Hi Dji,
I'm heart broken and dejected.

I lost my spark after the firmware upgrade in the valley.


I was on a MotorBike Trip to Arunachal Pradesh, North East India.

I had to upgrade my Spark to the latest

V 01.00.1000 &

Remote Controller Firmware: V 01.00.0600.

Immediately after the upgrade my spark started misbehaving by switching from GPS to ATTI mode and back.


It fell couple of times, luckily for me it damaged only the propellers which i changed (I have the Fly more Combo).


Web searching what's going on, i researched and found that there are issues with the new firmware.

I downgraded the aircraft's firmware to 900 but not the remote controller firmware.

Unfortunately, the aircraft wasn't much stable and used to be unstable for a minute then when you fly back again it becomes stable.

I lost trust in it but I didn't have any options as i just had a day left for starting my trip.


I took lots of shots and videos from my spark, at 1 video, my spark went in water, luckily only the camera went in so it saved the day.


On the last day of the trip, i wanted to keep the drone in follow mode which worked well, but then it start misbehaving when the low battery warning started to show.

I stopped my motorbike thinking of landing the drone. My phone and remote controller connected to the drone asked me to land at the current altitude, and there it was. The aircraft went straight up 100-150ft at low battery and straight ahead crossing the mountains and into the high valley.

Before i could start my bike and follow what was happening, i lost the sight anf left in disarray. My remote controller lost the connection and and the video footage as the drone was alreayd in low battery mode.

I spent 3 hours searching near the valley, climbed the small mountain where i could think the drone could be but in vain.


I'd like to know from DJI, what went wrong? what i believe is that the remote controller was making wrong signals which made the aircraft unstable.

I hope this does not happen to any other owners, now i have left with only an extra battery, a charger and my remote controller.


Anand Iyer.

Take a look at your TXT flight log and see if it explains what happened. You can upload and view it online here. If you'd like other people to comment on it, post a link back here after you upload it.

msinger Posted at 2018-10-11 11:01
Take a look at your TXT flight log and see if it explains what happened. You can upload and view it online here. If you'd like other people to comment on it, post a link back here after you upload it.

Where can I find the flight log?? App/remote controller logs.

thandadude Posted at 2018-10-11 11:06
Where can I find the flight log?? App/remote controller logs.

Got it, thanks, I'll upload for you guys to make me understand.

and.... we have yet another .1000 firmware induced incident.. perhaps a nice letter to the FAA to highlight the issue is in order

I'm sorry to read what happened, Thandadude. Just to verify, have you tried to search the drone by using the feature of Find My Drone? If no luck, please contact our support and start a case: https://www.dji.com/support. If the unit is under warranty period, we'll arrange data analysis and offer you a proper solution. If you encounter any difficulties during the progress, feel free to let us know with your case number and we'll be glad to help.​

@DJII Diana

what is being done about the compass issues in .1000  its has been brought up on the board numerous times now since its release last month...

DJI Diana Posted at 2018-10-11 15:57
I'm sorry to read what happened, Thandadude. Just to verify, have you tried to search the drone by using the feature of Find My Drone? If no luck, please contact our support and start a case: https://www.dji.com/support. If the unit is under warranty period, we'll arrange data analysis and offer you a proper solution. If you encounter any difficulties during the progress, feel free to let us know with your case number and we'll be glad to help.​

@DJII Diana

what is being done about the compass issues in .1000  its has been brought up on the board numerous times now since its release last month...

DJI Diana Posted at 2018-10-11 15:57
I'm sorry to read what happened, Thandadude. Just to verify, have you tried to search the drone by using the feature of Find My Drone? If no luck, please contact our support and start a case: https://www.dji.com/support. If the unit is under warranty period, we'll arrange data analysis and offer you a proper solution. If you encounter any difficulties during the progress, feel free to let us know with your case number and we'll be glad to help.​

Thanks a bunch for the support Diana, I'm now going to raise a support ticket with the flight logs with the DJI Support.
I'll keep you guys posted.

Anand.

msinger Posted at 2018-10-11 11:01
Take a look at your TXT flight log and see if it explains what happened. You can upload and view it online here. If you'd like other people to comment on it, post a link back here after you upload it.

https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/03PTZLAX87FVKIYBHB6X/#

Please find the link to the uploaded flight record.

Anand.

thandadude Posted at 2018-10-12 08:16
https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/03PTZLAX87FVKIYBHB6X/#

Please find the link to the uploaded flight record.

Another Flight Record where the drone fell in the water at the sela lake.

https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/6XYG3Q6218S61GQTN5FL/#

I believe the problem with the firmware lies with the VPS altitude when it suddenly becomes N/A (an error condition or an api failure...) which makes the IMU altitude drop and sometimes it goes negative or +ve eventhough the height is stabalized.

