So took my DJI Spark for a flight today.  Wanted to test the distance.  Flew out to 1250 meters without a problem.  Came home with about 54% of a charge.  Decided to do a shorter run to 750 meters.  No problem.  Decided to bring it home.  At about 548m-550m, lost all connection to the drone.  DJI remote control was on full power.  Tried to reset the connection manualy hitting the little red button, the FN button and the button below the photograph button on the front of the hand controller.  Could not connect.  Waited 7-8 minutes for the drone to come home.  Never did.  It ditched on a side of a river about 500m away from me.  Did a search for the drone in weeds of up to 1.5m high with no luck.  The drone, this past Monday lost connection for 7-8 minutes but reconnected and I was able to land it.  This time not so much.  Spent an hour looking for it with no luck.  Is this common for the DJI Spark to lose connection and not come back home?  I'm a pretty safe flyer staying away from power lines, airports and such.  

1250m? Even 500m? Crazy, mine cuts out at 200m that's it...

Guess it was out of line of sight...the Spark does these kind of things. Sometimes I think it's by design :-)

Hope you get a replacement somehow.

Hi, sorry for the loss drone and inconvenience that it caused you. if the drone was able to record the home point and during the flight, the drone was disconnected to the RC, if the GPS signal is strong. The drone should return and locate the home point, however, I would recommend syncing the flight records and contact our support for us to conduct an investigation.

www.dji.com/support

MartyTravels Posted at 2018-8-16 13:07
1250m? Even 500m? Crazy, mine cuts out at 200m that's it...

Guess it was out of line of sight...the Spark does these kind of things. Sometimes I think it's by design :-)

This official DJI advert:

I know the advertising...but it's rubbish. Even the proclaimed 500m in CE counties are unreachable.

I've flown that thing in the middle of nowhere, but still max 300m even on FCC settings.

Jakab Gipsz Posted at 2018-8-16 13:25
This official DJI advert:
[view_image]

That's my setup.  Except for the phone.  I had a clear line of site to the drone.  This was the third time it had lost the connection.  The first one was 7-8 minutes long recovered the connection.  Second one was 20-30 seconds and it recovered the connection.  This time, not so much.

Actually just got back from looking for it again.  Couldn't retrieve it with all the dense brush.  I'm going to open a ticket with DJI and hopefully they'll help.

MartyTravels, its really strange that you can only get 300m!?! I did 2025m the other day no problem, but of course I was in a zone with 0 interference, in the middle of the fields.
What’s your setup and where were you flying? Try in FCC in the middle of nowhere and maybe out to sea (if you dare but then again, it depends on your setup. If you are using an old device with the latest app then it’s no wonder, if not, then I guess you have a faulty spark.

Safe Flying.
Alex

And Josef, I’m really sorry to hear that you lost your spark. I hope that you can find it soon and I wish you all the best luck In finding it now or with dji support.
I know how you feel, I lost my first spark also and it couldn’t be found

Alex

Did you try Find My Drone? If it hovered when it lost connection (as it should) then landed straight down when to battery was low, it should be very close to it's last GPS position. Find My Drone will get you to within 1m of that last GPS position.

I had a similar scare with my Phantom 4 pro V2.0 +    It lost signal to the RC, did not return home and just hovered, to my stress it was over the ocean so I had to get as close to the drone as possible and thankfully it restored connection. Although I have signal loss return to home in settings it didn't happen. So what has happened with your spark doesn't surprise me as it could have happened to me.

you went how many meters.......
Remember boys and girls, once you are out of VLOS Anything can happen...with that said you will be in RLOS at 500 meters but BLOS so you will need to fly by the maps

If you have a compass, or ATTI mode drop, and cant activate the RHT button you are going to graduate from drone user to a beginner drone pilot in a hell of a hurry, and you don't want to test your lack of skills in ATTI out of VLOS.  

This is where people get FLY OFFS lets just substitute the words Fly offs for USER ERROR in this next example.

EX. "I only flew my drone once and wanted to go really high with it but I lost It due to a user error.."

Don't be that guy

Warriewoodlad Posted at 2018-8-16 18:29
Did you try Find My Drone? If it hovered when it lost connection (as it should) then landed straight down when to battery was low, it should be very close to it's last GPS position. Find My Drone will get you to within 1m of that last GPS position.

"Find My Drone" also includes an option to get an audio signal from the drone when you get close to its position assuming the battery hasn't died completely (probably unlikely by now).  I lost connection with my Spark when caught in a high wind, got to within 10 ft of it using FInd My Drone and still couldn't see it. I triggered the audio and immediately found the drone.

