Welp my beloved drone is gone.

After months of flying with no issues I seem to have hit the ultimate issue: ATTI MODE

So I was flying around a beautiful mountain lake. Same set up as always:  DJI SPARK with controller plugged in with a cable to an iPhone X.  All software, firmware, and the app up to date. After about 3 minutes, the screen went blank with a lost of image transmission.  The drone was relatively close, I could see it.   The display came back up a second later and then all hell broke loose.  The drone took off at warp speed away from me.  The screen was saying GPS errors, calibration issues, and it was audiably saying "ATTI mode".  The drone was NOT in sport mode, yet it was flying the fastest Ive ever seen it fly.

It took off flying away over the lake, yikes.  I tried to regain control but was unsucessful.  It was flying around the fastest I have ever see it fly.  It was also spinning around 360 degrees over and over again dispite me trying to rotate it in the other direction or just stop it.  At some points I was able to slightly control it left or right but I could not stop or make it hover.  I faught the controls for about 9 minutes.  Watching it fly back and forth all over at warp speed.  Then the battery low warning came on and I panicked.  I managed to steer it back to land as its was rotating in circles but it was really far from me.  Then it crashed.  

Although it could not take off again the drone was still on and sending GPS and image. It was clearly in a tree and quickly running out of batteries.  



I ran over to where the GPS said it was, which it said it was in the water, although clearly it was in a tree.  I assumed to the discrepancy was bc it was higher in a tree and not on the ground.  Anyways as the battery dwindled down to nothing I desperately searched high and low.  Talk about frustrating!  I can see the drone is right there but I can't find it!  I also went into FIND MY DRONE and confirmed the GPS cordinates with where I was standing.

Anyways I gave up after about 2 hours of looking and climbing 3 different trees.

I am now left with 2 questions:
1. What the hell is ATTI Mode and why on earth was I not able to control anything?
2.  Why is there not a button/setting/feature to make the drone make a sound?  It has the most obnoxious beeping at other times, IE return to home, but when I'm standing within 10 feet of a crashed drone why can I not make it make a sound?  I would have my drone right now if I could.

I just chatted with customer service in attempts to get some answers and had no luck.  I actually have really loved my drone and DJI for that matter but this customer service experience was pretty awful!  When I asked why I wasn't able to control the drone in ATTI mode the gentleman copy and pasted the owners manual and screen shots of the manual several times.  None of which answered any of my questions.  Then he proceeded to copy and paste "We care about Customer Service, we apologize for the inconvenience" over and over again is response to my questions.  So I was not able to get any answers hence why I am here.

I see this has happened to plenty of people but is there any solution?  I have to buy a new drone now and sadly I don't want to buy a spark again if this issue could happen again.  That is an expesive malfunction!!!  I was at least hoping that customer service would assure me that it was a bug or a freak accident so I still have some confidence in buying again but that clearly did not happen.

Sorry to read that - ATTI mode stands for attitude mode - essentially, your drone would have lost GPS and was too high for VPS to take effect so it only used it's barometer to gauge it's altitude and will begin drifting with the wind. Normally, you can still control the drone manually in ATTI mode (you can actually set ATTI mode yourself on the Phantoms and Inspires) but it looks like this was just a small issue given your feedback. It sounds like a major malfunction occurred with your drone - probably a total IMU failure at a guess which caused the drone to spin out of control. I hope a DJI moderator on here can help you further. It is very rare but can happen, especially on the Spark. I'd stretch to a Mavic Air as your next drone if you can afford to do so. All the best.

Hi HitchDrone, we are so sorry for your loss and the unpleasant experience with our customer support team. May we have the email account that you used to contact the online chat so that we can check the records and keep improving our customer service?
The drone will enter Atti mode when GPS signal is weak or when the compass experiences interference where the vision system is unavailable. As A J mentioned, the aircraft will only use its barometer for positioning to control the altitude. We can still control the drone in this mode but it is easily affected by its surroundings, it cannot position or auto-brake itself.
In Find My Drone, we can enable the Sound Alert when pressing the red aircraft arrow, the ESC will beep as DDD--DDD--DDD which help to locate the drone.

Did you create a ticket for the data analysis? If yes, may we have the case number?

There is ATTI mode, and there is what the Spark displays as ATTI mode.

As others have said 'normal' ATTI, or Attitude mode, is when a drone has no GPS or other positioning information and will fly directly according to the stick inputs, environmental conditions (i.e. wind) and motion physics, just like a cheapo drone you'll buy for less than $50.

