I am considered a newbie in the drone world. After a couple years of convincing my wife that it was a smart idea for me to buy a drone I finally got my Spark. I had my spark for about 4 days. My experience hasn't been the greatest. First, my remote had an issue with my camera click wheel and had to send in the remote. Which left me to controlling the Spark with my phone. I was flying it around my back yard to my neighbors which is maybe .75 acre away. I had made a couple test runs with no issues. Then I selected RTH and that is where my dreams of having a drone died. The GPS stopped working on the device and within a couple seconds went in ATTI mode. The wind took the device and now I am without my Spark.

My frustration is that I felt that this was out of my control. I did what I was supposed to and now I have nothing. I am disappointed and bummed out. I have a case open and I hope that DJI will help me out. I was supposed to take this on a trip in a week and was looking forward to finally getting the shots that I have wanted to for the last couple of years.

I will say that the moments that I did have flying the drone were fantastic. DJI does make nice products and I understand that there can be techinical glitches. Hoping for the best. Cross your fingers for me!

I will say, I was able to shoot a quick video for our community website. Take a look. It's very short. www.charleylakepreserve.com

have you tried the find my drone function? was it marked, or registered?

I have registered it with DJI however he not had a chance to mark it or register with the FAA. I was ready planning to register the evening before loosing it. I tried using the Find my drone function however since it lost connection the last spot it shows in my flight log is where I initiated the RTH command.

Fortunately DJI has been considering a lot of these issues replaceable under warranty.

For some detail on what went wrong from your flight, you should upload your flight record to http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/ and share the link here.

Some Sparks are very susceptible to dropping into ATTI when other DJI products wouldn't. For this fact alone RTH is something I don't trust with Spark and would only use as a last case scenario to bring back it to safety. Also, if it went into ATTI, Find My Drone wouldn't be that useful due to dropping GPS.

InTheReeds Posted at 2018-7-25 20:31
Fortunately DJI has been considering a lot of these issues replaceable under warranty.

For some detail on what went wrong from your flight, you should upload your flight record to http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/ and share the link here.

That would be good news if they consider this replaceable under warranty. I have attached the flight log. However, I have looked in the direction of where it is tracking to. Still no luck

http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/B7X4805Q7IRU7PQHSFE8/

If you get it back or another one and you're in the US, insure it with State Farm under a personal property insurance policy. It's $60 a year with no deductible. You have peace of mind if something happens to it that the warranty won't cover. I have a Phantom and a Spark insured with them. Good luck!

Open a service request and attach the log (not the website) to it and see what they say.
It should have been GEOFenced to about 200ft distance and 100ft high.
But since GPS failed, DJI may consider replacing.

Good luck and don't give up!
It is awesome up there!

Our apologies for the inconvenience. Please provide you case number so that we can check the status on it. Thank you for your support.

js349 Posted at 2018-7-26 04:06
If you get it back or another one and you're in the US, insure it with State Farm under a personal property insurance policy. It's $60 a year with no deductible. You have peace of mind if something happens to it that the warranty won't cover. I have a Phantom and a Spark insured with them. Good luck!

JS349, that is great information. I will make sure that I insure my next one. Thanks for that.

DJI Paladin Posted at 2018-7-26 04:44
Our apologies for the inconvenience. Please provide you case number so that we can check the status on it. Thank you for your support.

Hello. Thanks for reaching out. Here is my case number.

CAS-2055560-K1L1L2

sorry to read that buddy

jacksonnai Posted at 2018-7-26 06:28
sorry to read that buddy

Thank you. Hopefully something good can come out of this. I'll keep everyone posted.

DJINDY Posted at 2018-7-26 06:31
Thank you. Hopefully something good can come out of this. I'll keep everyone posted.

yup good luck on your case

DJINDY,

You have a good case for warranty replacement. We have seen similar cases before.

Your flight is uneventful until RTH at 7m 4s.
Spark adjusts its direction correctly and climbs to RTH altitude correctly.
At 7m 23s it starts flying back.

