayby explain what have happened upload your flightlog and post the link here.

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

cheers
JJB

Hi Martin, we're sorry that flyaway is not covered by the DJI Care Refresh. If the unit is still under warranty period, data analysis will be suggested to check the exact status, and we will offer you a proper solution according to the data analysis result.

Hello there. We apologize for what happened. Unfortunately, since it flew away, it's no longer covered by Care Refresh. You have to retrieve the unit first if that's the case so that you may able to use the service plan. Anyways, good thing you were able to start up a ticket for investigation. Just wait for the next update coming from our headquarters for the result.

Here is the flight log, I chose the largest file.
http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/2TGHZMO3Y597YC8TJ1XL/

It has a wind warning message, but anyone in North London last night will attest it was a very still night.

I am not sure what we are supposed to do if the drone is flying right above us and then a software issue sends it off into the distance. Surely this cannot be our fault?
Why doesn't the drone just land, instead of heading off miles from the Return to Home location.

Here are two more log files:
http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/U886Q1GSPJ1WPQ0JAGPB/

http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/XF6PU8EBSQZFTXY2ENNU/

djiuser_uK2diAEQ9Zyq Posted at 2018-7-1 13:14
Here is the flight log, I chose the largest file.
http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/2TGHZMO3Y597YC8TJ1XL/

Hi,

To answer your question ; when a drone goes into ATTI mode the OP has to use the RC controls and steer the drone back home.

As you see in my charts no RC action was executed (only down few seconds), so the drone drifted away on the wind. Drone went into ATTI mode because your drone had a YawErrorLarge.

At takeoff you had less than 11 sats (8) and bad GPS reception (2 bars?), have no idea of that had something to do with the errors later in flight.

Cheers
JJB

Shouldn't it be just one file for the one particular flight?

I have about 5 more files!

The controller wouldn't effect the drone, nothing he pressed made any difference.  Also, the drone was flying much faster than the wind - in fact there was very little wind (10 mph).

James181 Posted at 2018-7-2 04:13
I have about 5 more files!

The controller wouldn't effect the drone, nothing he pressed made any difference.  Also, the drone was flying much faster than the wind - in fact there was very little wind (10 mph).

James, each log file corresponds to a specific flight.  The only one that is likely useful is the one of this particular flight where you lost your drone.

I would definitely suggest you open a ticket with DJI support and provide them with access to your log file so they can investigate to see if this may be covered under warranty.

Best of luck to you.

James181 Posted at 2018-7-2 04:13
I have about 5 more files!

The controller wouldn't effect the drone, nothing he pressed made any difference.  Also, the drone was flying much faster than the wind - in fact there was very little wind (10 mph).

Hi James,

Actually the wind was 17 mph at 228 ft, that`s the calulated speed it drifted away with no RC input.
Its caluclated using LatLon positions versus time ; really accurate.

cheers
JJB

There was only one flight that day. It was flown straight up, to about 200ft, and then it went out of control and flew off. My questions are:
- Why are there 20 log files for one flight?
- Why is it saying the wind was so strong (it was completely still) and is that reliable?
- Why wouldn't the controller work when it went to ATTI mode?

I get that I don't have the drone to do a replacement, but surely this is a software error. What were we supposed to do? It seems like a lottery if the thing just flies off one day (it was moving very fast, much faster than the wind). This eventuality was not made clear.
   If it is out of control, surely it should just go back to the Return to Home Location?
    Otherwise, what is that setting for?
   

Hi James,

Hope to give you some answers.

- Normally 1 flight (takeoff-fly-land)  = 1 log. If you land in between a flight after each take if will start a new flightlog.
- Wind high up in the air is often stronger than on the ground, or more gusting. Pitch and Roll angles fluctuations say something about the wind, taken into account the RC inputs ofcourse. Reliable? I have these messages ofcourse too and most of the time i think yes its windy outside (living at the Dutch Coast)
- RC does work in ATTI. in this flight you can see that RC down stick had effect on your drone, so you had control.
- Only in GPS mode when loosing connection it will fly home in the RTH procedure (or when you press RTH yourself or low batt RTH), Flying In ATTI mode you have to do it yourself.

Big question ofcourse ; a software errror?. I don`t know but Sparks often have Yaw, Compass and or Speed error wich dictates the drone to go into ATTI.
Only DJI can tell you if this mishap was due a internal component failure etc.

cheers
JJB

James,

I am assuming that your second record is the one which shows fly-away.

First 40 seconds uneventful. Than interesting things start to happen:

39.1s at 29 m wind from East picks up.
47.5s at 45 m wind from EEN – quite strong (I see it through Spark’s roll and pitch)
53.7s at 58 m wind strengthens to about 30 km/ hour from EEN.

