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Flown Away Spark recovery tactics
1026 17 2017-10-16
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jcgoobee
First Officer
Flight distance : 476119 ft
United States
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Good day friends,

I have flown my newly aquired Spark for about 3 weeks with a RC now. I'm getting more comfortable of the control. However, there are instances that I lost visual on the screen and since it has flown away afar even my bionic eyes are not able to catch up its path. How can I manually fly it back to the Home base without relying on RTH button. Some folks have talked about the RTH on the RC is not reliable. I've tried it a couple of times of the RTH fro my RC without much issues (landing spot is just a couple of feet off).

My question is, when you don't have a visual on your phone (crashed app, can't locate the Spark even re-launched), is RTC on the RC my last resort? or there's a better way to recover it? Any user tips would be appreciated.

James
2017-10-16
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larrymull
lvl.4
Flight distance : 468668 ft
Australia
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I would have thought that if the dji go app has crashed and you are unable to regain connection the only option left is the automatic return to home point that is built in to the spark
2017-10-16
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jcgoobee
First Officer
Flight distance : 476119 ft
United States
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larrymull Posted at 2017-10-16 14:26
I would have thought that if the dji go app has crashed and you are unable to regain connection the only option left is the automatic return to home point that is built in to the spark

Hi larrymull, actually, you can re-launch the app and it'll reconnect, but it'd take a minute or two sometimes. Sure enough that 1-2 minutes is a LONG time to waste on the Spark, since it can't fly more than 13 minutes at a time at most, realistically.
2017-10-16
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larrymull
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Australia
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jcgoobee Posted at 2017-10-16 14:35
Hi larrymull, actually, you can re-launch the app and it'll reconnect, but it'd take a minute or two sometimes. Sure enough that 1-2 minutes is a LONG time to waste on the Spark, since it can't fly more than 13 minutes at a time at most, realistically.

You are right James, in that time 1 or 2 minutes to restart the app the spark should have already started returning to home in my experience.
2017-10-16
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jcgoobee
First Officer
Flight distance : 476119 ft
United States
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larrymull Posted at 2017-10-16 14:38
You are right James, in that time 1 or 2 minutes to restart the app the spark should have already started returning to home in my experience.

Hi Larrymull, yes, but what if the app just crashed and it takes more than a couple of tries (or more) to be able to reconnect the app to the RC? I have experienced one time that the app just failed to reconnect and locate the drone from the map. Luckily, I had visual contact with the Spark so I used the RTH landed safely.
2017-10-16
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larrymull
lvl.4
Flight distance : 468668 ft
Australia
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It has an inbuilt system that will automatically return to home once the battery reaches the minimal amount. This is I believe their failsafe mechanism.

So as I believe it in theory if you flew out say 500 metres then turned off your cell phone and remote controller the spark would eventually return to home.
2017-10-16
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jcgoobee
First Officer
Flight distance : 476119 ft
United States
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larrymull Posted at 2017-10-16 15:55
It has an inbuilt system that will automatically return to home once the battery reaches the minimal amount. This is I believe their failsafe mechanism.

So as I believe it in theory if you flew out say 500 metres then turned off your cell phone and remote controller the spark would eventually return to home.

Yes sir, that's what I thought you. Just curious, have you personally had experience using the failsafe feature and it worked?
2017-10-16
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larrymull
lvl.4
Flight distance : 468668 ft
Australia
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jcgoobee Posted at 2017-10-16 16:02
Yes sir, that's what I thought you. Just curious, have you personally had experience using the failsafe feature and it worked?

I actually have when my controller timed out and couldn't regain connection to the spark. I think after about 30 seconds it started returning to home.
2017-10-16
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jcgoobee
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Flight distance : 476119 ft
United States
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larrymull Posted at 2017-10-16 18:20
I actually have when my controller timed out and couldn't regain connection to the spark. I think after about 30 seconds it started returning to home.

ah cool... Glad to know that the RTH works for you. Thank you.
2017-10-17
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Gunship9
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United States
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jcgoobee Posted at 2017-10-17 12:35
ah cool... Glad to know that the RTH works for you.  Thank you.

