Was out flying yesterday, it was a little windy but not crazy, was flying in a wide open area, no power lines, no buildings.  I was up on a hill so my line of sight was fine.  From my flight log, I was flying at 150 ft, with a distance of 158 ft with 11 satalites and GPS.  Battery was at 93%.  33 seconds into my flight I get the "High wind velocity, fly with caution..." warning,  so I start flying it back, I am at a distance of 49 ft and get the following warnings starting 43 seconds:
First "Aircraft GPS signal too week. Home point not updated"
Second "Warning: Compass error. Exit P-GPS Mode
Third "Warning: in Flignt working IMU encounters heading exception, please switch to atti mode if craft behave abnormally
Forth "Warning: Weak GPS signal, Positional accuracy may be compromised please fly with caution
Fifth "Aircraft GPS signal too week. Home point not updated"

And at this point she takes off full speed away from me, lucky I was able to manually fly it back as I had full stick control.  It did eventually come out of ATTI mode and picked up GPS signal again.  What would cause this happen?  I landed it powered everything off and continued to fly for a bit more with no issue.  But my little investment almost flew out into the sunset.  Don't want to experience that again.  I don't know if this was environmential (too windy) or software bug or hardware.  Suggestions?

interesting that you weren't the only one who had this issue yesterday.  Maybe there is something to this whole geo magnet storm thing that was mentioned in the other thread...

RobertWSimpson Posted at 2018-3-27 09:09
interesting that you weren't the only one who had this issue yesterday.  Maybe there is something to this whole geo magnet storm thing that was mentioned in the other thread...

Interesting...

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/3-day-geomagnetic-forecast

also, this

http://spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=51269

How I sorted mine out was by taking off. Idle about 2 mtrs off the ground. Then go to sensors and check your compass.
If yellow land and calibrate.  Follow step one compass will be green.  Check this before each new flight day.  Be safe

Following this thread

RobertWSimpson Posted at 2018-3-27 09:09
interesting that you weren't the only one who had this issue yesterday.  Maybe there is something to this whole geo magnet storm thing that was mentioned in the other thread...

I had a repeat of my RTH and Max Altitude being set to zero and IMU Sensor state unknown, compass was normal.

I restarted the Spark and it all went away in the exact same spot, could not reproduce. I forgot to lift off to get some flight logs though.

I just got on the forums today and haven't seen other posts yet but I might be considered another one that experienced what you mentioned.

Very interesting.


Happy Landings!

it would be interesting to see the exact time that these fly aways were reported yesterday.  I wonder if they were all at about the same time...

RobertWSimpson Posted at 2018-3-27 10:45
it would be interesting to see the exact time that these fly aways were reported yesterday.  I wonder if they were all at about the same time...

Mine was probably around 6:00pm ET

RobertWSimpson Posted at 2018-3-27 10:45
it would be interesting to see the exact time that these fly aways were reported yesterday.  I wonder if they were all at about the same time...

About 6:15 - 6:30pm MDT.

pretty close to the same time!

I just joined so I can't post my own thread yet so I hope you don't mind me asking my question here. I'm about to order the spark but I can't find any information anywhere online or through the DJI chat that tells me how low or close the spark can follow you. Is it one meter? Also, where are you supposed to store the remote controller when you are either running or riding a bike so you can make changes while doing so? Is there a chest mount for easy access to the remote? Thanks

UniGeezer Posted at 2018-3-27 11:58
I just joined so I can't post my own thread yet so I hope you don't mind me asking my question here. I'm about to order the spark but I can't find any information anywhere online or through the DJI chat that tells me how low or close the spark can follow you. Is it one meter? Also, where are you supposed to store the remote controller when you are either running or riding a bike so you can make changes while doing so? Is there a chest mount for easy access to the remote? Thanks

Welcome to the forum...

Google the question about how close it can follow you I think I read someplace it's 3m, but not really sure, and with regards to the controller, I bike so I wear backpack.  This way I can carry extra batteries, props and an extra memory card as well.  

Yeah, I did Google for the answer but nothing came up no matter how I worded it. Then I went to the DJI website and opened up a chat box but they refused to answer those questions unless I bought the spark first. Pretty ridiculous. So that's why I came here. My biggest concern is not having access to the remote control unit while riding unless I stop and take off my backpack to get to the remote unit. It sure would be great if DJI would come out with a wrist worn remote

My Tello had a mind of its own yesterday while flying outside and took off at full speed into the side of the house and dropped to the group with no damage. That was about 5pm NY time. That was after I was stupid and tried to fly over the house way too close to the roof and my Spark landed on the edge of the roof 25' up. Luckily it suffered no damaged and I was only embarrassed while my daughter helped me climb up to get it.

It wasn't a good drone day.

RobertWSimpson Posted at 2018-3-27 11:46
pretty close to the same time!

Location should be included as there are many time zones.

UniGeezer Posted at 2018-3-27 12:49
Yeah, I did Google for the answer but nothing came up no matter how I worded it. Then I went to the DJI website and opened up a chat box but they refused to answer those questions unless I bought the spark first. Pretty ridiculous. So that's why I came here. My biggest concern is not having access to the remote control unit while riding unless I stop and take off my backpack to get to the remote unit. It sure would be great if DJI would come out with a wrist worn remote

Don't know about minimum distance, but I've seen at least one person mount the remote on their bars. The problem with the Spark in Active Track is that it won't descend while following you, so if you're going down a hill it will just get further and further above you while following.

Holy cow that is pretty fearful and good to know - thanks for sharing this incident. Glad you were able to control her back safely. Did you notice anything different where you stored the Spark or perhaps what the Spark might have encountered before take-off? Thanks!

Cruicer Posted at 2018-3-27 09:13
Interesting...

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/3-day-geomagnetic-forecast

If it is the first time you encounter this situation, please ensure that there is no interference around your spark. Or you can change a wide place without interference and see if you get compass error message. If you feel doubt in your case, please export the flight data and the black box for analysis. You can upload it to dropbox and post the link here. Thanks for your support.

RobertWSimpson Posted at 2018-3-27 11:46
pretty close to the same time!

So, I flew through my three batteries again tonight from my front yard, as usual.

The first flight was uneventful, then on the second flight I got about 800 feet away and I lost video feed. The controller & App still worked, the App asked me if I wanted to initiate return to home and I said YES!

Fortunately it flew home and I was able to land it, it did act a little strange during the landing though, didn't seem to respond to all my stick inputs all the time.

According to flight log and AirData info the GPS signal was Good the entire time and it did get my Spark home.

From AidData info the Signal Strength for the Sensors was Very Poor, which is consistent with my experience. However, the AC seemed to respond normally to RC inputs so I didn't know anything was up until it lost all connection or I wouldn't have gone that far away.

This is the first time this has ever happened to me and as of today I have 135 flights. I am flying with the latest Spark firmware, App v4.1.15 with OTG so DJI doesn't want to touch my cases with a 10 foot pole.

I restarted the Spark and flew through the rest of the battery without any problems. The third flight went just fine and uneventful too.

Just thought I'd share this too just to see if there were more people having similar issues today also.


Happy Landings!