Sliderul Posted at 2018-8-16 20:19
"Find My Drone" also includes an option to get an audio signal from the drone when you get close to its position assuming the battery hasn't died completely (probably unlikely by now).  I lost connection with my Spark when caught in a high wind, got to within 10 ft of it using FInd My Drone and still couldn't see it. I triggered the audio and immediately found the drone.

Good to know.

upload your log please : http://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/upload/

Tried the "Find my drone" option.  All I got was a weak battery message.  It landed in some have and tall brush.  My girlfriend and I searched for over two hours with no luck.  I've created a ticket with DJI and sent them all the log files.  Hoping to hear something soon.

MartyTravels Posted at 2018-8-16 13:31
I know the advertising...but it's rubbish. Even the proclaimed 500m in CE counties are unreachable.

I've flown that thing in the middle of nowhere, but still max 300m even on FCC settings.

Not rubbish, I've flown mine out 3000-5000 feet plenty of times with no issues.  Seen plenty of videos where it goes further than the advertised distance too.

Your Spark should have returned home provided a home point was recorded and you had enough GPS sats and battery charge to do so. That said, if you couldn't see your drone anything could have happened. Hit a bird, battery ejected mid flight, etc.

I'd definitely open a support ticket with DJI.

If you want some immediate input on what went wrong, post your flight log here. http://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/upload/

InTheReeds Posted at 2018-8-17 06:21
Your Spark should have returned home provided a home point was recorded and you had enough GPS sats and battery charge to do so. That said, if you couldn't see your drone anything could have happened. Hit a bird, battery ejected mid flight, etc.

I'd definitely open a support ticket with DJI.

Home point was set.  I did press the Return to Home button.  When I went looking for it, I did receive a weak signal from it.  I did get a weak video feed that lasted maybe a second or two which tells me the battery didn't eject and it didn't hit a bird.  My guess right now is a sudden loss of battery power as I had enough power to get back home.  I flew it out to 750m and the drone was on the way home losing connection at about 548m to 550m.  I had about 40-43% power when I was heading my way home.

As some of the other have mentioned, if you want a better understanding of your flight, I'd recommend uploading your logs to the PhantomHelp log viewer and pasting the resulting link here.  

""Tried to reset the connection manualy hitting the little red button, the FN button and the button below the photograph button on the front of the hand controller""  -  This is a big pilot error.   never do this operation in mid flight...

S.J Posted at 2018-8-17 07:41
""Tried to reset the connection manualy hitting the little red button, the FN button and the button below the photograph button on the front of the hand controller""  -  This is a big pilot error.   never do this operation in mid flight...

By the time I tried that, I figured the drone was done for.  I had about 6-8 minutes flight time.  Tried to reconnect 10 minutes after that.  Not during flight.

How about you post your logs.

http://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/upload/

I've tried to upload a csv, pdf and an excel file.  None have worked.  I do have a link to the log file:

http://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/452U1YAGZGVK0OU6LDJY/

It seems to be a straight forward ""miss"" .  You should get a 100% coupon from DJI .

Thanks for confirming.  I have a case open with DJI.  Hope they come to the same conclusion as you and I.

Sorry to see you lost your drone.   The Return to Home should have worked.  Clearly there was some other issue for it to have cut out like that..   May have lost GPS after you lost connection.. We will never now.  Hopefully DJI can help you out.

MartyTravels Posted at 2018-8-16 13:31
I know the advertising...but it's rubbish. Even the proclaimed 500m in CE counties are unreachable.

I've flown that thing in the middle of nowhere, but still max 300m even on FCC settings.

I think some of that is outlined in the asterisk that was cut out of the picture attached.

When I fly in the city of Atlanta I am lucky to get 1/4 the distance I get in farm land in Vermont.

Greg F Posted at 2018-8-18 04:26
Sorry to see you lost your drone.   The Return to Home should have worked.  Clearly there was some other issue for it to have cut out like that..   May have lost GPS after you lost connection.. We will never now.  Hopefully DJI can help you out.

It's possible.  This was the third time I had lost connection to the drone.  All three times was flying in open spaces with a clear line of site to the drone.  I hope that DJI can help.

Josef Pittner Posted at 2018-8-18 04:49
It's possible.  This was the third time I had lost connection to the drone.  All three times was flying in open spaces with a clear line of site to the drone.  I hope that DJI can help.

I was thinking maybe the battery fell out as it cut out all of a sudden.

Greg F Posted at 2018-8-18 13:44
I was thinking maybe the battery fell out as it cut out all of a sudden.

Battery did not eject or disconnect from the drone.  I went to look for it and I got a  weak video feed from the device.

