Landing today after a brief flight, I noticed something odd. Phoebe, my spark, wouldn't fly straight toward me, but kept sliding off to the left. She is over some trees and tall grass in a deep ravine though not very far out. The air was dead calm, as you can see in the video. I wondered if I was pushing the stick to the left as well as forward, but didn't feel like it. I even checked the flight log, and no, I was pushing it nice and straight. Perhaps something needs calibrating? She's not asking for compass or anything to be calibrated. Perhaps just my eyeballs need calibrating?



Oklahoma has these vast valleys west of town where it can be 6 miles or so to the other rim. There are also airports everywhere! By the time I found one in a gap between the e spaces, the sun was going down. I only flew out and back, about 3 minutes all together thinking the trees were being too dark to see and the sun was shining in the camera so it couldn't see out into the valley. It was also hard to see the drone with the dark trees behind. Maybe fly a little higher so I'm looking at her against sky instead of trees. The video actually turned out better than I thought it would. I think, though to get a good feel of the vastness of the valley that I'd have to fly out a ways into it. She doesn't seem to be very good at flying very far away.

No I wasn't all sunburned. With the sun going down, everything was golden red.

Calibrate the IMU and RC sticks

Try an RTH in just 20 m height from, let's say, 100m distance.
That will give you an idea, what might be wrong/need calibration
This looks really strange, methinks.
I know of "straight forward"-flights, were the bird is a bit out of center. But the flight is straight.

Have you changed your RC-input to Expo?
In case it is from the remote, that could help out!

looks to me like you may want calibrate the IMU

I'll try that after work.

Hello and good day Tentoes. I am sorry for the trouble and thank you for reaching out. Please try to calibrate the IMU of Phoebe the Spark to see if the issue will still persist. I will be posting an official DJI tutorial video on how to calibrate DJI Spark's IMU. Please keep us posted on the said issue for us to be able to help you further. Thank you.

DJI Stephen Posted at 7-8 08:11
Hello and good day Tentoes. I am sorry for the trouble and thank you for reaching out. Please try to calibrate the IMU of Phoebe the Spark to see if the issue will still persist. I will be posting an official DJI tutorial video on how to calibrate DJI Spark's IMU. Please keep us posted on the said issue for us to be able to help you further. Thank you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_pfcHyHFm8

Thanks. Will do this after work today.

Tentoes Posted at 7-8 08:24
Thanks. Will do this after work today.

Sometimes it's off when you first take-off.  You have to wait for everything to settle, so it has a straight dead center heading.  When I was a novice, I just kept flying, but this is what not to do.  I had times where the camera was looking left and had a 45-degree tilt.  I think it depends on the angle of the ground you are taking off from and if the grass is touching the camera during calibration.

Tentoes Posted at 7-8 08:24
Thanks. Will do this after work today.

You are very much welcome Tentoes. Please keep us posted. Thank you.

Ok. Took a LONG time to calibrate. I was waiting for it to tell me to turn it on its side, not realizing the picture had changed. I thought the picture was still showing it flat on the ground Googling for how long it takes, I realized my mistake, so once I finished calibrating, I did it again for good measure.

So after that extended period, I had little time to fly. She seems to drift left when going forward fast and took a lot of right stick to keep her coming. Then the sun was going down and it was hard to see the barefooted brat in the screen. I could have changed the exposure, but I was running low on battery,  so I called it a night.

I'll try it again tomorrow with 3 fresh batteries and an earlier start.

On to the next RemotePilot101 lesson!

Figured it out! Don't have it solved, but I found the problem.



Pause the video at about 2 seconds.

I positioned myself in the center of the screen, and waved just to mark the point in the video. In the middle of the screen in GO4, I was looking at the right side of the drone. She was pointing off to her left, my right.

My video editor puts a mark in the center of the video while you're editing. Though I was in the center of the screen, I was not in the center of the video. Maybe I should mark crosshairs on my phone? I wonder how I would find the spot. I judged the middle of the screen (I know, that's not correct these days, how rude of me) by the grid.



"There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile,
He found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile;
He bought a crooked cat which caught a crooked mouse,
And they all lived together in a little crooked house."

So, is there an adjustment in GO4 for positioning the video in the screen? Although it seemed the other day that she was not heading toward me unless I was past the third of the screen line.

No wonder I'm always coming closer to the point of interest while doing a manual orbit, I'm pointing the drone to the left of the object I'm trying to orbit. I get farther away if I'm orbiting the other way.

Oh, yes. It's easier to move myself to the middle of the screen than to yaw the drone to get me there. You can see me trying to yaw it.
Busy the next couple evenings, so I won't be able to fiddle. Can't miss TNL with Ken Heron!

Tentoes Posted at 7-10 03:02
Figured it out! Don't have it solved, but I found the problem.

https://youtu.be/hey20pgAtDo

Had the very similar issue like yours and sent the drone to DJI for diagnostic.

They found out that GPS and 3D sensor system should be replaced. This will be done under warranty.