Spark has trouble keeping up position and starts drifting to SSE. It is being pushed to south by southerly vector of the wind yet it is overcompensating to the East (irregular gusts from easterly direction which are suddenly dropping at about 56 seconds).
This is all happening while commanded position stays the same (no input from sticks in any direction but up).

Since Spark should stay put but found itself in a wrong physical position, it throws yaw error at 58 sec.
By pure inertia – since wind eased for couple of seconds, Spark lurches to the North, passes its commanded position while trying to break.

Within 2 seconds it follows up with compass error which shows that Spark’s systems are confused. It knows that commanded position is different than physical position, it knows that it is hunting and is in a wrong spot but it does not know which system failed (compass, IMU, or GPS).
To protect integrity of flight, it drops to ATTI. This is correct reaction.

Since its pitch is still to the North, it continues this way for another 5 seconds while you instruct it to gain altitude until it reaches 76 metres. At the same time wind from the East starts to blow harder again pushing it to the West.

At 1m 4s you push throttle down instructing Spark to lower its altitude – it obeys.
You do nothing to change its direction of drift.
You keep your stick down for less than 4 seconds. Spark dropped to 70 metres and is still drifting away.

You lose signal several seconds later while Spark is just 61 metres from you.

This pattern shows issues with Spark’s firmware.
Yes – wind was gusty and quite strong at the altitude you were flying. However, this does not justify total confusion of the Spark’s sensors and firmware. Spark should have detected the wind and should have warned you – it did not. Instead, its systems got confused by the wind and caused it to drop to ATTI.
To add insult to injury, 61 metres is nothing – you should have strong signal. Why did the connection drop? Did you go around the corner of your house and was not in LOS?

Give this case and log to DJI. According to me it is Spark’s firmware issue which calls for warranty replacement.

Mirek

djiuser_uK2diAEQ9Zyq Posted at 2018-7-1 13:14
Here is the flight log, I chose the largest file.
http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/2TGHZMO3Y597YC8TJ1XL/

I HAD THE SAME PROBLEM ...RTH AND STAY PUT..I HAD THREE FLY AWAY'S . AND GOT IT BACK BY LUCK ....MY SOLUTION WAS I SOLD MY DRONE .....I CAN'T TAKE THE CHANCE... SORRY FOR YOU LOSS ITS GUTTING. WHY AM I HERE IN THE CHAT WELL I SEEN YOUR POST AND I FELT FOR YOU.. BUT IM HERE TO CLOSE MY ACCOUNT WITH DJI ...I GOT A PARROT ANAFI, ITS GREAT.

It is nearly a month since the drone flew away with no explanation and no ability to control it with the remote.

We have sent all of the required information to DJI but they have not replied with any answers.
Terrible customer service and what appears to be a massive waste of money.

My son is extremely upset - and we are all now very frustrated.
They keep sending me customer service questionnaires though!

I had a similar problem a week ago.
Technical assistance was very kind.
Through the log file they verified that after a few seconds the flight is finished.
This says the data provided by their application.
I only know that, after a few seconds from the drone's take-off, I have not been able to do anything and the drone has flown away.
I lost sight of him.
He did not come back alone.
The "find my drone" tells me that it is in the area where the anomaly started.
DJI offered me a 30% discount for the purchase of a new Spark, but I have many doubts why I would not want to happen again and I would not waste any more money.
I'm thinking what's best to do as the problem has not happened to me alone.
Good luck.

(written via google translate)

I'm very confused on all these flyaways.. I'm new to the DJI arena and purchased a Spark with controller. I had a Parrot previously and any time any issue arose that the unit lost connection, had issues etc.. It would alwasys revert to RTH mode and come back , Is this not the case with the DJI units? Why are all these units flying away and not connecting to RTH? Makes me nervous flying mine being i just was able to get the unit to finally connect to the RC.. And haven't even taken my first flight yet...

UltramanV Posted at 2018-7-26 04:56
I'm very confused on all these flyaways.. I'm new to the DJI arena and purchased a Spark with controller. I had a Parrot previously and any time any issue arose that the unit lost connection, had issues etc.. It would alwasys revert to RTH mode and come back , Is this not the case with the DJI units? Why are all these units flying away and not connecting to RTH? Makes me nervous flying mine being i just was able to get the unit to finally connect to the RC.. And haven't even taken my first flight yet...

So DJI came back to me last week. Better late than never!

After analysing all of the flight records, they have offered a full refund / replacement on the Spark which I guess is fair enough.


But I cannot find out why it flew away, why it headded off rather than Return-to-Home and whether it will happen again. Hopefully I will hear more soon.