The problem with the Spark is that it cannot (easily) be put into 'normal' ATTI mode and only goes into what it claims to be ATTI mode (when outdoors), when there is a serious problem, which usually means it will not respond normally to stick inputs AND will often be trying to correct itself at the same time.

You will now get a load of responses from people who are YET to experience this phenomena claiming it was the wind making it do 360 degrees spins at 35mph, that you should've '"simply" brought it into land straight away, blah blah blah.

I would suggest you put a customer services request into DJI and send them the data logs so they can make a judgement as to whether it was you, or the drone that had the issue. You may also wish to post links to the data logs on here as there are some reasonable people who can look at them and identify where things went wrong.

Hi,

if you like upload your flightlog on here, using this https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
Mayby the log explains what happend.

cheers
JJB

MKPSG12 Posted at 7-8 23:40
There is ATTI mode, and there is what the Spark displays as ATTI mode.

As others have said 'normal' ATTI, or Attitude mode, is when a drone has no GPS or other positioning information and will fly directly according to the stick inputs, environmental conditions (i.e. wind) and motion physics, just like a cheapo drone you'll buy for less than $50.

Hi,

Not a response from me like you said......flying in ATTI mode is not that easy! Getting worse if craft is relative far from the OP, with strong winds and when there are obstacles in the way....

IMO there is only 1 ATTI mode for the SPARK in wich it reacts to user input and never trying to correct itself at the same time. User input needs counter input to stop the initial movement.

I have 'suffered' myself few time ATTI mode with my SPARK, only because i did had enough free space and less wind i was able to bring her back to me. And yes sometimes its safer to bring the craft down instead of trying to control, but understand that trying to control and bring her back is option1.

cheers
JJB

Hi,

Sorry for your loss and I can feel the pain because I faced similar incident and lost my drone which fell into water and couldn't recover.

I was really surprise to see the behavior of my Spark, it was few feet above water. I was outside and it was few meters away from me. Remote connected with OTG cable, outdoor and no chance that it didn't get GPS. Later after sending data to analysis team, I got to know it was in ATT mode which is surprise to me.

As soon as drone flew it was misbehaving, it suddenly speed up while I was in Tripod mode. I figured out quickly that it is not in control and tried to get it back but it turned itself and hit into leaves and fell into water. I have cached video too.

I'm very disappointed with the support behavior as their analysis team blamed the pilot, I've flew it in various conditions windy/snow/high altitude and controlled it perfectly. But this time this was very strange behavior. It can be due to firmware update or something.

I charged it and give it a test before my trip to North and it was very heartbroken that I lost it and couldn't recover.

djiuser_IeJeELJJkQNn Posted at 7-9 05:39
Hi,

Sorry for your loss and I can feel the pain because I faced similar incident and lost my drone which fell into water and couldn't recover.

Hiya,

Another story of a SPARK wich is lost due to ATTI mode.

I fly my MA with 100% confidence, fly my SPARK with only 50% confidence.

Or it will be a normal flight without ATTI, or it will go into ATTI and i am hoping to recover it back.

cheers
JJB

Hi folks,

Yes, the firmware of the Spark is really broken. I am very disappointed that DJI doesn't even consider doing something about it.
However tha case of the OP seems to be different, as he says his Spark yawed uncontrollably. Would be great to see the flight data....

Cheers,
Wolferl

I'm happy to post the flight logs!  I would love the input.  I was just looking at the laughable flight path.

Can someone instruct me on how to do that?

DJI Mindy Posted at 7-8 22:27
Hi HitchDrone, we are so sorry for your loss and the unpleasant experience with our customer support team. May we have the email account that you used to contact the online chat so that we can check the records and keep improving our customer service?
The drone will enter Atti mode when GPS signal is weak or when the compass experiences interference where the vision system is unavailable. As A J mentioned, the aircraft will only use its barometer for positioning to control the altitude. We can still control the drone in this mode but it is easily affected by its surroundings, it cannot position or auto-brake itself.
In Find My Drone, we can enable the Sound Alert when pressing the red aircraft arrow, the ESC will beep as DDD--DDD--DDD which help to locate the drone.

I'm happy to provide anything you need. I would love some more answers.

I am confused tho, the customer service agent said repeated that there was no way to make the drone make a sound or alert.  Is that not true?

Here is the flight log!....