However, its flight path back is ellipsoidal – veers into southerly direction showing first signs of toilet bowl effect which is caused by mismatch between compass, accelerometer and GPS.
BTW – your GPS is fine. The problem is with directional mismatch between where Spark is physically pointing and where its compass is pointing. Commanded position differs from physical position which results in adjustments to flight direction. But adjustments are wrong and steer your Spark from its path.

5 seconds later (7m 28s) Spark realizes that its path is progressively crooked and will not lead to home point. It throws yaw error (misalignment between compass and Spark’s direction)  followed by other errors (compass and GPS). This shows Spark’s confusion and leads to ATTI so you can regain manual control. Again – GPS is functioning just fine. Compass/IMU is not.

Normally, in vast majority of cases like this, the problem is with IMU and compass calibration. However, I do not believe it is case here. Why? Because it would have manifested itself earlier. You flew in quite elaborate patterns which gave Spark plenty of opportunity to get confused earlier – it did not (outside of quick warnings but nothing serious).

We have seen multiple cases which are very similar to yours and which resulted in DJI warranty replacement. The tale tell sign is presence of elliptical flight path.

When you lost contact with your Spark it was auto landing with speed of 1.2 m/s and was being pushed by wind with speed 4m/s.
It would have been at 6m of altitude by the time it reached the house. If it did not crash into trees (I do not know how high there are) the good chances are that it crashed into the house (it was probably too low to clear it). See the picture below.

Good luck.

Mirek  

Mirek6 Posted at 2018-7-26 07:31
DJINDY,

You have a good case for warranty replacement. We have seen similar cases before.

Wow, this is a good analysis, I hope he finds it in one of those areas.  I'd go looking for it

Sorry for your loss my friend.  I can just imagine how frustrating it is and how hard you had to negotiate with your wife to get one.  Hope you are able to find it.  

Mirek6 Posted at 2018-7-26 07:31
DJINDY,

You have a good case for warranty replacement. We have seen similar cases before.

Mirek6,

Thank you for taking the time to look at my flight log and provide an explanation of what went wrong. I am still waiting to hear from DJI. I have searched through the woods and the yard of that home without success. I'll keep you posted. Thanks again.

DJINDY Posted at 2018-7-26 05:11
Hello. Thanks for reaching out. Here is my case number.

CAS-2055560-K1L1L2

Please let me know if you need anything else from me.

Djindy,

It is also possible that your drone overshoot the house and landed on the other side. I would search area in front of the house and, possibly beyond the road. It can't be far unless it landed on the road and was hit by a passing car.

In any case, I do trust that DJI will replace it.

Mirek

Mirek6 Posted at 2018-7-26 10:26
Djindy,

It is also possible that your drone overshoot the house and landed on the other side. I would search area in front of the house and, possibly beyond the road. It can't be far unless it landed on the road and was hit by a passing car.

Hey Mirek6, I went again and searched all the areas that it could have landed. Now its up to the DJI gods

Today, I went and looked again in all the possible area's. Hopefully I get an update from DJI sooner than later. My trip is quickly approaching that I wanted to take this on.

As far as State Farm Insurance goes, I called my local agent and talked to his secretary who was clueless about the personal property coverage concerning drones. I was supposed to get a call back from the agent. Never heard a thing from him. "Like a Good Neighbor, State Farm is There"... Yeah, right.

js349 Posted at 2018-7-26 04:06
If you get it back or another one and you're in the US, insure it with State Farm under a personal property insurance policy. It's $60 a year with no deductible. You have peace of mind if something happens to it that the warranty won't cover. I have a Phantom and a Spark insured with them. Good luck!

Unless you have a chinchy State Farm local agent who will only wrap the personal property rider with homeowner's insurance.

Let’s hope that you can get a replacement soon.

Update: Looks like they are covering the Spark under warranty. Thank you everyone for your conversation in this thread. Now, let's hope I can get it ordered before my trip on Friday.

Ordering may not be the problem, me thinks.
Good luck