Hi guys,
I bought new Spark some time ago and here are my experices I want to share with you.
After unpacking brand new toy and making some short test flights I began to testing all possible settings, options etc. I also did new IMU calibration (without any obvious reason, I was not prompted by app, just wanted to have it calibrated after long way from manufacturer to me). I also calibrated compas every 5-10 flights. And what happend? I began receiving famous YAW errors and AC randomly switched to ATTI mode for short time periods. Fortunately no fly-away as I was able to control AC in Atti mode. So I began to look for reason of this compass/yaw error and I found this forum. After reading tons of similar cases, watching many videos and doing my own research, tests and flight logs analysis I realised my novice mistakes. (Thanks a lot for deep and great posts especially from JJBspark , Mirek6, KlooGee and others..)
Here are procedures witch I made and are working for me:
Calibrate your IMU on sturdy flat desk, without any vibrations from enviroment around, away from any metal objects. I was literally holding my breath during calibration to ensure no other forces are interfering ) Calibrate your compass away from any magnetic interfering, as written here many times. After this initial calibration do not re-calibrate compass, until you are prompted by app or traveling long distance(btw. did someone tested how many km is this range?) Do not recalibrate IMU also, only if prompted or have some kind of crash
After this rules all Yaw errors dissapered and Spark is flying great, even in windy weather, rough maneuvers in Sport mode etc..Did more than 100 flights without any sign of compass error.
But this is not all, after reading many post about fly aways I found most of them have one common issue. It is this sequence: Pilot lost GPS mode (from various reasons), AC switches to Atti. Pilot doesnt know how to react, presses RTH button, switches to Sport mode, nothing works and AC drifts away by the wind. After some time of drifting, AC loses connection with RC and dron is gone.
I think most essencial skill in this case is to control AC in Atti mode. Unfortunately Spark does not allow swich Atti mode manualy, but this can be done by very easy and reversible procedure (just google switch to atti mode with Sport mode switch). I personally used this mod to train my Atti flying. After practising in calm condisions I also did test in quite heavy winds, about 800m away, just to simulate worst case scenario.Here are my observations:
Alway keep hands no your sticks, do not rely on any smart/autonomous function After switch to Atti, do not panic! Nothing horrible is happening, you only need to control your drone. Similar when driving car, you also must hold wheel and react to every situation on the road First of all ensure you have good visibility between RC and AC, as this is essencial in this point. If not, try to gain some altitude, you dont want to lose connection. Together with point 3 try to estimate wind direction. Move camera little down to see which way is AC drifting and compesate with right stick. Do not do any harsh and extreme moves, just slowly, fluently move stick against the drifting direction. Watch your speed to see if the AC is more or less stabilised. After this, still holding right stick in position where is AC stable, watch your map in left low corner, you can see there AC position and also vector to Homepoint. Move left stick slowly to rotate nose aircraft in direction to HP. Do not forget holding right stick, if you let it to the cenral position, AC will start drift again. Now you have AC more or less stable and heading home. All you need to do is add little forward motion with right stick, but again remeber, you still need to compensate. Very usefull is using your front camera to lock at your position and try to hold it in center. When you have AC in your vicinity, free of obstacles, start descending. After you can clearly see its position, rotate AC so it is in direction nose from you. Now you have very natural control with you right stick and you can land literally on penny even in strong wind.
I hope these my observations will help you, as Spark is beautiful piece of technology and it is so much fun flying with it Only man must understand some basic principles how to operate it.
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