Clearly an indication of a firmware issue, I can upload the video for this flight data.

thandadude Posted at 2018-10-12 07:52
Thanks a bunch for the support Diana, I'm now going to raise a support ticket with the flight logs with the DJI Support.
I'll keep you guys posted.

Not a problem. Hoping to hear good news in the future about your case!

yeah.... I brought up that VPS altitude issue as a probable cause of a spark mid air 'FLIP' where DJI is blaming the pilot for hitting something but the VPS altitude definitely looks suspect in that flight log as well.. depending on how much 'weight' the engineers code the VPS into the position and maneuvering algorithms could definitely cause crashes, flyaway and that 'spark bounce and flail' at takeoff that we have been seeing..

DeuceDriv3r Posted at 2018-10-13 10:32
yeah.... I brought up that VPS altitude issue as a probable cause of a spark mid air 'FLIP' where DJI is blaming the pilot for hitting something but the VPS altitude definitely looks suspect in that flight log as well.. depending on how much 'weight' the engineers code the VPS into the position and maneuvering algorithms could definitely cause crashes, flyaway and that 'spark bounce and flail' at takeoff that we have been seeing..

Hi DeuceDriv3r, sorry for the unpleasant experience. Could you tell us your case number? We'd like to check the exact status and see whether we can help.

DJI Susan Posted at 2018-10-14 00:54
Hi DeuceDriv3r, sorry for the unpleasant experience. Could you tell us your case number? We'd like to check the exact status and see whether we can help.

I don't have a case number ... YET ...

If you want both of these sparks back that are less than a month old to do testing on and figure out why going from .701 to .1000 firmware has them pointing the camera as much as 30 degrees off on RTH flight and not landing or facing in the direction they are reporting in telemetry... or having the video 'yawing' when the bird is stationary in the air and even sitting idle on the ground I can file a case for both of them and have you send me pre-paid mailers to get them back in

I would have expected by now that these multiple threads dealing with compass issues, drone and camera yaw anomalies and fly-aways would have been addressed by now and was waiting for a new firmware patch..

I may also attempt to roll back my aircraft, battery and controller to .701, .75 and .400 respectfully as the aircraft all flew well on that firmware.

DeuceDriv3r Posted at 2018-10-14 06:50
I don't have a case number ... YET ...

If you want both of these sparks back that are less than a month old to do testing on and figure out why going from .701 to .1000 firmware has them pointing the camera as much as 30 degrees off on RTH flight and not landing or facing in the direction they are reporting in telemetry... or having the video 'yawing' when the bird is stationary in the air and even sitting idle on the ground I can file a case for both of them and have you send me pre-paid mailers to get them back in

In case the drone experienced the crash, we'll arrange data analysis to check the exact status if the unit is under warranty period. If you have any doubts about the crash or flight, please kindly export the flight records in the App and corresponding flight data in the aircraft, we'd like to check the exact status, thanks for your understanding.

DJI Susan Posted at 2018-10-15 00:50
In case the drone experienced the crash, we'll arrange data analysis to check the exact status if the unit is under warranty period. If you have any doubts about the crash or flight, please kindly export the flight records in the App and corresponding flight data in the aircraft, we'd like to check the exact status, thanks for your understanding.

no crashes yet...

has DJI come up with a SECURE way to upload flight logs yet?

posting such information publicly won't work for me

I may try refreshing the firmware on one spark first.  

Is it REQUIRED to factory reset before refreshing,  what is the current best practice procedure

I assume that after the refresh an IMU and compass calibration are required..

thanks

also how do you check the status of a spark by serial number.. build date, warranty info etc

DeuceDriv3r Posted at 2018-10-15 04:23
no crashes yet...

has DJI come up with a SECURE way to upload flight logs yet?

Hi DeuceDriv3r, you can PM us the flight logs if you don't want to post in public, and the short video about the issue will be much appreciated.
No need to restore the drone to the factory default, please try to refresh the firmware and then calibrate the IMU and gimbal to see if the issue persists, thank you.

Good new guys,
The device was in warranty, I got a replacement.
The issue was with the DJI app on the phone which had a bug presumably.
Thanks to DJI support and admins here for the resolution.
I now have the trust to purchase my next drone from DJI this black friday :-).

thandadude Posted at 11-10 08:04
Good new guys,
The device was in warranty, I got a replacement.
The issue was with the DJI app on the phone which had a bug presumably.

We're glad to hear about the news! Hope you have safe flights and we'll see you in the Black Friday sale