The last two flights my Spark (~ 3 years old, flown many times) has started under control (gps mode, compass OK when launched) but then flown away rapidly. It wasn't drifting with the wind, it was flying purposefully at fairly high speed without any control input.
The first time I was able to override this with the controller and land it. The second time it vanished into the distance but was returned to me (undamaged) by the person whose yard it ended up in. I don't really want to fly it again until I can be sure the problem is fixed, otherwise I might not recover it.
Note that the place it landed was far away from the last point on the flight record. I had pushed the RTTH button as well. Plenty of compass/yaw errors but would this cause it to fly away so fast, and not with the wind? Also "speed errors" and "loss of gps" (once).
Any tips on what to do to safely diagnose this issue without losing the drone again?
Hello there nickz. I am sorry to read and to know about what happened to your DJI Spark and thank you for reaching out. Since this unfortunate issue happened and you are getting these error messages. It would be best to contact out DJI Support Team for further assistance at https://www.dji.com/support?site=brandsite&from=nav . We would do their best to find out the reason of the incident and then the corresponding resolution/fix would be provided. Again I am sorry for the trouble and thank you for your understanding.
Thanks for posting the flight log.
That looks like a pretty classic fly-away because of compass/yaw errors. In that case, the Spark goes into ATTI mode. You did almost nothing to take control and bring your Spark home, you can see it on the stick movements. You only used throttle to climb and descend it, and your Spark did react on that properly!
Unfortunately, there is no real fix for that compass/yaw error thing.
Some people have found contact problems or corrosion inside the Spark caused the issue, but that is not the majority of fly-away cases.
It is some some sort of weird software problem, which DJI ever refuses to fix.
BTW: it is never a good idea to take off with the battery at just 35% charge.
To prevent losing your Spark, you need to learn to pilot your Spark home when it drops to ATTI mode, have a look here how to do it:
Thanks for the reply, guess it's time for a new drone. On the waitlist for a skydio2...
The problem when it flew away was that I could not see it, nor could I tell where it was looking at the erratic camera output. I was also hoping rtth would get it back and I didn't want to override that with joystick inputs.
It was flying so fast I don't know how I would have controlled it. I managed the first time (at a more familiar location) because I could still see it - it was higher.
Good thing it only had 35% battery (although at least 2 LEDs lit up so I thought it had more than half) or it would have been in the ocean!
nickz Posted at 1-8 08:09
Thanks for the reply, guess it's time for a new drone. On the waitlist for a skydio2...
The problem when it flew away was that I could not see it, nor could I tell where it was looking at the erratic camera output. I was also hoping rtth would get it back and I didn't want to override that with joystick inputs.
Thanks!
That's why we are usually only allowed to fly "line-of-sight". That not only means that you can spot the drone, but also being able to judge the attitude of the bird.
It is doable, its just a good bit of training.
Kindly check flight data and gelp narrowing search zone of lost Sparky
Any help is appreciated,link bellow
https://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/6K5MJ9RQIRDUIZCG3O08/