Good everyone

Hope someone can assist. Yesterday I was out flying when my Spark gave the Weak GPS Signal, then the Compass Error, then the IMU heading Error.
See Screen shot
I was flying in an open area. When I lost the gps the spark started fly to away. I was busy recording footage as well and you can clearly see that it just drift away with no control at all

I have also uploaded the logs with the following link
http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/


http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/0T2SXMAEV4WIVCU4H1JW/

I have also emailed support here is the case number
Your request (1526295) has been received

Can someone please have a look at the logs and let me know wha they think happend. Still searching for the spark but I think it might be lost forever

Atti happend, you had stronger wind? At least on that height?
Follow the wind direction, calculate how long your bird could stay in the air and add for every minute flighttime about 1000 ft further away in the drift direction!
Good luck

Hi Joker,

Ah yes, welcome to the "ATTI mode drop club" :-(
When you get your replacement bird, which DJI should definitely give you, you should look up my thread about ATTI mode flying to prepare yourself for the next time it happens.

Cheers,
Wolferl

Sorry to read that - good luck on the replacement

Sorry for what happened to your drone!
Good luck on the replacement with DJI!

Fly safely all
Alex

This is more of a question:  I remember when the Spark first launched it was Plagued with random fly aways... while I do realize that not all Fly aways can be avoided,  has DJI made any progress in the Firmware, that would suggest that the Fly Away frequency has decreased??? I mean we all spend a lot of money on our hobby,  none of us wants to go through what this poor gentleman went through losing his Drone!  I had a Parrot Be bop 2 for over a year... and NEVER experienced a single Disconnect which could have turned into a potential Fly Away situation.   This honestly makes me feel uneasy about flying DJI drones....

Hello there,

I lost my Spark today in a strange situation... very close to me, not that high and with almost no wind... I just lost the connection with the drone and I never saw it again.
this was the log that I recovered:

http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/WEKJT7S5RPE9RXCVDM1N/

Can you please help me with some pointers?

Thanks

fiilipe gomes

filipe.silva.gomes@gmail.com Posted at 12-23 13:37
Hello there,

I lost my Spark today in a strange situation... very close to me, not that high and with almost no wind... I just lost the connection with the drone and I never saw it again.

Sorry for what happened to your drone!
I know exactly how you feel, I also lost my first spark
Good luck with the replacement from DJI!

Fly safely all
Alex

filipe.silva.gomes@gmail.com Posted at 12-23 13:37
Hello there,

I lost my Spark today in a strange situation... very close to me, not that high and with almost no wind... I just lost the connection with the drone and I never saw it again.

That’s exactly why I don’t fly in CE mode!!! Only FCC!!!

Fly safely
Alex

TheGemster18 Posted at 12-23 07:34
This is more of a question:  I remember when the Spark first launched it was Plagued with random fly aways... while I do realize that not all Fly aways can be avoided,  has DJI made any progress in the Firmware, that would suggest that the Fly Away frequency has decreased??? I mean we all spend a lot of money on our hobby,  none of us wants to go through what this poor gentleman went through losing his Drone!  I had a Parrot Be bop 2 for over a year... and NEVER experienced a single Disconnect which could have turned into a potential Fly Away situation.   This honestly makes me feel uneasy about flying DJI drones....

I also had a Bebop and never had such problem, although I never flew it far away. DJI needs to do something about those ATTI switch so that the drone is easier to control when it switch to that mode.

This is even more a problem if it disconnect and it's not in the line of sight. Then it's gone for sure. I am thinking of buying a tracker for mine.

Sorry to read that

I just lost my Spark two hours ago! Can anyone look at my log and help with advice?..
phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/S0YLOT67NCSBNJRY88FP
From what i understand, the battery just switched off at altitude of 100m and i should go look for it under last coordinates.
Funny thing i did not see any battery temperature warning neither when i started the drone nor while flying

777spark Posted at 12-24 08:05
I just lost my Spark two hours ago!  Can anyone look at my log and help with advice?..
phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/S0YLOT67NCSBNJRY88FP
From what i understand, the battery just switched off at altitude of 100m and i should go look for it under last coordinates.

Hi and welcome to the forum!

Sorry to hear you lost your Spark.
You need to be very careful when you fly at cold temperatures. There is a warning right at the beginning of the log. LiPo batteries hate it cold. It really looks like the battery just cut off in flight.
Pro tip: Before you fly in winter, put the battery in a warm place, at least in your pocket for some time.

Cheers,
Wolferl

777spark Posted at 12-24 08:05
I just lost my Spark two hours ago!  Can anyone look at my log and help with advice?..
phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/S0YLOT67NCSBNJRY88FP
From what i understand, the battery just switched off at altitude of 100m and i should go look for it under last coordinates.

I also use the battery clip in case the battery wants to disconnect mid flight.
Sorry for your loss, good luck with the replacement from DJI.
Or good luck finding the downed drone!

Fly safely all
Alex

777spark Posted at 12-24 08:05
I just lost my Spark two hours ago!  Can anyone look at my log and help with advice?..
phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/S0YLOT67NCSBNJRY88FP
From what i understand, the battery just switched off at altitude of 100m and i should go look for it under last coordinates.

Just wondering how cold was it outside?

Wolferl Posted at 12-23 01:04
Hi Joker,

Ah yes, welcome to the "ATTI mode drop club" :-(

Thanks. Had a look and it’s an awesome way to force atti to test.