There's A LOT of red in here!

https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/MUFEJNN0H594IC8R32WI/

HitchADrone Posted at 7-9 11:02
I'm happy to provide anything you need. I would love some more answers.

I am confused tho, the customer service agent said repeated that there was no way to make the drone make a sound or alert.  Is that not true?

Customer service and repair centre (in Holland) are joke. Recently i had to send back a replacment drone from care refresh due to compass and IMU errors. What did I get back was same unit with apparently GPS module replaced. Trying to record anything is a nightmare due to the image drift and it still fly's like a pig, went into ATTI in the middle of nowhere, no buildings or any magnetic interefernce around. I dont know what to do anymore, shop where I bought it wont take it back due to different SE number, also I dont want to sell it to anyone in this state. From my experience talking to DJI is pointless, I dont know what to do it anymore.

To clarify for anyone curious.  There was zero wind that day and the only thing around was trees.

I have nothing but respect for you on here JJB, your analysis of flight logs is a great contribution to the forum. However, you still don't seem to be grasping what the problem can be with some out of control Sparks, and they are out of control, NOT in what is normally considered ATTI mode.

Its happened to me twice, one resulted in a crash, one in a near loss. One was while the Spark was stationary, in a rear garden and less than 1.5m above ground level i.e. NO stick inputs and NO wind, the other while moving at less than 4mph approximately 6m above ground, again with NO wind and limited stick inputs. In both instances the Spark went from a level attitude to nose down, full speed because the GPS/IMU/compass crashed and the drone 'thought' it should be somewhere else and was trying to get there by itself.
If a drone is properly trimmed in ATTI mode with no wind and no stick inputs it should do NOTHING, other than fall directly to the floor if it doesn't have altitude hold.

HitchADrone Posted at 7-9 11:10
Here is the flight log!....

There's A LOT of red in here!

Hi,

Had a look at your flightlog.

At startup you had 13 satellites and 5 bar reception.
But after 1s a warning "Compass Interference. Temp Max Altitude: 16ft"; Spark disables GPS signal and into ATTI.
So in just 14sec the following warnings in the app:

• Compass Interference. Temp Max Altitude: 16ft
• Aircraft GPS signal too weak. Home Point not updated.
• Satellite Positioning Off. Fly with caution;
• Compass interference. Please move the aircraft away from potential interference source or calibrate the compass.
• Temp Max Altitude Approached. Wait for Compass Auto Calibration to complete or calibrate compass manually.
• Weak GPS signal. Positional accuracy may be compromised. Please fly with caution.
  

Best to cancel this flight....or land immediately.

At 10.5 secs the message "Compass Auto Calibration Complete. Temp Max Altitude is cancelled", does this means that all is OK?
Guess not as in the log still a Compass Error is written. (not seen in the app)

At 2m6s twice the following warning "Compass interference. Please move the aircraft away from potential interference source or calibrate the compass. "
Same again at 4m25s, 4m39s and 5m3s.

Time to bring craft back home!

At 5m18s into ATTI; due to IMU and YAW errors.

Rest of the flight a repetition of these error...so in / out ATTI.

So what went wrong, its the same story as other SPARKs have now and than....cascading of Compass, Yaw, Speed, IMU errors wich led into ATTI mode.
But never start to fly when during start and takeoff so many warnings are given in the app.

After takeoff checks are crucial, drone saver!
[ hover, turn left and back, turn right and back, fwd, aft, left right, hover, check red arrow indication OK, all OK > start to fly ]

File a case with DJI. The message that the compass is OK again (""Compass Auto Calibration Complete. Temp Max Altitude is cancelled") is IMO misleading.So at that point you get the impression that all is OK wich obviously is not.
AutoCalibration complete = OK, but rest of the flight lot of compass errors in the log.

cheers
JJB

JJB* Posted at 7-9 01:37
Hi,

Not a response from me like you said......flying in ATTI mode is not that easy! Getting worse if craft is relative far from the OP, with strong winds and when there are obstacles in the way....

Flying in ATTI mode is relatively easy..and fun. But when the Spark goes into ATTI mode because of some malfunction, that is something entirely different, and as has been seen many times in these threads pretty much impossible to control and only luck gets the drone back.

MKPSG12 Posted at 7-10 00:46
I have nothing but respect for you on here JJB, your analysis of flight logs is a great contribution to the forum. However, you still don't seem to be grasping what the problem can be with some out of control Sparks, and they are out of control, NOT in what is normally considered ATTI mode.

