Hi guys my name is Joey and I really need your help! I was flying my spark and everything was fine calibrated IMU was done no eras 16 satellites showing and full GPS mode, the homepoint was updated I flew around for a little bit about maybe two hundred feet away from my house where I normally fly with no issues, I decided to initiate a return to home just to make sure I was working properly, the Drone turned around began to travel back to the home point and that's all she wrote! No matter what I did, the Drone would not descend! I canceled the return to home and try to manually bring it down using the left stick in mode 2.  No matter what I did, it just sat there and loitered at the preset return to home altitude. Finally the battery gave out and it dropped out of the sky! Lucky for me that landed on its back In grass. I cleaned it up put a fresh battery in recalibrated and it seems to be back to normal again but now I don't trust it has anyone else ever experienced this type of problem thank you in advance. Joey

Check out your TXT flight log to see if it explains what happened. You can upload and view it online here. If you'd like other people to review and comment on your flight log, then please post a link back here after you upload it.

Have you tried restarting the DJI go app when the controls were not responding???

Flysafely
Alex

No I didn't try to restart the app I will try to upload to text file tomorrow thank you so much guys for your help

TheGemster18 Posted at 12-14 15:56
No I didn't try to restart the app I will try to upload to text file tomorrow thank you so much guys for your help

You should have tried to restart the app. The issue might have been that the app got frozen internally and the drone became unresponsive.
Sometimes it can happen, you need to restart your app when that happens quickly.
Here comes into play the device that you were using.
Obviously on better device the chance of that happening are very slim.
Depends also on how cluttered your device is, etc.

Also did you happen to notice which light was lit on the remote when the drone was not responding?
Green or red?
If it’s red that means that the remote is not connected to the drone, in that case you can also try to restart the remote quickly.

Flysafely
Alex

Really? Even with the app dead, the drone replies to the remote. Found that in a panic one day.

Tentoes Posted at 12-14 18:48
Really? Even with the app dead, the drone replies to the remote. Found that in a panic one day.

Right on. The drone is flown with the remote controller (not the app).

Alex B. Posted at 12-14 18:19
You should have tried to restart the app. The issue might have been that the app got frozen internally and the drone became unresponsive.
Sometimes it can happen, you need to restart your app when that happens quickly.
Here comes into play the device that you were using.

Now that you mention it Alex right before I had the issue I accidentally hit my bottom corner of my phone and the home screen came back on the Android device I am using a Galaxy S9 Plus once that happened I did reopen the app but right after that is when I noticed that when I hit return to home the Drone just kind of loitered at that altitude but never descended also in regards to your question the light was Green on the remote I definitely looked at that so I had connection and I'm using an OTG cable one of the fact that I did not mention was that it was kind of dark outside so I thought for a moment maybe the bottom Vision sensor was the culprit but then I remembered that I also tried it in sport mode which disables the vision sensor I believe so I'm still not quite sure what is going on? Thank you so much for trying to help me

Follow Alex’s advice, he is dead on. Most likely your app froze and therefore your Spark did not get the message to RTH and simply hovered. When this happens FIRST THING! Don’t panic! That’s the worst you could do. Also make sure you press the RTH button for several seconds to see if you get a response. If that does not help try the sticks. If that fails, reload the app, wait for connection and bring the bird home.
The bottom vision sensor is disabled I believe if you fly higher than 30 feet or something like that so that was not the issue. And remember, never fly the Spark beyond your vision, if you can’t see it in this moment you can’t bring it home or initiate the correct stick movements. Good luck!

fans812df717 Posted at 12-14 21:36
Follow Alex’s advice, he is dead on. Most likely your app froze and therefore your Spark did not get the message to RTH and simply hovered. When this happens FIRST THING! Don’t panic! That’s the worst you could do. Also make sure you press the RTH button for several seconds to see if you get a response. If that does not help try the sticks. If that fails, reload the app, wait for connection and bring the bird home.
The bottom vision sensor is disabled I believe if you fly higher than 30 feet or something like that so that was not the issue. And remember, never fly the Spark beyond your vision, if you can’t see it in this moment you can’t bring it home or initiate the correct stick movements. Good luck!