I know most people fly far away from themselves.  But is this the way people are supposed to fly?  Flying beyond where you can clearly see it sounds risky.  FAA might not approve.  I know I can't fly (control it) my model planes beyond were I can maintain vision on its orientation.  I can't manually control anything that is a dot in the distance.  RTH sounds like a back up system (fail safe) and not a capacity designed to let people fly at max range.

Flying the drone far enough away that you can't look at it and fly it back to you, in case of signal or GPS failure, shouldn't be part of the way Dji wants its users to use it.  How can you avoid obstacles around it or incoming aircraft/birds?
2017-10-17
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larrymull
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Australia
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Gunship9 Posted at 2017-10-17 14:32
I know most people fly far away from themselves.  But is this the way people are supposed to fly?  Flying beyond where you can clearly see it sounds risky.  FAA might not approve.  I know I can't fly (control it) my model planes beyond were I can maintain vision on its orientation.  I can't manually control anything that is a dot in the distance.  RTH sounds like a back up system (fail safe) and not a capacity designed to let people fly at max range.

Flying the drone far enough away that you can't look at it and fly it back to you, in case of signal or GPS failure, shouldn't be part of the way Dji wants its users to use it.  How can you avoid obstacles around it or incoming aircraft/birds?

I set the return to home point high enough that you know it will avoid obstacles, also I fly higher than those obstacles. Planning is always key.
2017-10-17
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Lovetri
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United Kingdom
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Short answer, you can't I was in Jersey, GB just off French coast, and it was flying fine, then lost GPS and just flew off at speed into the town centre, switching to sport mode, RTH, noting on the controller worked.  The video kept sending, and it bounced off two cars, then a set of traffic lights before landing on a pedestrian crossing just cms from passing traffic wheels, talk about scared about causing an accident
2017-10-17
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jcgoobee
First Officer
Flight distance : 476119 ft
United States
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Lovetri Posted at 2017-10-17 16:43
Short answer, you can't I was in Jersey, GB just off French coast, and it was flying fine, then lost GPS and just flew off at speed into the town centre, switching to sport mode, RTH, noting on the controller worked.  The video kept sending, and it bounced off two cars, then a set of traffic lights before landing on a pedestrian crossing just cms from passing traffic wheels, talk about scared about causing an accident

Oh boy... that's comforting... good to know, but thanks for the cautionary feedback. Whew.
2017-10-19
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doZer the ogre
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Flight distance : 78563 ft
United States
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Lovetri Posted at 2017-10-17 16:43
Short answer, you can't I was in Jersey, GB just off French coast, and it was flying fine, then lost GPS and just flew off at speed into the town centre, switching to sport mode, RTH, noting on the controller worked.  The video kept sending, and it bounced off two cars, then a set of traffic lights before landing on a pedestrian crossing just cms from passing traffic wheels, talk about scared about causing an accident

do u have logs, i'd be interested to examine!!
how bad is the damage to spark? the cars?!
2017-10-19
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Sparky_17
Captain
Flight distance : 62349 ft
Canada
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Using the RTH default after loosing connection to the spark is they only way I see as last ditch effort; but that is how it was built.  Here in Canada, we must always have line of sight of our drone or we are breaking Canadian regulations.  As I want to stay within regulations, my spark will never be out of my sight.  
2017-10-19
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Flip_L
lvl.4
Flight distance : 330686 ft
Germany
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RTH does not work when you’ve lost GPS. I mean how is it supposed to? Fail-safe RTH has worked extremely well for me. Hitting the RTH on the RC after you lost your video, will work as long as your RC is still connected to the AC.
2017-10-19
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hallmark007
Captain
Flight distance : 9812789 ft
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Ireland
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If you lose your telemetry and picture as well as sight of your drone you are really left with no option but to use RTH .
You can however once your AC comes into view press pause button and then continue to fly manually, you should then try to reboot app to see if you can regain your transmission.
2017-10-19
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jcgoobee
First Officer
Flight distance : 476119 ft
United States
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hallmark007 Posted at 2017-10-19 08:25
If you lose your telemetry and picture as well as sight of your drone you are really left with no option but to use RTH .
You can however once your AC comes into view press pause button and then continue to fly manually, you should then try to reboot app to see if you can regain your transmission.

Hi hallmark007, this is excellent tip. Sorry for the delayed reply as I've been away for a few days. You've been very helpful and I might give your suggestion a try.

Thank you again!!
2017-10-21
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