Its happened to me twice, one resulted in a crash, one in a near loss. One was while the Spark was stationary, in a rear garden and less than 1.5m above ground level i.e. NO stick inputs and NO wind, the other while moving at less than 4mph approximately 6m above ground, again with NO wind and limited stick inputs. In both instances the Spark went from a level attitude to nose down, full speed because the GPS/IMU/compass crashed and the drone 'thought' it should be somewhere else and was trying to get there by itself.

Yep exactly. ATTI is fine and controllable.  ATTI when the drone is having IMU or sensor issues is death.

Tomasz Laptas Posted at 7-9 11:26
Customer service and repair centre (in Holland) are joke. Recently i had to send back a replacment drone from care refresh due to compass and IMU errors. What did I get back was same unit with apparently GPS module replaced. Trying to record anything is a nightmare due to the image drift and it still fly's like a pig, went into ATTI in the middle of nowhere, no buildings or any magnetic interefernce around. I dont know what to do anymore, shop where I bought it wont take it back due to different SE number, also I dont want to sell it to anyone in this state. From my experience talking to DJI is pointless, I dont know what to do it anymore.[view_image][view_image][view_image]

It's because of your post and many others like it that I just refuse to blindly send my drone off to DJI service center in Melbourne to fix what seems to be a pretty common hardware issue. My Spark is out of warranty but I have only 1hr 12 mins on it. I bought it used and the previous owner hardly used it too which is why he was selling it. Talking to DJi is like throwing a tennis ball at a wall, it just bounces back with the same input. "send it to our service center"
"no I don't trust you when you wont even let me talk to someone at the service center, let me talk to someone at the service centre"
"send it to our service center"
"umm did you hear me, i want to talk to someone at this service center"
"sorry hope for your understanding, you can call service center at bla bla bla"
"that is a number to a call center in Hong Kong and all they say is "send it to our service center"
"yes send it to our service center"
"!^@&%@%@"

RJB1 Posted at 7-10 03:10
Flying in ATTI mode is relatively easy..and fun. But when the Spark goes into ATTI mode because of some malfunction, that is something entirely different, and as has been seen many times in these threads pretty much impossible to control and only luck gets the drone back.

You never expect to suddenly switch to ATTI mode and it never happens at a convenient time and you fly into a panic as soon as it happens.

Yea, the OP missed a lot of warnings. When those happen, land. It has happened to me a few times, the closest to a disaster was my "The Forth of July and other Misadventueres" video.

HitchADrone Posted at 7-9 11:02
I'm happy to provide anything you need. I would love some more answers.

I am confused tho, the customer service agent said repeated that there was no way to make the drone make a sound or alert.  Is that not true?

Please contact our support team www.dji.com/support to start a ticket for the data analysis, our data analysis will help analyze what happened.
Yes, Spark has this function, please check my screenshot below.
Please provide us your contact number which you used to contact our support who said drone cannot make a sound alert.

Tomasz Laptas Posted at 7-9 11:26
Customer service and repair centre (in Holland) are joke. Recently i had to send back a replacment drone from care refresh due to compass and IMU errors. What did I get back was same unit with apparently GPS module replaced. Trying to record anything is a nightmare due to the image drift and it still fly's like a pig, went into ATTI in the middle of nowhere, no buildings or any magnetic interefernce around. I dont know what to do anymore, shop where I bought it wont take it back due to different SE number, also I dont want to sell it to anyone in this state. From my experience talking to DJI is pointless, I dont know what to do it anymore.[view_image][view_image][view_image]

Hi Tomasz, sorry for know the issue persists, upon checking the last repair, the drone was replaced. Could you please sync the flight records and then PM me your DJI account for further analysis?

MKPSG12 Posted at 7-10 00:46
I have nothing but respect for you on here JJB, your analysis of flight logs is a great contribution to the forum. However, you still don't seem to be grasping what the problem can be with some out of control Sparks, and they are out of control, NOT in what is normally considered ATTI mode.

Its happened to me twice, one resulted in a crash, one in a near loss. One was while the Spark was stationary, in a rear garden and less than 1.5m above ground level i.e. NO stick inputs and NO wind, the other while moving at less than 4mph approximately 6m above ground, again with NO wind and limited stick inputs. In both instances the Spark went from a level attitude to nose down, full speed because the GPS/IMU/compass crashed and the drone 'thought' it should be somewhere else and was trying to get there by itself.