Josef Pittner Posted at 2018-8-18 14:50
Battery did not eject or disconnect from the drone.  I went to look for it and I got a  weak video feed from the device.

Ok that rules out the Battery ejecting Theory then...

Greg F Posted at 2018-8-18 14:54
Ok that rules out the Battery ejecting Theory then...

This was the third time it lost total signal.  I checked all the logs and everything looked ok in all three until the signal got lost.  I may have gotten a dud.

Josef Pittner Posted at 2018-8-18 15:03
This was the third time it lost total signal.  I checked all the logs and everything looked ok in all three until the signal got lost.  I may have gotten a dud.

Yeah seems that way.   Possible Hardware issue cutting out on you..

>>This was the third time it lost total signal...

So what strikes me from your log is that the Spark is thousands of feet away from you but your altitude is really low - under 40 feet. I never do that. Unless you are sure that the terrain is pool-table flat and there are no trees etc., you have a high risk of radio disconnect due to LOS blockage. That is probably why you are seeing repeated disconnects when you fly.

You want to be at least 100 feet (better 200 feet or more) up when you are that far out.

marlowe Posted at 2018-8-18 23:04
>>This was the third time it lost total signal...

So what strikes me from your log is that the Spark is thousands of feet away from you but your altitude is really low - under 40 feet. I never do that. Unless you are sure that the terrain is pool-table flat and there are no trees etc., you have a high risk of radio disconnect due to LOS blockage. That is probably why you are seeing repeated disconnects when you fly.

Terrain was very flat.  A river actually.  Clear line of sight.  The river is pretty wide.  Therre's maybe 200-300 meters if not more width between trees on both sides of the river.  I kept the drone in the middle of the river.  Like I previously stated I flew the drone out 1250 meters at the same height as seen in the logs.  On it's return trip, from 750 meters, I lost connection to the drone.  No connection, no video output, no nothing.  

Hi folks,

At the transmission frequencies that a Spark uses, you need MORE than just "line of sight" for a good connection.
There is a concept called "Fresnel zone":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresnel_zone

The Fresnel zone can be disrupted by flat, unobstructed ground too. So it is better to fly a bit higher if you plan to go far.

Cheers,
Wolferl

Josef Pittner Posted at 2018-8-19 03:08
Terrain was very flat.  A river actually.  Clear line of sight.  The river is pretty wide.  Therre's maybe 200-300 meters if not more width between trees on both sides of the river.  I kept the drone in the middle of the river.  Like I previously stated I flew the drone out 1250 meters at the same height as seen in the logs.  On it's return trip, from 750 meters, I lost connection to the drone.  No connection, no video output, no nothing.

I don't think so, at least from what I can see on the the log map and also looking at Google earth. At 5:03.7 when you are about 4000 ft out and your path has curved to the right  - you have a connection loss. From what I can see, at that time your altitude is only 37 ft. and your LOS passes thru the thick tree-line on the right side of the river. Your connection is restored at 5:20.2, but note that at that point the log shows an altitude of 70.5 ft. This is strong evidence of trees blocking your LOS causing that disconnect.

Of course, your Spark survived that and was lost later when it seems like you probably had LOS, but still, long distance and low atltitude is a risky mix.

marlowe Posted at 2018-8-19 10:59
I don't think so, at least from what I can see on the the log map and also looking at Google earth. At 5:03.7 when you are about 4000 ft out and your path has curved to the right  - you have a connection loss. From what I can see, at that time your altitude is only 37 ft. and your LOS passes thru the thick tree-line on the right side of the river. Your connection is restored at 5:20.2, but note that at that point the log shows an altitude of 70.5 ft. This is strong evidence of trees blocking your LOS causing that disconnect.

Of course, your Spark survived that and was lost later when it seems like you probably had LOS, but still, long distance and low atltitude is a risky mix.

Doesn't explain why I lost connection at about 1650 feet away from home after pressing the Return To Home button.  I get it if I was behind trees, buildings etc.  But I was not.  Clear line of site to home.

Josef Pittner Posted at 2018-8-19 12:56
Doesn't explain why I lost connection at about 1650 feet away from home after pressing the Return To Home button.  I get it if I was behind trees, buildings etc.  But I was not.  Clear line of site to home.

I don't see a connection loss in your log at 1650 feet. At what time did this occur?

marlowe Posted at 2018-8-19 17:01
I don't see a connection loss in your log at 1650 feet. At what time did this occur?

Lost connection at about 548m to 550m after I told the drone to come come.  I don't think it shows that in the log.  I told it to come home after 750m.