Man you guys are great! Thank you so much I am working on uploading my DJI text file maybe you guys could make heads or tails of it? Thank you again guys

#Quick Reply Here#https://app.airdata.com/share/VJnPhi

TheGemster18 Posted at 12-14 22:27
#Quick Reply Here#https://app.airdata.com/share/VJnPhi

this is the flight log txt from the spark..  thanks guys...

Here's your flight log:
http://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/MRTPJL1BH3MFIAL230AU

The "VPS Altitude" column is showing a value for nearly the entire flight. That's not normal when your drone is not near the ground.

The downward sensors were detecting something beneath the drone. Did you have some type of 3rd party accessories installed beneath the Spark? Or was it foggy?

Did you try holding down the left stick down or throttle down to land?

Do you have landing gear on it?
Or still the plastic on the bottom sensors?

dencio1976 Posted at 12-15 18:14
Did you try holding down the left stick down or throttle down to land?

Very useful hint/question!
looks like it was sitting there to wait for "confirm landing"/order landing by stick
pulling the left stick backwards would have ordered a slow descent to land.
If he has done that, big problem, if he hasn't, ....

OP needs to check the neatness of the bottom sensors, methinks!

msinger Posted at 12-15 15:29
Here's your flight log:
http://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/MRTPJL1BH3MFIAL230AU

@msineer no, nothing under the drone, no 3rd party stuff.  It was dark outside. Very dark.  Not foggy though.  Pushing left stick down had no effect whatsoever! Switching back and forth to sport mode ...nothing!  even, after it said... " LANDING"  It never really lost altitude!  Only when the warning about reducing battery output was shown did it drop a little i think?  Than the battery ran out...the reds lights shut... and it became a rock! And fell on to its back in the grass.. thankfully I  was able to Yaw it over to the grass..

I did do a Imu calibration after the crash yesterday and another compass cali. Also yesterday in the daylight  and flew it... perfect,  no errors and it was fine.  So I'm not sure what the hell happened.   I have been flying drones for 5 years, and I'm 51 years old.. gotta tell ya.. this was scary watching it just sit there and not respond to anything I threw at it...

Hi,
Had a look at your flight too, sorry for your crash.

There happens a lot with your Spark!
Your return to height setting 30 meters.

at 6m 36s you performed a RTH, height that time 30.3 meters distance from home 35.9 meters, heading drone 120, to home 291,
Spark turned heading to home,
Spark increased its height!, should stay the same as its flying above RTH setting.
Because its gaining height the distance to home stays the same (thats normal for RTH procedure ; turn / height / speed to home)
As said the VPS height is indication (not normal) so Spark thinks it has to climb to RTH height.
At 7m 24s you cancelled RTH at height of 115.2 meters, distance to home still 35.9 meters
In Sport mode descending (but no stick fwd to bring closer to home)
At 8m 00s again RTH, at 106,6 meters, distance to home 36.5
Spark starts to climb again (VPS indicating 1.1 ect), no user stick input. (batt 40%)
At 8m 12s max height reached
At 8m 42s RTH cancelled, in Sport again.
Stick down, so height slowly less  down
At 9m 13 height 110 meters, batt 32%, you stopped RC input.
At 9m 22 Sparks starts autolanding, initiate by smart batt trigger, time to land safely is there. (height 110) (batt 31%)
Sparks slowly decscends....too slow descending....
At 10m 47 height 91.8 with 20% batt
At 12m 04 height 74.2 with 10% batt
At 13m 18 height 58.5 with 0% batt
At 14m 13 height 42.9 with 0% batt
dropped out of te sky.