Hi all

Thanks for all the advice. Dji have review all my logs and they will replace my drone. Now it is just the wait for my new drone

Joker101 Posted at 12-28 03:43
Hi all

Thanks for all the advice. Dji have review all my logs and they will replace my drone. Now it is just the wait for my new drone

Congrats!!! Now don’t lose the next one!
Have many great and safe flights ahead!

Flysafely
Alex

777spark Posted at 12-24 08:05
I just lost my Spark two hours ago!  Can anyone look at my log and help with advice?..
phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/S0YLOT67NCSBNJRY88FP
From what i understand, the battery just switched off at altitude of 100m and i should go look for it under last coordinates.

Hi 777spark,

sorry for your loss.

Batt temp at start 13 degrees, in flight 28, so imo no reason for batt failure.

You had a compass error too, so after the disconnect your Spark should RTH. But with a compas fail i am not sure if it did a good RTH. So it flew some direction thinking it was flying home....

cheers
JJB

Im not sure about fly away happening simply out of the blue !!
I had autonomous missions done with SPARK having no signal communication between SPARK and RC for nearly 3 minutes !! and yet SPARK returns back precisely to home position after completion of mission which was nearly 2.7km away.
I think you are all doing something fundamentally wrong during SPARK take off or during flight or possibly CE mode is useless for SPARK flights. FCC is a must.

JJBspark Posted at 12-28 04:56
Hi 777spark,

sorry for your loss.

Does it not switch to ATTI mode when it gets compass error?

No it does not necessary need the remote as it can fly back home if disconnected, but AS LONG as it is not going in ATTI mode, then it's lost if it disconnect in that mode. No RTH.

Daniella3d Posted at 12-29 15:44
Does it not switch to ATTI mode when it gets compass error?

No it does not necessary need the remote as it can fly back home if disconnected, but AS LONG as it is not going in ATTI mode, then it's lost if it disconnect in that mode. No RTH.

Hi Daniella,

Not all compass errors result in  ATTI mode, as you see in this flight.
Some compasserrors are not shown in the APP, so the user is not aware of them.  ;-(

This low compass warning informs the user, my advice is always to fly home and try to find out what causes the error.

cheers
JJB

S.J Posted at 12-29 14:24
Im not sure about fly away happening simply out of the blue !!
I had autonomous missions done with SPARK having no signal communication between SPARK and RC for nearly 3 minutes !! and yet SPARK returns back precisely to home position after completion of mission which was nearly 2.7km away.
I think you are all doing something fundamentally wrong during SPARK take off or during flight or possibly CE mode is useless for SPARK flights. FCC is a must.

Hi,

I disagree with you, CE and FCC are fine to use, nothing to do with SPARKs RTH behaviour.

Spark is 'known' for its Compass/YAW/IMU errors, out of the blue most of the times.
IMO DJI knows this, that`s why they replace owners their lost 'FlyAway-OutOfControl' SPARKs, more than once on this forum....

And yes, sometimes SPARK users do a compass calibration in an unfriendly magnetic envirioment, this will give a compass error in flight, i must say shortly after take-off. (and not flying after 8 minutes at 200 feet).


cheers
JJB

JJBspark Posted at 12-30 05:17
Hi Daniella,

Not all compass errors result in  ATTI mode, as you see in this flight.

Are all ATTI mode switch related or caused by compass error? What are the possible reasons for the Spark to switch to ATTI mode, I mean beside the obvious no satellite available.

Daniella3d Posted at 12-30 07:05
Are all ATTI mode switch related or caused by compass error? What are the possible reasons for the Spark to switch to ATTI mode, I mean beside the obvious no satellite available.

Most of the times YAW, IMU, Speed and/or Compass errors the drone will switch to ATTI.
AFAIK compass errors happens the most, DJI simply cut off the use of GPS data so ATTI is there.

My Spark can fly multple flights without any error and than suddenly short moment to ATTI.
And my compass calibration is done 100% correct and slow....(my experience is that doing a calibration real slow real slow does the trick)

cheers
JJB

The Spark will start landing when it has a compass failure and no connection to a pilot/remote controller.  Since it has no pilot in command and no working navigation it can't get home.  Landing is the best chance it has to be recovered safely.  while landing, it will wind drift and have some side thrust from not being perfectly level so it won't be found exactly where it started landing.

Any disagreement between the IMU data, GPS data, and the compass data, will result in the Spark handing over responsibility for stable hover to the pilot.  At this point the pilot needs to be on the sticks giving constant, and timely, corrections to keep the drone stable.  This is one of many reasons why the Spark needs to be flown in eyesight and not 2.7 kilometers away.

Magnetic interference and noise/reflections of the GPS signal are the most common reasons for the Spark to go into ATTI mode.  Don't get too attached to the Spark if your flight plan relies on the autopilot for safe flight.

JJBspark Posted at 12-30 05:25
Hi,

I disagree with you, CE and FCC are fine to use, nothing to do with SPARKs RTH behaviour.

Yes CE and FCC are fine

I reviewed my flight log via phantomhelp.com and what i see is that voltage of all three battery cells drops in last 10sec, but i did not get any warning on my app/remote. So i guess next step is "intelligent" battery dies / switches itself off, and drone falls out of the sky.

DJI answered today that they can only offer me 30% discount on new Spark, whatthehell, under EU warranty they should replace the drone for free - the product fails in flight, and they want me to buy another crap like this

DJI support:
"1. The aircraft worked in Sport mode in the flight;
2. The pilot pushed the pitch stick forward, moved the roll stick rightward, the aircraft flew to right-front, then the flight record ended at t=09:32, h=120 m, d=407 m.
With the record ended, the root reason of the incident cannot be verified."