Hi,

Oke, i fully understand ATTI and agree with you that in no winds conditions its kind of easy to fly a ATTI mode aircraft. Trimmed as you say not for a SPARK, is there a way to trim the controls for ATTI on DJI models? ( i own just a SPARK and MA)

When SPARK goes into ATTI due to errors and the software starts to put steering input as well, yes that`s a situation hard to control or not possible at all.
I have seen that (weird steering by sw) few times in logs but than the drone was not in ATTI but in P-GPS with compass and or position errors.
I only experienced with my SPARK several times ATTI and was able to control it, not easy when its drifing away on the wind and bit far away to see wich direction it drifts and where the nose of SPARK is. But luckily i managed to bring her back.



cheers
JJB

The second an error appeared on my screen I tried to land it. I flew it for a good 5 minutes before anything happened and the all the sudden it took off. Once that happened I was fighting to land it for 5+ minutes until it crashed. Super frustrating watching it fly around and not being able to land it. Then ultimately watching it crash in to trees 1000s of feet away from you.

Wolferl Posted at 7-9 07:21
Hi folks,

Yes, the firmware of the Spark is really broken. I am very disappointed that DJI doesn't even consider doing something about it.

Same here with Spark - last successful NON Atti was May 2019 - has stayed in Atti Mode ever since regardless of geo location, up to today's test (12/17/2019)  in the Midwest US.  

I can only conclude that regular firmware updates is more of a bad thing than good.

Why can't some things just be left alone?   Frustrating as hell.   
Pete  

DJI Mindy Posted at 7-10 03:56
Please contact our support team www.dji.com/support to start a ticket for the data analysis, our data analysis will help analyze what happened.
Yes, Spark has this function, please check my screenshot below.[view_image]
Please provide us your contact number which you used to contact our support who said drone cannot make a sound alert.

Is there another thread that posts a resolution?   Date stamps on this forum don't show year.   Was this originally posted July 2019?   Damned-confusing.     "How to get out of ATTI Mode or at least diagnose what the hell went wrong"  would be my topic title.   If I'm in the wrong place, please let me know.

Can we submit firmware versions, etc. to get a bead on what a general cause might be?

Thanks,
Pete  (datacreed)

datacreed Posted at 12-17 11:19
Is there another thread that posts a resolution?   Date stamps on this forum don't show year.   Was this originally posted July 2019?   Damned-confusing.     "How to get out of ATTI Mode or at least diagnose what the hell went wrong"  would be my topic title.   If I'm in the wrong place, please let me know.

Can we submit firmware versions, etc. to get a bead on what a general cause might be?

Hi Pete, this thread is 2019, you can start your own thread if you have any concerns. What is the model of your drone?

DJI Mindy Posted at 2019-12-19 03:17
Hi Pete, this thread is 2019, you can start your own thread if you have any concerns. What is the model of your drone?

A Spark.   as of May 2020 I have bigger problems, recovered it from shallow salt-water crash.      Nothing like learning by literally "diving in".   

On October 28th, 2023 I just had this happen after a Firmware update to the Air3.    I was ready to take off as the controller said home point has been updated please check the map.  As soon as I took off the drone went crazy right in ATTI mode after it had satellites just prior to take off.  In ATTI mode I think the drone went out of control until it reached around 60 ft where it gained the satellites again.   Aircraft Firmware 01.00.0600  RC Firmware 02.00.0000.   I was able to maintain some control but at the expense of a minor cut to my finger.  Strange enough when writing this comment there is another firmware update.  Hopefully fixes this glitch.  New Firmware for the RC ver 02.00.0100 maybe it will help...

djiuser_sNcpCEkcBSJ2 Posted at 10-30 07:56
On October 28th, 2023 I just had this happen after a Firmware update to the Air3.    I was ready to take off as the controller said home point has been updated please check the map.  As soon as I took off the drone went crazy right in ATTI mode after it had satellites just prior to take off.  In ATTI mode I think the drone went out of control until it reached around 60 ft where it gained the satellites again.   Aircraft Firmware 01.00.0600  RC Firmware 02.00.0000.   I was able to maintain some control but at the expense of a minor cut to my finger.  Strange enough when writing this comment there is another firmware update.  Hopefully fixes this glitch.  New Firmware for the RC ver 02.00.0100 maybe it will help...

Hello, there. We apologize for the inconvenience. We first would like to know if you treated your wounds immediately after that. Did you check your aircraft and whether it works properly now?