So what went wrong?
Ofcourse the false height indication of the bottom sensors wich fooled the software. (DJI??)
OP should have seen the climbing to max height, wich is not normal beacuse of the RTH setting of 30 meters.
If noticed earlier (and not a second time a RTH>climb) Spark should have flown manually back to home.

So IMO DJI should redesign their software for the RTH procedure. Give the users a warning "are you sure about this, cause Spark is climbing...bla bla bla:

No connection loss, drone reacted as it should to user input and twice to its RTH command.

PS i never use the RTH in the app, always press the button on the controller! why, beacuse the soft button "land" is close to the "RTH", mistake is easy made!
(happend to me two times, got in little panic as i did not understand what happend....uhh landing and not gohome?? wtf ^%@@^%@#@^%@)
cheers
JJB

JJBspark Posted at 12-16 05:44
Hi,
Had a look at your flight too, sorry for your crash.

[Image]

Thank you so much for taking a look at the flight log, I have been flying drones for about 5 years.  I had a mavic Pro. I never experienced anything like this, it was dark outside I had the obstacle avoidance turned on perhaps if I would have disabled the obstacle avoidance maybe this would not have happened, do you think the bottom facing sensor was confused because of the lack of light? Also I'm not sure if I mentioned that at some point my fingers shut the app down mid-flight and I had to restart the app while the Drone was in the air, I am using a OTG cable the phone was in airplane mode, and I have a new Galaxy S9 Plus. I am wondering if perhaps the IMU wasn't calibrated correctly the last time I did it?  Once I got the Drone back down thankfully landing on its back in the grass I bought it inside cleaned it up put a fresh battery in.  I performed a IMU. Recalibrated the compass, and the Drone was fine no issues to report on the next flight, so I am very confused.

The question is, why the optical system saw ground close under it!
if no gear, no plastic, no dirt outside, there can just be something inside!
Humidity and therefore foggy from inside the sensor caps, perhaps?

TheGemster18 Posted at 12-16 07:33
Thank you so much for taking a look at the flight log, I have been flying drones for about 5 years.  I had a mavic Pro. I never experienced anything like this, it was dark outside I had the obstacle avoidance turned on perhaps if I would have disabled the obstacle avoidance maybe this would not have happened, do you think the bottom facing sensor was confused because of the lack of light? Also I'm not sure if I mentioned that at some point my fingers shut the app down mid-flight and I had to restart the app while the Drone was in the air, I am using a OTG cable the phone was in airplane mode, and I have a new Galaxy S9 Plus. I am wondering if perhaps the IMU wasn't calibrated correctly the last time I did it?  Once I got the Drone back down thankfully landing on its back in the grass I bought it inside cleaned it up put a fresh battery in.  I performed a IMU. Recalibrated the compass, and the Drone was fine no issues to report on the next flight, so I am very confused.

Hi,

Yes, during 17 seconds your app was not online.
Do not think that the darkness has something to do with the bottom sensors.

IMO the only reason for this climbing was that the sensors saw some height wich wasn`t there ofcourse.
So moisture, condens or some dirt on the sensors mayby??

We all learn from this when things go wrong ; i mean in your app you saw the height increasing and no action to stop that.

Great forum this, so wel all learn from situation like yours, always know/understand what the expected behaviour should be and check if what is actual happening is what you excpect. If not think and act.

So no need to be confused, check the sensors before takeoff and happy many landings!
Hope that DJI wil read this too and act on the sofware issue, if flying at baro height high and VPS heigh low and RTH in progress the software should give a notification of this.


cheers
JJB

JJBspark Posted at 12-16 08:06
Hi,

Yes, during 17 seconds your app was not online.

You guys are the absolute best! Thank you thank you thank you so much for looking over my flight log and helping me understand what could have possibly gone wrong it's because of members like you guys that this Hobby is so great! I just want to extend the very happy holiday to each and everyone of you and God bless